Sentence Completions

Link of the Day

Did you get  a chance to watch the first presidential debate?  Politics can be divisive and emotionally-charged, but they are still important to talk about.  Without dialogue a democracy cannot function.  The presidential debates can be a great current event to show SAT essay graders that you are a well-informed student.  If you stick to the facts, rather than making broad statements about which candidate is better or which candidate cares more about people, you can make a point without being offensive.  Read this article and think about the way that it focuses on facts.  Knowing facts to use with your examples on the SAT essay is key to making your essay stand out.

10/4 Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. 

Never look at the answer choices and let a wrong answer prejudice the way that you think about a question.  Instead, cover the answers, read the entire sentence carefully, and predict an answer.  Then match your prediction to the correct answer choice, eliminating any answers that do not match.  Look at all 5 answer choices, even if one seems to match your prediction perfectly.

Food can be ------- element in family life, bringing us together in times of trouble and in times of joy.

There are two main types of sentence completion questions: vocabulary-based and logic-based.  This is a great example of a vocabulary based sentence.  It is short and straightforward, and it includes the definition of the word that will fill the blank.  Notice that the author writes of food as “bringing us together.”  Knowing that, what kind of element will food be? It must be something that “brings people together” or “gathers” them.  Use the phrase “a gathering” as your prediction and look down at your answer choices.

(A) an addictive

(B) a conflicting

(C) a unifying

(D) a residual

(E) an inconsistent

(A) Does addictive mean gathering? No.  Eliminate it.  (B) Does conflicting mean gathering? No.  Eliminate it.  (C) Does unifying mean gathering?  Yes.  Keep it and quickly check the other answer choices.  (D) Does residual mean gathering? No.  Eliminate it.  (E) Does inconsistent mean gathering? No.  Eliminate it.Bottom of Form

The correct answer is (C).

Words used in this SC:

Addictive: habit-forming

Conflicting: being in opposition

Unifying: bringing together or making one

Residual: left over

Inconsistent: not dependable

On sat.collegeboard.org, 83% of the responses were correct.

For more help with the SAT, visit www.myknowsys.com!