Seven Basic Rules Standardized Test Tips How to Take the Test 1. Know the instructions for each subject test Don t waste precious test time re-reading the directions 2. Use your test booklet as scratch paper 3. Answer Easy Questions first Mark the booklet to know which questions to come back to 4. Answer Hard Questions last 1 minute is too long skip it and come back later Seven Basic Rules 5. Avoid Carelessness Mistakes happen when moving too quickly Don t let frustration or lack of confidence affect the answers of the other questions 6. Be careful bubbling answers Bubble in groups of 5 or at the end of the page In your head, say the question # and the answer when filling in bubbles Seven Basic Rules 7. Always guess when you don t know the answer You have a 100% chance of getting the answer wrong if it is left blank Skim the entire passage before answering the questions Instructions warn of reading beyond the question Being familiar with entire passage avoids the problem Eliminate Answer Choices Cross out anything that jumps out at you as WRONG narrow down your choices Eliminating answer choices for questions with multiple errors While these seem harder, you can benefit from these If you cannot spot one error, you may spot another OMIT answer option OMIT eliminates redundant or irrelevant answers (try reading passage w/o that line) 1
Areas to know for punctuation: Commas Apostrophes Semicolons Colons Parentheses and Dashes Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation points *Bold means most likely to be on test Commas Misplace, misused, and missing commas are most frequently on the test Commas separate independent clauses joined by a conjunction Indep. clause contains a Sub. and Verb Conjunctions: FANBOYS-for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so Ex: Lesley wanted to sit outside, but it was raining. Commas in a series 3 or more items in a list separated by commas Can either be noun or verb phrases Ex: The hungry girl devoured a chicken sandwich, pizza, and ice cream. Commas separate multiple nonessential adjectives modifying a noun Ex: Rebecca s new dog has long, silky hair. Commas set off dependent phrases/clauses from the main clause of a sentence Dependent clauses are not sentences on their own. They depend on independent clauses Use a comma if the dependent phrase/clause is used at the beginning of the sentence. Ex: After preparing an elaborate meal for herself, Anne was too tired to eat. Ex: Anne was too tired to eat after preparing an elaborate meal for herself. Commas to set off nonessential phrases and clauses This part of the sentence could be taken out without affecting the meaning of the sentence Ex: Everyone voted Carrie, who is the most popular girl in our school, prom queen. Commas are NOT used when the phrase is important to the sentence Ex: The girl who is sick missed three days of school. Commas set off Appositives Appositives rename/restate the modified noun Ex: The dog, a Yorkshire Terrier, barked at all the neighbors. 2
Apostrophes Possessive and singular nouns Singular noun + s = singular possessive noun Ex: My mom forgot the dog s food. (ONE dog s food) Possessive and plural nouns Plural noun + = plural possessive noun Ex: My mom forgot the dogs food. (MANY dogs food) Apostrophes Possessive and pronouns Possessive pronouns DO NOT get an apostrophe Ex: I my; she her; they their Ex: The dog chewed on its tail. Ex: You should give him your wallet. What is the antecedent of EACH example? Problem Word Forms: (learn these!) Its / It s Their / There / They re Your / You re Whose / Who s Semicolons Semicolon and two independent clauses Put a semicolon to separate 2 indep. clauses in the same sentence. Ex: Julie ate five brownies; Eileen ate three. Colon Problems A colon should always be preceded by an independent clause Ex: (WRONG) The ingredients I need to make a cake: flour, oil, water, sugar, and butter. Ex: (RIGHT) I need several ingredients to make a cake: flour, oil, water, sugar, and butter. Never more than ONE colon in a sentence Subject-Verb Agreement Singular verbs go with singular subjects Plural verbs go with plural subjects Ex: (Sing.) The man wears four ties. Matt, along with his friends, goes to Coney Island. Ex: (Pl.) The men wear four ties each. Matt and his friends go to Coney Island. Tests will try to separate the sub and verb to confuse you. Ex: An audience of thousands of people who have come from afar to listen to live music seem terrifying to a nervous performer. Is this correct? 3
Collective Nouns Can be singular or plural (i.e. committee, family, group, number, and team) Ex: (Sing.) The number of people living in Florida varies from year to year. Ex: (Pl.) A number of people living in Florida wish they had voted for Al Gore. Indefinite Pronouns The following are always singular and tend to appear on tests: Another Everybody Nobody Anybody Everyone No one Anyone Everything Somebody Anything Each Someone Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Will find these errors frequently on tests Antecedent is the word to which a later pronoun refers back to Pronoun must agree in both gender and number with its antecedent Ex: (WRONG) Already late for the show, Mary couldn t find their keys. Ex: (RIGHT) Already late for the show, Mary couldn t find her keys. Verb Tenses Different Verb Tenses in One Sentence Verb tenses must be logical if they happen at all Ex: Next year, I was on an ocean voyage. Is this correct? Tricky Verbs on Tests (know tenses) Lie/Lay Break Drank Blow Swim Choose Run Sit Begin Sang Arise Get Adverbs / Adjectives To describe a noun = ADJECTIVE To describe a verb, adjective, adverb = ADVERB Ex: (WRONG) She shut him up quick (RIGHT) She shut him up quickly. Ex: (WRONG) My mom made dinner good. (RIGHT) My mom made dinner well. Comparative / Superlative Modifiers Comparative modifiers compare one thing to another Require comparison WITH something else Ex: My boyfriend is nicer than yours. Superlative modifiers tell how one thing compares to everything else Ex: My boyfriend is the nicest boy in the world. 4
Sentence Fragments Incomplete sentences that tend to look like this: Ex: We didn t go outside. Even though the rain had stopped. To fix fragments: Attach to the indep. clause next to it Ex: We didn t go outside even though the rain had stopped. Turn the fragment into a full sentence Ex: We didn t go outside. The rain continued to fall. Comma splices Occurs when two independent clauses are joined together by a comma with no conjunction Ex: Bowen walked to the park, Leah followed. FIX: Bowen walked to the park. Leah followed. FIX: Bowen walked to the park; Leah followed. FIX: Bowen walked to the park, and Leah followed. Run-On Sentences A comma splice, minus the comma Ex: Joan runs every day she is preparing for a marathon. To fix a run-on, you must identify where the sentence must be split Joan runs every day. She is preparing for a marathon. Joan runs every day because she is preparing for a marathon. Misplaced Modifiers Modifiers must come directly before or after the word it is modifying Ex: Having eaten six hotdogs, nausea overwhelmed Jane. FIX: Having eaten six hotdogs, Jane was overwhelmed with nausea. FIX: Jane, having eaten six hotdogs, was overwhelmed with nausea. Parallelism When you see a list underlined on the test, look for a parallelism error Ex: with a list of verbs, check to make sure they are all in the same tense. (WRONG) In the pool area, there is no spitting, no running, and don t throw cigarette butts in the water. (RIGHT) change last part of list: throwing cigarette butts in the water. Prose Fiction (Passage 1): Read/skim the WHOLE passage Social Science/Humanities/Natural Science (Passages 2-4): Read/Skim the whole passage Read 1 st sentence and Last sentence and look for repeated words in EACH paragraph 5
Writing Strategy Questions Involves improving the effectiveness of a passage through revision and editing Types: Transitions and Topic Sentences Additional Detail and Evidence Big Picture Purpose Transitions and Topic Sentences: Find the best way to open or conclude a paragraph May ask for a sentence to act as both a topic sentence AND a transition If you know what the two paragraphs are about, you can eliminate answer choices that do not work as topic sentences Additional Detail and Evidence Choose the answer that provides the best additional detail or evidence Usually to help support another part of the paragraph/passage You must understand the point that is being made in the paragraph(s)/passage Look for TRANSITIONS that work as flags: However (means the information is contradictory) Moreover (means the info. is in agreement) Big Picture Purpose These always come at the END of the passage Ask you to identify the passage s: Main point (author s) Intended purpose Intended audience Test comprehension of the passage Big Picture Purpose (con t) The answer choices come in two parts Part 1: Yes/No Part 2: Give an explanation for the answer Organization Deal with the logical structuring of the passage on the level of the sentence, paragraph, or passage as a whole 3 Types of questions: Sentence Reorganization Paragraph Reorganization Passage Reorganization 6
Sentence Reorganization Often involve the placement of a modifier Half of the organization questions on the English Test will ask you to reorder the sentences. Study MODIFIERS! Paragraph Reorganization Reorder sentences WITHIN a paragraph Best Approach: decide which sentence should come first and then eliminate possible answer choices Always look for the topic sentence of the paragraph! Passage Reorganization Appear at the end of the passage You will either have to: Insert a sentence where it would best belong Move a paragraph to a new location These are strategy questions If asks for a sentence to be placed at the start of the para. then it is supposed to be a TOPIC sent. Placed at the end? Concluding/clincher sentence. Remember the LOGICAL order of an essay Redundancy Ability to spot redundant (repeated) phrases They say the same thing twice = NO GOOD! These questions will almost always give the option to OMIT. Redundant = OMIT! Appropriate Word Choice and Identifying Tone Word choice: pick the right one (there/their/they re) Content gives clues to tone History/Culture: formal style (omit slang, contractions, personal pronouns) Personal Essay: less formal style 7