GRAMMAR SECTION:
Note that unlike the Reading question types, the Grammar-based questions are less focused on traps-and-tricks and more about the ability to deconstruct sentences and understand proper English structure. There are a number of question archetypes in the Grammar section that we will go over one-by-one, with examples. However, the best prep for the Grammar section is to 1) read often and thoroughly during your weeks of prep (and also everyday life), 2) review grammar rules and concepts in the Content Review earlier in this course, and 3) practice sentence deconstructions (a tactical exercise included at the end of this section).
Clauses
Linking clauses together is an important part of constructing and deconstructing complex sentences. A number of SAT questions will test your understanding of the rules around clause connections. The Content review section provides an overview, but we will go over some of the basic ways to connect/separate clauses below.
Refresher: An independent or main clause is a clause that can stand alone as a sentence – it contains a subject, verb, and object (if necessary) and expresses a complete thought. A dependent or subordinate clause still contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence.
There are specific ways to link two independent clauses. Take the examples of “John woke up and rebelled” and “He ate ice cream for breakfast.”
• Periods (.) are the simplest option. We can simply have two separate fully-formed sentences. “John woke up and rebelled. He ate ice cream for breakfast”
• Semicolons (;) can be used if the two clauses are close enough in context/meaning to be joined together more than two separate sentences. “John woke up and rebelled; he ate ice cream for breakfast.”
• Colons (:) and dashes (-) can be used to join two independent clauses when the second is explaining or expanding upon the first. “John woke up and rebelled: he ate ice cream for breakfast.” They can also be used to join a list of phrases to an independent clause for the same purpose. Colons are commonly seen in list scenarios, e.g. “I have three favorite animals: the cheetah, the viper, and the toucan.” The key here is that the first clause needs to be independent – it must be able to function as a sentence without the ensuing colon/dash phrase. For example, the sentence “My three favorite animals are: the cheetah, the viper, and the toucan” is wrong because “my three favorite animals are” is not a functional independent clause and cannot stand alone as a sentence (specifically because the verb “are” in this scenario requires an object or objects to express a complete thought, and the clause lacks an object).
• Commas can be used in combination with coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). These describe relations between two ideas and can be used to join independent clauses that would otherwise be separate sentences. “John woke up and chose rebellion, so he ate ice cream for breakfast.” Commas alone (without a coordinating conjunction) CANNOT be used to join independent clauses. This is the classic mistake of a comma splice or run on sentence.
See an example question below:
Between 1967 and 1972, inflation-adjusted growth in its core U.S. market fell to 5.6 percent a _______ 1972 and 1977, it declined again to 3.5 percent annually. (Competition Demystified, Greenwald p255).
A. year between
B. year, between
C. year; between
D. year while between
The first thing we need to figure out is what kind of clauses we have on either side. The portion of the sentence before the ____ expresses a complete thought and seems to clearly be an independent clause. The clause after the ____ also seems to express a complete thought, and does not seem semantically or structurally subordinate to the first half. These are two independent clauses, which means there are only a handful of ways they can be joined. Using nothing to join them at all (answer A) is not viable. Using a comma alone, like in B), is also not allowed. This would be a comma splice. If the answer had been “year, and between” this would have been correct. Answer C is a correct way to connect two clearly related independent clauses, so we pencil it in for now. Answer D does not work because “while” is not one of the coordinating conjunctions that can be used to connect independent clauses. [For, and, nor but, or, yet, so] are the anointed few that can serve this role. We finalize Answer C.
Let’s try a question with dependent clauses.
The painter preferred to use watercolor over _________ it imparts a softness and impressionist style on the canvas.
A. acrylic as
B. acrylic: as
C. acrylic; as
D. acrylic and as
The section of the above sentence following the _____ is a dependent clause. Although it contains a subject and verb and could have been a complete sentence on its own in another context, it is subordinated to the first part because of the subordinating conjunction “as.” In essence, the main point of the sentence is to say the painter prefers watercolor over acrylic, and the comment about watercolor’s softness serves to provide reasoning/context for that thought. Dependent clauses can be joined to independent clauses using subordinating conjunctions or relative pronouns with or without commas. In this case, “as” is the subordinating conjunction. All of the options other than A (the correct answer) are not viable ways to attach a dependent clause, but are instead appropriate for independent clauses.
Note that if the word “as” was not included in the answers, there would be nothing to subordinate the second half of the sentence and you would instead have to treat it like two independent clauses in combination. In other words, if “as” was not in the text, B) C) and D) would instead be the correct answers. This hammers home the main learning from the Dependent Clauses content review: you must look at the conjunctions used and the context of the sentence to figure out if a clause is subordinated.
Complete-the-Sentence
The first form of grammar question will give you a brief passage and ask you to complete one of the sentences. There are a few subtypes of skills the exam is testing here.
The first subtype is understanding whether the blank needs to be filled with a question or a statement.
As medical advances continue to impress, the cost of medical care in Western nations has also increased at an exponential rate. Many laws have been proposed to reduce the cost of medical care, but some argue that these laws are likely to reduce innovation and slow down advancement. If true, policymakers may need to decide whether innovation should be supported at all costs, or ____________
A. affordability should be considered paramount?
B. affordability should be considered paramount.
C. should affordability be considered paramount?
D. should affordability be considered paramount.
In these situations, if an actor is deciding between ___ and ___, the clauses they are deciding between need to be statements. If you add a question mark, you turn the entire sentence into a question. In this case, the author is not asking if policymakers need to decide, but rather stating that they do. While the opinions they are deciding between are indeed uncertain, this uncertainty is already captured in the concept of the choice implied by “whether.”
Now that we know the ___ clause needs to be a statement, not a question, we look at the answers that are statements (B and D) and see which one makes sense in context. Whenever you are faced with “whether,” or lists, or other such complex sentences, try the visualize the sentence breaking up. Which parts are common “stem” of the sentence, vs. branches that separate? In this case, “If true, policymakers may need to decide” is the common stem and everything after “whether” is split. “Innovation should be supported at all costs” is one branch, and so the other branch should be another such clear independent statement about an opinion that starts with a noun (or modified noun). “Affordability should be considered paramount” fits the bill, so we know the answer is B. The final sentence is structured “If true, policymakers may need to decide whether innovation should be supported at all costs, or affordability should be considered paramount.”
Note that the sentence didn’t have to split up this way. “If true policymakers may need to decide… innovation should be” could also be a stem, and the split could have happened at the verb level. For example, the sentence could have been structured “If true, policymakers may need to decide whether innovation should be supported at all costs, or subordinated to the state’s fiscal realities.” In this case, however, both of the verbs “supported” and “subordinated” would need to refer back to the common stem noun “innovation.” None of the answer choices are structured this way, as all of the answers introduce a new noun “affordability.” As the two branches have different nouns, we know the split happens before “innovation” is introduced.
The second subtype of complete-the-sentence question tests verb conjugation.
As medical advances continue to impress, the cost of medical care in Western nations has also increased at an exponential rate. Many laws have been proposed _____ the cost of medical care, but some argue that these laws are likely to hamper innovation and slow down advancement.
A. being reduced
B. reducing
C. reduce
D. to reduce
In this case the verb in the ____ is something that may be done by the “laws” that have been proposed, to “the cost of medical care.” “being reduced” makes no sense here as the “cost” is what is reduced, not the laws (which are still being referenced as of the ____ portion of the sentence). “Reducing” makes no sense from a tense standpoint, as the laws are still in the proposition stage and thus could not be already reducing the cost of care. “To reduce” is the right answer as it is necessary to connect the verb “proposed” with the verb “reduce.”
The easiest clue to get the answer here is to look at symmetry – the clause following the one with the ____ has a very similar setup, and says “these laws are likely to hamper innovation.” The “to” + present tense verb here matches the answer to the actual question.
When in doubt, look for symmetry clues – places in the sentence structure or paragraph structure that look similar to the portion of the sentence that needs completion.
The third format of this complete-the-sentence question type deals with phrases and proper punctuation. Example below:
The Vagelos Program in Life Sciences is funded by ____ Roy Vagelos, a scientist who played a crucial part in the discovery and proliferation of ivermectin in the 1980’s.
Which choice best completes the text?
A. Doctor,
B. Doctor;
C. Doctor:
D. Doctor
Here, the word Doctor is a title that precedes Mr. Vagelos’ name, and so does not require any kind of punctuation separating the two. Thus D) is the correct answer. The portion of the sentence before the comma works as an independent clause and could have functioned as a sentence on its own. The portion after the comma is descriptive and dependent.
Note that this is not true if the sentence was structured just slightly differently:
The Vagelos Program in Life Sciences is funded by a ____ Roy Vagelos, who played a crucial part in the discovery and proliferation of ivermectin in the 1980’s.
Which choice best completes the text?
A. Doctor,
B. Doctor;
C. Doctor:
D. Doctor
Refresher: An appositive phrase is a noun phrase the comes after another, antecedent noun phrase and serves as description to specify something. E.g. “my silver cat” in the sentence “Cacio, my silver cat, ate a full five bowls of food today.” Appositive phrases should be separated from the rest of the sentence with a comma if they contain non-essential information, but should be included in the sentence without a comma if they contain essential information. The test for this is whether the sentence would still work without the phrase. In this case, you could remove “my silver cat” and the sentence is still functional. However, consider the sentence “The late President John F. Kennedy would have opposed the views of his politically active descendant.” In this sentence, “John F. Kennedy” serves as an appositive phrase. If the sentence had started “a late President,” then the specifying information would be extra / non-essential, and we should separate it with a comma. However, since the sentence starts with “the,” it creates a need for a referent. The can’t just say “the President” without telling us which President they are referring to (either within the sentence, or in a past sentence). If you take the specifier out, this sentence becomes poorly formed – it’s missing a referent. That makes “John F. Kennedy” essential information, and so this is an appositive phrase that we will not separate with a comma.
In this case, “a doctor” is the noun referenced in the first part of the sentence. When “a” or “an” is used with a profession, it implies that the noun in question is one doctor out of the many in the profession, without specifying on its own which doctor. The restrictive clause “, Roy Vagelos” then specifies which doctor. This is additional information that is useful, but could be removed without changing the main point of the sentence. “Roy Vagelos” functions as an appositive phrase with nonessential information, and so we need to separate it from the rest of the sentence with a comma. Think of the pause you would take when speaking this sentence aloud; you would typically hold a brief pause before Roy and after Vagelos to separate that phrase from the rest of the sentence. The comma serves the same function. Thus the comma is important, and the answer here is A) rather than D).
If we now simply switch the “a” to a “the,” the answer once again becomes D), because “the doctor” implies that there is a specified doctor, who must be named or described later in the sentence, who is funding the program. Because of this implication, the name of the doctor becomes essential information rather than additional information, and we should NOT separate it from the sentence with a comma.
SEMANTICS SECTION
This section tests the content of the sentence listed rather than the grammatical structure/syntax.
Transitions
Transitions questions will ask the student to place transition words between sentences or parts of a passage that share two different ideas. The object of the question is to make sure the reader understands what the passage actually communicates and can place the ideas in relation to one another. See the example below:
Sufjan Stevens’ early albums show a consistent leaning towards indie folk music, with soft vocals and acoustic guitar. ______, Stevens expands into more varied sounds, such as the use of synthesizers and bombast, in the later album Age of Adz.
A. Consequently
B. Additionally
C. However
D. Previously
For these kinds of questions, first identify the ideas posed by the sentences surrounding the ____. Here the two ideas are that 1) the artist was consistently using soft vocals and acoustic guitar early on and that 2) the artist used synthesizers and bombast later on. Then, identify if the ideas are generally in harmony or contrast. These two ideas are enough to tell us we need contrast, as you have the juxtaposition of soft/acoustic with synthesizers/bombast. We can eliminate A) and B) as they are transition words that indicate harmony. We need something either neutral or contrasting, so we are left with C) and D). There is also a time component here, as the second sentence describes an event happening after the first. So we can eliminate D). Note that if D) was “eventually” rather than “previously” the answer would have worked. We are left with C) “however” as it correctly indicates the contrast between the two sentences.
There isn’t much in the way of a special trick to this kind of question; it’s really just about seeing how two ideas fit with each other, and much of this should be intuitive. The difficult part is parsing through the sentences to figure out what the ideas are (as many times the sentences can be compound and/or complex), and using clues to figure out edge cases. Consider the following, slightly more difficult, problem:
During the day, the city streets thrummed with activity, a dynamic mosaic of movement and noise. _____, as night unfurled its dark cloak, a hush descended, transforming the urban landscape into a tranquil sanctuary of stillness and shadow.
A. Rather
B. Yet
C. Inevitably
D. Unsurprisingly
In this case we are likely looking for a contrast answer, based on the ideas of activity/daytime contrasting with hush/nighttime. However, A) “rather” and B) “yet” both qualify, directionally. The issue is that “rather” offers more direct contrast – directly opposing a previous claim. Here, the idea that the city could be quiet at night isn’t directly opposed to a bustling day life. But it is paradoxical or odd, and surprising in context of the juxtaposition. “Yet” describes this kind of situation: where the second idea does indeed follow from the first (or is related), but seems opposed or paradoxical.
Summaries
The final kind of Semantics question will ask the reader to summarize a set of bullet points or independent (but related) pieces of information in a sentence or passage with a particular purpose. The key here is to pay attention to the specific purpose that the question asks. For example:
A student took the following notes as preparation for a research paper:
• The censor Appius Claudius Caecus built the first Roman aqueduct in 312 B.C.
• An aqueduct is a watercourse constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point far away (Wikipedia)
• Aqueducts bought water from sources to farmers and cities
• Irrigation raised the production of the rural economy
• Roman farms typically grew grain, olives, fruit, vegetables, and legumes
Which sentence best conveys the impact of aqueducts on the Roman economy?
A. Censor Caecus built the first Roman aqueduct, which carried water to cities and farms.
B. Aqueducts allowed Roman farms to grow grain, olives, fruit, vegetables, and legumes.
C. Roman Aqueducts carried water from far-away distribution points to farmers, allowing them to better irrigate their crops and increase production; this stimulated the rural economy.
D. Aqueducts were one of the great marvels of Roman engineering in 312 B.C. and onwards.
Many (if not all) of the answer choices in these types of questions will be correct, factually, given the text of the question. The key is picking which one best applies to the purpose and audience that is specified in the question. We are asked about the impacts of aqueducts on the economy. While A) and D) are true, they do not address the impact to the economy. B) and C) both somewhat address economic impacts, but C) is much more explicit with its claim. Additionally, B) implies that Romans would not have been able to grow grain, etc. without aqueducts; this is not necessarily true. We only know that aqueducts likely increased production, not that they were critical to have any production at all.
The strategy here is to start with the question itself. What is the audience / context it is asking you to address? Eliminate any answers that seem insufficient or off topic given that context. Then among the remaining answers, eliminate any that are not supported by the bullet points in the text, or are logically incomplete. This should be enough to leave a single correct answer, for most questions.
Verbs, Nouns, and Modifiers
The exam will also test a number of common grammar mistakes and conventions that we will discuss one-by-one in this section.
The first type of question in this subsection will ask you to select the right form of a verb within a sentence. In order to pick the right form, you need to know the right tense and the right plurality of the verb within the context of the sentence. For both of these, the subject of the sentence and the verb must agree. Some common traps here include sentences that are designed to trick you into choosing the wrong subject. See the following sentence:
One of James Baldwin’s most widely reputed works ____ “The Fire Next Time,” where he gives passionate voice to the Civil Rights Movement.
A. was
B. are
C. is
D. has been
The first thing we look for is tense. The second part of the sentence is clearly in present tense (“he gives passionate voice”) and the first part of the sentence should agree with this. So we know we are looking for a present tense verb. This rules out A) and D) and narrows our choices. This is where the trap comes in. The _____ comes after a plural “works.” But “works” is not the subject of the verb in question. “One” is the subject. This is clear since the object of the verb is “The Fire Next Time” which is a singular book. So we should be looking for a singular present tense verb, which confirms C) as the correct answer.
The second type of question might test pronoun rules. There are a few simple ones to remember.
- “It” refers to an object, while “they” refers to a person. “One” also refers to a person, but in an abstract sense, without a referent
- While apostrophes are used on nouns to show possession (“Adam’s cat”), they are not used on pronouns to show possession. Apostrophes in pronouns indicate contractions.
- “Its” indications possession by it
- “It’s” is a contraction for “it is”
- “Their” indicates possession by “them”
- “They’re” is a contraction for “they are”
- “There” is completely unrelated and just sounds similar – it is an adverb or adjective (typically) describing location
While Adam’s friends were initially excited to join on the trek, ____ feelings slowly turned to worry as he seemed woefully underprepared for the journey.
A. they’re
B. their
C. there
D. whose
In this case, the word we are looking for needs to be possessive. We need to know whose “feelings” are described in the second part of the sentence. “Their” and “whose” are both possessive, but “They” is a declarative plural pronoun while “Who” asks a question (or can be used as a specifier after “the ___”, but that isn’t relevant here). So B) is the correct answer.
The third type of question commonly asked under this section tests for misplaced modifiers. A modifier is a describing phrase (usually participle or noun phrases). These are usually separated from the rest of the sentence with a comma (or two, if in the middle). Modifiers need to be placed next to the noun they are modifying. This means that the sentence structure must make it obvious what the phrases are referring to. Consider the sentence: “Draped in sweat, John returned from the gym.” Here, the modifier “draped in sweat” refers to John, not the gym. So the modifier is placed right next to the word “John” and the sentence is well-formed. Lets try an example with a poorly-formed sentence below:
Consisting of mostly sugars and fat, ____________________
Which choice best completes the sentence?
A. one shouldn’t eat chocolate chip cookies right before an exam.
B. chocolate chip cookies are not typically considered a healthy pre-exam breakfast choice.
C. an exam shouldn’t be preceded with a breakfast of chocolate chip cookies.
D. chocolate chip cookies’ health benefits are minimal, and not well suited for pre-exam breakfast.
The most important question to ask yourself in these problems is what is the modifier modifying? In this case, what “consists mostly of sugar and fat?” It isn’t the “one” referenced in answer A. People are mostly made of water and protein. The exam certainly isn’t made up of sugar and fat (most likely), so we can eliminate answer C. Answers B and D are close, but note that the actual subject in answer D is not the chocolate chip cookies, but the health benefits. And health benefits rarely consist of sugar and fat. The answer in this case is B, as the modifier should be modifying the cookies themselves.