If you want a high score on the SAT English modules, the key is knowing the grammar rules inside and out. And not just the rules, but the quick strategies that can help you get questions right in 10 seconds or less. So, in this video today, I'm going to teach you guys the top 10 time-saving grammar strategies that will help you achieve your goals. So, if you're running out of time on module two with the logically completes the text or the reading passages, chances are you can button up grammar more to save time to get through everything and maximize your points. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Laura Whitmore. I own Strategic Test Prep and I have been a test prep coach for 18 years. I recently scored a 1590 on the November digital SAT. And all these strategies I'm going to teach you today, I use myself in the test. Now, we are actually giving away our SAT English workbook for free. It's backed by popular demand. And so, if you like this video and the strategies I've outlined, definitely go get our workbook to learn more strategies that we have for the other types of questions. So, I'm going to link up here to our website. Subscribe to our email list and we will email you a copy of the workbook completely free, guys. [Music] All right, guys. I think it's important that when I go through these grammar strategies, you're able to work alongside me and take your own notes. So, I've put a link in the description below to this document I'm using so that you can download your own copy and work right alongside me. Before we get started, please comment below and let me know what your biggest challenges are right now on the English modules. Are you running out of time? If so, I think that this video is going to be amazing for you. So, my first grammar strategy is eliminating two answers that are exactly the same. So basically a period and a semicolon function the same way because they both separate two complete sentences. So as you can see I just crossed off A and B right away without even reading this. Now when I have it down to no comma or a comma what I'll do is read it out loud and listen to see if I pause naturally after the word writers. So I have the haiku like poems of tit which present nature and dream influences image images in crisp spare language have earned the Swedish poet praise from leading contemporary writers among them Nigerian American da da da. Do you see how I naturally paused after writers? That's a really quick and easy way to figure out if you need a comma there or not. So I'm going to go with D. All right. My second grammar hack deals with if you see a semicolon already in the text. So, I'm looking for unique punctuation marks when I get to a grammar question and I immediately see a semicolon with an and right in there. What this means is they're using semicolons to separate items in a list. So, a semicolon can not only separate two complete sentences, but it also can serve like a comma and separate items in a list. So, when I see a semicolon, I'm immediately going to pick the semicolon and move on. All right, guys. If you're finding this video helpful so far and you have not yet, subscribe to my channel by smashing that button below. And don't forget to hit the notification bell as well because I come out with free content every single week to help you master the SAT. All right, guys. My third grammar strategy deals with seeing a description ahead of the name of something. So, it could be the name of a person. It could be the specific name of a thing. And in this example, you can see that they called aluminum oxide. That's the name of the element. They described it as a chemical compound. So, as since the description came right before the name aluminum oxide, I don't need any commas there. I'm going to pick D and move on. Again, you can just read it out loud to make sure you can read through it without pausing. So, if I start at the top, it says, "Recently, engineer EF of Tampir University in Finland used the chemical compound aluminum oxide to make a glassy da da da da da." I read right through that. I didn't need to pause. We're good to go. All right. My fourth grammar hack for you guys deals with apostrophes questions. They can can be super confusing to students, but here's the thing. You can use a strategy called majority rules and get it down to the right answer most of the time. So, let me demonstrate. Here are my four answer choices. And what I'm doing is I'm looking for two phrases that are the same. Can you guys see how C and D both have the apostrophe before the S? A is weird because it's outside of the S. I'm going to get rid of that. B is weird because there's no apostrophe at all. I'm going to get rid of that. So, now I have it down to a 50/50. And I just have to figure out if the pronoun needs to be an its if we're just talking about one phrase or there since both phrases are singular possessives. Because guys, just a heads up in case you don't know this, that's singular when it's inside the s. And then when it's outside the s, that's a plural possessive. So what that means is they're talking about one phrase owning something or they're talking about multiple phrases owning something. Since both options are just talking about one phrase owning something, we have to pick the right pronoun to match and it has to be d. Singular goes with singular. That's parallelism. I didn't even have to read the question. How amazing is this? If you're finding all these tips helpful, please show me some love and hit the like button below. All right, guys. My fifth grammar hack for you deals with having punctuation options as your answer choices. If only one of the options can separate two complete sentences, that's probably the right one. So, when I look at these four answer choices, I'm going to go with C and move on. Listen, guys, I got a 790 in English because I'm super accurate, right? So, what I would say is lean on these strategies for your first run through of the module, but then go back to these grammar ones later if you have extra time and just doublech checkck them. That's exactly what I do. I just run through the grammar super quick, 10 seconds each. I have tons of time to work on the reading passages, no pressure, and then I go back to grammar later. I actually had so much time at the end of module two on the November test, I got to pause the test and take an unscheduled bathroom break. So, start with these strategies, check it later. But this one is definitely the right answer. It's the only one that can separate two complete sentences. The other thing I need you guys to be aware of is a comma with a fanboys. Like a comma with an and, a comma with a but, a comma with a for. Fanboy stands for for, and, nor, but, or, yet. So, any of those after the comma, those can separate to complete sentences. So, that would work as well if that's your only option. All right, guys. Grammar hack number six. If you see the dash, pick the dash. Most of the time, the SAT is using two dashes to separate out a non-essential clause. So, when I look at this and I see the dash here, I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to pick the dash D. Again, I'll go back later and read it just in case, but this works about 90 to 95% of the time. All right, let's talk about grammar strategy number seven. And this, by the way, is happening around number 20 or number 21 on module two. How do I know this? Because I have a tutor going and take every single real SAT that's administered. Like I said, I took last November. And if you've missed out, I do have live videos with my tutors after each SAT on Saturdays and we dissect the test. So, we have noticed a pattern with this. If you're on number 20 or 21 on module 2 and you see an ing verb, pick it. They're probably using it to separate out a non-essential clause and then you can go back later and read it. Let me break down for you real quick why the ing works on this one. First, we have our subject. American abstract artist Richard Sarah. So, Richard Sarah is the subject. Hey, check it out. By the way, see how the description comes before the name and then there's no commas. So, that ties into what we already talked about. Now, once I pinpoint the subject, what I'm doing is I'm looking for the verb. And the funny thing on this one is the verb is all the way down here. So that means all this stuff in the middle is what I call junk. It's just non-essential. It's extra information describing more about Richard Sarah. So I can literally take that whole middle part out and just read the sentence as American abstract artist Richard Sarah assembles large-scale steel plates into sculptures that dominate the outdoor spaces they occupy. What's Richard Sarah doing? He assembles da da da da da. So, we can't pick a full-on verb. If we pick intends, int or intends or is intending, those are actual verbs that would compete with the verb assembles. Um, we want that other part to be non-essential. So, that's why we go with the ing. And so, check it out on your own. You've got the document. Reread it with the ing in there. hear how it sounds and see how that part is definitely a non-essential. All right, grammar hack number eight. When you have verbs as your answer choices, use the pronoun trick. So, I always start out looking at the answer choices when I'm on a grammar question and I'm assessing what they're giving me because I want to be one step ahead of the test designers and know what they're testing me on so that I can plan accordingly and get the answer as quickly as possible. So, when I look at this one and I see four verbs, immediately I'm thinking this could be a subjectverb agreement question. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to use he and they and test them for singularity plurality. So, I've got he is, they are, they have been, they were. And what happens is if there is a difference between them, like one is singular, it is is a he. The other are plural. The one that's different is the one that's right. So I'm going to pick a and move on. You can go back later to check it with your extra time. Here's the thing. This part right here for engineers is a leadin. The elimination is actually the subject of sonic booms is a um prepositional phrase. So the elimination since it's the subject, it's singular. It is the elimination is one of the biggest challenges. So that's how you truly break it down and understand why a is right. But this pronoun trick works like a charm. All right guys, my ninth grammar strategy deals with leadin questions. So I call them leadins because essentially they are describing the subject before introducing the subject. So think of a lead in kind of like an introduction to the sentence. So if you get to a question and you see a blank right after the very first comma in the sentence and then you notice all of the answer choices, they look like they're saying the same thing in different ways. And the answer choices are kind of long. You're probably on a leading question. So the goal is to understand that your subject needs to be the very first word after the comma and the subject needs to match the leadin because the leadin is about the subject. So in this case, my leadin says in assessing the films of Japanese director Akira Korasawa. Okay. So I know a little bit about my subject. Now, I know that my subject assesses films. So, when I go through the answer choices and I'm looking at the subjects, which is the first words in each answer choice, I ask myself, can they assess films? Critics can. I'm going to keep a Kurissau's use of whatever. It can't assess films. A youth can't assess films. So, I'm going to get rid of that. Their can't assess films. I'm going to get rid of that. The focus can't assess films. I'm going to get rid of that. The only answer that can be the subject is a many critics. All right, guys. My last hack is probably the most arduous and the longest of the 10, but it will help ensure that you get the question right and also give you a streamline procedure for tackling these. I'm talking about questions where you have a hybrid punctuation transition. So, not only do you have to pick the right punctuation mark, but then you also have to determine where the transition needs to go. These are kind of a pain. So, I have a two-step approach for this. The first step is figure out where the punctu what kind of punctuation mark you need. Then the second step is figure out where the transition word needs to go. So, when I start out trying to figure out what kind of punctuation mark I need, I just get rid of the transition words temporarily because a transition word is not going to affect if a sentence is um complete or not. So, I just need to figure out where my complete sentences are. So, when I'm trying to do that, I basically look for where the divider is, and it looks like it ends it single-handedly. So, I'm going to read from the top of that sentence that Okanaka up to single-handedly. First, it says Okanaka doesn't make such decisions single-handedly. Is that a complete sentence? It sure is a complete sentence. We have a subject Okanaka. We have a verb make, and then they told us why he doesn't make. And so, we have a complete thought. Then, I'm going to read the other side. All historical designations must be approved by a group of nine other experts from the fields of architecture, archaeology, history, and Hawaiian culture. That is also a complete sentence. We have the subject historical designations. We have the verb approved. And then they told us what it must be approved by. So, we have a complete thought. When you have two complete sentences, you need a a semicolon, a period, a colon. You can't do commas because it's called a comma splice. So, since we have a semicolon and A and B, we're going to hold on to those and we're going to get rid of C and D. By the way, quick hack for you guys. When you see a transition word and there's absolutely no punctuation mark after it, get rid of that right away. I probably would have crossed off D before I even did anything else on this question. D will never be right. You always need a punctuation mark right after the transition. Typically, it'll be a comma, but sometimes a transition comes at the end of a sentence. So, right after it could be a period or a semicolon or something as well, but you need something there. All right. Now, it's time for us to figure out where the transition needs to go. So, if the transition is on the first side in the second sentence, it will contrast with the first sentence, however, is a contrast word. And what I like to look for is, you know, when they like negate things or make things negative. And so in the second sentence, when they're saying he doesn't make such decisions single-handedly, it sounds like it's going against the first sentence. So I know the however needs to go on that side with that sentence so that it will contrast with the sentence before it. You can tell the third sentence is going on to explain how he doesn't make those decisions single-handedly. So the second and third sentences go together. So you don't want the contrast to be between those. So you definitely want to put that contrast word in the second sentence so it contrasts with the first sentence and you're good to go. That's why I picked a. All right, guys. That is it for this video. If you really liked what you saw today and you feel like you learned a lot, I would recommend signing up for our English self-paced course. I go into more depth with the grammar rules. I go into more depth with reading strategies, transition strategies. So, if you want to have an overall stronger approach to the English modules so that you can smash it this fall, I would just go ahead click that link up here and sign up for our course today. Since you are a YouTube viewer, I offer a special discount. Use the promo code 50 off at checkout and you'll get $50 off the course. All right, guys. Thanks so much for watching. And if you made it all the way to the end of this video, go ahead and comment below grammar hacks. I appreciate you guys so much and until next time, happy prepping. [Music]