Article — How to Improve Your SAT Critical Reading Score

I've posted another SAT test prep article on eHow.com:

How to Improve Your SAT Critical Reading Score

Check it out!

Article — How to Succeed with SAT Test Preparation

I've written an article for eHow.com about preparing for the SAT test. It's now available online at:

How to Succeed with SAT Test Preparation

Check it out!

SAT Prep — Vocabulary Quizzes 1-10

Here are the first ten SAT vocabulary quizzes:

Vocabulary Quiz #1
Vocabulary Quiz #2
Vocabulary Quiz #3
Vocabulary Quiz #4
Vocabulary Quiz #5
Vocabulary Quiz #6
Vocabulary Quiz #7
Vocabulary Quiz #8
Vocabulary Quiz #9
Vocabulary Quiz #10

Thoughts? Questions? Please comment below.

How to Succeed with SAT Test Preparation

SAT Prep — Vocabulary Quiz #10

For each SAT vocabulary word, choose the best definition. (Answers in the comments.)

1. THOROUGHFARE
a. complete
b. road
c. honest
d. expensive

2. IMPLICIT
a. weak
b. guilty
c. sexy
d. implied

3. DISCUSSION
a. debate
b. injury
c. rounded
d. vulgar

4. CAPTIOUS
a. hypercritical
b. tall
c. official
d. seaworthy

5. LACTEAL
a. missing
b. sharp
c. lazy
d. milky

6. PROGENY
a. smart
b. fast
c. offspring
d. robot

7. TRUCULENCE
a. capacity
b. eloquence
c. ferocity
d. direction

8. MANDATE
a. rendezvous
b. command
c. evenhanded
d. reluctance

9. PURLOIN
a. steal
b. shiny
c. sew
d. eat

10. DIAPHANOUS
a. gruesome
b. solid
c. weightless
d. transparent

How to Succeed with SAT Test Preparation

SAT Prep — Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2008

As we close out the old year and ring in the new, it's time to take a glance back at 2008 and see how The Grammar Guy blog has fared.

I began this site in May, not quite knowing what to expect. I haven't posted as consistently as I had hoped, but I've been quite pleased at the reader response so far. Many people have told me they find this site helpful.

Here are the top ten most popular posts of 2008:

1. Free Essay Critique
2. Identifying Sentence Errors — Questions 1-10
3. Essay — Two Examples or Three?
4. Grammar — Subject-Verb Agreement — Trap #1
5. How to Improve Your Critical Reading Skills
6. SAT Critical Reading: My "Perfect" 800
7. Most Common Traps in Identifying Sentence Errors
8. Grammar — Subject-Verb Agreement in Number
9. Free Essay Critique #1
10. Why Study Grammar?

I expect to be more active on this site in 2009.

In particular, I have a backlog of SAT essays that I have to critique and post. If you've sent me an essay and haven't seen it posted here yet, I apologize and thank you again for your patience. Please check back in January. I should have time work through my stack in the coming weeks.

Happy New Year, everyone!

How to Succeed with SAT Test Preparation

SAT Prep — Vocabulary Quiz #9

For each SAT vocabulary word, choose the best definition. (Answers in the comments.)

1. ACRIMONIOUS
a. ancient
b. bitter
c. musical
d. tired

2. LOUGH
a. sick
b. ragged
c. lake
d. near

3. PESTILENCE
a. farming
b. backwards
c. gunfire
d. epidemic

4. WHINE
a. complain
b. turn
c. complex
d. entertain

5. MEMENTO
a. idea
b. crazed
c. intention
d. souvenir

6. PALINODE
a. retraction
b. matrix
c. wordplay
d. whiteness

7. SERVITUDE
a. slavery
b. idiom
c. recollection
d. sportsman

8. TENANT
a. hiker
b. rhapsodic
c. occupant
d. deckhand

9. ANNUAL
a. related
b. severe
c. overdue
d. yearly

10. DISPARITY
a. sadness
b. inequality
c. multiple
d. gruesome

How to Succeed with SAT Test Preparation

SAT Prep — Practice, Practice, Practice

For most high school students, the SAT will be the longest test they have ever taken. At three hours and forty-five minutes, it is a truly daunting challenge. It's not enough simply to know all the material on the SAT test; you must also improve your focus and stamina.

The best way to train for this academic marathon is to take lots of practice tests. One practice test is the PSAT. This will give you a sense of what topics are covered, what strategies work, and where your weak spots are. Pay close attention to the PSAT Score Report Plus. Use it to inform and guide your SAT prep plan. But, at only two hours and ten minutes, the PSAT does not prepare you for the grueling endurance game of the real SAT.

To really get into shape for the SAT, be sure to take the eight complete practice tests included in The Official SAT Study Guide. It's best to take these test under true test conditions, if at all possible. Take the practice tests the on the same day of the week and at the same hour of the day that the test will be given (for example, Saturday at 8:30am). Find a quiet room at home, or perhaps at a school or library. Give yourself three hours and forty-five minutes to complete the test. If you do this every week for two months, you will walk into the real SAT test more confident and better prepared than everyone else in the room.

Be persistent. Be diligent. Hard work pays off.

How to Succeed with SAT Test Preparation