kimmylouie

Silverturtle, and really anyone,

I don't quite understand inverted sentences. Like when subject is in the end. I know that "there" and "here" means the subject is after the verb, but when there isn't there/here and it's inverted, it's confusing.

Thanks!

asianeekamkee

Thanks

i'll save this post and refer to it

silverturtle

Congratulations on that achievement.

Yes, I have considered it. An SAT/ACT book of which I am a co-author may be published this summer (hopefully).

Silverturtle's Guide To Sat And Admissions Success (570KB) Mediafire Download

Again, I must offer the caveat that the formatting is improper, compromising readability. (I have not crafted a made-for-PDF version.)

silverturtle

Generally, verbs ought to inflect in concordance with their subjects. For example, I walk and He walks are correct. This relationship is true even when, in contrast to the majority order in which the verb follows its subject, the verb precedes its subject.

It is not vital that subject-verb inversions be recognized as such; it is necessary only to identify the subject of a verb, in the process not closing one's mind to the potentiality that the subject may appear after its verb. Nonetheless, priming oneself for sharper recognition by exposure to examples may be helpful. Here are some cases in which inversion occurs.

• When there are expletive pronouns, such as here and there. There is a crazy pelican. and There are plaintive pelicans.
• When a question is asked. These sentences generally begin with interrogative pronouns (e.g., who or what*) or other interrogative pro-forms (like where and when). Who is that speaker? and Who are those screamers?
• When an adjective immediately precedes a verb. Few are the foods I won't eat. and Lonely is the man who scares others.
• When a prepositional phrase immediately precedes a verb. Through the door crawl the salamanders. and Through the door crawls the baby salamander.

I hope that this clarifies the topic. If not, let me know.

(*These interrogative pronouns may be considered to have non-manifest inflection to the plurality or singularity of the noun to which they cataphorically refer. E.g., "who" in Who is that speaker? is singular, and "who" in Who are those screamers? is plural. In this sense and others (such as that in which the dependence of the pronoun's number on its referent does not preclude the pronoun's status as the sole subject of the verb), the subject-verb structure is not technically inverted. For verb agreement, the matter is merely pedantic, though.)

kimmylouie

thank you so much silverturtle. Really cleared up a lot of questions! (:

StanfordFuture

I know this had probably been asked somewhere, but where do you attend school silverturtle? And thank you so much for all the help! This is 10x more valuable then all of CC combined.

wogud220

Thank you so much helped alot

Thepat

This was honestly more helpful than my private SAT tutor, who got paid big bucks for really doing nothing. He was useless. We went over questions I got wrong, he told me I've gotta improve and gave me a lackluster explanation for why I got them wrong. THis is amazing, practice questions, guides, wooo!!!

silverturtle

That's currently a bit hazy, hard as that may be to believe. Brown or Columbia is still each prospectively the appropriate future answer to that question. I won't delve into the specifics here.

I appreciate the interest, though, and welcome inquiries on my thoughts on school selection or other college-related issues via PM or here, if generally relevant.

silverturtle

Often, tutors can definitely be described as hit or miss. Perhaps surprisingly, effective SAT tutoring is less about educating (though that can come into play when knowledge gaps rear their head) and more about facilitating efficient, progressive practice on the student's part.

Many have been PM'ing me lately for a PDF version of the guide. Another user posted one a while back in this thread that seems to have been buried now, so I will link to it again: Silverturtle's Guide to SAT and Admissions Success.pdf

I'm appreciative of all the favorable opinions this guide has enjoyed over the last couple years since I wrote it. I thought I would share now that the co-authored (between me and a JHU med student, as well as a one-chapter contribution again by CC'er christiansoldier) SAT-ACT adaptation/book is nearing draft completion. My original "self-chancing" Excel tool for admissions also received much interest in the last couple years, and I've retooled that for a new version to be released (for free, unlike the book) online sometime soon.

Since things are not quite finalized with the book, modest changes and additions can yet be made. I want to welcome anyone to post here with suggestions on areas in my original guide that you think deserve more or otherwise different coverage, or to propose any other particular recommendations you would like to see. Thanks.

Opinion559

@SilverTuttle: Is "self-chancing" based on your insider's knowledge of the college admissions process or did you base it on the outcomes and their corresponding resumes.
I kind of did that with the results from my school and so far I do see a difference between Asian and non Asian admission chances. Is that an anomaly, since I also come from a very asain dominated school district or is it a fact that non asians do get in with lesser credentials. Most non asians just have grades/SAT scores or sports and don't kill themselves with other ECs while the Asian kids seem to excel in everything and are of course stereotyped for that!

A new trend I am seeing is many smart kids in my school have moved to well known private schools. Does your chances of getting into HYPS increase if you are from a private school? Our school also sends kids to HYPS but it is highly competitive.

silverturtle

I have never worked in a college admissions office. Objectively, I have little qualification to claim to be able to "chance" people and, indeed, I don't think anyone can provide very precise chance estimates for students no matter their experience. Furthermore, I question the utility of even an accurate chancing, as it may induce admissions anxiety, discouragement, or overconfidence.

For the new tool, I write at length in the document on the dangers of misusing the information. I also changed how I present the results from a simple percentage to a system slightly more catered to how the information should be used: An indication on the rough competitiveness of the application for various categories of school selectivity. Since many people have close to no idea (or alternatively, a skewed idea) of where their application stands, I think the tool can be helpful and productive in those senses.

The design of the tool is informed by actual results-based feedback on my original tool, personal interactions with admissions officers, objective profiles and subjective application components of accepted and rejected students, and statistical admissions data released by the schools. It's entirely possible this may yield lack of credibility in some people's eyes, which is fine. Not using the tool should provide sufficient solution.

I am uncomfortable speculating on the particular dynamics at your high school and also don't have the raw data you allude to. My impression is that, with a given application strength, an Asian applicant will face a very slightly harder time than a white applicant but not to a degree that should be of any concern to that one applicant; what is within his or her control has a much larger effect. To believe otherwise is unproductive.

An extraordinarily competent applicant may have an easier time coming from a competitive private school because he or she leaves no doubt in admissions officers' eyes that succeeding in a rigorous environment is personally feasible. Distinction between private and public schools is not the relevant consideration even there, though; it is admissions officers' impression of the rigor of the school's curriculum, as used to contextualize knowledge of each student's grades and achievements otherwise.

For the average HYPS applicant, I would not expect a major difference in admissions position based on high school. Attending a school with fewer established opportunities may require more initiative, such as forming new extracurricular groups, but it should be no insurmountable obstacle. I found at my high school, which has a basically nonexistent record of sending any students to highly selective colleges, that there was general ignorance of the ability to self-study AP courses, of SAT Subject Tests themselves, and of any prestigious national science, mathematics, or artistic competitions. I wish things had been different in those senses, but I'm confident admissions officers used their awareness of that reality to temper expectations for achievement.

Your question does not have a single, encompassing answer, but I hope this helps.

Opinion559

@silverturtle: Thanks for your detailed reply. To summarize it not what school you go to, but how well you utilize the opportunities given to you and rise to the top.

One advantage I can think of in going to private schools is they might have a better guidance department for high achieving kids. Public school counselors spend so much time with bottom half of the class and so they don't give the advise needed for HYPS applicants.

Where I live there are several prestigious private schools which are also feeder schools for HYPS. There are two kinds of students who go there. One set are those who are wealthy and for generations they have attended that school and going there is simply a part of their family culture. The other type of students are children of upper middle class parents for whom $200k ( BTW, this is after tax money) is not throw away cash but they might still be able to pay it. So obviously they would demand something in return for the money they paying. They also tend to be very ambitious with their kids and so I wonder what they hope to get from the private school.

minnan

Does anyone know where I can find CB's 2011's released practice tests? There're only 08 09 10 in Silverturtle's post. Also the link to 2009's test seems to be broken

Thanks for the post btw @Silverturtle ^^

FireLion

hey silver, i have been repeatedly getting 3 or more wrong on CR sections on the SAT/PSAT. i have been practicing A LOT. i always go ovr my mistakes and see what i did wrong. i see it, but i tend to make diff mistakes the next time. How do I improve? I just really need the CR to go up.