About: GMAT, Sentence Correction, Verbal
40% of the GMAT verbal section is comprised of sentence corrections, it is one of the most important sections for the verbal as it is easy to prepare for and is an excellent place to gain time. You should aim to spend less than 1 minute per sentence correction question but ideally you should spend about 30 seconds.
This section is all about elimination, knowing your rules of grammar eliminate about 90% of answer choices on the GMAT. You will never find a grammar error in a correct answer. This is the most important thing tested and good knowledge of basic grammar concepts is essential, the Grammar points to look at for the sentence correction section:
- Subject and verb agreement
This is a GMAT favourite, they will mix up the subject and verb agreement at all available opportunities. Usually putting intervening phrases in between the subject and the verb. Always make sure you find the subject first and then the verb.
- Coordination of verb tenses
- Adverbs
- Pronouns
- Present Participle
- Countable and Uncountable nouns
Fewer is countable. Less is not countable. The nouns “many” and “few” apply to things that are countable, for example: people, seconds, time, cars, windows, buildings while “little” and “much” apply to objects that are uncountable such as time, pollution, money. You can test which one you need to use by using: “too…. many / few / little / many ….”
- Branching off into Idiomatic forms
Idioms are things that can be wrong on the GMAT just because they are so, this is based on knowledge and have many exceptions so can be issue, this is based on experience and there is little that can be done to improve it beyond practice
- Style & Meaning
This goes with logical plausibility, usually one or two answers can be eliminated by deduction. This is usually done by changing the order of words. Changing the meaning can also make a sentence sound strange but be grammatically correct. All things being kept equal it is better to keep the original meaning but it is not an essential. For Example: Sorry, your flowers were eaten by me.. This sentence is grammatically correct but its meaning is awkward, this is correct.
- Mods and Comparisons
- Branching off in Parallel Structures
This is for me the easiest one to find as it only means that you need to find differences between bits in a sentence, if words end in “ed” in part of the sentence but end in “ing” in other parts then there is a parallelism issue.
- Pronoun and Antecedents
- Subjunctive
- Plurals and Singulars
There are only two things that make words plurals, to infer numbers (as in more than 1) and the use of the word “and”.
- Has / Have - Fewer / Less Than – A / An - That / Which - Me / I - Who / Whom
- Difference between “ed and “ing” endings
- Limited Modifiers
Limiting modifiers are words that dramatically change the meaning of a sentence. Words such as: Simply, Only, Never, Always.
Examples: Only my sister knows the combination to the lock – Means only the sister knows the combination
My sister only knows the combination…. – Means that the sister only knows that and nothing else
My sister knows only the combination of the lock. – Means that the sister is very forgetful and forgets other things
I will go to the store / I might go to the store
Those have different meanings and a simple word changes that. Will is stronger than might.
A group of people are waiting for the bus / A group of people is waiting for the bus
Both are grammatically correct but imply different meanings, “is“ means the group is together, they are waiting together and know / interact with each other, “are” means that the group consists of a group of separate individuals who have no interaction between each other.
- Dangling or squinting modifiers
- Logical Plausibility
The active voice is usually preferable to passive voice. But if the subject is unclear than keep the passive voice: Three whales were harpooned by an unknown assailant.
When there are unnecessary words it is preferable to omit even if both are correct.
If the river overflows, then the town will sink / If the river overflows, the town will sink
Both are grammatically correct, the second one would be the right answer on the GMAT.
The correct answer within the Sentence Correction section is always one sentence long, never two or more.
Tips for the Sentence Correction Section
On the sentence correction, it is easier to cross off the wrong answers rather than find the correct one, to help you achieve this (as you can write on the computer monitor) I like to use the fingers of my hand. As you start the question, I keep my hand open with all fingers outstretched, thumb is A and so forth, each time I eliminate an answer, I “fold” its respective finger. This allows me gain time by not having to re-read the answer choices and doesn’t confuse me as much. Also, instead of writing it down on paper, I like this approach as it allows my eyes to remain focused on the screen.
Hard Sentence Correction questions are usually:
- Longer sentences
- Compound or complex sentences
- Diction
- Longer underlined portion
- Correct answer is often the less appealing
A hard Sentence Correction question cannot be eliminated using the process of elimination, it must be done grammatically.
The recommended process for Sentence Correction is as follows:
- Read the sentence as is (the underlined part in the question sentence is always A)
- Predict the best structure, find the error.
- Eliminate all the mistakes that you can find within the underlined part.
- Do the split scan, this means going through all the answers trying to find the differences within them, usually easiest to start by looking at the start and the end of the sentences. This is also useful in pointing out what the errors might be.
- Locate adverbs and quasi-homonyms by using the rover scan. Look for verbs to make sure they follow with the subject. Look for modifiers within the sentence (adverbs, adjectives, comparison, clauses)
- Eliminate all the wrong answers (of course) and keep the 1 or 2 that are grammatically sound, only at this point can you look at the style of the sentence and make your choice accordingly
About: GMAT, Sentence Correction, Verbal
