SAT Prep

1
SAT Prep
2
SAT Sections

• Critical Reading
• Sentence completion
• Passage-based reading
• Writing
• Identifying sentence errors
• Improving sentences
• Improving paragraphs
• Essay writing (1 essay/25 minutes)

3
Sentence Completion

• In this type of question you are given a sentence
  with one or two words missing.
• Below it are five choices, and you must select
  from among them the one with the correct word, or
  two words, to insert in the blank.
• The correct word will be the one that best fits
  the sentence. There is always some good reason to
  consider it the best fit. Questions of this type
  will begin easy and get progressively harder.
• The questions get harder because the words get
  tougher and because the sentences get more
  complicated, so the meaning becomes more
  difficult to grasp.

4
Sentence Completion

• The first and most important tip is don't look
  at the answers.
• Okay, obviously you'll have to look at the
  answers in order to pick the best one.
• However, don't look right away. What I mean is
  don't look UNTIL you have done your very best to
  accomplish the following two goals
• Understand the overall meaning of the sentence.
• Have a pretty good idea of what word, or at least
  what kind of word, should go in the blank.

5
Rule 1

• The trick to accomplishing the first rule is to
  pay close attention to key words in the sentence.
  
• In particular, look for logical connecting words
  and phrases such as and, while, because of, due
  to, despite or ever since, which give you clues
  as to what the sentence is saying.

6
Example of Rule 1

• Consider these two examples
• Because of the heavy rainfall in the spring, the
  tenants were ---- about flooding.
• Despite the heavy rainfall, the tenants were ----
  about flooding.
• What kind of word fits in the blank in the top
  sentence?

7
Answer to Examples

• Well, if it is raining a lot, then it is natural
  for people to be worried about flooding. So the
  word worried or concerned might fit in the blank.
  
• We know this from the opening words of the
  sentence which say "Because of the heavy
  rainfall.

8
Answer to Examples

• Now the second sentence begins with the word
  despite, which is telling us that the tenants are
  feeling something even though there had been a
  lot of rain.
• The meaning of the word in the blank is therefore
  probably one that means the opposite of what you
  would expect the tenants to be feeling if there
  was heavy rain.
• So in the second sentence we should look for an
  answer that means unconcerned and not worried.

9
Final Tip/Solution

• There will always be a clue as to the logical
  structure of the sentence in the words that are
  available.

10
Practice and Application

• Ravens appear to behave----------, actively
  helping one another to find food.
• Everybody write down a word that fits in the
  blank.
• (A) Mysteriously
• (B) Warily
• (C) Aggressively
• (D) Cooperatively
• (E) Defensively

11
Answer

• (D)