{"id":2451,"date":"2010-02-23T16:37:31","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T00:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=2451"},"modified":"2013-03-24T15:26:16","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T22:26:16","slug":"veritas-prep-gmat-tips-reinvent-the-idiom-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/veritas-prep-gmat-tips-reinvent-the-idiom-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"Veritas Prep GMAT Tips: Reinvent the Idiom Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s <\/em>GMAT preparation<\/em><\/a> courses.<\/em><\/p>\n

The authors of GMAT questions have what seems like a simple task: create one correct answer and four incorrect answers for each question, using the GMAT\u2019s many testable concept areas to add difficulty and subtlety to each.\u00a0 However, in practice, this is easier said than done.\u00a0 Take Sentence Correction, for example, in which the GMAT tests a somewhat limited scope of grammar.\u00a0 To create five plausible (but four incorrect) choices, the author needs to hide grammatical errors in four sentences while leaving one correct in a way that isn\u2019t entirely obvious, all using a few major grammatical devices like subject-verb agreement and parallelism.\u00a0 How many sentences lend themselves to subtle errors in both subject-verb agreement and parallelism, with the added benefit of doing so in a fashion that allows for the errors to appear close enough together for a streamlined \u201cunderlined portion\u201d?\u00a0 Fewer than you\u2019d think.<\/p>\n

While the authors of the GMAT seldom focus on idioms, they do reserve the right to employ some regularly-occurring idioms that go hand-in-hand with other error categories to make that subtle distinction required for difficulty.\u00a0 Consider the sentence:<\/p>\n

The endowment of Harvard University is twice as much than Stanford.<\/p>\n

This sentence tests the parallel comparison of the endowment of one school to that of <\/em>another.\u00a0 Because \u201cthe endowment of Harvard\u201d cannot be compared to \u201cStanford\u201d, but can be compared to Stanford\u2019s endowment, this sentence requires the use of the phrase \u201cthat of Stanford\u201d to correctly execute the comparison:<\/p>\n

The endowment of Harvard University is twice as much than that of Stanford.<\/p>\n

Even so, however, the phrase \u201cas much than\u201d is incorrect, based on an idiom.\u00a0 The correct phrase is \u201cas much as\u201d.\u00a0 Because the GMAT frequently uses comparisons to test parallel sentence structure, it tends to often test the following idioms that go with comparisons:<\/p>\n

\u201cas many as\u201d or \u201cas much as\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cso many that\u201d or \u201cso much that\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cmore than\u201d or \u201cless than\u201d<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s how they do it: did you ever have one of those toys as a kid that had pictures of three animals \u2013 say, a horse, a bird, and a dolphin \u2013 segmented in to head, body, and feet?\u00a0 The toy featured a wheel that you could spin to change the positions of each so that you could end up with, for example, the head of a horse on the body and fin of a dolphin with bird\u2019s feet, and to a kid that\u2019s about as funny as it gets, right?\u00a0 Well, the GMAT uses a similar wheel to create incorrect comparison idioms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

As<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

So<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

More\/Less<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Many\/Much<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

As<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

That<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Than<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

With this table, the authors can \u201cspin the wheel\u201d on the last word in each phrase and create an idiom nearly as illogical as the horse-bird-phin:\u00a0 \u201cas many that\u201d or \u201cas much than\u201d.\u00a0 In doing so, the authors of the GMAT can make their job of creating subtle differences for four incorrect answers that much easier (maybe it was a Friday afternoon and they were trying to cut out for a weekend?), and the answer choices may appear that much more similar, making your job tougher.\u00a0 So be warned \u2013 when the GMAT tests comparisons, it often includes these phrases to round out the question.\u00a0 The GMAT preys upon your own mental laziness throughout the test, penalizing you for making assumptions or missing steps, so seize this opportunity to capitalize on the author\u2019s favorite lazy device.<\/p>\n

Read more GMAT advice on the Veritas Prep blog<\/a>. Ready to sign up for a GMAT course? Enroll through GMAT Club and you\u2019ll not only save up to $180 (use discount code GMATC10<\/strong>), but you\u2019ll also get access to all 30 of GMAT Club\u2019s GMAT practice tests! Read more info here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"GMAT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s GMAT preparation courses. The authors of GMAT questions have what seems like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17635,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions\/17635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}