If you are reading this in an email you received from me, do not click the link to sat.collegeboard.org below. Use the link to my website that is farther down on the email. If you are seeing this in my blog, do the SAT Question of the Day by clicking on this link:
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day?src=R&questionId=20130403 (This link takes you to today’s question. If you use my archive, you will see the question related to my SAT explanation for that date.)
The answer is B. The materials were for the medical students. This answer is better because it places medical students closer to materials in the sentence. It is less awkward than the original because it is an active form of the verb “to study” rather than the passive phrase “for studying by.” These are all reasons that you need to change the sentence. In formal written English, you have to be precise. The SAT Writing Test and the ACT English Test are all about “standard written English;” you cannot use spoken English as your guide to answer the questions. Bury your nose in an English composition text and learn the nuances of the written word.
Let’s see what the ACT folks have in store for us today!
http://www.act.org/qotd/ (The ACT staff does not put a date on their questions so if you click on an archived blog, you’ll get today’s question and the old explanation. Sorry. The SAT staff has dated their questions; so, the archive is helpful. The ACT folks simply don’t do that.)
Well, it happens that they have a English Test question for us that exemplifies the point I was just making: you have to study the details of the written word.
The answer is A. Go ahead and read their explanation for the wrong answers. That will save me the time of writing the very same thing.
If you have read my blog in the past regarding the terrible ACT English Test directions, you know what I’m going to say now and should get on with your day. If you are new to my blog, you should continue reading and learn that the ACT directions for the English Test are a problem. They lead you astray. They tell you to read the passage through once and then come back and do the questions. That’s advice, not directions! And it’s terrible advice. Don’t do that. Following their advice will cause you to waste time. You don’t need to know anything about the whole passage to answer the questions. Once in a while you may need to read a nearby sentence or two but never the whole passage. Simply start reading the passage and do the questions as you come upon underlined words. Doing so will raise your score.
Today you should do something for yourself and do something to brighten someone else’s day. That will make it a wonderful day.
The Wizard
