WHICH GRAMMAR SKILLS ARE

EMPHASIZED ON STANDARDIZED TESTS?

I also review standardized tests my students will be taking
in high school: the SAT and ACT College Board Exams,
the PSAT National Merit Scholarship Exam, and English
SAT Achievement tests, to get an idea of what grammar
skills my students will be expected to know well by the
time they finish high school. Those are the concepts I
most emphasize.
Regardless of the exam, I've found that skill in English
is essential.
 For National Merit Scholarships, the PSAT English score is
counted twice and the math score once.
 The ACT College Board Exam includes English, reading, math,
and science. In essence there, too, verbal ability counts twice.
 If a student chooses to attend a selective college that requires
SAT Achievement Tests, the school usually requires that the
student take an achievement test in English, math, and his area
of specialty.
 The SAT College Board Exam also relies heavily on verbal
ability.

When I reviewed those tests, I found that several concepts

were emphasized more than others. The concepts I found
emphasized most often were:
 Correct use of commas, semi-colons, apostrophes, quotation
marks, and hyphens in sentences.
 When to use a possessive pronoun and when to use a
contraction: it's vs. its.
 Correct use of who vs. whom especially when whom is part of a
prepositional phrase in the beginning of a sentence: To whom
should I give this?
 Use of subject pronouns vs. object pronouns especially with
linking verbs and in compound prepositional phrases: It is I.
Keep this between you and me.
 The use of his/her or they with indefinite pronouns: Will
everyone please pass up his or her paper?
 Correct verb usage in sentences with neither/nor and either/or
conjunctions: Neither Tom nor the boys go. Neither the boys
nor Tom goes.
 Correct use of which, who, or that in sentences.
 Avoiding dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers: Do you
know what I am speaking about?
 Use of active voice, verb consistency, and parallel construction
in sentences. Avoiding redundancy.
 The rhetoric sections of these tests frequently emphasize the
ability to identify main idea and author's bias.
 The ability to identify a logical order for sentences or
paragraphs in a long passage is also essential.
 I frequently saw questions concerning the proper use of affect
and effect.

As the school year goes on, I emphasize to the students

when I think a grammar or rhetorical concept is really
important and when it is one students need to know. I take
my job very seriously. Whether it be through cajolery or
storytelling, I try to get across to my students essential
concepts. Just as middle school teachers are influenced
by how much or how little the teachers our students had
before us taught, so too must we be concerned with what
skills our students need to know in order to do well in the
classes they have after us. Middle school teachers cannot
teach in isolation.

Reference: educationworld.com