English Language Arts
This domain samples reading comprehension of literary and informational text, vocabulary and word analysis, grammar and usage, and the writing and research process. Items are mostly short passages with selected-response stems, plus standalone convention and word-meaning questions; there is no essay to write, so every mark comes from recognizing a rule or a textual signal.
Reading and vocabulary
The main idea must be broad enough to cover the whole passage and narrow enough to exclude a distractor that merely restates one sentence. Topic is what a text is about; theme is a message about life or human nature. For word meaning, substitute the definition back into the sentence - a definition that is correct in isolation but wrong in context is the most common wrong answer. Figurative language: simile (uses like/as), metaphor (direct comparison), personification, hyperbole.
Conventions worth drilling
- Subject–verb agreement ignores prepositional phrases: The box of ornaments is heavy.
- Each, either, everybody, neither are singular and take singular pronouns and verbs.
- Simple sentence = one independent clause; compound = two joined by comma + conjunction; complex = independent plus dependent.
- Commas set off nonrestrictive information that could be removed without changing the core meaning.
- Fewer for countable nouns, less for quantities.
Worked example
Item: “Each of the students in the orchestra (perform / performs) a solo.” Reasoning: the grammatical subject is Each, not students; of the students in the orchestra is a prepositional phrase and cannot supply the verb. Each is singular, so performs.
Traps that cost marks
Treating a supporting detail as the main idea; reversing cause and effect in a text-structure item; missing a capitalized EXCEPT or NOT in the stem; choosing the longest or most absolute option; and editing a sentence that is already correct because a change looked more sophisticated.