Let's Play SAT!

Adjectives and Adverbs

2009-12-15T00:34:00.000-08:00

It's easy to identify adjectives and adverbs.

No, it isn't.

Well, it's easy to ID an adjective, anyway.

First of all, you'll always find it stuck to some noun.

Last of all, you'll always find it stuck to some noun.

Always, you find an adjective: it's stuck to some noun.

Can't emphasize it enough.

What I can emphasize is the circle of reasoning that proves you've got both a noun and its stuck-on adjective.

First of all, you know when a noun is a person, place or thing. You've got to. You're not getting over 600 without knowing that.

Next step: Recognize idea nouns by their noun endings, aka suffixes.

For example, a revolution may be a series of fights, an armed protest that leads to a change of government, or maybe not even a conflict, but a series of events in a changing world, such as the Industrial Revolution.

Meditation is an action consisting of an attitude; or a series of practices; a sequence of mind and body interactions.

Idea nouns include most words that end in -ion, -ment, -nce, -ity, -ness.

And many more!

But wait! We were talking about adjectives, weren't we? The American Revolution. The Industrial Revolution. The Cyber Revolution. The French, the Russian--

Hey wait! Aren't those salad dressings?

Point is, all these are adjectives. They all describe nouns. They're descriptors. They're all right next to their noun.

"Stand by your noun! wow, wow, wowwow!" You may have heard them referred to as modifiers.

Feh! They're describing, not modifying. They're telling you: What kind? Which one? How many?

Take this note if you haven't taken any others yet:

An adjective will always answer one of these three questions:

Which one?

What kind?

How many?

How many? is self explanatory, so let's focus on Which one? and What kind?

KNOW THIS: When you find a word, and as you get better at it--which you will-- a phrase or a clause--near a noun, and it answers either of those two Qs about that noun -- you've found yourself an adjective!

Conversely, If you find a word describing a kind of thing, or telling which thing, then that thing is an adjective, and the word next to it, the Which? or What? being described will ALWAYS be a noun.

That's why it's easy to ID adjectives, and why . . . they're never adverbs.

Adverbs tell you When? They tell you Where? They tell you How? And they tell you Why?

If they don't, they're not adverbs.

If they do, they are.

It's just that simple.

Really.

The tricky part is that adverbs can tell How? Why? When? or Where? about Verbs, Adjectives, or even other Adverbs.

Not about nouns, though. Adjectives are the only words that describe nouns. Adjectives have cornered the market on talking about nouns.

So, here's your circle of reasoning, your flowchart for adverb ID:

1) Ask yourself: Is this word telling Where? When? How? Why? If so, it's an adverb. 2) If your word is talking about or describing a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, then your word is an adverb.

It's much more common for an adverb to be far afield from its verb, adjective or adverb. It's the leopard frog of descriptors. Adjectives are found near the nouns they describe. Adverbs usually butt up against an adjective or another adverb, but may be quite a way from their verbs.

Remember to ask these four questions about a suspected adverb: Where? When? How: (To what degree? / Under what conditions?) Why?

If your word tells you the answer to one of those four questions, it's an adverb. If not, then it's not.

End of story.

Introducing: Grammar Man!

2009-12-10T01:34:00.000-08:00

There's a whole heckuva lot you need to know about grammar, but you're probably so scared it'll bore you silly you just never go there.

Introducing: Grammar Man!

Grammar Man! Flying high over the mountains of speech parts, phrases, and clauses! To infinitives and beyond!

Grammar Man! Disguised as mild-mannered reporter, JHepCat, Grammar Man seeks the betterment of YOUR writing through a burgeoning and ever-increasing ability to analyze diction and syntax. Not to mention the elevation of the poetic over the prosaic. Or the use of active voice throughout, as opposed to the passive constructions so often associated with "legalese."

No, not to mention either of those.

Grammar Man begins his lesson today with the review of the eight parts of speech, aka The Eight Parts of Speech! only seven of which you need to know.

You can forget interjections. Hey! Wow! and Yikes! will never show up on a list of SAT vocabulary words.

Or any other list, other than a list of common interjections.

Sorry, Charlie.

But you do need to know The Big Four and The Little Three.

By The Big Four I mean, of course, noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. These are words you will find on a vocabulary list.

Nouns are things or ideas. People or places. Subjects are always always nouns; so are objects.

Verbs are the heart of any sentence or clause. Find the verb first and unlock the meaning of any sentence or clause. Verbs come in several varieties but the two most important are action and being. To swim, to drink, to read. These are all action verbs. Someone is doing something. To be (or not to be), is our "existence" verb. Any form of "to be" (not "not to be" -- not is never a verb, and never is not a verb. But I get ahead of myself. Where was I? Oh, yeah) Any form of to be, and there are eight: am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been is a being verb. You can't try as much as you like but you can't is. You can be, and you can are, but really, all you're doing is breathing. Bring a mirror for proof. There are helping verbs--pretty important. There are 15 of them, and you need to know them like you know the eight to bes and the 7 parts of speech worth knowing. We'll go over them soon, not today. There are transitive and intransitive verbs. And there are linking verbs, which can be pretty important. To bes and helpings are all also linkings. 'Xcuse me, not all helpings are linkings, but all beings are.

If you know what I mean. If you don't, hang in there. GrammarMan believes in keeping it silly, which a long time ago meant "wise."

Adjectives only modify, or describe nouns. They answer one of three questions: What kind? Which one? How many? Numbers are always adjectives because they tell how many. And remember--if it's not describing a noun, it's not an adjective.

Adverbs on the other hand, can modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. This is the main way you can distinguish between an adjective and an adverb: What kind of word is being modified/described?

By extension, the kind of word being modified can also be identified by answering the questions raised by adjectives and adverbs. As just mentioned, adjectives answer one of three questions: What kind? Which one? How many?

Adverbs answer one of four questions: When? Where? To what degree?/Under what conditions?/How? Or Why?

I know what you're thinking: "But GrammarMan, that's six questions!" You can see it that way, but really, throw the slashed questions into the How? bin and you'll probably be ok. I jsut think it's good to know those other phrasings, like knowing three different ways to make a chord when playing guitar.

Like that. At any rate, if your word answers When? Where? To what degree?/Under what conditions?/How? Or Why? it's an adverb. Take it to the bank.

The Little Three are so named not because they are of little importance, but because they are, in fact, little. They're not important vocabularially, either.

But they're crazy way important when you're reading. In fact, if you're trying to read faster, the small words are key. The bigger words your eye will naturally pick up, because they're bigger--the eye can't miss them. But little words telling whose, or where, or which, or whether or not, or although, or because--them's important!

GrammarMan knows the rules, and so breaks them with impunity. You can too. When you know them. Grammar is fun!

And the Little Three are prepositions, pronouns, and conjunctions.

Prepositions are the smallest words. In, on, at, by, for, with, to, these are all prepositions. Prepositions never exist by themselves; they only exist in prepositional phrases. A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun, known as the object of the preposition. Prepositional phrases always act as adjectives or adverbs. They're phrases, and they always begin with a preposition, but what they mean is: Something's being described--a thing, an action, another describer. But I get ahead of myself. We'll come back to this. Make sure you do, too.

Pronouns save us a lot of time and hassle. For example I could say: "GrammarMan's SAT blog is making GrammarMan's life life better by generating more income for GrammarMan, and establishing GrammarMan as a grammar, reading and writing expert."

But it's a lot simpler to say, GrammarMan is making his life better by generating more income for himself and establishing himself as a grammar expert. Not to mention making a lot of other people grammar experts, too, which is the value of GrammarMan's SAT blog."

Conjunctions come in three varieties: coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and corelative conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions are the most important. You can remember them by the acronym FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. You may prefer to remember them in pairs; that is, two pairs and one triad: and but, or nor for, so yet. Coordinating conjunctions like to think they're pretty important, but because they subordinate--make less-- the meaning of what follows, they just don't get that status. You can recognize the subordinate conjunction because if you take it away you have an independent clause -- -- a complete sentence. Subordinating conjunctions include words like while, because, although, and the rest.

Boy that was a lot, huh? But you can't make sense of grammar and you can't be a really great reader without knowing what the parts of speech are and what they do.

So copy and paste this into your grammar handbook: GrammarMan's Guide to Really Good Grammar and Much Better Readin' and Learnin' and thank me later.

What The College Board Doesn't Want You To Know

2009-12-08T02:21:00.000-08:00

The SAT is just one big True/False test!

"It's true!"

Look, either you're already pulling at least 700s on every section of the SAT, or you're looking for strategies, tactics, and ABOVE ALL: shortcuts to get you there.

Here are the top three tactics/strategies/skills you'll need to do well on the SAT, particularly the Critical Reading section, not to mention the Math.

(They're not called word problems for nothing.)

1.) Process of Elimination. Get rid of wrong answers first. Narrow down to the only two possible choices. Carefully examine those two for congruent language, et Voila! You've chosen the write answer.

2.) True/False. The process of elimination strategy is entirely dependent on whether an answer is true or false. And since ANY false word eliminates a possible answer, eliminating wrong answers is entirely a True/False proposition.

When every word in the answer choice is true, unassailably true about the passage, or the author's attitude towards the subject, or what a word means in context, well, then: There's your winner!

Your last strategy is the ever-popular, but not so obvious,

3.) Know stuff.

Know the right answers. Not only when you read them, but before. Anticipating correct answers is the fastest way to consistently scoring over 700 on every SAT section.

On Critical Reading that means having a huge vocabulary. No head scratching or puzzling over a word's meaning. Every word you read, you understand. You can follow a pronoun trail back to any antecedent. You understand the logic of words like "although," "despite," "and," and "for."

That's reading comprehension.

In Math, knowing what a function indicates allows you to home in on correct choices faster. If you know an answer must be positive, you focus immediately on positive answer choices, at the same moment eliminating negative choices, which then must be false. You know that the sum of the lengths of any two sides of a triangle must be greater than the length of the third side. And you know that the square of any fraction between 0 and 1 is less than its square root!

In Writing, you know subject and verb must agree both in person and number. You're not distracted by endless strings of prepositional phrases with plural objects. Nor are you fazed by shifting tenses, nonparallel phrasing, or the objective case.

You know stuff. You don't play process of elimination because you don't have to. You hunt for the right answers. 'Cause you can.

'Cause you know stuff. You're just trying to close the gap between 700 and 800.

Everybody else: You're playing process of elimination, at least, you should be.

And that means True? Or False?

That's all process of elimination is True? Or False?

More to come, with examples.

Why A Fat Vocabulary Always Pays Big Dividends

2009-12-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." -- Benjamin Franklin

Mr Hepner's Top Twenty Tips for SAT Success

2009-09-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

#2. Know Your SAT's Parameters

The SAT has very definite boundaries. Make it your job to know them before you sit to take a real SAT.

Know how many questions per section. Know how much time you'll have for each section. Know the order of the sections. Know that at least one will be "experimental" and won't count one whit towards your score (or lack thereof), but that you won't know which one it will be, only that it will be a Critical Reading or a Math section.

Section 1: Always an essay, always 25 minutes to complete it.

Sections 2-7: Always include one 35 question Writing Skills section, and either two Critical Reading and three Math sections, or three Critical Reading and two Math sections. Again, one of the "ThreeFers" will be "experimental," you just won't know which, only whether it's Math or Critical Reading.

All sections 2 - 7 are 25 minutes in length.

There's a five minute break after the second section, and another after the fourth section. Then there's a minute break after the sixth section.

All 25-minute Critical Reading sections will have 24 questions, 5, 6 or 8 of which will be Completing the Sentences. The remainder will be passage based reading analysis.

25-minute Math sections will have either 20 questions, or 18; on the 18-question sections, four will be grid-in. Wrong answers on grid-ins will not be deducted from your score.

The 35 question Writing section will feature 11 "Improving Sentences" questions, 18 "Identifying Sentence Errors" questions, and 6 "Improving Paragraphs" questions.

Sections 8 & 9 are 20 minutes each, one Math, and one Critical Reading. The Math will have 14 questions; the Critical Reading will have 19 questions, 5, 6 or 8 of which will be Completing the Sentence questions, the rest of which will be passage-based reading analysis.

There's a one minute stand at your desk "stretch break" between Sections 8 & 9.

Lastly, Section 10 tests your Writing skills with 14 "Improving Sentences" questions.

Knowing what to expect in terms of timing and composition of the SAT puts you in the driver's seat for feeling comfortable while taking this arduous test.

Knowledge is power, whether it's a bigger vocabulary, or simply knowing just how many questions, just how much time you'll have to answer them, or what order you're likely to find them, and where the "time-outs" are.

Preparation SAT: The Anti-Stress.

Mr Hepner's Top 20 Tips for SAT Success

2009-09-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

#1. Read the Instructions

Re-read them.

Know them.

SAT is a timed test. Waste not one second reading instructions under actual testing conditions. Know 'em all going in.

Spend your time answering the questions, not reading the instructions.

"You're Gonna Need a Bigger Vocabulary . . ."

2008-03-02T01:02:00.000-08:00

As the man once said, "You're gonna need a bigger vocabulary."

And how are you gonna get that bigger vocabulary?

Read! Read! Read!

Read op-ed pieces. Read sports columns. Read fiction. Read non- fiction.

Read science and psychology. Social studies and sociology.

"Wait, HepCat, sociology is social studies!"

And so it is, my friends, so it is!

So read book reviews. Few readings mimic the paired passages on the SAT more closely than good book reviews do. The author of the review has an attitude towards the book, its subject, and often its author. The book's author's attitudes are also reflected in the review. And if more than one book on the same subject is being reviewed . . .BINGO!

Point is: READ!

Back in the day, people read all the time.

Why?

Simple. They didn't have TV, and reading was actually considered entertainment. For some, it still is.

Public schools weren't available way back when either, so the only way to get education was to get a book, read it, and teach yourself.

That's what we call bookstrappin'. And how many smart people do you know that don't read books, newspapers, magazines and yes, BLOGS, regularly in order to learn more and new?

Point is, if you make reading one of your favorite forms of entertainment, you're virtually assured of growing your vocabulary to impressive lengths and widths. Not to mention taking charge of your education.

And who doesn't want that?

Comes in mighty handy when you're taking the SAT. Or any other test for that matter.

You simply can't have too big a vocabulary.

Remember, you don't have use all of it all the time. But like money, when you need it, nothing else comes close.

To Guess or Not to Guess?

2008-02-28T03:47:00.002-08:00

Many of you are wondering if guessing or not guessing is the better strategy on the upcoming SAT.

Let's think about this.

In fact, let's subject this to some good, old-fashioned analysis.

First of all, this is discussed at some length in Barron's How to Prepare for the SAT, 2007-2008 on pages 13-18.

Specifically, at the top of page 14 of Barron's How to Prepare for the SAT, these words appear in all caps:

THE BEST WAY TO INCREASE YOUR SCORE ON
THE SAT IS TO ANSWER FEWER QUESTIONS

Then again at the bottom of page 15:

THE BEST WAY TO INCREASE YOUR SCORE ON
THE SAT IS TO ANSWER FEWER QUESTIONS

Of course, on page 18, Barron's includes a chart of likely outcomes for guessing on 20 random questions, given your ability to eliminate 0, 1, 2, 3 or all 4 of the alternatives.

The verdict on page 18? If you can eliminate even one of the five choices, over the course of 20 questions, you should come out +1 on your raw score. If you can consistently eliminate all but two of the choices, over 20 questions, you should add 7.5 points to your raw score, which will add roughly 50 points to your Critical Reading of Writing scaled score, and 70 points to your scaled Math score.

Ultimately, if you have time and can eliminate at least one of the choices, the odds favor an increase in your score.

The two reasons NOT TO GUESS are these:

1) Making more time to work on the questions you feel are easiest; and

2) Not feeling rushed when taking the test. Knowing what your goal is, taking the time you need to get there. Answering questions judiciously.

And speaking of goals . . .

WHAT SCORE ARE YOU SHOOTING FOR?

If you'd like to get, say 730, you'll need to answer 63 out of 67 questions right, missing 4, for a raw score of 62.

But if you miss 6, you're down to 61 right, 2 wrong, for a 59 raw score, which is right at 700 scaled score.

When you're this close to 750, it usually pays to go for it, and answer all 67, especially if you feel comfortable with the time you have, and can eliminate at least 2 of the choices in questions you're not real sure of.

Still, as you just saw 63 -4/4 is 62 while 61 – 6/4 = 59. You may want to consider skipping one or two sticky questions if doing so provides you more certainty on the other 65 or 66.

Above all, if you are going to guess, don't agonize over it! Winnow out the bad choices, then simply choose one of the two or three left, and move on!

What if your goal is 650?

You'll need a raw score of 53 to get there.

This could mean skipping 14 questions and getting all 53 you do answer right.

But that's probably expecting too much.

Consider skipping 7 or 8, answering 59 or 60 and giving yourself room to miss 5 more.

You see, if you answer 60, but get 55 right, you'll deduct 5/4 for those mistakes, but your raw score will be 54, resulting in a final Critical Reading score of 660!

That'll work!

When I took the SAT on April 6, 1974—the first day I ever heard Bruce Springsteen, by the way. It was “Incident on 57th Street/Rosalita” and I thought I was listening to Van Morrison—I scored 660, putting me in the 98th percentile of all test takers nationally.

It can happen to you!

Point is, if 650 is your goal, ignoring some questions in favor of spending more time on others to make sure you get 'em right, is probably a smart strategy. If 650 is a legitimate goal for you, it probably means your vocabulary is strong enough to get 600s, but you haven't gotten over 650 yet. This strategy of answering questions judiciously may well work for you.

After all, the point is to bring scores up, not simply to race through and answer everything.

When you're capable of getting 800, or at least > 720, it really doesn't pay to skip any questions.

For example, on two of the 8 tests in The Official SAT Study Guide, I answered 65 right, and 2 wrong.

But because 2/4 off my 65 was still 64.5, my score got rounded back up to 65. I'd narrowed down my choices to two possibilities on each of my errors, so I had a 50/50 chance of getting that perfect score. Even if I'd gotten one right and one wrong, the real 50/50, I'd have scored 66 – ¼, still a 66, still well in the 99th percentile of all test takers.

But if I'd never gotten an 800, if my average wasn't about 767, and I only answered 65, then still got 4 wrong, my raw score would drop to 60, = ing a 710 scaled score. Maybe worth the risk if you tend to score just below 700, but again, the only point in skipping questions is to give yourself more time to make certain of your answers on other questions. And you don't get to see all 67 at once. Consider skipping two at most if you're intent on cracking that 700 mark on CR, but no more than two.

And if your goal is closer to 600?

You'll need a raw score of 46 to get a 600.

This means you can skip about a third of all the critical reading questions and get 600 on Critical Reading.

Of course, you'd have to get all 46 you do answer right.

And how hard can that be?

OK, maybe kind of.

So, go for the 650.

Seriously.

No sense skipping 20 questions when the odds say that even if you can eliminate only one of the five choices in each, you'll still end up only +1 on your raw score.

Already you're at 47 Raw Score, 610 scaled. And again:

The only real reason to skip questions is to maximize your time on questions you can get.

Remember: you don't know everything.

Nobody does.

Just KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW!

The more confident you are of the answers you do choose, the more your chances of skipping seven or eight questions will pay off.

Again the chief benefits / reasons for skipping any questions on the SAT – and no more than 8-- are

1) Having more time to work on the questions you feel are easiest; and

2) Not feeling rushed when taking the test; feeling relaxed. You know what your goal is, and you've got plenty of time to get there.

So:

1) Know what raw score you need to get 750 or 650.
2) Don't shoot for anything less than 650.
3) Use process of elimination effectively.

And above all. . .

4) HAVE FUN!

Review the tactics in Barron's, pages 20 – 23 in the latest edition, paying particular attention to #s, 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 15 and 16.

Think of the SAT as a game, and

Let's Play SAT!