Learn / Reading and Writing / Standard English Conventions
Form, Structure, and Sense
I worked these out from the practice questions. Each code says where to start reading, where to stop, what you can skip, and why it is safe.
1. Look at the choices before the sentence
- Start:
- Start by reading the four choices to see which kind of question this is.
- Stop:
- Stop when you know: verb, pronoun, apostrophe or modifier.
- Skip:
- Skip reading the whole passage in detail until you know the type.
- Why:
- In the practice questions, the choices alone told us what to check, such as is/are/was or girls'/girl's.
Used in questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
2. Cross out the phrases between subject and verb
- Start:
- Begin at the start of the sentence and find the first noun.
- Stop:
- Stop at the verb blank.
- Skip:
- Skip phrases starting with of, in, which, along with, as well as.
- Why:
- In question 6, the nouns coins and countries were in phrases and the real subject was collection.
Used in questions 1, 6
3. Closest noun for either/or and not only/but also
- Start:
- Find 'not only', 'either' or 'neither' at the start.
- Stop:
- Stop at the noun right before the verb.
- Skip:
- Skip the first noun in the pair.
- Why:
- Question 7: the closest noun was students, so the verb was plural.
Used in question 7
4. Time words decide the tense
- Start:
- Look for time clues: by the time, already, now, this week, next week.
- Stop:
- Stop at the earliest clue that fixes the time.
- Skip:
- Skip tenses that do not match the time.
- Why:
- In question 4, the clue 'by the time the rain stopped' called for past perfect.
Used in questions 4, 7
5. Count the owners
- Start:
- Look for words like three, many, one, a, the that show how many.
- Stop:
- Stop when you know whether there is one owner or several.
- Skip:
- Skip choices that put an apostrophe on a plain plural.
- Why:
- In question 2, the number three showed several girls, so I needed girls'.
Used in question 2
6. Pronoun checks: number and job
- Start:
- Find the noun the pronoun replaces.
- Stop:
- Stop when you know if it is singular or plural and whether it is a subject.
- Skip:
- Skip object forms in the subject position.
- Why:
- Question 3: the company is one thing and the pronoun was the subject.
Used in question 3
7. Who is doing it? for opening phrases
- Start:
- When a sentence begins with an -ing or descriptive phrase and a comma, ask who or what does it.
- Stop:
- Stop at the first noun after the comma.
- Skip:
- Skip the choices that begin with something else.
- Why:
- In questions 5 and 8, only one choice started with the noun that the opening phrase described.
Used in questions 5, 8
8. Find the true subject when the sentence is flipped or starts with 'the number of'
- Start:
- Find the verb blank, then look for the thing that is doing the action, even if it comes after the verb (Among the oldest customs ... ) or hides behind 'the number of'.
- Stop:
- Stop when you have named the subject and counted it: 'the number' is one, a list of three things is plural.
- Skip:
- Skip the noun right next to the blank, because it is often a trap.
- Why:
- In question 13, the singular 'harvest dance' sat next to the blank, and in question 16, 'students' sat next to the blank, but neither was the subject.
Used in questions 13, 16
9. The main verb must be a finite verb
- Start:
- If all the choices are forms of the same verb (opened, opening, to open), check whether the sentence has any other main verb.
- Stop:
- Stop when you see that the commas around the subject only close extra information.
- Skip:
- Skip -ing forms, to forms and having forms, because they cannot be the main verb alone.
- Why:
- In question 14, only opened worked as the verb of the sentence, and the other three left a fragment.
Used in question 14
10. If + had + past participle means would have + past participle
- Start:
- When the sentence starts with 'If ... had', find the result part.
- Stop:
- Stop when you see that the event never happened in the past.
- Skip:
- Skip will have, had, and plain would without have.
- Why:
- In question 15, the if part imagined a past that did not happen, so the result part needed would have planted.
Used in question 15