Improving Sentence Errors: There will be 25 improving sentence errors questions on the SAT exam. The question is commonly disguised as a lengthy sentence with a portion or entire sentence underlined. To complete the question, one must rearrange the underlined portion to conform to traditional grammar standards. Answer choices will likely contain more grammar mistakes that must be omitted quickly in order to keep a fast pace. Remember to omit choices in the passive voice or choices that appear wordy. The correct answer is most likely clear and very straightforward. .
Tips for Improving Sentence Errors
General tips for approaching improving sentence error questions are as follows:
- Try to recognize statements that stand out as odd, even if the specific grammar error within the statement is unbeknownst to you, try to discount the statement and focus on the other choices.
- The choices may help to isolate what is wrong in the sentence. For example, if the first two answer choices deal with singular verbs and the next three deal with plural verbs, then the question is likely assessing subject-verb agreement. Isolating the subject of the sentence will then allow two or three choices to be quickly omitted, hopefully revealing the correct choice.
- After narrowing answer choices, discount those that are too wordy. Unnecessary words are a quick signal that there is a better answer somewhere else. This is a tried and true trick that the SAT test makers use year after year, test after test. Becoming aware of this pattern will allow you to maximize your time as well as your score.
- Do not become overly frustrated if the error is not apparent straight away. Logic and the process of elimination will be helpful tools in eliminating wrong answers. Remember the patterns that have been discussed in this guide. Narrow the choices down to two or three, and choose the most straightforward, concise answer.
- Practice makes perfect! Recognizing the patterns of the SAT test is a foolproof pattern to pacing through the test. Read the question and try to isolate anything that seems odd, eliminating that choice. Always look for the most clean, concise statement as your answer choice.
- Wordiness and common misuse of language should be large indicators for elimination. Discarding these options should narrow the focus on the correct answer choice.
- Typically, there will be 2-3 questions in each set where there is no problem with the statement.
Be cautious and look for sentence structure errors that appear in the question. Many times an error can be fixed with the simple addition of a period or a verb to complete a sentence fragment.
