Cracking The SAT Premium

• When the nouns are changing in the answer choices, make sure those nouns are consistent
  with the other nouns in the sentence and the paragraph.

Precision

Consistency is probably the most important thing on the SAT, but precision is a close second. Once
you’ve made sure that the underlined portion is consistent with the rest of the sentence, then make sure that
the underlined portion is as precise as possible. Perfect grammar is one thing, but it won’t matter much if
no one knows what the writer is talking about!

Let’s hear that one more time.

Once     you     are     sure    that    a   word    or  phrase  is  consistent  with    the     non-underlined  portion     of  the

sentence,   make    that    word    or  phrase  as  precise as  you can.

Really,  7 most are collections of  many    influences, but the Appalachian dialect seems

unique.

7.

A) NO CHANGE

B) most of  them

C) most Americans

D) most American    dialects

Here’s How to Crack It

Check what’s changing in the answer choices. The changes could be summed up with the question “most
what?” We’ve got four different options, so let’s use our main guiding principles of consistency and
precision.

First of all, there’s a comparison in this sentence between different kinds of dialects, so (C) can be
eliminated because that explicitly changes the comparison to something else inconsistent.

Then, let’s be as precise as possible. Choices (A) and (B) are very similar in that they say most, but they
don’t specify what that most refers to. Even though these are grammatically consistent with the rest of the
sentence, they’re not quite precise enough, which makes (D) a lot better.

As question 7 shows, pronouns can be a bit of a challenge. They can appear in otherwise grammatically