When it comes to punctuation, less is more

In my last post, I mentioned that I had taken a practice ACT writing section without reading the passages.  I used certain rules for deciding which choice to answer that take advantage of the odds of particular types of answers being correct.  If the question was testing punctuation, the rule was that I had to choose the answer with the least punctuation.  I did this even in cases when the choice was obviously incorrect even within the answer choice.  For example, if one of the choices was "the teachers classroom"  I would have to choose it (no punctuation obviously being the least punctuation) even though the correct choice clearly needs an apostrophe.  If two choices tied for least punctuation I had other methods (such as "odd man out") to break the tie.

Among the punctuation questions, my choice was correct about 40% of the time - far greater than one would expect from random guessing.  When my choice was incorrect, the choice with the next least punctuation would have been right about 40% of the time.  The choice with the most punctuation was almost never right.

Now, obviously, it is best to know your punctuation rules and to choose your answers based on which choice you know to be correct.  However, if you must guess from among two or more choices, you should go with the odds and choose the one with the least punctuation, or, at the very least, eliminate the choice with the most punctuation.

ACT English: The Odd Man Out "trick"

"One of these things is not like the others. One of these things doesn't belong...."

This was a song on Sesame Street back in the late 1960's.  Sometime between then  and the 1990's someone decided that this was not a good educational activity and Sesame Street discontinued it.  When I sing it to today's teenagers they look at me funny.

(You can see a Sesame Street clip of that activity here.)

It tends to come up when I am coaching someone for the ACT English section.  The correct answer is frequently the "odd man out" - the one choice of the four that is grammatically different from the other three.

For example, in one question from The REAL ACT Prep Guide the answer choices were:

a.  NO CHANGE  (it was written as "straighten it" in the passage)

b.  straightened them

c.  straightened those

d.  straighten them

Choice "a" is the only one in which the pronoun is singular instead of plural, and choice "a" was, in fact, the correct answer.

I have noticed a number of trends about the frequency of correct answer choices on this section of the ACT, so I recently did an experiment.  I completed an ACT English section without reading the passages.  Instead I chose an answer based on a number of rules.  One of the rules was that if there were an identifiable "odd man out" I would choose it.  For each question I wrote my answer choice and then next to it the rule I had used to choose my answer.  I used the "odd man out" rule 20 times.  The choice was correct 11 times, or 55% of the time.

I know that the anti-test campaigners are routinely horrified by test strategies that allow one to answer a question without even reading the material, but I would like to point out that this particular strategy does require a knowledge of grammar.  One must recognize that one of the choices is different in a particular way.

I am rarely asked to coach for the ACT (the SAT is a bigger deal in my state,) but I will continue to put considerable emphasis on recognizing when "one of these things is not like the others."

Are colleges looking at your social media profiles?

If you are a high school student - or the parent of one - you may have seen warnings that suggest you should clean up your online profile before applying to college.  You may have been told to remove unflattering photos and posts that suggest you have been partying or participating in pranks or illegal activities.  Do colleges look at your online profile when considering you for admission?  It turns out they probably won't.

Consider this from Todd Weaver, Senior Associate at Strategies for College, Inc.  :

"Every admissions rep I've spoken to over the past few years has simply laughed when I ask if they have time to review a potential student's social media sites. They are so busy - typically spending 5-6 minutes reading an application - that they have no time to chase down Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites that Teens might be on.

This is a "scare tactic" article that pops up every year. Admissions officers will not voluntarily chase this information down.

Granted, if a college has to go to it's waitlist and there are two similar candidates, then, and only then, might they possibly have time to look at a student's social media site."

And this from Christine VanDeVelde,  Author of College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step:

"I agree with Todd. We have heard the same thing in talking with admission deans. The exceptions: 1. Scholarship students; 2. Athletes; and 3. When a student has made a claim that the school is seeking to verify by Googling the student."

Ms. VanDeVelde is referring to high profile scholarships (the ones with names), not the basic financial aid packages most students receive.  Furthermore, a college probably won't check to confirm that you were really the president of the German club, but will check if you make an unusual claim:  "I wrote a best-seller."  "I hold a patent." or "I was named ambassador to Andorra."

This is not to say that you shouldn't be careful about how you present yourself online. It's not too early to take basic precautions about what you post or tweet.  However, unless you fall into one of the categories mentioned above, you can scratch "clean up my profile" off your college application to-do list.