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?questionId=20130905&oq=1 (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 C. This Sentence Completion isn’t so bad. Over 60% of the first 5,000 students are getting it correct. That makes it about average difficulty. Be sure you start with the topic of the sentence and predict words for the blanks before looking at the answers.
It is about the planning, details, and logistics of an operation which happens to be an Invasion. Well, I guess if my army at the castle were planning an invasion of my neighbor’s abode, I’d want a detailed plan that left nothing to chance! How about you? The sentence tells me there were details to attend to. I like to use words in the sentence to predict the answer. So, I used “detailed” logistical operation and began my attack (!) on the question by looking for a word for the first blank that meant “detailed.” That left me with C because none of the other words for the first blank came even close! I checked out the second word and shazaam; there’s a word, overlooked, that tells me the general of my army didn’t overlook any details. All done.
What can you learn from this question? Simple enough. Sometimes you can get Sentence Completion questions with two blank answers correct by only knowing one word!! Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Remember Pillar VI: Don’t Be Intimidated By the Seemingly Difficult. There’s more about this issue throughout my program. The key to improving your score is confidence and there are hints/tips/tricks throughout my materials that will help you be a better general in your own army as you attack the SAT and ACT! Watch my videos or come to one of my programs.
I wonder 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, their archive is helpful. The ACT folks simply don’t do that.)
The answer is A. Because O2 is the same for both depths of 15 and 20, it is useless! The other ions and pH are different and could be used to tell the difference. All done. Move on to the next question.
This question was pretty easy and quick to do. Too bad it isn’t going to be on the test when you take it! However, we can use it to learn some things about the ACT Science Test and improve your score. First, don’t waste time reviewing science. You could never predict what was going to be on the test. Second, it is a very rare (usually never) question that requires you to know some science that the test writer doesn’t tell you right in the test booklet.
Practice reading charts and graphs quickly. Don’t bother to read them in detail on test day until after you have determined the main idea of the passage. (Sounds like the reading test, doesn’t it?) Then. when you’ve read the question, go back and find the details in the charts that give you the answer. That’s an easy way to increase your speed and improve your score.
Where are you going to find a bunch of charts and graphs to use for practice? Get the Real ACT Prep Guide and you’ll have 5 actual tests that show you the kinds of charts and graphs you’ll see on test day. My students only use that book because they deserve to have the very best prep by using only actual ACT (and SAT) questions. Want to save some money? Buy it from amazon.com. (No, I don’t get paid by either ACT or amazon to say this. I only want you to understand that all the other books on the market are fake/false/pseudo- versions of the real thing! It’s also nice to save money.)
Enjoy your day. Tell two people (or more) how much they brighten your day–it will brighten theirs!
Wizard
