SAT — harder transitions: still, hence, in turn, granted

The harder transitions questions on the digital SAT rarely turn on however or therefore. They use connectives that students recognize but seldom use themselves, such as still, hence, in turn, to that end, by the same token, granted and that said, and they move the blank to places that hide the relationship: right after a semicolon, or in the middle of a sentence, set off by commas after the subject.

This material gives each of those connectives its own item. The twelve quiz questions are built on original texts of about 35 to 70 words, on a battery prototype, a mountain pass closed by snow, oxygen in a warming lake, a library digitizing old newspapers, city officials and drought rules, a museum's remounted dinosaurs, mail between New York and New Orleans, preparing a sample for an electron microscope, a new transit timetable, a river survey, Moby-Dick's poor early sales and Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica. Three blanks sit after a semicolon and two sit inside a sentence, one of them with though.

In every answer set the three wrong options come from families clearly different from the key and from each other, so there is never a pair of near-synonyms that would both fit. The explanations name the family of each wrong option (result, example, similarity, restatement, time, contrast) and say what it would have claimed about the text. That is the skill the hard module rewards: knowing that hence belongs with therefore, that in turn marks the next link in a chain of causes, and that granted admits a point the writer is about to answer.

The flashcards define each connective with a model sentence, group the concession family, and explain how to read a blank after a semicolon or inside a sentence.

It offers two formats: a quiz of twelve questions with explanations for every option, and a set of twelve flashcards. It is practice material written by Zestly and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board.

• Recognize the logical family of less common connectives such as hence, in turn, to that end, by the same token, granted and that said
• Choose transitions for blanks placed after a semicolon or in the middle of a sentence
• Distinguish concession (still, even so, granted, that said) from contrast, result and time relationships
• Rule out wrong options by naming the relationship each one would signal

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the College Board's published description of the digital SAT Reading and Writing section (54 questions in 64 minutes, short texts of 25 to 150 words), Expression of Ideas domain, Transitions skill, as described on satsuite.collegeboard.org (checked September 2026). All texts, notes and questions are original.