1. Standardized Test Tips
How to Take the Test

2. Seven Basic Rules Know the instructions for each subject test
Don’t waste precious test time re-reading the directions
Use your test booklet as scratch paper
Answer Easy Questions first
Mark the booklet to know which questions to come back to
Answer Hard Questions last
1 minute is too long—skip it and come back later

3. Seven Basic Rules Avoid Carelessness Be careful bubbling answers
Mistakes happen when moving too quickly
Don’t let frustration or lack of confidence affect the answers of the other questions
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

4. Seven Basic Rules Always guess when you don’t know the answer
You have a 100% chance of getting the answer wrong if it is left blank

5. Strategies for the English Test
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

6. Strategies for the English Test
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)

7. Strategies for the English Test
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

8. Strategies for the English 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.

9. Strategies for the English Test
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.

10. Strategies for the English Test
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.

11. Strategies for the English Test
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.

12. Strategies for the English Test
Commas set off Appositives
Appositives rename/restate the modified noun
Ex: The dog, a Yorkshire Terrier, barked at all the neighbors.

13. Strategies for the English Test
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)

14. Strategies for the English Test
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?

15. Strategies for the English Test
Problem Word Forms: (learn these!)
Its / It’s
Their / There / They’re
Your / You’re
Whose / Who’s

16. Strategies for the English Test
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.

17. Strategies for the English Test
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

18. Strategies for the English Test
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?

19. Strategies for the English Test
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.

20. Strategies for the English Test
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

21. Strategies for the English Test
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.

22. Strategies for the English Test
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

23. Strategies for the English Test
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.

24. Strategies for the English Test
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.

25. Strategies for the English Test
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.

26. Strategies for the English Test
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.

27. Strategies for the English Test
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.

28. Strategies for the English Test
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.

29. Strategies for the English Test
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.”

30. Strategies for the Reading Test
Prose Fiction (Passage 1): Read/skim the WHOLE passage
Social Science/Humanities/Natural Science (Passages 2-4):
Read/Skim the whole passage
Read 1st sentence and Last sentence and look for repeated words in EACH paragraph

31. Strategies for the Reading Test
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

32. Strategies for the Reading Test
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

33. Strategies for the Reading Test
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)

34. Strategies for the Reading Test
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

35. Strategies for the Reading Test
Big Picture Purpose (con’t)
The answer choices come in two parts
Part 1: Yes/No
Part 2: Give an explanation for the answer

36. Strategies for the Reading Test
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

37. Strategies for the Reading Test
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!

38. Strategies for the Reading Test
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!

39. Strategies for the Reading Test
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

40. Strategies for the Reading Test
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!

41. Strategies for the Reading Test
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