Brian McElroy's Tutoring Blog

SAT Writing Error #3: Pronoun Ambiguity

Posted 2021-07-11

Please correct the following sentence:
“Mr. Jones read a story to his son until he feel asleep.”
should read:
“Mr. Jones read a story to his son until his son fell asleep.”
Why is this? Since there are two “he“s in this sentence, it unclear to whom you are referring. The specific term for this is that you are dealing with an “ambiguous pronoun.” While it seems obvious that Mr. Jones is not the one who falls asleep, you n... Keep Reading

More Free SAT notes by Brian McElroy

Posted 2021-07-11

Attached is a free downloadable PDF which includes 17 additional pages of my personal SAT notes for high school students. All explanations correspond to questions from the Official Guide to the SAT.
These notes are a good resource for students, parents, or other SAT tutors who are looking to strengthen the quality of their instruction.
Soon we will include audio explanations as well, but for now, paper and pen will have to do!
-Brian
BRM_SATnotes_July31Aug1.pdf... Keep Reading

Scores on Princeton Review SATs at Francis Parker 100-200 points lower than real PSAT scores.

Posted 2022-09-26

In the fall of 2007, Francis Parker High School in San Diego administered a practice SAT exam for their juniors. This test was created by the Princeton Review, a large and well-known test prep company.
Around the same time, Parker juniors took the official PSAT, which was administered by the College Board, the company that makes the SAT. Recently, the Parker counselors handed back the results from both tests. The results were laughable: many students' scores on the Princeton Review SAT we... Keep Reading