PSSA Study Tips

Adam Haddad

Period 4

Propaganda

• Propaganda- information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation.

• Hasty-Generalization- a logical fallacy of faulty generalization by reaching an inductive generalization

based on insufficient evidence.

• Red Herring- something intended to divert attention

from the real problem or matter at hand; a misleading clue.

Propaganda Contd.

• Appeal to Fear - a strategy that relies on what might happen if they take the opposite position.

• False Cause - fallacy attributes cause and effect relationship when none is proven to exist.

• Bandwagon - the observation that people often do and believe things because many other people do and believe the same things

Prefixes

• Prefix - To put or attach before or in front of.

• Re- again back

• Un - not

• Mis- not

• De – down, away

• Dis – apart, not

Suffixes

• Suffix - something added to the end of something else.

• Able – able, can do.

• Ous – full of, having.

• Ment – act of, result.

• Ness – state of.

• Ful – full of.

Other Things To Know

• Tone – authors attitude towards the subject.

• Mood - a state or quality of feeling at a particular time.

• Simile - a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in “she is like a rose.”

• Metaphor - a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally said, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”

• Flashback - an event or scene taking place before the present time to help you better understand the present.

Other Things To Know

• Personification- giving something human characteristics to anything that isn't human.

• Irony – something you wouldn’t expect.

• Synonym -a word with the same meaning to another word.

• Antonym - a word opposite in meaning to another.

• Foreshadow – authors clues to upcoming events in the book.

How I Approached the PSSA

• I got a good night sleep before the test.

• I ate breakfast.

• I was confident that I would do well.

• Used a highlighter to focus on the main points.

• Read the whole passage thoroughly.

How I Approached the PSSA

• Gathered my thoughts after reading to better understand the passage.

• Followed the directions for the open ended responses.

• Filled up a whole page every time even if I had to make up a few things.

• Take extra time if necessary. (NO RUSH)

Review of the PSSA

• I think the PSSAs are way overrated. I mean they are a big deal but they are not that difficult. Its basic reading. If you are in high school you should be able to easily pass this test.

Review of the PSSA

• By the way the school talks the test up it makes kids nervous. My advice to you is just keep your cool. Be confident. If you don’t know guess. And most of all TRY YOUR BEST!!!