WHICH GRAMMAR SKILLS ARE EMPHASIZED ON STANDARDIZED TESTS?
For National Merit Scholarships, the PSAT English score is counted twice and the math score once.
The ACT College Board Exam includes English, reading, math, and science. In essence there, too, verbal ability counts twice.
If a student chooses to attend a selective college that requires SAT Achievement Tests, the school usually requires that the student take an achievement test in English, math, and his area of specialty.
The SAT College Board Exam also relies heavily on verbal ability.
When reviewing those tests, we found that several concepts were emphasized more than others. The concepts we found emphasized most often were:
Correct use of commas, semi-colons, apostrophes, quotation marks, and hyphens in sentences.
When to use a possessive pronoun and when to use a contraction: it's vs. its.
Correct use of who vs. whom especially when whom is part of a prepositional phrase in the beginning of a sentence: To whom should I give this?
Use of subject pronouns vs. object pronouns especially with linking verbs and in compound prepositional phrases: It is I. Keep this between you and me.
The use of his/her or they with indefinite pronouns: Will everyone please pass up his or her paper?
Correct verb usage in sentences with neither/nor and either/or conjunctions: Neither Tom nor the boys go. Neither the boys nor Tom goes.
Correct use of which, who, or that in sentences.
Avoiding dangling modifiers, split infinitives, and misplaced modifiers: Do you know what I am speaking about?
Use of active voice, verb consistency, and parallel construction in sentences. Avoiding redundancy.
The rhetoric sections of these tests frequently emphasize the ability to identify main idea and author's bias.
The ability to identify a logical order for sentences or paragraphs in a long passage is also essential.
I frequently saw questions concerning the proper use of affect and effect.
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