1Hi, I’m Amy Lucas and I’m going to be walking you through the SAT Writing section, which is made up of an
essay and multiple-choice questions that test your ability to identify grammar errors and improve grammar
usage. I have included an overview of technique for each of the different types of multiple-choice questions, a
parts of speech refresher, the 19 grammar rules the SAT tests accompanied by over 80 practice problems, and
an essay section that includes a fool-proof formula and sample essays.
The SAT Writing section is my favorite portion of the SAT because it is the easiest to improve. Learn the 19
grammar rules and you can get a perfect score on the grammar portion of the SAT. The same rules are tested
over and over again in pretty much the SAME WAY EVERY TIME. You only need to know the grammar rules
I give you. If you see what you think may be an error on the SAT that wasn’t covered in this book, then chances
are it’s not an error at all.
Treat this program like a class you’re taking in school. You are learning SAT grammar. I might teach you things
that contradict what your schoolteachers have told you about essay writing or grammar rules. For instance,
many teachers have drilled into students’ brains never to start a sentence with the word “because.” On the SAT,
however, it is perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with “because.”
So who are the Mensa geniuses behind the SAT? The SAT is owned by the College Board, but administered by
the Educational Testing Service. I’m going to refer to the test makers as ETS. Many SAT experts will tell you
that ETS is evil and out to get you. If that motivates you – use it! I personally think ETS could get a heck of a
lot trickier. Either way, I’m here to help you master the game.
STRUCTURE
The Writing portion of the SAT is made up of 49 multiple-choice questions and an essay. The first section of the
SAT is always the essay. You have 25 minutes to write an essay on a given assignment. The first multiple-choice
grammar section can fall anywhere between sections 2 and 9 of the SAT (usually it shows up in sections 3
through 7). You have 25-minutes to complete this multiple-choice section made up of 35 questions: 11 Sentence
Correction questions, 19 Error ID questions, and 6 Improving Paragraphs questions. The last section of the SAT
is always a 10-minute multiple-choice grammar section made up of 14 Sentence Correction questions.
EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
You might end up with two 25-minute multiple-choice writing sections on the SAT. If this is the case, one of
those grammar sections is the experimental section. Leave it to ETS to make you do an extra 25-minute Math,
Writing, or Critical Reading section that doesn’t count towards your score and makes the test a good 3 hours and
45 minutes. ETS is using you as a guinea pig to test out future SAT questions. The experimental section does
not affect your score in any way, but you still have to do it because you won’t know which of the two 25-minute
sections is the experimental section.