Writing
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Overall Strategy
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When there are no suitable options:
- Even if you think you don’t understand, about half of them are actually understandable, so chant “Let’s calm down and think again.”
- Also, strive for explicit thinking.
- Aim to eliminate redundancy, but if you can explain why an option other than the most simple one is correct, don’t be too swayed by redundancy and choose that one.
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Points to note:
- Pronouns should be “who/whom”, not “which”.
- Do not connect two standalone sentences with a colon.
Here are some miscellaneous notes:
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Thoughts on /blu3mo-private/SAT_Papers:
- I still don’t understand the grammar around commas.
- It seems important to consciously rotate your head.
- It’s similar to SAT Reading.
- There are many conjunctions that I don’t know, so I want to grasp them (like “to that end”).
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I get sleepy while solving problems.
- I want to believe it’s just because of lack of sleep or the effects of cold medicine.
- Well, I want to be conscious of raising my energy level.
- I feel like the feeling of “I can probably do it” leads to a lack of tension.
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Time allocation:
- 8 * 4 = 32, so about 8 minutes per question.
- If I’m conscious of the time, I should be able to finish without any problems.
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Grammar I had forgotten:
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“whom”
- Use “whom” when asking “who is it?” and wanting to answer with “him/her/them”.
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Don’t use “which” to refer to people.
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“That these are ~~~.”
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“Having being ~~, ~~.”
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Correlative conjunctions:
- “either ~ or ~”
- “As ~, so ~” (parallelism is important)
- “Neither ~ nor”
- “No sooner ~ than”
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Commas:
- In general, exclude unnecessary ones.
- Use a comma.
- Normally (in the case of an essential phrase), a comma is not needed.
- In the case of a non-essential phrase (”, who came from the US”), enclose it with commas.
- Ref: SAT Punctuation: Tips for Commas, Colons, and Dashes
- Others:
- There are also commas like “He said, ”~~,” and did it.”
- Do not use a comma sandwich for a profession right before a name.
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Semicolon:
- Can be used between two standalone entities.
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Colon:
- Used for enumeration or explanation (both dependent and independent clauses).
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Dash:
- Used for a colon sandwich or in a colon-like way.
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Transition words (ones I didn’t know):
- “Consequently”
- “Subsequently”
- “Besides”, “Moreover”
- “Singularly”, “Chiefly”
- “Namely”
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Present perfect/past perfect:
- If there is no reason to have “had/have”, it is redundant, so generally omit it.
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SAT Black Book (only noting things I haven’t been conscious of before):
- Writing:
- Follow the rules of the SAT.
- “No change” is equally likely to other options.
- Writing:
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Writing, parallelism is important.
- Matching tenses with the surrounding context.
- Basis for judgments that are easy to forget.
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“that”, “those”, “these”
- In writing, I often choose “unidiomatic” options and get them wrong.
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Section 2:
- It seems good to read one page and then solve that part, repeating the cycle.
- Pay attention to whether the logical relationship is maintained in connecting sentences.
- Also focus on redundancy and clarity.
- Additionally, I’m realizing that redundancy is quite important.