When I first went through all the SC questions, I was right 75% of the time.
Then I started trying to improve my score by learning all the grammar/comparison techniques. In going through the same set of questions, I've actually gotten significantly worse. I can generally still get it down to 2 options, but when I start to think about the grammar I consistently go with the wrong answer.
How do I break this habit before I test this weekend?
Old Strategy: Just read the question, go down the list, pick one that sounds the best
New Strategy: Look for words that make each answer different, parallelisms, verb tense, etc. Choose "better" answer.
*EDIT* NEWEST STRATEGY - This might sound too much like common sense but I've spent the last two hours trying to figure out a way to fix my problem. I kind of mix both my old and new strategies - I will read the clause and try and mentally fill in the blanks. 30-40% of the time the answer I thought of will part of the options. I really try and let my intuition take the wheel here because when I focus too much I grammar I lose sight on how sentences are actually supposed to sound. Listing things like "past participle" identifying the "antecedents" gets confusing.
Then, I mix in some of the actual SC strategy like looking at the beginning and end of sentences and eliminating a few more. Then grammar comes into play. Success rate is about 90% now on the back (harder) third of the SC section. The 10% I get wrong are generally just small mistakes.
Anyway, quick debrief. Need to get back to the questions now
Then I started trying to improve my score by learning all the grammar/comparison techniques. In going through the same set of questions, I've actually gotten significantly worse. I can generally still get it down to 2 options, but when I start to think about the grammar I consistently go with the wrong answer.
How do I break this habit before I test this weekend?
Old Strategy: Just read the question, go down the list, pick one that sounds the best
New Strategy: Look for words that make each answer different, parallelisms, verb tense, etc. Choose "better" answer.
*EDIT* NEWEST STRATEGY - This might sound too much like common sense but I've spent the last two hours trying to figure out a way to fix my problem. I kind of mix both my old and new strategies - I will read the clause and try and mentally fill in the blanks. 30-40% of the time the answer I thought of will part of the options. I really try and let my intuition take the wheel here because when I focus too much I grammar I lose sight on how sentences are actually supposed to sound. Listing things like "past participle" identifying the "antecedents" gets confusing.
Then, I mix in some of the actual SC strategy like looking at the beginning and end of sentences and eliminating a few more. Then grammar comes into play. Success rate is about 90% now on the back (harder) third of the SC section. The 10% I get wrong are generally just small mistakes.
Anyway, quick debrief. Need to get back to the questions now
