What is SAT Writing Section

SAT Writing Section Format

There are three SAT writing sections--one is the Essay and two are multiple choice.

SAT Essay Section

For the SAT Essay section, you will have 25 minutes to write about a given topic. The Essay section doesn't require you to have a vast knowledge on any specific subject; rather it tests you on your grasp of English language conventions and your ability to develop a point of view supported by evidence based on reading, experience, and studies.

Here's an example from the official SAT website:

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

A sense of happiness and fulfillment, not personal gain, is the best motivation and reward for one's achievements. Expecting a reward of wealth or recognition for achieving a goal can lead to disappointment and frustration. If we want to be happy in what we do in life, we should not seek achievement for the sake of winning wealth and fame. The personal satisfaction of a job well done is its own reward.

Assignment: Are people motivated to achieve by personal satisfaction rather than by money or fame? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

You can see the prompt is a very general topic that all students can write about.

SAT Writing Multiple Choice

In addition to the Essay, SAT Writing has two multiple choice sections with identifying sentence errors, improving sentences, and improving paragraphs. For identifying sentence errors, you will be given a sentence and have to decide if there are any mistakes that deviate from standard English. There are five answer choices where four are possible mistakes and one is for no mistakes.

For improving sentences and paragraphs, you'll be given a sentence or paragraph and answer choices that propose different wordings or sentence order that would make the sentence or paragraph more readable.

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What Is SAT Critical Reading

SAT Critical Reading Section Format

The SAT Critical Reading section has three main question types--short passages, long passages, and sentence completion.

Short Passages

SAT short passages are only about 1-2 paragraphs long and you'll be asked 1-2 questions on each passage. Just like the SAT Writing section, you don't need prior knowledge to answer SAT Critical Reading questions. All answers can be found in the passage.

Long Passages

Usually 3-5 paragraphs long, long passage questions are often the most challenging part of the SAT Critical Reading section. After you finish reading a passage, you will be asked 3-5 questions on what you just read. You will usually asked about a couple of main ideas and a couple of details. Like short passage questions, you'll be able to find all answers in the passage.

Sentence Completion

Sentence completion questions require you to read a sentence with a missing word(s) or phrase(s) and choose an answer to fill in the blank. Sometimes there's more than one answer that makes sense, but it's up to you to choose the answer that fits a sentence best. A good gauge of how well you'll do on SAT sentence completions is your level of vocabulary.

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Tips to Improve SAT Critical Score

To score high on the SAT Critical Reading section, you need to be used to reading SAT-level material and lots of it. You also need to know that SAT reading isn't casual reading nor is it the textbook reading you do for school. When you're reading for the SAT, you have to read actively and understand the main idea of each passage. What you don't need to do is memorize every detail.

Read SAT Passages Actively

As you are reading, ask yourself questions about the passage. What is passage's main idea? What style is the author writing in? Is the passage an opinion? Is it a report? These are all likely questions that could be asked in one form or another. Active reading will help you stay better focused on the passage. Don't get caught asking yourself what you just read!

Staying focused on a passage is, for many, the hardest part of critical reading. This is why practice is crucial. You have to get used to actively reading SAT-level material for a long time. Read from sources like The Wall Street Journal or classic novels whenever you can. Reading a lot will also help you with the SAT writing section and sentence completions.

SAT Sentence Completion

The most valuable tool for SAT sentence completion questions is a good vocabulary. To improve your vocabulary, you can either memorize words from a list or learn vocabulary in context. The best way is the latter method. Why? Because that's how your brain works. You gain a better understanding of a word when you know how it is used. This also forces you to think more about a word.

To learn words in context, read SAT-level material like The Wall Street Journal or classic novels. Surely you'll come across words you don't know. If you don't know a word, look it up in a dictionary and write it down. Do this regularly and watch your arsenal of words grow.

However, if you don't have much time, then you should learn words from a good vocbulary list. Study 30-50 words per day, and at the end of each week review all of the words you have already gone over.

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The Way To Improve My Self-control!

I just found I'm really poor in self-control. Ever night when I go to sleep, I will think what should I do tomorrow, where I should go tomorrow. But I will just go to pick the easiest things or my favorite things to do first every morning. For example, I'm a junior now, and I need to take SAT next year. I always think I need to practice a lot, but in fact, I didn't do the practice anymore. I will usually spend most of my days in my interests or easy things. I think I am totally lose myself in it.
Every time when I go to school, I will think if there will be a holiday for me, I can do much more useful things than I'm in school. However, the true is my plan are good, but I will just do very little things in the plan. Instinctively, I am kind afraid to do the things that I don't like. But there are a lot things which I hate must be done. When I recognized my problem, I searched many books about how to solve it because I know it's a bad habit that many people have.
Although I know something are very useful and important to me, I will not it. In other words, I can't control myself to do the right things. I just follow my instinct to pick my favorite and easy things to do.
Finally, I found the problem with self-control are from attitude and laziness. If I want to get more things done and learn more, I must change my attitude. I should not regard many things as duty. I need to enjoy them. For example, there are two sculptors. If you ask the first one: what are you doing? He will say this is one part of my job. I must finish it first before I come back home. The first sculptor always says how hard his job is. If you ask the same question to the second sculptor, He will say he is doing some great art. This guy is always proud of himself and his work. He enjoys it all the time.
I agree it's easy to know and say this idea, but it's kind hard to change the habit. However I found solution for me, I always give myself a goal first, and then try to figure out what I need to do to achieve the goal(I think many people think the same way). But now I think I was totally wrong. I didn't mean set a goal for me is wrong. To set a goal for myself is a really good start, the goal means the things I like, want, and I have enough desire and interests in it. However, if I tell myself if I want to achieve this goal I need to(or must to) do something, I will be totally wrong because I separate my interests into something I dislike. For example, if I want to become a great business man, I'd better tell myself to do a great job in high school and get into a great business university like Columbia is one part of my goal(become a great business man.) Then, I think I will enjoy learning SAT!

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Virgin Mobile New Big Rock: Motorola Triumph. Hands On Review

          Yesterday, I went to Bestbuy to switch my old Android phone(Samsung Intercept) to Motorola Triumph. Some people may want to know how I can switch my phone. It's not hard: when I bought Samsung Intercept, I bought the 2-year insurance for around 40dollars. When the new phone come out, I went there and said the Intercept was very slow and junky which is totally true... I don't want this phone anymore and then I ask them for a different one, the Motorola Triumph.

          The reason why I want Motorola Triumph is because it has superfast 1Gz CPU, 5mp camera, front-facing camera, 720 HD camcorder with HDMI output too. And it's from Virgin Mobile, my monthly plan now is 25dollars: 300minutes talk, unlimited internet and text. I don't think they will switch me to the new 35dollars plan because I'm a old customer.
          Review: When I used Google Map on Intercept, Intercept will be very very slow, and sometimes shutdown itself and turned on for around 5minutes. It was tally waste time and annoy. Sometimes, when somebody called me, I can't reply to them because when I pushed the reply button, the phone didn't respond anything... Furthermore, the screen is very small and the quality of the image is >_<(Hurt my eyes a lot). Although I have upgraded it to Android 2.2, it still can't play flash... I really think it's a failure in Android history

          But Triumph is superfast, it's may be even faster than Galaxy I9000(When I was in China, I used Galaxy). It respond very quickly. It will not waste your time but save time(Android smarphones real job). The screen is awesome, although it's not Super AMOLED as Galaxy, it's good enough to surf internet, read news, watch movie. The UI sense is from stock Android 2.2. The UI doesn't look very cool as HTC's, but it makes triumph respond superfast. I don't think I will go to install a custom ROM for it. I just want it to be fast L0L.The screen just has the right size for me. 4.1inches is not too big or too small. If it's too big, it will be hard for me to hold or text to others with just one hand. If it's too small just like Intercept, it will hurt my eyes a lot... In the instruction of Triumph, you will notice that Triumph has a 5mp camera. To be honest, the 5mp camera is not that good as many people think. I can't take really good photos from the 5mp camera. I recommend you that you'd better use your digital camera to do this job... If you go to the Virgin mobile official site to see the 360 degrees review HERE, you'll find there are 3 buttons on the sides of Triumph. The one on the left side is "OFF/ON and Sleep" button. The two on he right is for volume. If it has one for camera, it will be better. The quality of the sound may be better than my iTouch lol. Furthermore, the out put HDMI is pretty useful for my class.
I have posted my screenshot below. I don't know if I need to write a review about some cool APPs in my phone. If you guys have any question, please leave it below.

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