SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

The 8 Most Common SAT Writing Mistakes Students Make

I’ve worked with dozens of students as they studied for the SAT, and the writing section is often the most confusing for them. It tests a lot of grammar concepts you may not have learned in school or else haven’t studied in many years—even if you're an A student in English class, there are probably some rules tested on the SAT that you aren't familiar with.

Happily, the test asks about the same few concepts over and over again, so there aren't that many topics you really need to know. Avoiding just a few of the most common mistakes students often make can really help your score.

Let’s go through these common mistakes one at a time:

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How to Approach Identifying Sentence Errors: SAT Writing Strategies

Note: The current version of the SAT no longer includes this type of question. For up-to-date SAT writing tips, check out our top guide here.

Identifying Sentence Errors (ISE) questions, which ask you to pick the error in a sentence out of four underlined sections, seem like they should be the easiest part of the SAT Writing section. After all, you only have to find the error, you don't have to fix it. The test writers, however, are extremely adept at camouflaging the mistake in each sentence—if you don't know what to look for, you can easily find yourself assuming there's no error in as many as half of the sentences.

As such, it's vital that you take a systematic approach to the Identifying Sentence Errors questions. If you count on spotting the error by simply glancing over the sentence or by looking for sections that "sound" weird, you'll miss a lot of questions.

In this post, I'm going to detail the most effective approach to these questions and the common errors you need to look for:

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Relative Pronouns on SAT Writing: Which vs. That and More

You may not have heard of relative pronouns, but we use them everyday. “Who,” “which,” “that,” where,” and “when” are all examples of relative pronouns.

Though the name may make it seem like these words have something to do with your great uncle Cecil, they actually introduce related information that describes a noun

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Strategies for Improving Sentences on SAT Writing

 

Improving sentences is the biggest subsection in SAT Writing. There are 49 total multiple choice questions on the SAT Writing section, and 25 of those are improving sentences questions. Arming yourself with specific strategies to answer these questions will be extremely beneficial to you and your SAT Writing score.

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Verb Tenses and Forms on SAT Writing

Get excited for this article all about verbs!!! Tenses!! Gerunds!! Infinitives!! In my next article, I may write about not overusing exclamation points!!!

Extreme punctuation aside, knowing when to use different verb tenses and forms will be extremely beneficial to you on the SAT Writing section, since these concepts are tested repeatedly on the SAT. There’s a lot of information in this article, but I promise that it’s all valuable and knowing it will help you maximize your SAT score.

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Faulty Modifiers on SAT Writing: Grammar Rule Prep

One of comedian Groucho Marx's most famous jokes involves a pachyderm and some sleepwear.

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas," he says. "How he got in my pajamas I don't know!"

This joke is a play on a grammatical error called a misplaced modifier, where a descriptive phrase or word is placed in the wrong part of the sentence.

The modifier errors on the SAT Writing may not be quite as funny as Groucho's, but it's still important that you understand how they work. To that end, we'll be covering both basic grammatical concepts behind faulty modifiers and how to apply that knowledge on the test:

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How Often is "No Error" Correct on SAT Writing?

 

On the identify the error subsection of SAT Writing, you may have noticed that there is always a “No Error” option. On the sentence improvement subsection, answer choice A will always be the same as the underlined portion of the original sentence.

Have you ever wondered how often the given sentence on the multiple choice SAT Writing questions will be right? Many students fear the “no error” option, but it is sometimes the right answer. In this article, I’ll explore the frequency of correct no error answers.

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The Big Secret to SAT Writing: Strategies to Excel

If you've noticed that the SAT Writing section seems to be confusing, that's because it's intentionally designed to be that way.

But we're going to let you in on something that the College Board doesn't want you to know: there are a few key secrets that will help you understand this part of the SAT, and knowing them makes it much easier to crack. Read on to learn how to take this section of the SAT into your own hands.

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The Best Approach for Improving Paragraphs on SAT Writing

Every SAT test has 6 special questions in the writing section that test not just your grammar skills, but how well you are able to use them in context. Can you tell which correct version of a sentence best suits the paragraph that it’s in? Are you ready to tackle one of the most unique parts of the SAT?

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Illogical Comparisons: The Weirdest Topic on SAT Writing

Oftentimes, if I make an outlandish comparison, someone will turn to me and say, "You can't compare apples and oranges, Alex."

Grammatically speaking, however, you absolutely can compare apples and oranges—they're both fruits! However, it's true that some comparisons are nonsensical, like a comparison between apples and eating apples.

This kind of construction is called an illogical comparison, and it's one of the most unusual concepts on SAT Writing. Though essentially simple to spot, illogical comparisons are unfamiliar for most students because they rarely come up elsewhere. 

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Wordiness and Redundancy in SAT Writing Questions

A general rule to follow when answering SAT Writing questions is that the given sentence should be written in the most concise grammatically correct way. Often, especially in sentence improvement questions, the error in a sentence is only that the sentence is too wordy. Similarly, sometimes specific words in a sentence can be eliminated because they are superfluous. Wordiness and redundancy are common errors on the SAT Writing section, and I will be explaining how to identify and correct these errors.

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Complete Parts of Speech for SAT Writing and ACT English

“Parts of speech” is a fancy way of saying that every word in the English language can be put into one of eight categories, depending on how it is used. Of these eight parts of speech, only 7 are tested on the Writing SAT and on ACT English. 

Understanding the different parts of speech is absolutely essential to having a firm grasp of English grammar, and in succeeding on the SAT and ACT. Unfortunately, nowadays many schools no longer focus on teaching this type of grammar.

Are you a bit unsure about what, exactly, a preposition is, or can’t tell the difference between an adjective and adverb? Feeling a bit rusty after learning this years ago? This article will provide the foundational information you need before moving on to more complex grammatical concepts. I'll also go over a few important SAT/ACT grammar rules.

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Adjectives vs Adverbs in SAT Writing: Practice + Tips

You may recall the good ol’ days of elementary school when you learned about adjectives and adverbs. If you had realized that you would have to know about these parts of speech for the SAT, perhaps you would have paid better attention instead of daydreaming about Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel.

Don’t worry. If you’ve forgotten or never learned about these parts of speech, I’ll teach you everything you need to know about them for the SAT Writing section.

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Parallelism for SAT Writing: Tips and Practice

We get to add to our grammar knowledge. Get excited! Parallel structure questions on the SAT Writing section are fairly common. Fortunately, parallel structure is a somewhat easy to comprehend grammatical rule. Once you understand the rule, you should be able to correctly answer any parallel structure question on the SAT. 

So, let’s master another rule and boost your SAT Writing score with these tips and strategies.

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All the SAT Idioms You Need: Complete List

Idiom questions on the SAT are different than most of the other grammar questions. Why? Idiom questions can't be figured out by applying a specific rule. You have to rely on your general knowledge of English and your familiarity with certain phrases. Because you’re likely to encounter a couple of idiom questions on the SAT Writing and Language subsection, I’ll provide you with some information about idioms that should help you raise your SAT score.

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