What's on the SHSAT: English Language Arts

 

The SHSAT English Language Arts section is the first section on the test. It contains 57 questions and accounts for one-half of your total points on the SHSAT. The suggested time for the section is 90 minutes, or 1 hour and 30 minutes. The breakdown of the SHSAT English Language Arts section is as follows:



The beginning of the Revising/Editing section will look like this:

The SHSAT English Language Arts sections include 3–5 Stand-Alone Questions. You will be asked to apply your knowledge of Sentence Structure and Formation; Punctuation; Usage; Knowledge of Language; Organization, Unity, and Cohesion; and Topic Development to answer questions.

The beginning of the Revising/Editing Part B section will look like this:


To do well on the SHSAT English Language Arts section, you need to be systematic in your approach. In other words, you need to know how you are going to deal with each question type and the section as a whole before you open the test booklet. You need to know your strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you find Revising/Editing Passages questions easiest, you can jump directly to them and get some quick points. Or you can leave them in the middle to break up the section. It’s up to you. You have to be aware of timing. Six Reading passages are a lot. You have to be aware of your time and plan it well. If you spend an hour making certain that all your Revising/Editing Passages questions are correct, you’re going to have a difficult time answering the rest of the questions in the remaining 30 minutes.

You will use the Kaplan Methods for Revising/Editing Text to boost your score on the SHSAT English Language Arts section. Be sure to use these methods for every Revising/Editing question you encounter, whether practicing, completing your homework, working on a Practice Test, or taking the actual exam on Test Day.
There are two Kaplan Methods for Revising/Editing Text: the Kaplan Method for Revising/Editing Paragraphs and the Kaplan Method for Revising/Editing Passages and Sentences.

The Kaplan Method for Revising/Editing Paragraphs in the SHSAT English Language Arts section has two steps:
Step 1: Read the text and identify the issue
Each Revising/Editing Paragraph question will include four sentences. Read each sentence systematically, checking for errors.
Step 2: Select the sentence that should be revised
Only one of the four sentences will include an error. Select the sentence with the error and move right along to the next question.

The Kaplan Method for Revising/Editing Passages and Sentences has three steps:
Step 1: Read the text and identify the issue
Revising/Editing Text questions test Sentence Structure and Formation; Usage; Knowledge of Language; Organization, Unity, and Cohesion; and Topic Development issues. Read until you have enough information to identify the issue.
Step 2: Eliminate answer choices that do not address the issue
Eliminating answer choices that do not address the issue increases your odds of getting the correct answer by removing obviously incorrect answer choices.
Step 3: Select the choice that creates the most correct, concise, and relevant text
Correct, concise, and relevant means that the text will:

• Make sense when read with the correction
• Be as short as possible while retaining the information in the text
• Relate well to the main idea of the sentence, paragraph, or passage

Correct answers do NOT:

• Change the intended meaning of the original sentence, paragraph, or passage
• Introduce new grammatical errors