SAT Writing – An overview of the SAT Writing sections
The SAT Writing sections consist of one essay prompt and 49 multiple-choice questions. The essay section consists of one essay prompt for which students are allowed 25 minutes to plan, write, and edit their essays. The essay prompts draw from a wide variety of fields, including literature, the arts, politics, technology, history, and current events. Students are asked to take a point of view on the prompt and to support that position using specific examples and reasoning. To access sample SAT essay prompts and essays, visit the College Board website.
There are three types of SAT Writing multiple-choice questions: Improving Sentences questions, Identifying Sentence Errors questions, and Improving Paragraphs questions. Below you can find more detailed information about the specific skills these questions test.
|
Type of Question |
Skills/Content Tested |
# of Questions |
|
Improving Sentences Questions |
sentence fragments; misplaced modifiers; redundancy; parallel construction; verb tense; subject-verb agreement; pronoun agreement, usage, and case; idioms; adverbs and adjectives; and comparison of similar objects |
25 questions |
|
Identifying Sentence Errors Questions |
parallel construction; verb tense; subject-verb agreement; pronoun agreement, usage, and case; idioms; adverbs and adjectives; and comparison of similar objects |
18 questions |
|
Improving Paragraphs Questions |
sentence revision; sentence addition; sentence combination; and analysis |
6 questions |
To access sample Improving Sentences questions, visit the College Board website.
To access sample Identifying Sentence Errors questions, visit the College Board website.
To access sample Improving Paragraphs questions, visit the College Board website.
Related Topics
- For more general information about the SAT Test, visit our SAT Test page.
- For information about the SAT Critical Reading sections, visit our SAT Critical Reading page.
- For information about the SAT Math sections, visit our SAT Math page.
- For information about how the SAT is scored, visit our SAT Scoring page.
- For information about upcoming SAT test dates, visit our SAT Test Dates page.
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