Tutor Delivery Guidelines

Open with a real sentence on the board. Ask students to cover the target word and guess what belongs there — before any instruction.

Introduce the 3 context clue types: contrast, cause-effect, and example. Give two signal words for each type.

Teach the ‘blank-and-predict’ strategy: read, replace the blank with your own word, then find the closest answer choice.

Practice elimination: cross out answers that are wrong part-of-speech, wrong register, or off-tone.

Drill 2–3 easy questions together, then 2 independently. Debrief naming each wrong answer’s trap type.

Label short passages together: ‘What is the first sentence doing?’ Elicit: introduces, illustrates, contrasts, qualifies.

Give students a ‘purpose verb bank’ of 12–15 verbs the SAT uses. Explain differences between similar ones (describe vs. argue).

Teach students to predict the purpose BEFORE reading the answers: ‘Why did the author include this sentence?’

Show how traps use partially correct purpose verbs — right topic, wrong verb. Students must check both elements.

Run a paired activity: Student A reads, Student B labels the structure of each paragraph. Switch roles and debrief.

Read each text independently first. Ask: ‘What is Text 1 claiming? What is Text 2 claiming?’ before any comparison.

Create a two-column chart: Text 1 claim | Text 2 claim. Map similarities and differences visually on the board.

Teach the four relationship types with analogies: support = agree, challenge = disagree, qualify = ‘yes, but’, extend = ‘and also’.

Focus on the question stem — ‘How would Author 2 respond to Text 1?’ requires inference, not just summary.

Practice with one full worked example together, then one independent pair with debrief.

Teach the ‘newspaper headline’ trick: after reading, ask ‘What 10-word headline would summarise this passage?’

Show how the correct answer captures ALL of the passage — not just the first sentence or a single paragraph.

Demonstrate scope errors: pick a clearly ‘too narrow’ and ‘too broad’ answer and explain why each fails.

Eliminate answers that are only true of one paragraph — main idea must hold for the entire text.

Do 2 guided examples, then 2 independent questions with a debrief focused on scope errors.

Clarify the two sub-types upfront — the solving approach differs significantly. Students must identify which type they face first.

For ‘Which supports X?’: translate each answer into a test — ‘If this were true, would it make X more likely?’ Only the correct answer passes.

For ‘What does the passage support?’: find the explicit quote or paraphrase in the passage that directly matches the answer.

Teach the ‘too far’ trap — answers that go slightly beyond what the passage says are always wrong, even if plausible.

Guided practice with 2 examples (one of each sub-type) before independent work.

Always read the passage claim BEFORE looking at the graph — know what you’re looking for before you look.

Teach graph-reading protocol: (1) read the title, (2) read axis labels and units, (3) identify the trend or key value the question references.

Practice with a simple bar chart first: ask ‘What does this graph actually say?’ Students often misread axis labels under time pressure.

Show how the correct answer uses specific numbers or trends — not vague generalisations about the topic.

One worked example together (circle the exact data point referenced), then one independent with debrief.

Read the notes carefully first. Ask: ‘What are the key facts? Are there contrasting facts?’ Map them before reading the question.

Underline the purpose phrase in the question stem (e.g., ‘to emphasise the contrast between…’). This is the single most important step.

Check each answer: (1) Does it use relevant notes accurately? (2) Does it exclude irrelevant notes? (3) Does it fulfil the stated purpose?

Show how wrong answers either include wrong notes, miss the stated purpose, or add information not in the notes.

This type is highly learnable — drill with at least 4 practice examples. Accuracy improves dramatically with repetition.

Present a master transition list grouped by category. Students memorise the categories, not individual words.

Teach the two-step method: (1) Summarise each sentence in one word — same direction or opposite? (2) Match to the transition category.

Use the ‘contrast test’: cover the blank and ask ‘Does the second sentence agree or disagree with the first?’ Reveals the needed type instantly.

Show common traps: ‘additionally’ vs. ‘consequently’ — both move forward but serve completely different logical functions.

Run a categorisation drill before full questions — students label a list of transitions by category first.

Teach clause identification first: ‘Does this have a subject AND a verb AND express a complete thought?’ All three = independent clause.

Show all four error types with simple examples before introducing the fixes.

Teach the FANBOYS acronym: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So — only these can follow a comma to join two independent clauses.

Demonstrate that a semicolon equals a period — both join two independent clauses without a conjunction.

Practice identifying the error type first, then choosing the correct fix. Always name the error before evaluating answer choices.

Start with the most common trap: ‘A collection of rare stamps [is/are] on display.’ Students must identify ‘collection’ as the singular subject.

Teach the ‘cross out the prepositional phrase’ technique to isolate the true subject every time.

Drill indefinite pronouns — give students a list and have them categorise each as singular or plural. No exceptions on the SAT.

Practice inverted sentences: ‘There [is/are] several reasons…’ — subject comes after the verb, so find it before choosing.

Run 5 rapid-fire oral drills before written practice to build automaticity.

Establish the tense ‘anchor’ of the sentence or passage: what is the main time frame? All verbs align to this.

Teach the infinitive vs. gerund rule via common verb collocations (prefer + gerund, want + infinitive). Memorising key verbs is faster.

Introduce participle phrases: ‘Having finished the experiment, the scientists…’ — the participle must logically apply to the sentence’s subject.

Show perfect tense use: ‘had finished’ signals an action completed before another past action. Timeline visualisation helps.

Practice with 3 worked examples — one each for tense consistency, gerund/infinitive, and perfect tense.

Start with a simple rule: find the antecedent, determine its number, match it to the pronoun. Three steps, every time.

Teach case selection: use the ‘remove the other person’ test — ‘She and I went’ → remove ‘She and’: ‘I went’ ✓ vs. ‘Me went’ ✗.

Cover indefinite pronoun antecedents. The SAT accepts ‘their’ as singular for gender-neutral antecedents — explain this explicitly.

Show ambiguous reference traps: when two antecedents are equally plausible, the correct answer replaces the pronoun with a specific noun.

Drill case errors with oral substitution exercises — isolate the pronoun and check whether it sounds correct in isolation.

Teach the ‘punctuation hierarchy’: start with the strongest (period/semicolon) and work down. Provides a decision framework.

For colons and semicolons: both require an independent clause before them. This one rule eliminates most wrong answers instantly.

Teach comma rules with specific names, not intuition — ‘pause’ is unreliable. Prioritise the 4–5 most common SAT comma rules.

Drill the ‘it’s vs. its’ rule explicitly — it appears in almost every module and students consistently miss it.

Use fill-in drills (no multiple choice) to build automatic recognition before introducing answer choices.