Brian McElroy's Tutoring Blog

Customized SAT and ACT progress reports now available for all McElroy Tutoring students

Posted 2021-07-11

McElroy Tutoring has been growing very quickly over the past few months, so suddenly I'm spending the majority of my weekday mornings and afternoons managing company policy, consulting with local parents, and directing our team of tutors. Then, of course, when the late afternoon/evening rolls around, it's time for private tutoring with my SAT, ACT, and college consulting students (I usually tutor from about 2:30 - 9:00 PM on weeknights, 11AM - 5PM on weekends). Finally, at night, I try to add to... Keep Reading

More Free SAT notes by Brian McElroy

Posted 2021-07-11

Attached is a free downloadable PDF which includes 17 additional pages of my personal SAT notes for high school students. All explanations correspond to questions from the Official Guide to the SAT.
These notes are a good resource for students, parents, or other SAT tutors who are looking to strengthen the quality of their instruction.
Soon we will include audio explanations as well, but for now, paper and pen will have to do!
-Brian
BRM_SATnotes_July31Aug1.pdf... Keep Reading

Scores on Princeton Review SATs at Francis Parker 100-200 points lower than real PSAT scores.

Posted 2022-09-26

In the fall of 2007, Francis Parker High School in San Diego administered a practice SAT exam for their juniors. This test was created by the Princeton Review, a large and well-known test prep company.
Around the same time, Parker juniors took the official PSAT, which was administered by the College Board, the company that makes the SAT. Recently, the Parker counselors handed back the results from both tests. The results were laughable: many students' scores on the Princeton Review SAT we... Keep Reading

SAT Writing Error: Faulty Comparisons

Posted 2021-07-11

FREE SAT PREP VIDEOS : McElroy Tutoring founder Brian McElroy explains the Grammatical Error of Faulty Comparisons. Keep Reading

SAT Math: Don't Do It the Math Class Way

Posted 2021-07-11

FREE SAT PREP VIDEOS : McElroy Tutoring founder Brian McElroy explains why the "Math Class Way" is often the wrong way on SAT Math Problems. Keep Reading

SAT Word of the Day: Prosaic

Posted 2021-07-11

from dictionary.com:
PROSAIC adjective 1. commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative: a prosaic mind. 2. of or having the character or form of prose rather than poetry.
Brian’s visual trick / sentence : MS. ROSE’S PROSE or ROSA’S MOSAIC
pROS-aic “ROS” = ROSE
PROS-aic “PROS” = PROSE
p-ROSA-ic
Prosaic Rhymes with: MOSAIC
—-
My English Teacher, Mrs. ROSE, told us that she prefers poetry... Keep Reading

SAT Word of the Day: Dilatory

Posted 2021-07-11

from dictionary.com:
DILATORY –adjective 1. tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy. 2. intended to cause delay, gain time, or defer decision: a dilatory strategy
Brian’s visual trick / sentence:
(DILA-tory) “DILA” = DELAY
(di-LATOR-y) “LATOR” = LATER
Sentence: A DILATORY person DELAYS things until LATER.... Keep Reading

Why you shouldn't be a "Spotless Test Taker" and Brian's "Write Right" Method for the SAT

Posted 2021-07-11

As an experienced SAT tutor, I find that most of my students these days are students who already have very GOOD scores on the SAT, but are looking for GREAT scores.

One of the problems that I encounter frequently with these naturally gifted students is that they like to do everything in their head because it requires less manual labor (in other words, they don't have to lift that oh-so-heavy pencil of theirs). I call them “spotless test takers&... Keep Reading

SAT Writing Error #3: Pronoun Ambiguity

Posted 2021-07-11

Please correct the following sentence:
“Mr. Jones read a story to his son until he feel asleep.”
should read:
“Mr. Jones read a story to his son until his son fell asleep.”
Why is this? Since there are two “he“s in this sentence, it unclear to whom you are referring. The specific term for this is that you are dealing with an “ambiguous pronoun.” While it seems obvious that Mr. Jones is not the one who falls asleep, you n... Keep Reading