On Identifying Sentence Error questions, you must (as the title suggests) find errors in sentences. You don’t have to fix the error, or name the error. You just have to find it.

There are two sections of Identifying Sentence Error questions on SAT II Writing. The first is located at the beginning of the multiple-choice section and consists of 20 questions. The second one comes at the end of the multiple-choice section and consists of 10 questions. In total, there are 30 Identifying Sentence Error questions, making them the most common question type on the test (there are 18 Improving Sentences questions and 12 Improving Paragraphs questions). If you find that these questions are fairly manageable, it’s a good idea to do the first Identifying Sentence Error section, and then flip to the end of your test booklet and do the last Identifying Sentence Error section. This means you’ll skip the Improving Sentences and Improving Paragraphs sections, and come back to them once you’ve completed both of the Identifying Sentence Error sections.

This chapter will discuss the strategies needed for approaching and answering Identifying Sentence Errors, and it will explain the specific grammatical errors that most often appear on this type of question.