How to work through Error-Identification questions, part 1

Every time I hear someone advise SAT-takers to just try to hear the error on Error-ID questions, I get the overwhelming urge to smack them. This kind of thinking overlooks one exceedingly important fact: many Error-ID sentences are precisely constructed so that you wont hear the error! Sure, you can use your ear on a lot of the essay questions and on some of the medium ones, but on the hard ones†¦ youll get trampled on. If you want a score above the 500s, you have to actually know what youre looking for (unless, of course, youre a 99th percentile outlier, in which case you probably dont have to be reading this). If you dont immediately pick up on an error, you must work from the underlined words and phrases themselves. Particular types of underlined words often suggest particular types of errors, and if everything does indeed check out, you can pick option E with something resembling confidence. While Im not going to go through the entire list of everything that could possibly be wrong with Error-ID questions (you can find that list here, along with examples), I am going to cover only the most frequently occurring errors. So here goes. In order of what you should check: 1) Underlined Verbs An underlined verb can have two possible errors: subject-verb agreement and tense. If a verb is in the present tense, start by checking the subject. Make sure you cross out any potential distractions such as non-essential clauses and prepositional phrases, and make sure you identify the entire subject. If you dont take the time to do this, you risk missing the fact that youre dealing with a compound subject (two singular nouns joined by and). If the agreement is ok, see if the tense works. Although there could theoretically be a lot of different errors involving tense, there really arent most of the time. The main thing to remember is that verb tenses and forms should remain consistent (or parallel) throughout a sentence unless theres good reason for them to change. The inclusion of a date or time period often indicates a tense question, so if you see one, check tenses first. Remember: any finished event that occurred in the past (e.g. the Civil War) must be talked about in the simple past (it happened, not it has happened). Gerunds and infinitives (e.g. to go and going) get switched, and would and will get switched, so if one of those is underlined, plug in the other one and see if it works better. 2) Pronouns Next to verb errors, pronoun errors are most likely to occur. If a pronoun is underlined, check to make sure that it matches the noun it refers to. Singular pronouns (like it or its) must refer to singular nouns, and plural pronouns (they or their) must go with plural nouns. If the word it appears, check it first because its most likely wrong. One goes with one You goes with you Any singular person goes with he or she, never they Keep in mind that about 1/3 of all grammar questions deal with either verbs or pronouns, so if theres no problem with either of these things, theres already a decent chance the answer will be E. If a collective noun (jury, team, agency, city, school, country, etc.) appear, chances are thats what the question is testing: collective nouns are singular, so check both subject-verb and pronoun agreement. 3) Lists All of the items in a list must be the same: noun, noun noun; verb, verb, verb, etc. If a sentence includes a list, theres a good chance theres an error in it. 3) Adjective and Adverbs Adjectives and adverbs are switched only with one another. If an adjective is underlined, stick in the adverb (e.g. if calm is underlined, stick in calmly). Adverbs themselves are almost never wrong. 4) Faulty Comparison Compare people to people and things to things (e.g. The novels of Jane Austen are more widely read than those of Charlotte Bronte, NOT: The novels of Jane Austen are more widely read thanCharlotte Bronte) Always be on the lookout for expressions such as more less/less than that indicate things that are being compared, especially toward the ends of sections. Also look out for a mention of artists and authors. They tend to be included in faulty comparisons. 5) Word Pairs Eitheror, Neithernor, Asas and Not onlybut also are the most common words pairs on Error-IDs. They tend to only be included when theres something wrong with them, at least on easy-medium questions. 6) Prepositions and Idioms This is the one place you do have to trust your ear. If a preposition sounds wrong to you (e.g. She is familiar in the paintings of Marc Chagall), it probably is. 7) More vs. Most If the word more is underlined, see how many things are being compared. If its two, youre fine; if its more than two, you need most. (e.g. Between the dog and the cat, the dog is more outgoing but the cat is more independent BUT the cat is the most independent of all domestic animals.) 8) Noun Agreement Plural subject = plural noun Look for the phrase as a + profession (writer, director, entomologist) Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are recognized as the directors (not: the director) most responsible for producing hit action movies. So no, this isnt everything that could possibly show up, but if you dont see one of these errors, dont twist yourself into knots looking for something that probably isnt there.