Minority Rule - How to Answer an SAT Question in About 5 Seconds
What I’m about to explain in this blog post will allow you to answer certain grammar questions in 5 seconds.
I want to present 1 idea in this post and give you 2 applications for it.
Minority Rule:
This is the idea that if 3 of the answer choices all fit a certain pattern and one does not, the one that doesn’t is almost always correct.
This is not my original finding- it is in countless SAT courses and books, and is an important thing to understand and apply.
Now, 2 very common applications that you are guaranteed to find in the grammar section of just about every Reading and Writing module you come across.
(I went through my practice tests on College Board to see how often I was able to use the minority rule to answer questions in ~ 5 seconds, and here’s what I found:
Practice Test 11 Hard Eng Module: 4 times
Practice Test 10 Hard Eng Module: 1 time
Practice Test 8 Hard Eng Module: 2 times
Practice Test 7 Hard Eng Module: 1 time
Practice Test 6 Easy Eng Module: 4 times
Practice Test 4 Easy Eng Module: 3 times
Overall: 15 times in 6 tests, and it worked every time!
We can roughly estimate that the minority rule trick as I explain it below will come up about 2.5 times per SAT (both modules), making up about 20% of Standard English Convention.
Conservatively, knowing this trick can bank you an additional 20-30 points on the SAT and importantly, give you more time to spend on the harder problems).
First Application: Finite/Infinite Verb Form.
Rule: Every sentence needs a verb. (In that last sentence, the verb was “needs”).
I am not an English grammarian, and even using terms like “finite verb form” feels so wrong. When I tutor 1:1, I call them “main verbs” and “not main verbs”.
The main verb, or finite verb is one that can complete a sentence in 2 or 3 words.
“He ran”
“They went out”
“I like pizza”
“We got mail”
The above are all complete sentences, or independent clauses, and I’ve underlined the “main verb” of each. Each sentence only has one verb, and that is enough.
Contrast that with the following:
“He running” -> “He is running” (note that while this sentence is only 3 words, the main verb is "is", not "running")
“They to go out” -> “They want to go out”
“I having liked pizza” -> “Having liked pizza in the past, I got a slice”
“We to have gotten mail” -> “We hope to have gotten mail”
Notice that in the last 4 examples, we start with a sentence that doesn’t work. It’s broken. We fix all 4 examples by adding main verbs to the sentence (is, want, got, and hope).
The point is, any verb that is preceded by “to”, “having”, or “to have” or ending with “ing” cannot be the only verb in a sentence, and is therefore not a “main verb”. They don’t stand alone.
Check out a few questions from the CB question bank: Focus only on the answer choices.
Example 1
Choice A: main verb
Choice B: not a main verb (preceding “to”)
Choice C: not a main verb (preceding “having”)
Choice D: not a main verb (“ing”)
Minority Rule: Choice A is correct - it is the only main verb in a sea of imposters.
Example 2
Choice A: not a main verb (“ing”)
Choice B: main verb
Choice C: not a main verb (preceding “to”)
Choice D: not a main verb (preceding “having”)
Minority Rule: Choice B is correct
Example 3
Choice A: main verb
Choice B: main verb
Choice C: not a main verb (“ing”)
Choice D: main verb (note the word “will” does not stop this from being a main verb. Main verbs need not be 1 word)
Minority Rule: Choice C is correct (notice this sentence already has a main verb: “patented”)
The minority rule is powerful when applied to verb form questions where verbs with “ing”, “to”, “having”, and “to have” fit in a different bucket than verbs without.
There is a 2nd application of the minority rule: The “it/they” rule.
This one definitely comes up more frequently than the main verb examples, and is even easier to apply!
We’ll start with a quick example, as it will become clear very quickly how this works.
Example 4
When reading the answer choices, try putting the words “it” or “they” before each choice.
They are
They have been
They are being
It is
Minority Rule: D is correct as it is the only choice where “It” works and not “They”.
Note that trying to put “It” before choices A, B, or C would make no grammatical sense and is insulting the ear. Same with “They is” for choice D.
Example 5
It underlies
It is underlying
They underlie
It has been underlying
Minority Rule: Choice C is correct as it is the only choice where “They” works and not “It”.
FAQs:
What if an answer choice works with both “it” and “they”? What if there are 2 main verbs and 2 non-main verbs? What if there are 2 “it” words and 2 “they” words?
Minority rule does not apply to this question and you may have to suffer through actually reading the question and finding the right answer without this trick.
