{"id":1617,"date":"2014-03-25t09:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-25t09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=1617"},"modified":"2015-04-14t23:19:04","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14t23:19:04","slug":"sat-writing-conditional-tense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-conditional-tense\/","title":{"rendered":"sat writing – conditional tense"},"content":{"rendered":"

the conditional tense is rarely tested on the sat, and usually when it is, the answer jumps out at you because it just sounds weird.<\/p>\n

an easy way to think of the conditional tense is as the \u201cif\u201d tense. it describes something that hasn\u2019t happened but that could happen. take a look:<\/p>\n

1) if i had studied more, i would have done well on the test.<\/p>\n

2) if the sun comes out, the ice will melt.<\/p>\n

the first sentence describes something that didn\u2019t happen but that could have happened had something else taken place in the past. the conditional tense has a formulaic way of describing this: if x had \u201cverb\u201d-ed, then y (some event or outcome). or even more simply, \u201chad x \u201cverb\u201d-ed, then y\u201d.<\/p>\n

the first sentence is even more straightforward and describes an event that can happen in the future if another condition is met. this simple conditional tense doesn\u2019t really come up on the sat.<\/p>\n

anyhow, you probably get this, since it\u2019s the basic english you\u2019ve known for as long as you can remember. so the sat isn\u2019t going to test something that most students get right away. instead, the conditional tense would be a larger part of a question and probably won\u2019t be tested directly.<\/p>\n

\"se-ct_img1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

the answer is (c), since there is no room for a conjunction in the conditional tense. remember, you need \u201chad x verb-ed, then y (some event). therefore, you don\u2019t need \u201calthough\u201d. of course many of you can just tell by reading the sentence that the \u201calthough\u201d sounds really jarring. i know, you shouldn\u2019t use your ear on the sat writing section. but there are some instances in which a word clearly doesn\u2019t belong. in this specific case, you have more than your ear to guide you; you now know the conditional tense.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the conditional tense is rarely tested on the sat, and usually when it is, the answer jumps out at you because it just sounds weird. an easy way to think of the conditional tense is as the \u201cif\u201d tense. it describes something that hasn\u2019t happened but that could happen. take a look: 1) if i […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[52,84],"ppma_author":[24882],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nsat writing - conditional tense - magoosh blog | high school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-conditional-tense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"sat 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lele","image":{"@type":"imageobject","inlanguage":"en-us","@id":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/9f063fdc4c0268d1eac74c41e0906a03","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/198545d5a4baea0ba0fd0c0fc8a5d466?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contenturl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/198545d5a4baea0ba0fd0c0fc8a5d466?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"chris lele"},"description":"chris graduated from ucla with a ba in psychology and has 20 years of experience in the test prep industry. he's been quoted as a subject expert in many publications, including us news, gmac, and business because.","sameas":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/chrislelemagoosh1\/","ttps:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/chris-lele-095005a0","https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrismagoosh","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/ucz4sgyj6l0cgnvnihy8gy6w"],"knowsabout":["gre","gmat","sat","act","mcat (cars)","lsat"],"jobtitle":"principal curriculum manager","worksfor":"magoosh","url":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/author\/chris\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":24882,"user_id":10,"is_guest":0,"slug":"chris","display_name":"chris lele","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/198545d5a4baea0ba0fd0c0fc8a5d466?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"lele","first_name":"chris","description":"chris lele is the principal curriculum manager (and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/vocabulary-builder-workbook-activities-must-know\/dp\/193975481x\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vocabulary wizard<\/a>) at magoosh. chris graduated from ucla with a ba in psychology and has 20 years of experience in the test prep industry. he's been quoted as a subject expert in many publications, including<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/education\/best-colleges\/slideshows\/10-test-prep-tips-for-sat-and-act-takers\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> us news<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mba.com\/exams-and-exam-prep\/gmat-exam\/why-take-the-gmat-in-2021-when-many-schools-are-test-optional\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> gmac<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessbecause.com\/news\/gmat\/3263\/mba-admissions-gre-challenges-gmat\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> business because<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\r\nin his time at magoosh, chris has taught countless students how to tackle the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gre-prep-magoosh\/dp\/1939418917\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> gre<\/a>, gmat, sat, act, mcat (cars), and lsat exams with confidence. some of his students have even gone on to get near-perfect scores. you can find chris on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/ucz4sgyj6l0cgnvnihy8gy6w\">youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/chris-lele-095005a0\"> linkedin<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrismagoosh\">twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/chrislelemagoosh1\/\">facebook<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}