We think grammar is fun. There, we said it. It’s not a popular opinion. Most people put grammar in the same category as shuffleboard, strong perfume, and musty floral patterns. It’s something you associate as deeply unpleasant and with primarily old people. But grammar is fun! And we think you should like it. too. Why […]
5 Easy Proofreading Tips for Your 6-Point SAT Essay
Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Nikolas Baron, a Product Manager for Grammarly. Proofreading the smart way is the best technique any student can use to improve the SAT essay when time is running out, and the clock is ticking. Correcting the key points may be all you have time to do, so knowing what […]
Who vs. Whom: Fun with Pronouns
One of the concepts the ACT and SAT will test is your knowledge of sentence structure and grammatical rules. This includes everything from subject and verb agreement to prepositions and adverbs. Knowing your way around these sentence parts can mean the difference between getting a hard question correct in a few seconds and spending a […]
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Who’s Worrying About Apostrophes?
Apostrophes have two uses on the ACT and SAT: 1. To form possessive nouns. 2. To replace missing letters in contractions. Let’s examine these two situations–as well as when to avoid apostrophes–in this week’s blog.
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Maintaining Style
Keeping up with current fashion trends isn’t the only type of style you must maintain–you also have to make sure that an author preserves his or her style in the ACT English and SAT Writing sections. Style on the ACT and SAT? We’re not talking Louis Vuitton shoes for guys and Louboutin purses for girls, […]
ACT and SAT Reading Tips: U-Turn Words
In ACT and SAT reading passages, pivotal words are those that guide a reader through an author’s ideas. They are “direction” words, telling you you which way to go in your thought process. Spotting these words throughout a passage can help you determine the author’s attitude and opinion concerning the main idea, which will ultimately […]
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Adjectives and Adverbs
I was sitting in the car line at my kids’ school yesterday when an old song from middle school came on the radio. “Waiting for a Star to Fall” by Boy Meets Girl. I know you’ve never heard it. It’s OLD. I get it. But I’m going to tell you about it anyway because it […]
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Parallel Prepositions
The use of prepositions in a series must either be used by all members of a series or by only the first member of the series in order to be considered parallel. Both of the following sentences are correct: You can succeed on the SAT by reading, by studying, and by taking a prep class. […]
SAT Reading Tips: Related Answers in Sentence Completion Questions
Humans are programmed to make logical connections, which is never more evident than in our classification of words. We group words by topic and meaning from an early age. For example, consider your early associations with the word dog. It is likely that as a small child just learning to talk, you learned other words […]
SAT Essay Tips: Pre-Planned Ammunition
Soldiers do not go into battle without ammunition, and you should not go into the SAT without essay ammunition. The College Board uses essay questions that tend to have consistent themes, such as success, adversity, happiness, ethics, and technology. Because these themes appear so frequently, it is useful to have a few pre-planned examples that […]