Everyone loves different things. The SAT loves faulty comparisons. It’s one of the most popular question types on SAT Writing. It usually occurs near the end of a question set, where the most difficult problems are found. Once you learn to spot faulty comparisons, however, you’ll see how easy it is to pick up points on these questions.

The rule behind these questions is that you should never compare things that are in different classes.

Here’s an example:

The Beatles’ music is better than the Rolling Stones.

This sentence might look correct at first glance, but what is actually being compared here? The Beatles’ music is being compared to the Rolling Stones. You can’t really compare “music” to a “band,” because these are two different classes of things.

Instead, you want to compare music to music, or a band to a band. That is, you want to compare two things of the same class or type.

Here are two ways we can correctly rewrite the sentence:

The Beatles’ music is better than the music of the Rolling Stones.
The Beatles’ music is better than that of the Rolling Stones.

You see how in both of the new sentences we’re comparing music to music? That’s what you want to do.

Anytime you see two things being compared, make sure those things are the same type of thing. You’ll start picking up additional points on every test.

By the way, make sure to use grammar tips like this to improve your own grammar on the SAT essay.

 

Do you sometimes find yourself overwhelmed when you get to the end of an SAT Critical Reading passage?

A powerful technique for simplifying SAT Critical Reading is the “step ladder strategy.” The point of this strategy is to break long and difficult reading passages down into more manageable pieces that you can work on step by step.

To use this method, pause after reading each paragraph in a passage. Then look for any questions that ask about that paragraph. This can be done rapidly because SAT Reading questions usually ask about a specific line number and are presented in the same order the lines in the passage appear.

Once you’ve finished reading the passage and answering the line-specific questions, then tackle the big picture questions that don’t provide a specific line number, such as primary purpose questions.

How can a strategy like this help, you ask?

First, it can save you time. Tackling questions just after having read what they ask about means that the relevant information will be much more fresh in your mind, saving you valuable time.

Second, you’ll often make better sense of the excerpt the question is asking about because you will have just read it in context.

Third, this strategy can make you a more active reader. Stopping after each paragraph and answering relevant questions forces you to take stock of what’s happening, rather than passively reading the passage through to the end.

Fourth, by working through the line-number questions first, you’ll have a better understanding of the passage as a whole when you do get to the big picture questions and you’ll be better prepared to answer them.

As powerful as the step ladder strategy is, it—like any strategy—is not for everyone. Test it out for yourself and see how well it works for you!

 

If you’re studying SAT vocabulary, you’re probably less than thrilled with long word lists. How can you really memorize hundreds upon hundreds of new words?

A technique many of my students have found helpful is one I call the “Google image technique.” It’s incredibly powerful when it comes to remembering words, but it can also be really fun.

All you have to do is Google image search some of your vocabulary words (here’s how to choose a word list). For example, let’s say you’re learning “abstemious” today, which means not eating or drinking too much. You Google image search “abstemious,” and this is one of the first results that comes up:

Pretty funny, right? I bet you’re going to remember what “abstemious” means now.

Science has shown over and over how much more powerful images are for learning than just plain text. One study showed that after three days, participants remembered only 10-20% of written information but almost 65% of visual information. In another study, an illustrated text was 83% more effective than text alone when testing delayed comprehension. In another study, visuals were found to improve learning by as much as 400%. Four Hundred Percent. That’s crazy!

So why not make learning vocabulary a little easier on yourself? Use the Google image technique to find images that speak to you. The funier or more entertaining the image, the better.

Once you find the images, keep a record of them to revisit as you study – you can save them to one folder on your computer, for instance, and make the vocabulary word the file name. Or you could print them and write the words alongside the images. Or even set them as your desktop wallpaper. Be creative.

If you want to spend less time studying vocabulary while at the same time improving your vocabulary, start using this technique today.

By the way, if you see a word you don’t know on test day, here’s what to do.