"Grammar on the way back? "Systematic teaching of sentence structure has been long discouraged in education circles, but concerns about writing skills are leading many to reassess. Trying to change course, the board will add a new 800-point section to the SAT test two years from now in which students spend 25 minutes writing an essay and equal time answering multiple-choice questions on grammar, including such matters as subject-verb agreement and sentence construction. The test will have three 800-point sections: math, verbal and writing/grammar."