Writing (Grammar) Question

mochaswirl · August 14, 2011, 10:41pm

In the Kaplans 12 Practice Test, there was a question for identifying sentence errors that I didn't fully understand.

As the mayor of the city, he had a presence that was comforting to his constituents, who had supported him since he first ran for city council.

It's no error. I was wondering why it would not be "had supported" -> "have supported". The tenses are confusing me lately. I thought that it would be "have supported" because his constituents have supported him SINCE he first ran for city council....meaning they still support him now?
Or is it "had supported" because at the beginning of the sentence, it says that the mayor "HAD a presence"?
If someone could clear up this confusing for me I'd be thankful :)

godslove1004 · August 14, 2011, 11:39pm

I don't necessarily recommend Kaplan for SAT practice, but I would be happy to help you out here.

"As the mayor of the city, he had a presence that was comforting to his constituents, who had supported him since he first ran for city council"

It is no error b/c the mayor had a presence (PAST TENSE) which would follow "constituents, who had..." (PAST TENSE)

It is not "constituents, have supported him since" (STILL OCCURRING NOW) because then it should be the mayor "has had a presence" (STILL OCCURRING NOW)

Remember that the mayor HAD a presence (which means it occurred in the past), therefore, his presence should have been comforting to his constituents in the PAST, not until now.

I hope this helped :)

mochaswirl · August 15, 2011, 12:36am

Ahh okay I see, yes that helped out a lot :)

If you dont recommend Kaplan, what do you recommend? I've already completed the 11 PR and I'm working on the BB for full practice tests. For the Kaplan I'm just doing the questions without calculating the final score for practice. I've ordered the McGraw Hill's SAT though, do you think that will help ><

IceQube · August 15, 2011, 1:05am

Wow, you've already blitzkrieged through 11 tests?

Even I don't go that fast. Do you feel as if you improved by going through all 11 tests?

mochaswirl · August 15, 2011, 2:37am

I've been working on the 11 tests since mid-June and I finished them in late July. I did improve from 1800 to 2000 (tested with BB tests). It was good practice but I thought it was slightly easy compared to the BB.