General Format of SAT II Writing
The SAT II Writing Test is a one-hour-long test composed
of one essay and 60 -multiple-choice questions. The multiple-choice
questions come in three types: 30 Identifying Sentence Error questions,
18 Improving Sentences questions, and 12 Improving Paragraphs questions.
On the test, you’ll encounter the different sections in the following
order:
- The Essay
- 20 Identifying Sentence Error questions
- 18 Improving Sentences questions
- 12 Improving Paragraphs questions
- 10 Identifying Sentence Error questions
The Essay Section
You will have 20 minutes to plan and write one essay.
After the 20 minutes are up, you will be forced to stop writing
the essay, even if you’re not done. If you finish writing the essay early,
which is pretty unlikely, you can proceed right to the multiple-choice
section of the test.
The Multiple-Choice Questions
You will have 40 minutes to answer the 60 multiple-choice
questions. In chapters to come, we will go over each of the three
types of multiple-choice questions in great detail, discussing what
material the different question types will cover, and the specific
strategies to which each question type is vulnerable. For now, though,
we just want to give you a rough idea of what the questions will
look like. Below, you’ll find a very brief overview of each type,
including a sample question.
Identifying Sentence Errors
As the name implies, your sole task on this type of multiple-choice
question involves finding errors. That’s all you have to do. You
don’t have to fix the errors, name them, or do anything other than
spot them. Commonly tested subjects on this section are subject-verb agreement
and verb tense.
Questions will look like this:
|
|
|
| Even though the influx of people | has
raised | rents citywide, |
| | A | |
| there is | many financial gains | to be had | from the new | residents | . |
| | B | | C | | D | |
|
|
In this example, the correct answer is (B); the phrase there
is uses a singular verb when it should use the plural verb are to
match the plural subject gains. The original sentence
has faulty subject-verb agreement.
Improving Sentences
Each question in the Improving Sentences section consists
of a sentence with one portion underlined. You must decide if the
underlined portion contains an error. If it does not, mark (A),
no error. If it does, find the answer choice that corrects the problem.
Questions will look like this:
|
|
|
In
her excitement about her trip to Paris, Emily has studied French
with great enthusiasm, thus she completely neglects her
Spanish class. |
| (A) |
enthusiasm, thus she completely neglects her Spanish class |
| (B) |
enthusiasm she completely neglects her Spanish class as
a result |
| (C) |
enthusiasm and thus has completely neglected her Spanish
class |
| (D) |
enthusiasm; her Spanish class neglected therefore |
| (E) |
enthusiasm; her Spanish class is neglected by this |
|
The correct answer is (C). The original sentence is a
run-on sentence, which (C) corrects by adding and as
a conjunction.
Improving Paragraphs
For this type of question, you’ll be given two short essays
that are purportedly written by students. You’ll read the essay
and then answer six to eight questions about it. These questions
fall under four categories:
-
sentence revision questions
- sentence
addition questions
- sentence
combination questions
- analysis
questions
We will show you an entire essay-and-questions sequence
in the chapter devoted to Improving Paragraphs questions. Here we’ll
just show you some sample questions.
Sentence Revision
|
|
|
Which
of the answer choices below is the best way of revising the underlined
part of sentence 7 (reprinted below)? |
|
Sentence Addition
| Which of the sentences below, if added
after sentence 10, would provide the best transition from the first paragraph
to the second paragraph? |
Sentence Combination
|
|
|
Which
of the following is the best way to combine sentences 3 and 4 (reprinted below)? |
|
Analysis
|
|
|
All
of the following are techniques the writer uses EXCEPT: |
|
Most Improving Paragraphs questions fall into the category
of sentence revision, but most tests contain at least one question
of each type.
