9 original Form, Structure and Sense questions, easiest first. Agreement, tense, pronouns, modifiers, parallelism. Answer them all, then submit once to see every answer explained.
Neither the head chef nor the kitchen assistants ______ aware that the delivery had arrived early.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
B — were. In a 'neither...nor' construction, the verb agrees with the subject closer to it—here, the plural 'kitchen assistants.' 'Were' is the correct plural past-tense verb.
The data collected from the weather stations ______ reviewed by a team of climatologists before the report was finalized.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
C — were. In formal Standard English, 'data' is treated as a plural noun (the plural of 'datum'), requiring the plural past-tense verb 'were.'
By the time the audit team reviewed the files, the accounting staff ______ already corrected most of the discrepancies.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
C — had. The sentence describes an action (correcting discrepancies) that was completed before another past action (the audit team reviewing files), which requires the past perfect tense. 'Had' correctly forms the past perfect.
Having spent five years compiling oral histories, the archive ______ finally made accessible to the public by the historical society.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A — was. The archive was made accessible—a completed single past action, matching the singular subject 'archive'—requires simple past 'was,' not the plural 'were' or the non-finite 'having been.'
The nonprofit's board of trustees ______ its annual fundraising gala this coming October.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A — hosts. 'Board of trustees' functions as a singular collective noun acting as a unit, requiring the singular present-tense verb 'hosts.'
The data collected from the sensors ______ analyzed by a team of engineers before the bridge was reopened to traffic.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A — were. In formal Standard English, 'data' is treated as a plural noun (the plural of 'datum'), requiring the plural past-tense verb 'were.'
The review panel, after examining dozens of submissions, ______ its shortlist to the awards committee next week.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
B — submits. 'Review panel' is a singular collective noun acting as a unit, requiring the singular present-tense verb 'submits'; the interrupting phrase 'after examining dozens of submissions' does not change the subject's number.
Every one of the proposed amendments to the bylaws ______ discussed thoroughly at the annual meeting.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
B — was. 'Every one' is a singular subject, taking the singular past-tense verb 'was,' regardless of the plural noun 'amendments' within the prepositional phrase that follows it.
A majority of the collection's manuscripts ______ damaged by moisture before the archive relocated to a climate-controlled facility.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
D — were. 'A majority of' followed by a plural noun ('manuscripts') takes a plural verb, making 'were' the correct choice, agreeing with the plural sense of the manuscripts being damaged.
Score:
Every question above is now marked up: the correct answer is highlighted, any wrong option you picked is flagged, and each explanation is open.
No. Every question here is original, written to the College Board's published Digital SAT Reading & Writing specification for the Form, Structure and Sense skill. No retired or copyrighted College Board material appears anywhere on this site.
Form, Structure and Sense covers the rest of Standard English Conventions: subject-verb agreement, verb tense and form, pronoun agreement and clarity, modifier placement, and parallel structure within a list or comparison.
For agreement, find the actual subject of the verb and mentally delete every phrase between them — the SAT inserts long prepositional phrases specifically to hide a singular subject behind a plural noun. For tense, find the other verbs and time markers in the passage and match them. For a modifier, check what the phrase sits next to: it modifies that, whether or not that is what the writer meant.
No, and deliberately so. This drill is 9 Form, Structure and Sense questions back to back; a real Reading & Writing module is 27 questions in 32 minutes drawn from all eleven skills. Use a drill to fix one weakness, then take a full module to practice the real thing.
No. The SAT has no penalty for a wrong answer — a blank and a wrong guess both score zero — so answer every question, including the ones you have to guess.