SAT Subject-Verb Agreement: Every Pattern Tested

Find the Real Subject

Most SAT agreement traps work by inserting a prepositional phrase between the subject and verb. Cross out the intervening phrase and check whether the verb agrees with the actual subject.

Tricky Cases

These patterns catch strong students.

• Collective nouns (team, jury) — singular in American English.
• Either/or and neither/nor — the verb agrees with the closer subject.
• There is / there are — the verb agrees with what follows.
• Each, every, everyone — always singular.

What to do after reading this

1. Turn the article into one action: a bank drill, a timed module, or a score calculation.
2. Write down the exact skill or habit you are testing.
3. Review the result before reading another guide.

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Mistakes to avoid

• Reading multiple guides without doing practice between them.
• Using broad practice when the article points to a narrow skill.
• Treating format knowledge as score improvement before testing it under time.

Use this in practice

• Drill questions

  Turn the strategy into targeted SAT practice.

• Take a timed module

  Check pacing with a realistic module.

• Estimate your score

  Convert raw results into a 1600-scale estimate.