Terrible SAT Explanations

One of the ideas behind Kahn Academy was leveling the playing field. By making quality test prep materials available to everyone, students who have the money to pay for tutors and prep classes would no longer have an advantage. Unfortunately the explanations on Kahn Academy are sometimes so bad that they put the students who rely on it at a disadvantage.

Consider this question that was recently shared on reddit:

 

11.  A) NO CHANGE,
       B) field she
       C) field; she
       D) field: she

Personally, I think that either C or D should be acceptable. There are two independent clauses, and the second one elaborates on the first, so either a colon or a semicolon should be fine.

Kahn Academy insisted that only the semicolon is acceptable, but the reason it gives is flat out wrong.

"Walker was not only a trailblazer in the medical field" is not a relative clause. It is an independent clause that can stand alone as a sentence. It feels somewhat incomplete because it so clearly anticipates a discussion of the person's other accomplishments, but it is still an independent clause.

What it isn't is a relative clause, at least according to the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina (and every other source I could find):

A relative clause is one kind of dependent clause. It has a subject and verb, but can’t stand alone as a sentence. It is sometimes called an “adjective clause” because it functions like an adjective—it gives more information about a noun. A relative clause always begins with a “relative pronoun,” which substitutes for a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun when sentences are combined.

For example "who lives next door" is a relative clause in the sentence "I spoke to the woman who lives next door." It provides information about the woman. On the other hand, "Walker was not only a trailblazer in the medical field" contains no relative pronoun and it does not give information about any noun other than the one that appears in the clause.

I often think that there are much better ways to get to the right answer on a question than the one  given in the College Board's explanation. It is less frequent that I think that the College Board's explanation is objectively incorrect, but it happens enough that I don't think that test prep tutors  have to worry about being put out of business by Kahn Academy any time soon.

Why the SAT Annoys Me

When I was in school, I was the kind of student who argued with teachers about test questions. Actually, I argued with teachers about a lot of things, but that is neither here nor there. I have rarely found an ACT question that I would want to argue about, but the SAT is another matter. I can't say that I have ever found an SAT question on which I thought that there was an objectively better answer than the one that the College Board deemed correct, but there are several where I have thought that another answer was just as good as the College Board's choice. Question 28 from the October 2017 Writing and Language section is one example.

Dried collodion is unusable, so once the photo is snapped with a massive, tripod-mounted camera, the photographer has nominal minutes to develop it, using more chemicals.

The writer wants to emphasize how quickly wet plate photographers have to work. Which choice most effectively accomplishes this goal?

A)  NO CHANGE
B)  a few
C)  a matter of
D)  mere

The correct answer is D, but I am hard pressed to see a meaningful difference between "mere minutes" and "a matter of minutes." According to Merriam-Webster, "a matter of" is "used to refer to a small amount," while "mere" means "being nothing more than." If one of them does indicate a shorter period of time, I guess it would be "mere," but I am far from convinced that it does.

However v. Nevertheless

However and nevertheless are often synonymous, but not always. “However” can always be used in place of “nevertheless,” but “nevertheless” cannot always replace “however.”




Both words draw a contrast, but “however” merely points out the contrast; “nevertheless,” conveys the added idea that the contrast is surprising. “Nevertheless” means “despite that.”


1a) The full-sized van carries more passengers than the mini-van. 
1b) However, the mini-van gets better gas mileage. 

2a) The full-sized van carries more passengers than the mini-van. 
2b) Nevertheless, the full-sized van gets better mileage.

Both pairs of sentences draw contrasts between the full-sized van and the minivan, but the first contrast is expected. There is nothing surprising about the smaller vehicle getting better mileage than a bigger one. Only "however" is proper here. “Nevertheless” would not make sense.

In the the second pair of sentences, the contrast is surprising. Despite the fact that the full-sized van is bigger than the minivan--i.e., it holds more people--it also gets better mileage.  Either “however” or “nevertheless” would be proper here.


I don’t recall the ACT ever requiring the student to choose between “however” and “nevertheless,” but the SAT did so on Practice Test 2.

It has long been known that the sea otters living along the West Coast of North America help keep kelp forests in their habitat healthy and vital. They do this by feeding on sea urchins and other herbivorous invertebrates that graze voraciously on kelp. With sea otters to keep the population of sea urchins in check, kelp forests can flourish. In fact, even two years or less of sea otter presence can reduce the sea urchin threat in a coastal area Without sea otters present, nevertheless, kelp forests run the danger of becoming barren stretches of coastal wasteland known as urchin barrens.

25                                                                                                                                                

A) NO CHANGE
B) however,
C) hence,
D) likewise,

Here there is nothing surprising about what happens when there are no sea otters, so "nevertheless" is inappropriate.

Of course, the College Board's explanation is not particularly helpful:

Choice B is the best answer because the conjunctive adverb "however” accurately communicates the contrast between an environment shaped by the presence of sea otters, described in the preceding sentence, and an environment shaped by the absence of sea otters, described in this sentence.
Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because each presents a conjunctive adverb that does not accurately depict the relationship between the preceding sentence and the sentence with the underlined word.

In other words, "nevertheless" is wrong because it's not right.

Answering Science Questions without Science

Sometimes you can answer Science questions based purely on the units in the answers.  In the following question, knowing what S is or what Table 2 says is unnecessary.

34. Lightning strikes can occur when air between the ground and the base of a storm cloud is exposed to an electric field stronger than S for air. Suppose a certain storm cloud's based is 300m above the ground the ground. Based on Table 2, approximately what minimum voltage would be present between the storm cloud's base and the ground immediately before a bolt of lightning from this storm cloud strikes the ground? 

F.  300,000 mm x 3.13 kV/mm 
G. 300.000 m x 3.13 kV/mm
H.    300 mm    
     3.13 kV/mm
J.       300 m     
    3.13 kV/mm

December 2015 (72E)

The question asks for "minimum voltage." Therefore, the unit of the answer will be have to be some sort of voltage, and the only unit of voltage is kV.. Get rid of H and J because kV is in the denominator, so the unit in those will be 1/kV. Get rid of G because it has different length units in the  numerator (meters - m) and the denominator (millimeters -mm), and they won't cancel out. The only answer in which the length units will cancel, leaving a voltage unit, is F.

The Perfect Tense on the ACT

A. John took the ACT.
B. John has taken the ACT.


Choosing between between the present perfect tense (“has taken”) and the past tense (“took”) isn't always easy. Deciding on the past perfect tense (“had taken”) isn't any easier. According to Grammerly, “The present perfect tense refers to an action or state that either occurred at an indefinite time in the past (e.g., we have talked before) or began in the past and continued to the present time (e.g., he has grown impatient over the last hour).” That doesn't really clear things up though.


The fact of the matter is that there is often little basis to prefer one over the other. In the example above, either choice satisfactorily answers the question, “Did John take the ACT.” The good news is that the ACT rarely presents a straight choice between the perfect tense and the past tense—perhaps because there are so many cases when either one would do the trick. Most of the time when both the perfect tense and the past tense among the choices, there is some other issue that determines the correct choice.

The men combined their skills, organized a group of investors, and remains in business for more than fifty years.

5. A. NO CHANGE
    B. has remained
    C. have remain
    D. remained

April 2015 (73G)

If the choice were between “have remained” and “remained,” it might be tough call. but happily, the student is not required to make that decision. A is incorrect both because “remains” is singular while the subject of the sentence, “men,” is plural and because “remains” is present tense while the other verbs in the sentence, “combined” and “organized,” are past tense. B is incorrect because “has” is singular. C is incorrect because the perfect tense requires the past participle, “remained.” Thus D Is correct. Whenever, the perfect tenses and the past tenses are among the answer choices to an English question on the ACT, the first thing to do is to look for something else going on. The fact that there is so little difference between the past tense and the perfect tense can even help you to the correct answer when other rules are being tested.

It was exhausting to spend every day in the hot summer temperatures while pretending to be a person whom had lived in a different country and century.

25. A. NO CHANGE 
      B. who were to live 
      C. whom lived 
      D. who lived 

April 2015 (73G)

If you know your “who” or “whom” rules, you know that the answer is D. If you aren't sure about those rules, consider how little difference there often is between “lived” and “had lived.” Since the ACT rarely requires you to make that choice, it is likely that both A and C are wrong.

On those occasions when there is a direct choice between perfect tense and past tense, going for consistency will usually produce the correct response.

Worse yet, there's no going back; the old hot water pipes have been ripped out, and a jagged four-foot hole in the roof has turned into an unplanned and precarious skylight. 

25. A. NO CHANGE 
      B. was turning
      C. turned
      D. would have turned

May 2002 (55C)

The first thing to check when verb tenses are in play is the surrounding verbs. Here we have another verb in the sentence in the past perfect tense ("have been"), so go with A to be consistent.

There are some cases where there is a clear difference in meaning between the perfect tense and the past tense.

A. After John's wife left him, he went crazy. 
B. Since John's wife left him, he has gone crazy. 

A describes an event that occurred in the past followed by another event that occurred in the past. It says nothing about John's current state of mind. B describes an event that occurred in the past followed by a condition that continues to the present. If the ACT requires a choice between the perfect tense and the past tense, it is likely to be this type of situation. 

While some sculptors suggest the magnitude of an event by presenting larger-than-life figures, Lin relies on more understated methods to suggest matters of great significance. Since the unveiling of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lin has applied this approach in different parts of the country and to different areas of United States history. 

51. A. NO CHANGE 
      B. will apply 
      C. applied 
      D. applying  

April 2005 (60E)

Here is an event that occurred in the past, the unveiling, followed by an ongoing practice by the sculptor. The correct answer is A. When faced by the perfect tense on the ACT, the student should first look for what else is changing in the answer choices. There will usually be other issues that decide the answer. On occasion, however, the ACT does test the perfect tense directly.\

Blogging About the ACT and SAT

I have been tutoring for the ACT and the SAT for the last three years. For the last few months, I have been answering students' questions from time to time on reddit at r/ACT and r/SAT. As the same questions tend to get repeated, I thought I would post some of my answers on a blog. Feel free to ask questions.