Silverturtle's Guide to SAT and Admissions Success - Page 104

FireLion · 07-24-2012, 11:58 AM

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park.

shouldn't it be with its being a mother?

silverturtle · 07-25-2012, 11:37 AM

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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.

This sounds like a fair conclusion to me. It's certainly the most utile mentality, and that's all any student, as opposed to some third-party commentator, should care about.

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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.

I agree. Knowledge gaps across high schools are frequently more limiting than are differences of opportunity. Even within high schools, social and, to some extent, academic fragmentation and stratification can foster disadvantages for some students.

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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.

There are numerous reasons other than achieving a real admissions benefit from sending one's child to a private school: the perceptual sense that an admissions benefit is achieved, the resultant assuagement of skirted parental responsibility, the belief that like-minded motivated students will befriend the child, conveyance of concern for the child's future, portraying an image of wealth or prestige, and a sincere desire to optimally educate the child for career prospects or developmental advancement.

silverturtle · 07-25-2012, 11:46 AM

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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

These three tests' links still seem functional:

http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_dow...on_booklet.pdf

https://satonlinecourse.collegeboard...5701F413-F.pdf (answers: https://satonlinecourse.collegeboard..._2011-2012.pdf)

Free SAT Practice Test - Prepare for the SAT

silverturtle · 07-25-2012, 12:03 PM

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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.

Inquiries like this, regarding the individual but vague problem of plateauing, are tough to answer satisfactorily. If you are using an efficient and well-guided approach to the passages, which I assume you are given your score and the fact that you're posting in this thread, sometimes there aren't general pieces of advice to erase the errors you're encountering.

I will first say that missing three question is very good, given the generosity of the Critical Reading section's curve. Beyond that, I would wonder what mistakes you are making -- a question that should be your first consideration every time you finish a practice test. Are you missing Sentence Completion questions? If so, is it simply because you don't know the words? If that's that case, you may want to spend some time reading tougher vocabulary lists (or just accept the fact that you may get tripped up by about one question per test). If not, are you reading the Sentence Completion sentences too quickly or failing to give adequately keen attention to the sentences' structures?

If most of your mistakes occur on the passages (which is usually the case), a number of considerations should inform how you try to improve. Could your pacing be adjusted? Do you find yourself reading the passage so carefully or slowly that you don't have proper time to actually apply your interpretation of the passage to the questions in an optimal way? Alternatively, are you spending too much time parsing the questions and not enough actually figuring out what's in the passage (which is after all the ultimate source of every answer)?

Is a particular class of passage question accounting for your errors? Students using my recommended approach of marking line references and then answering those questions as the passage is read may struggle at first to still keep an eye out for the general thrust and purpose of the passage so that general questions of tone can be answered later. If tone is hard for you to figure out, practice reading small bits of passages in very objective ways, trying to spot any subjective words like observational adjectives in order to gather a sense of the human side of the author's perspective.

Are you missing your questions on passages you don't like? This is attributable to not really committing yourself to internalizing the meaning of the passage, leading to poor or imprecise recall on the corresponding questions. Remember: Force yourself to like each passage. It makes you more consistent and should start to become easier to "fake" as time goes on, which I guess implies it may no longer have to be faked.

Improving at this point for you is probably a matter of reviewing your mistakes, developing a game plan for how those mistakes might be precluded, and practicing its execution. I hope this gives you some ideas.

silverturtle · 07-25-2012, 12:05 PM

FireLion posed a few Writing questions to me over PM that I thought were worth sharing.

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(In case you're curious about why commas were used in the third sentence but not the first,
it has to do with restrictive versus non-restrictive modification. In general, when a modifier
restricts what it is modifying, we use commas; if not, we don't. This is usually true for
appositives. For example, if we write My friend, Bob,, the modification is non-restrictive,
meaning that Bob is your only friend. Similarly, if we write My mother Sue, the modification
is restrictive; this implies that you have more than one mother.)

i read on purdueowl that restrictive clauses with relative pronouns don't have commas. I thought that my friend, bo, would be restrictive because it is saying that bob is your only friend. it is restricting the fact that you might have more friends to just one friend, Bob.....

Purdue is correct. It seems that your skepticism at the fact that my friend, Bob, is non-restrictive is due to a misunderstanding of what is meant by "restrictive."

In saying that modification is restrictive, we do not mean that the potentialities of reality have been restricted -- that, in our example, the possibility that you have multiple friends has been restricted to the reality that you have merely one. Instead, we mean that the potentialities of meaning have been restricted by our phrasing of the sentence. We use punctuation not to affect reality but to reflect it.

My friend, Bob, is non-restrictive because the inferable reality that Bob is your only friend means that the explication of the friend's name has no restrictive effect on what was meant by "friend" in the sentence. If you were to have multiple friends and therefore write My friend Bob restrictively, "Bob" restricts the possible meanings of "friend" to the particular friend intended.

The matter is slightly complicated, so I hope this nuanced explanation suffices for understanding. I should note that this matter will be relatively unimportant on the SAT because punctuation is a minor assessment on that test (and is completely irrelevant for the Error Identification questions). Commas matter a lot on the ACT, though.

Quote:

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park.

shouldn't it be with its being a mother?

"Its" is not necessary but would be slightly grammatically preferable in the interest of utter clarity. It would also sound choppy, even pedantic, so journalists and other writers would usually omit it; plus, the version you quote is not particularly unclear. You are correct to note that "being" is a gerund and thus ought to be modified by the possessive "its" rather than "it," though. Imagine, analogously:

The tortoise seems to be very happy with motherhood.

It's quite apparent that the "motherhood" to which we refer is the tortoise's. But we could write:

The tortoise seems to be very happy with its motherhood.

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scientists have determined that the city was destroyed in the eleventh (century, resulting either from a war or a natural disaster.)

a. century, either resulting from
b.century, resulting either from
c. century, which resulted either from
d.century either as the result of
e. century as the result of either

I know the answer is E, but why?

(A) is not parallel: either resulting from a war or a natural disaster pairs "resulting from a war" with "a natural disaster." (B) is better but still not parallel, pairing "from a war" with "a natural disaster." (C) has the same problem as (B) and also incorrectly employs clausal antecedence whereas pronouns ought to refer to nouns.

(D) pairs "either as the result of war" with "a natural disaster"; this is not parallel. (E) correctly pairs "a war" with "a natural disaster."

JokeJoke · 07-26-2012, 01:52 PM

Hey Turtle:

Thank you so MUCH for the guide. (especially the grammar guide)

I have been practicing the SAT Math and Writing sections since the beginning of July, and I have already seen much improvements.
The trite saying: "Practice makes perfect" definitely applies to both Math and Writing sections of the SAT. However, does it apply to the CR section (besides vocab) ? I have also been practicing the Reading section, but my improvement is not as manifest as those of other sections. As a 550-600 scorer, I am willing to spend as much time as I need to improve me score the 700 range. Can you please give me some advice on preparing the critical reading section? Thanks again!

beavrv · 07-26-2012, 02:46 PM

Thank you SO much for this guide, silverturtle! It has cleared up a lot of things for me, really. But I do have a question...

In general, for an international student, what are the advantages received during the admission process? And in regards to the scores and GPAs, are the requirements the same or is a higher grade viewed in a better light?

Thanks, again.

kisskob · 07-28-2012, 04:52 AM

@silverturtle

Thanks so much for the guide! Under "prepositions," you note the following:

Despite being frequently used, "comprised by" and "comprised of" are not correct. "comprise" means "include."
http://marker.to/ZTPLnt

But when I looked up "comprise" on Merriam Webster, it gave me this sentence.

<about 8 percent of our military forces are comprised of women — Jimmy Carter>
http://marker.to/vEuxm9

Could you please list the specific sources you used? Thanks so much!

yvonne416 · 07-28-2012, 09:08 PM

Hi Silverturtle,
My friend recommended your guide and told me that it helped her scored 2360

I would like to know is it possible to raise my critical reading score from 540 to 750 in 4 months?
If so, what would be the best way to prepare for it?
Is it better to read a lot or practice CR a lot or both in 4 months?

Thank You!

ps. I memorized 2400 vocabs and managed to get only one wrong in sentence completion. I just need a lot of help in long passages

kristiuna · 07-31-2012, 04:09 PM

Dear Silverturtle,

I am usually making around 7-8 mistakes per section in Critical Reading.But today sat and with no time-restriction made only one mistake in 1 section.I think i needed around 40 minutes or more.
I started practicing only one month.

Is it a good strategy to spend such a great deal of time and focus on performance or not?
If yes,when do you think is appropriate to move on time restriction?

Darthpwner · 07-31-2012, 07:20 PM

This is awesome. Thanks!

Opinion559 · 08-15-2012, 09:52 PM

@Silverturtle:

Everyone on CC are talking about this book "Rocket Review Revolution" as the ultimate for SAT Prep. Do you recommend this? It is over $150 on amazon! Is it still being published?

UChalpz1 · 08-18-2012, 07:56 PM

I have a question on #7 of the improving sentence section.

7. To persuade his parents to let him study abroad, Kenneth described other students' positive experiences, [explains how foreign study would benefit his future career, and assured] them that he could get financial aid.

(A) No change
(B) explained how foreign study would benefit his future career, and assured
(C) explaining how foreign study is beneficial to his future career, and assures
(D) he explained how foreign study would benefit his future career, and assuring
(E) in explaining how foreign study would benefit his future career, and he assures

The answer is B but if i were to plug it in it would sound really weird...

Fermat67 · 08-19-2012, 07:46 PM

^I think the objective of the question is to get you to be aware of the proper parallelism. "Described" and "assured" are both in the past-tense, so your second verb, "explained," must also be in the past-tense.

Hope this helped.

fatherofm · 08-21-2012, 08:52 PM

my daughter has 2380 in SAT 1 and 800 in math 2 and hoping to get atleast 760 in Litt in October. Her GPA is 3.5 and she has 2 C's , one in Freshman year and one in her Sophomore year. We are looking at bottom 10 of the top 20 schools. Vanderbilt is the one we are seriously considering. Duke and U of Chicago are other choices. Pre-med is what she wants to do. Should we look at Ivies? Having been an active CC observer I think with Low GPA and High SAT Vanderbilt will be a good choice for her. Please HELP>