Using SAT® Skills Insight™

Using SAT® Skills Insight™

close

SAT Skills Insight is only a general guide. Its goal is to help you determine and improve your current skill levels in the areas tested on the SAT.

Review Your Options: Begin by determining the level your skills are at right now. Look at each score band to see what types of skills it requires. Decide how comfortable you feel with the skills described. Don’t worry if you’re not an exact match for any one score band; it’s normal to have some of the skills in the next higher or lower band.

Make Your Selection: Start by looking at the scores you earned on the PSAT/NMSQT®, SAT, and any practice tests you have taken. Then choose a separate score band for each section of the SAT—for example, 300–390 for math, 400–490 for critical reading, and 500–590 for writing.

Once you’ve chosen your bands, you can look at the areas that need improvement to help you achieve more.

Writing Skill Groups: 1 2 3 4

1. Manage word choice and grammatical relationships between words

Academic Skills

A typical student in this score band can do the following:

  • SKILL 1: Recognize the antecedent of a pronoun despite multiple distractors that change the number and/or the subject of the referent within the sentence
  • SKILL 2: Recognize the inappropriate use of a plural pronoun to refer to a singular, collective noun
  • SKILL 3: Recognize how temporal elements influence verb forms in a sentence

Suggestions for Improvement

To prepare for the next score band, try the following:

  • In your reading, choose a paragraph and identify the subjects and verbs in the sentences within that paragraph in order to see that writers pay careful attention to subject-verb agreement, even when a word, phrase, or clause intervenes between the subject and the verb. In your own writing, check to see that your subjects and verbs agree in number.

Skill Examples

The example questions below demonstrate the Academic Skills found in this score band. Without looking at the answers, try out the questions to see how comfortable you feel with the skills they test.

Skill 1—Example

Recognize the antecedent of a pronoun despite multiple distractors that change the number and/or the subject of the referent within the sentence

The following sentence tests your ability to recognize grammar and usage errors. The sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. The sentence will not contain more than one error. The error, if there is one, is underlined and lettered. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence is correct, select choice E. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.

Aerobic activities such as jogging or riding a bike  are  undoubtedly  beneficial to  health;
  A B C  
even so, many people find  it  boring.  No error
  D   E
Answer: D
Skill 2—Example

Recognize the inappropriate use of a plural pronoun to refer to a singular, collective noun

The following sentence tests your ability to recognize grammar and usage errors. The sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. The sentence will not contain more than one error. The error, if there is one, is underlined and lettered. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence is correct, select choice E. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.

Although we may consider China  to be  one huge country,  they are  a land of 56
  A   B  
nationalities,  some  of which  are ethnically related  to cultural groups found in Central
  C   D  
and Southeast Asia.  No error
  E
Answer: B
Skill 3—Example

Recognize how temporal elements influence verb forms in a sentence

The following sentence tests your ability to recognize grammar and usage errors. The sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. The sentence will not contain more than one error. The error, if there is one, is underlined and lettered. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence is correct, select choice E. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.

More than forty years  have passed  since  a quarter of a million people marched on
  A B  
Washington, D.C.,  in an attempt  to secure  civil rights for Black  Americans.  No error
  C D     E
Answer: E