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=20130920&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 B. Many students don’t know the word impunity but so what?! I used my strategy of using the topic to make a prediction for each blank. Then I started with only the prediction for the blank that I felt was better. For the second blank, I predicted committed because I knew from the topic that members of the group had “never been punished” despite having ______ numerous crimes. So, they had done many bad things and gotten away with them. When I looked at the answers, only B meant “committed” (which I had predicted). So B had to be the answer. All the other answers are senseless. Even if I didn’t know what impunity means, it doesn’t matter!
You can learn an interesting thing about the test from this question. When there are two blanks, knowing only one of the words can get you the right answer. Sometimes the test writers either do a bad job or give you a break by having only one reasonable word for one of the blanks! In those cases, you can get the right answer without worrying about the meaning of the other word as we’ve done here. However, you should use the other blank to see if the sentence makes sense.
Another thing–even if there were two words that meant “committed,” you could have eliminated three answers and then guessed. Remember that you only have to eliminate one answer and then you should guess at the rest. The guessing penalty becomes a “guessing reward.” (Watch Video #1 for more test-taking tricks.)
That is why it is important to follow my strategy that is explained on Video #2. You will learn the quickest, most accurate way to get answers for Sentence Completion questions.
Let’s see what the ACT folks have for us today.
ACT Question of the Day: Use your “back” button to return to my website after reading the ACT Question of the Day.
The answer is F. It is the only answer that doesn’t add or disagree with the story. Watch Video #4. I talk about the power of Insertability. If you insert G, H, or J into the story, they all add or disagree with what you have read. Answer A fits perfectly. If you insert it, the passage doesn’t change one bit. That makes it the best answer.
I think we all need to cry in order to manipulate the ACT people into using some of their money to include some new Questions of the Day! Certainly they made enough money last year. There were more students who took the ACT than the SAT and the SAT folks can afford to not repeat questions.
The SAT & ACT Wizard
