<p>I just got this book a few days ago and have been learning 1/27 of the book a day. It’s a very thorough book but I have a few questions.</p>
<h1>1) Cumulative Review 1 - Q#7 - pg.40. I don’t understand why the answer is RISE instead of RISES.</h1>
<p>Question 7:
At the meeting point of the Alaska and Aleutian mountains rises an immense alpine tundra and sparkling lakes, which give a way to thundering waterfalls.</p>
<p>What is the Subject? Isn’t “At…Mountains” a prep. phrase. If not then isn’t point the Subject?</p>
<p>Also how have some of you who have this book used it? How many pages a day. How do you remember all the rules? Do you usually get all right on the exercise and cumulatives(i get like 3-5 wrong)? How do I use it effective to get an 800 in writing?</p>
<p>Here, the subject is “alpine tundra and sparkling lakes.” It’s kind of backward.</p>
<p>Rephrase it: “An immense alpine tundra and sparkling lake rise at the meeting point of the Alaska and Aleutian mountains.” (I left out the last phrase as it’s irrelevant.)</p>
<p>“At the meeting point,” is also a prepositional phrase. For instance, “Matt played soccer at the lake.”</p>
<p>“an immense alpine tundra and sparkling lakes” is the subject (plural)</p>
<p>“rises” verb is singular – therefore change rises into rise which is also plural</p>
<p>Read it like " an immense alpine tundra and sparkling lakes rise(s) at the meeting point of the Alaska and Aleutian mountains." and you can clearly see the subject.</p>
<p>Thank you both.</p>
<p>For those that have used the book. How did you use it effectively to get an 800.
Background on me: I got a 640(10 essay) on Blue Book Test 1.</p>
<p>Some questions:
How many pages a day?
How do you remember all the rules?
Do you usually get all right on the exercise and cumulative (i get like 3-5 wrong)?
How do I use it effective to get an 800 in writing?
Should I read by sections?
How long did you study with the book for- a month?</p>
<p>I started with a 56 writing (BB Test 1). </p>
<p>What I did to improve my score to 70-75 was this:</p>
<p>Do tests in the blue book - get the results. when you go over your incorrect answers, see what kinds problems you seem to consistently make. Then go to your Ultimate Grammar book and review those types of problems in the book and make sure you never make the same mistake. </p>
<p>Now the mistakes I make are usually silly (like misread) - and not because of lack of knowledge of the rules. </p>
<p>Going from 56 → 75 took me about 2 weeks of studying.</p>
<p>“Going from 56 → 75 took me about 2 weeks of studying”</p>
<p>How many practice tests did you take in those 2 weeks?</p>
<p>^^ I already had a decently strong background in grammar, but I didn’t know specifically what the test was looking for. After brushing up on some of the types of grammar mistakes possible on the sat, my scores rocketed. If I were to represent it graphically, think of an accumulation curve.
So in those 2 weeks, I did about 4 full practice tests, and around 2-3 writing only practice tests. So for writing, 7-8 full tests. Pretty much do a practice test every then review answers on days when I don’t do tests.</p>
<p>Yeah, I do two practice tests a week, so I’ll have 4 in the next two weeks. I just started on thursday, and have only taken one, so i’ll have to see how much i’ll improve.</p>
<p>I scored an 800 using this book. I didn’t really keep a schedule; I sort of did it all in one go (over the span of a week or two). Then I came back to it a month later and went through all the exercises that I had found mildly difficult (which I had marked with a star). Coming back to the book after some absence was very effective; I was able to pinpoint what I hadn’t fully grasped the first go-round. It also helped that this review took place the week preceding my SAT.</p>
<p>Please does the book help in CR??</p>
<p>@StudiosMaximus</p>
<p>Should I mark up the answers and then correct with red pen? That’s what ive been doing, but from your answer it seems as if you just do it mentally and check in the back and then star it too see if you will be tripped up by it again.</p>
<p>Godfried- no it doesnt, its a pure multiple choice grammar book. Read the amazon reviews.</p>
<p>For CR i recommend Noitaraperp’s guide on the CR section
or google “The SAT Reading Comprehension: Basic Principles family education”</p>
<p>DEPENDING ON YOUR STYLE. WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!</p>
<p>Marking up the answers is fine. I was mainly reviewing the concepts, not the specific exercises (though I starred a few of those as well that were especially tricky).</p>
<p>@StudiousMaximus</p>
<p>Is there any certain rules that i should defininitel remmeber for the SAT from that book? Like the “important notes” or could you tell me what pages helped you the most?</p>
<p>I honestly couldn’t tell you (both because pretty much the whole book is valuable and because I sold the book long ago). It’s not that difficult to learn everything, so just do it. You never know which concepts will be tested on your SAT, but this resource covers almost all of them. If you pick and choose, you’re leaving yourself open to being unprepared on test day.</p>
<p>@Gotfried: No, it doesn’t help with CR at all.</p>
<p>StudiousMaximums what do you recommend for reading? How’s Meltzer’s The Critcal Reader?</p>
<p>alright thanks though…</p>
<p>I have not tried The Critical Reader, but I imagine it’s less useful than TUGTG because the writing section is much more straightforward and well-defined. I think practice (and an appetite for dense literature) is most useful for improvement on CR. Direct Hits (or The Essential 300 Words) is great for sentence completion questions.</p>
<p>Essential 500 would be better than Essential 300, I think, since it’s an updated version.</p>