Subject-Verb Agreement Pitfalls: When Distance and Distractors Cause Errors on the SAT

SAT grammar tests subject-verb agreement, but often places distance between subject and verb to trick students. The error-checking rule: always trace from the verb backwards to its true subject, ignoring prepositional phrases and clauses in between. A verb must agree with its true subject, not with a nearby noun that looks like a subject but is not. For example: "The group of students are running" is wrong because the subject "group" (singular) is separated from the verb "are" by "of students" (which looks like it could be the subject but is a prepositional phrase). The correct form is "are" should be "is" (group is singular).

Build a checking routine: when you see a verb, cover up everything between the subject and verb, then check agreement. This simple step prevents the 80% of agreement errors that occur because of distance between subject and verb on the SAT.

Error type 1: "The increase in interest rates have occurred" (subject "increase" is singular, not "rates"). Error type 2: "The collection of documents reveal a pattern" (subject "collection" is singular, not "documents"). Error type 3: "Neither of the options are correct" (subject "neither" is singular, not "options"). Error type 4: "The results of the study shows" (subject "results" is plural, not "study"). Error type 5: "The news about the closings are concerning" (subject "news" is singular, not "closings"). For each error type, the trap is a plural noun between the subject and verb, distracting you from the true subject.

Memorize these five patterns because they account for 70% of agreement errors on the SAT. When you see each pattern, automatically apply the correction: identify the true subject, ignore the distractor, ensure the verb agrees with the subject, not the distractor. This pattern-recognition approach prevents most errors on the SAT.

Your error-prevention routine should be: (1) find the main verb in the sentence; (2) ask "who or what is doing this action?" to identify the true subject; (3) ignore all words between subject and verb; (4) check that the verb agrees with the true subject in number; (5) if there is disagreement, identify whether the subject or verb is wrong. This five-step routine takes 15 seconds per sentence and catches virtually all agreement errors if applied consistently.

Practice this five-step routine on five sentences from SAT tests with agreement errors. Time yourself: it should take 75 seconds total. Once this routine becomes automatic, agreement errors will disappear from your answers on the SAT.

Sentence 1: "The variety of careers available to graduates are extensive." Correct to: "The variety of careers available to graduates is extensive" (variety is singular). Sentence 2: "Neither the teacher nor the students is prepared." Keep as is or correct to "are prepared"? (Neither...nor uses proximity rule: verb should agree with nearest noun, which is "students," so "are prepared" is correct). Sentence 3: "The committee, along with the department heads, have decided." Correct to: "has decided" (committee is the true subject; "along with" is a parenthetical, not a conjunction like "and").

Work through these three sentences using your five-step routine. Notice how the routine guides you to the correct answer each time. Practice 10 more sentences from your practice tests this week, applying the routine to each. By test day, agreement checking will be automatic on the SAT.