You may have heard that the GMAT is no longer testing idioms. You also may have heard that the first 10 questions on the GMAT are the most important. You also may have heard that Lindsey Lohan is great at Data Sufficiency.<\/p>\n
Why do you believe everything you hear?<\/p>\n
Dr. Lawrence Rudner is the Vice President of Research and Development at the Graduate Management Admission Council. In other words, he is The Man with regards to the GMAT. Here is what he has to say<\/a> on the matter: \u201cSome Sentence Correction items continue to pose reasoning tasks that incorporate English-language, NOT American, idioms.\u00a0These are not intended to test specialized knowledge of colloquialisms and regionalisms.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, the GMAT will continue to require you to understand which of the two following sentences is correct.<\/p>\n I am capable of acing the GMAT. <\/em><\/p>\n I am capable to ace the GMAT. <\/em><\/p>\n You should know that the adjective \u201ccapable\u201d is always followed by the preposition \u201cof\u201d and a gerund. There is no need to memorize hundreds of idioms: your Knewton core work, the practice on the freely available GMAT Prep software, and (if you still need more questions) the GMAT Official Guides should be sufficient to learn all the commonly tested idioms.<\/p>\n The idioms you do not<\/strong> need to learn are those that are specific to American, or any other, culture. For example, Americans sometimes use the phrase \u201cHe\u2019s gone bananas\u201d to mean that someone has gone a little crazy. This phrase, however, would not necessarily suggest that meaning in other cultures.<\/p>\n There are also some rumors out there that Sentence Correction is changing. Once again, I\u2019ll defer to the esteemable Dr. Rudner: \u201cIn recent years, GMAT item writers have been concentrating on the reasoning aspects rather than the purely grammatical aspects of Sentence Correction skills\u2026. This means that whereas two sentences may both be grammatically appropriate, the correct answer is the sentence that is most \u2018effective\u2019 \u2500 the sentence that better expresses the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n So there is no change, just a continuation of a policy that has existed for at least a few years: clarity of expression, as well as grammar, is tested in Sentence Correction. This should come as no surprise to Knewton students. Our lessons emphasize that the SC sections tests meaning and clarity as well as grammar. \u00a0So there may be two grammatically correct answer choices, but only one will clearly express the meaning implied by the question prompt.<\/p>\n As I close this blog post, I want to give a special thanks to GMAC\u2019s Director of Field Marketing, Joanna Graham, who responded to an email in 5 minutes on a Saturday night. Why we are both working at 8:45 on a Saturday\u2026 \u00a0well, that\u2019s an issue for another post.<\/p>\n You can see the full text of Dr. Rudner\u2019s post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n