Accountability Post - SC Ability Booster Session 1

Question

Stages of GMAT preparation  
Stage 1 - GMAT aspirants learn the concepts and the application of process to solve GMAT SC questions. 
Stage 2 or Cementing – GMAT aspirants cement the process – solidify it – to achieve 90th percentile ability. 
Stage 3 – GMAT aspirants answer different kinds of questions in the test environment. This stage includes taking mixed quizzes and mocks.

Introducing Ability Booster Sessions – Making Cementing Stage more effective!  
As part of this cementing process, we now offer our students Ability Booster sessions every week, pushing them to success at an even faster pace. For each sub-section, we offer two ability booster sessions to all eligible e-GMAT students at no extra charge.

Accountability Post  
A very critical part of this process is “accountability” – it is human nature that if we are answerable to someone, then we perform that task in a way better manner. So, this post serves that very intent – we expect our Ability Booster session attendees, to submit their homework in this thread in the format as explained.

Steps for your HW  
1. Step 1 – Take the quiz at  this  location.
2. Step 2 – Review the solutions and do strategic review. Solutions will be available after you take the quiz. Fill in the error-log for pertinent questions. e-GMAT SC-Error-log can be downloaded in this post (and is available in your e-GMAT student portal).
3. Step 3 – Submit your HW as a reply in this thread in the format shown below:

Format of your Accountability Post  
 Date:   (of the Ability Booster Session you attended) 
 Summarized Learnings:   (Answer at least one of these two questions) 
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions? 
2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
 Error-Log Entry for Question # with Question Text   (enter question number and some part of the text of the question for easy identification)   And then copy and paste the following entries from your filled up SC-error-log

Reason for Entry:

Meaning Analysis 
SS of Choice A: 
Meaning of Choice A as-is: 
Summarized Meaning in my own words: 
Probe questions:

Error Analysis 
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:

Answer Choice Analysis 
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: 
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: 
Conceptual gap:

Details 
Comments: 
Corrective Actions:

Repeat the above for the next question.

Closing Comments:  
Let's use our SC-error-log judiciously as discussed in the Cementing Module in your SC course and as re-emphasized in the Ability Booster session. And let's use this thread as our accountability post!

Happy Learning!
Regards,
Payal Tandon

YMWY65 · Answer

Date: 24-08-2022
Summarized Learnings: (Answer at least one of these two questions)
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?

Prior to this session I was rushing into detecting the grammatical errors in a sentence but now I make sure I extract the correct meaning out of the sentence, understand the logic and then start checking for errors.

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
 Asking the correct probe questions makes the error analysis part a lot easier.
 
Error-Log Entry for Question # with Question Text (enter question number and some part of the text of the question for easy identification) And then copy and paste the following entries from your filled up SC-error-log

Question #1 ( Although manufacturers have learned the process  )

Reason for Entry:correct but took longer

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A:Did it!

Meaning of Choice A as-is:Illogical

Summarized Meaning in my own words:Pretty close

Probe questions:How is synthetic diamond produced as well as extracted?

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:Identified

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct:NA

Reason for rejecting the correct choice:NA
Conceptual gap:Meaning

Details
Comments:Took longer time to figure out synthetic diamonds usage is odd.

Corrective Actions:Need to understand the logic better.

Q#2(Even though when the termite Neocapitermes)
 Reason for Entry:Correct but took longer

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A:Did it!

Meaning of Choice A as-is:Illogical

Summarized Meaning in my own words:Did it!

Probe questions:what does "it" refer to?

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:Identified

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct:NA
Reason for rejecting the correct choice:NA
Conceptual gap:

Details
Comments:Took longer to eliminate options and analyse the errors.

Corrective Actions:
As soon as pronoun error is clear check for the proper subject that should make sense and analyse answer options.

Q#3(After years of research,)
 Reason for entry: correct but took longer

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A:Did it
Meaning of Choice A as-is:Illogical
Summarized Meaning in my own words:Did it
Probe questions:RNA attacks?pesticide should be sprayed not RNA

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:Modifier

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct:NA
Reason for rejecting the correct choice:NA
Conceptual gap:

Details
Comments:Took longer to scan through the otions and eliminate on strong grounds

Corrective Actions:Some option may seem grammaticaly correct but don’t make any sense. Eliminate answers on strong grounds.

Q#4(Most of them torn by prolonged civil-war)
 Reason for Entry:Correct

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A:Did it
Meaning of Choice A as-is:Illogical
Summarized Meaning in my own words:Did it
Probe questions:How diamond mines can be torn?

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:Pronoun

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct:NA
Reason for rejecting the correct choice:NA
Conceptual gap:

Details
Comments:Easily understood the meaning and could spot errors and eliminate incorrect options

Corrective Actions:Understand the logic properly.
 
Regards

vaishalisinha · Answer

SC Ability Booster Session with Payal
Date: 08/24/2022

Summarized Learnings:
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?
I plan to make detailed notes of corrective actions required for the questions I get wrong. Until now I did not give much thought to the corrective actions column but after the session I understand the importance of digging a bit deeper into the analysis.

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
When I selected the right answer while eliminating the others for wrong reasons, it revealed my incorrect understanding of the concept tested.

Error-Log Entry for Question 1 "Although manufacturers.....citizens.

Reason for Entry:Incorrect

Meaning Analysis- Did not catch the meaning error of synthetic diamonds being extracted from the mine.
SS of Choice A:Did it.
Meaning of Choice A as-is:Illogical
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried but failed!
Probe questions: NA

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Pronoun error

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: A
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: I thought there was a meaning change as synthetic diamonds was changed to "synthesize". But the incorrect meaning was conveyed by the original option.
Conceptual gap: NA

Details
Comments: The sentence is trying to convey that even though manufacturers now know how to produce synthetic diamonds, they still extract natural diamonds from the mines of diamond rich nations.

Corrective Actions: Need to pay attention to the logical sense of the sentence. I faltered as I did not understand the meaning conveyed by the original sentence. Also, the contrast in the original sentence does not make sense if it is the synthetic diamonds that were extracted (Illogical). The contrast will only stand true when the sentence says that the manufacturers could produce synthesize diamonds but still extract natural ones.

Thanks
Vaishali

Prcn · Answer

Date: 24-08-2022
Summarized Learnings: (Answer at least one of these two questions)
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?
I was focusing more on the grammar part prior to the session. But now, I try to understand the logic and meaning of the sentence and then check for errors.

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
Ask probe questions and reject the wrong answers on solid grounds.

Error-Log Entry for Question # with Question Text (enter question number and some part of the text of the question for easy identification) And then copy and paste the following entries from your filled up SC-error-log

Question #2 (Even though when the termite Neocapitermes taracua is young, it will store only a drop of poison)

Reason for Entry: Incorrect

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: Did it
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Illogical
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried
Probe questions: NA

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Identified

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: C
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: I was focusing more on the sentence structure i.e., "Even though" to be followed by the right construction and overlooked the "will store" part.
Conceptual gap: NA

Details
Comments: I did not understand the correct meaning (contrast) of the sentence. I need to pay close attention to the logical sense of the question and the answer choices.
Corrective Actions: The sentence is trying to convey that even though NT termite species stores only a drop of poison when it is young, the toxin accumulates in the
termite's abdominal sacks through the years. The pronoun "it" should refer to "termite" and not "poison." The use of "will store" is incorrect as the sentence is in simple present and I overlooked this part.

Thanks
Prasanti

Piyushkhullar · Answer

Date: 24 August 2022

Summarized Learnings: 
1. How to better maintain error logs
2. Reject answers with proper reasoning

Error-Log Entry for Question 1 with Question Text (although manufacturers have learned)

Reason for Entry:Incorrect

SS of Choice A:Did it.

Meaning of Choice A as-is:Illogical

Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried but failed!

Probe questions: 1. What is extracted from mines?
2. Can they produce synthetic diamonds?

Grammatical Errors in choice A - NA

Incorrect choice that I marked as correct - Could not spot meaning error

Reason for rejecting the correct choice - Thought that meaning was changed

Conceptual gap: NA

Comments: Did not understand the correct meaning of the sentence. Need to better understand question and the answer choices.
Corrective Actions: Read carefully and try to think logically while understanding the question

razorhell · Answer

Summarized Learnings:   (Answer at least one of these two questions) 
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions? 
  1.) Always extract the intended meaning by asking probing questions 2.) Reject the answer choice A for the right reason 
2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
 1.) Sometimes, I could get the easy questions right without finding out the correct error, but this could hurt more in med/Hard questions. Hence important to reject answer choices for the right reasons. 2.) I got all four questions correct, but I definitely missed some aspects while solving the questions. Maintaining an error log for such scenarios helped me revise such findings.

SHARING ERROR LOG ENTRIES BELOW

Q.1

Reason for Entry: correct but took longer

Meaning Analysis 
SS of Choice A: Did it
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Logical and clear
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Did it!
Probe questions: "1.) Contrast: the process of synthetic diamond is known, but the diamonds are still extracted from mines
2.) Present perfect is needed because the process was learned over the period that started in past"

Error Analysis 
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Identified

Answer Choice Analysis 
The incorrect choice I marked as correct: NA
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: NA
Conceptual gap: NA

Details 
Comments: 
Corrective Actions: Do more simplification of SS and extract the meaning of all the entities.Focus on the need to use present perfect

Q2

Reason for Entry: not confident
 Meaning Analysis 
SS of Choice A: Did it!
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Logical and clear
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Did it!
Probe questions: 1.) Contrast young termite 1 drop, but over years the termite gathers enough poison

Error Analysis 
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Could not identify

Answer Choice Analysis 
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: NA
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: NA
Conceptual gap: Dependent clause marker does not create run-on error

Details 
Comments: 1.) Rejected A for the wrong reason (Thought it is creating a run-on sentence)
Corrective Actions: "1.) Even though is a dependent clause marker, such markers don’t lead to run-on sentence error
2.) Pronoun it in subject position refers to the subject of the dependent clause (In this case the termite)"

Q3

Reason for Entry: correct but took longer

Meaning Analysis 
SS of Choice A: Did it
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Illogical
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried but failed
Probe questions: 1.) As per SS of A RNA attacks result is clearing and saving. This is the wrong meaning. It is the pesticide that can attack and clear, saving

Error Analysis 
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Identified

Answer Choice Analysis 
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: NA
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: NA
Conceptual gap: NA

Details 
Comments: "1.) The meaning was changed incorrect answer choice as there was no better alternative
2.) attacks make sense with RNA but clearing and savings do not. Hence the meaning was wrong in Choice A, Therefore choice D is best out of the rest"

Corrective Actions: 1.) The meaning was two ways. Doubt: Is the following construction correct? Pesticide. That attacks, clearing... and saves farmers?

akshung · Answer

Date: 25/08/2022
Summarized Learnings: 
 1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions? 
Understand the meaning well, translate the meaning in your own words before proceeding to the answer choices. 
 2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?

I need to ask probing questions to rectify the meaning and pronoun error. 
Error-Log Entry

Reason for Entry:3

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: Did it!
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Logical and Clear
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Did it!
Probe questions: No (should have asked)

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Tried but failed

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: A
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: Couldn't identify the meaning error
Conceptual gap: Need to identify what entity the pronoun is referring to

Details
Comments: Identify the meaning change and rectify it
Corrective Actions: While summarizing in your ow words, asking probing questions to identify the meaning and correct pronoun reference.

JayPatil123 · Answer

Summarized learning
1. Error log is a critical element in cementing
2. A thorough comment about the mistake, Why chose the wrong answer choice and what made you reject answer choice is important so that no need to peak into question and answer choices required.

Error Log for Question #2

Reason for Entry:Incorrect

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: Did it!
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Logical and Clear
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Did it!
Probe questions: 'it' referes to?

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Did it!

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: E
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: Couldn't identify the meaning error
Conceptual gap: NA

Details
Comments: 
1. Thought that contrast doesn't exist in the mentioned 2 clauses.
Thus, switched from D to E.
2. Contrast : between amount of poison at different age.

Corrective Actions:
1. Note the contrast. 
2. Pronoun reference

Rohit5678 · Answer

Session Date: 24-Aug-22

Summarized Learnings: (Answer at least one of these two questions)
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?
2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?

I face the pre-thinking issue when I'm on hard questions with long sentences that test multiple concepts such as:
1. Parallelism and Modifiers - multiple parallel verbs and/or Verb/verb-ing modifiers,
2. Identifying indented lists, 
3. Verb Tense and parallelism

All of the above are due to errors made during meaning analysis. 
Also, during answer choice analysis, there are more errors introduced and I lose track when I move from one choice to the next - especially for the differently worded choices.
I am aware of this issue but still it has still affected my performance.

After the ability booster session, I plan to spend as much time on choice A as I can to understand the meaning and that I need to see only one deterministic error in the answer choice elimination stage rather than look for all possible errors (which I do during strategic review). I also will stop comparing choices as it is detrimental for building a strategic mindset to solve hard SC questions. In this way I will improve both accuracy and timing.

My Error-Log entries:

Question : 1 (synthetic diamonds)
 
Reason for Entry : incorrect
 
Meaning Analysis 
SS of Choice A : Pretty close
Meaning of Choice A as is : Illogical
Summarized Meaning in my own words : Did it!
Probe question(s) that you asked in meaning analysis : What is extracted from the mines?
 
Error Analysis 
Grammatical Errors in choice A : Could not identify
 
Answer Choice Analysis 
Incorrect choice that I marked as correct : Could not spot grammatical error
Reason for rejecting the correct choice : Thought that meaning was changed
Conceptual gap : Compared entities with pronoun antecedents + its modifier
 
Details 
Comments : "The pronoun “they” illogically refers to “synthetic diamonds”. It is not the 
synthetic diamonds that are extracted but the real ones. Totally missed this. This is fixed in C. 
I eliminated C because I thought information is reduced.
Now I see that the pronoun can only refer to the noun ""diamond"" and in C, the adjective modifier ""synthetic"" changes to verb ""synthesize"""
Corrective Actions : "In comparison questions, if the compared entity is a pronoun, make sure that if the antecedent of the pronoun has a modifier, it should make logical sense.
Always be on the lookout for modifier in an antecedent referred by pronoun which are the compared entity."

Question : 2 (termite Neocapitermes)
 
Reason for Entry : incorrect
 
Meaning Analysis 
SS of Choice A : Did it!
Meaning of Choice A as is : Not clear so had to infer
Summarized Meaning in my own words : Did it!
Probe question(s) that you asked in meaning analysis : What accumulates over the years?
 
Error Analysis 
Grammatical Errors in choice A : Identified
 
Answer Choice Analysis 
Incorrect choice that I marked as correct : Could not spot structural error
Reason for rejecting the correct choice : Unfamiliar Usage/Sentence Structure
Conceptual gap : Pronoun antecedent + Structure (+ Contrast)
 
Details 
Comments : "Was unfamiliar with the comparison usage mentioned in corrective action so was confused between C and D.
In C, ""it"" illogically refers to the subject ""termite"". 
Also, ""will store"" is incorrectly used to present general facts which can be shown using simple present tense. Missed this too. This could have been the tie-breaker.
In D, ""it"" logically refers to the subject ""poison"".
"
Corrective Actions : "When contrasting information is presented in 2 clauses, the subject of the independent clause must be contrast with the subject of the dependent clause.
And if a pronoun is used in any of the clauses, it must be positioned correctly to reflect the subject to avoid logical error/pronoun-antecedent error.

Also, general facts are depicted using simple present tense only."

charanrana · Answer

Date: 24-Aug-22
Summarized Learnings: 
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions? 
In short, I plan to stop playing with the answer choice selection button, doing so crates more anxiety!

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
Do not get focused on only one error to determine the correct answer choice, if the error is not deterministic be more careful rejecting the choice

Error-Log Entry for Question #2 Even though when the termite....

Reason for Entry: Incorrect

Meaning Analysis

SS of Choice A : Did it!
Meaning of Choice A as is : Clear
Summarized Meaning in my own words : Did it!
Probe question(s) that you asked in meaning analysis : What does "it" refers to?

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in choice A : Identified

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice that I marked as correct : Could not spot "verb tense" error
Reason for rejecting the correct choice : Unfamiliar Usage/Sentence Structure
Conceptual gap : Pronoun-antecedent

Details
Comments : missed the error created by 'will', statement is stating a fact!. Got fixated on choice C as a result did not read D very carefully thinking C is the correct choice.

Corrective Actions : Be calm and read on, don't get attached to the choice that you think is write and ignore the correct ones, as discussed yesterday do not become a defence attorney for the selected answer choice.

aditya780 · Answer

24-08-2022
Summarized Learnings-
1. Tweak in SC process to improve Accuracy- Be specific in writing Corrective Action if I get a question wrong so that I can understand the context in Error log without referring back the question. (Not all answer Choices are created equal- some options have conceptual gaps, process gaps, and others Unfamiliar usage-so classifying it accordingly and specifying it in Corrective Action if I select an Incorrect Answer Choice)

2. Meaning Analysis-
Q1.
SS of Choice A- Did it!
Meaning of Choice A as is- Not clear so had to infer

Summarized Meaning in my own words- Tried but failed
Probe questions - Which Diamonds are still extracted from mines of diamond rich nations?
Does the Contrast make sense in the sentence?

Error Analysis-
Grammatical Errors in Choice A-
Sentence does not convey a logical meaning. (Synthetic diamonds cannot be extracted!)
Pronoun Error- "These" refers to synthetic diamonds instead of real ones that are extracted.

Answer Choice Analysis-
Incorrect Answer Choice I marked Correct- A
Reason for rejecting the Correct Choice- Thought the meaning was changed because of changed structure . 
Since in the original sentence, the manufacturers learned the "process" and in the correct choice it mentioned "how to synthesize" (the word "process' which I thought was crucial in conveying Intended meaning but it wasn't)
Thought the meaning was Changed.

Conceptual Gap-
Pronoun- Antecedent must make sense
Always Infer meaning and ask yourself after meaning analysis- Does the sentence make sense?
In this case, "These diamonds extracted ('these' referring to synthetic diamonds) did not make sense.

Details-
Comments-
I faltered in Meaning Analysis (could not identify that synthetic diamonds cannot be extracted ) and the sentence conveys Illogical meaning.
Always ask after reading sentence- Does the sentence make sense? If not, infer meaning in your own words before Answer Choice analysis.
Eliminate Incorrect Answer Choice on Deterministic grounds.

Corrective Actions- Fill in the Conceptual gap of Pronoun Usage and revisit the Application File.
Always infer the meaning if Choice A does not convey complete meaning.

Daksh29C · Answer

Date: 24-Aug-22
Summarized Learnings:
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions? - Attention to details is really very important especially in hard questions.

Q1 (Diamonds)

Reason for Entry: Incorrect

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: Did it!
Meaning of Choice A as-is:Logical and Clear
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Pretty Close
Probe questions: One - synthetic and synthesize

Error Analysis - 
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Did not identify.

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: A
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: The word synthesize got me confusing
Conceptual gap: The option A i was doubtful since it was word like the process and how to both indicating the same thing.

Details
Comments:The pronoun 'they' is clear since it logically refers to diamonds and I got that.
Got confuse between synthetic and synthesize. The hint was there is contrast in the sentence which is indicated by the word 'Although' and hence proper contrast should be infer. 
Corrective Actions: Pay extra attention to meaning whenever there is a contrast so that the contrast in properly inferred. Here even though manufacturers knew how to synthesize diamonds, still the diamonds were extracted from mines. 
Secondly, pay attention to wordiness and awkwardness.

Q3 (Pests)

Reason for Entry: Incorrect

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: Tried but Failed
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Not so clear so had to infer
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried but failed
Probe questions: None

Error Analysis - 
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Did not identify.

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: A
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: Thought was having Meaning issue.

Details
Comments: Here proper meaning was not inferred. I thought that RNA attacks the protein making mechanism of the pest and clearing and saving is acting as action modifier and that rest of them was having parallelism issue.
Here the hint was 'when sprayed regularly', now this should modify pesticides and not the action or RNA. 
Corrective Actions: Pay extra attention to meaning in parallelism and try to understand what the sentence is actually trying to communicate. 
Asking appropriate probe questions like does attacking the protein making mechanism of the pest will clear the infestation from existing crops? The ans would be NO and thus what will clear the infestation from existing crops? The pesticides will. and thus that should clearly be referred to that.

tusharmrigwani · Answer

SC Ability Booster Session 
Date: 08/24/2022

Summarized Learnings:

1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?
I plan to utilize the error log more efficiently in order to improve my ability in the SC section. Until now I used to enter the corrective actions in the question notes section but now I understand the importance of proper analysis and utilizing the error log for this purpose.

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
Frequent switching between the answer choices for multiple questions revealed that I was not confident on my analysis and need to have a solid understanding of the fundamentals to improve my overall confidence.

Error-Log Entry for Question 1 "Although manufacturers.....citizens"

Reason for Entry: Incorrect

Question: "Although manufacturers  have learned the process of how to produce synthetic diamonds, these diamonds are still extracted   from the mines of diamond-rich nations at the cost of stability and independence of the citizens"

Choice Selected: C

Reason for Entry: incorrect

SS of Choice A: Pretty close

Meaning of Choice A as is: Illogical

Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried but failed

Probe question(s) that you asked in meaning analysis: NA

Grammatical Errors in choice A: Could not identify

Incorrect choice that I marked as correct: Could not spot meaning error

Reason for rejecting the correct choice: Thought that meaning was changed ('they' refers to manufacturers instead of diamonds).
Conceptual gap: NA
 
Comments:Did not consider that ‘these diamonds are still extracted..’ in Option A illogically indicates that synthetic diamonds are extracted. This does not make sense. 
In option D, thought that ‘they’ refers to manufacturers and not diamonds. This would lead to meaning error.
Comments: The sentence is trying to convey the contrast - even though manufacturers now know how to produce synthetic diamonds, they still extract natural diamonds from the mines of diamond rich nations.

Corrective Actions: Need to understand the logic of the sentence more clearly. The contrast was not properly conveyed in Option A. The contrast will only stand true when the sentence says that the manufacturers could synthesize diamonds but still extract natural ones. 
Need to understand what ‘they’ can refer to in the sentence - manufacturers or diamonds. Need to understand the extent to which pronouns like ‘that’ can refer to a noun in the sentence.

dehankar25 · Answer

Date: (25-08-2022)
Summarized Learnings: (Answer at least one of these two questions)
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?

1. Clear understanding of sentence

2. Follow Errors check list. I was missing pronoun errors because I was not completely following the checklist

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?

I thought that I understood the meaning and I am doing correct sentence structure but then I realized that I was missing on few points. 
I was partially following the check list.

Error-Log Entry for Question 3 After years of research, biologists have successfully created a special kind of pesticide with DNA’s lesse

Reason for Entry: : 
 INCORRECT

SS of Choice A Pretty close
 Meaning of Choice A as is Logical and clear
Summarized Meaning in my own words Pretty close
Probe question(s) that you asked in meaning analysis what attacks ?
Grammatical Errors in choice A Could not identify
Incorrect choice that I marked as correct Could not spot structural error
Reason for rejecting the correct choice Thought that meaning was changed
Conceptual gap 
Comments "1. Initial analysis I identified the error that pestisides are attacking and modifier refers to that but after going through answer choices I could not identify that D is giving correct meaning and changed my understanding that RNA is attacking I was confused and marked A. 
2. I was not clear and confident in meaning of the sentence "
Corrective Actions 1. Do not skim through answer choices 2. form the small sentence structure for answer choice as well to extract what is being conveyed

gadmat · Answer

Date:   24.08.2022

Summarized Learnings: (Answer at least one of these two questions)
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?

After attending this session, I have made up my mind that- I am going to consciously go through the error checklist properly and if I am not able to find any error in choice A, then I’m not going to panic. Instead, I am going to note that there are no deterministic errors in choice A, then I can look for minute details (e.g., unfamiliar structure). However, I will consciously ensure that I do not treat any such errors as deterministic errors and keep choice A in the maybe list and not the reject list during answer choice analysis. I will also be more confident during choice analysis- because I no longer must worry whether the errors, I identified in choice A are in fact errors or not. I have concluded that these are non-deterministic errors- I can very well go back to that choice. This should help with reduce anxiety and prevent overlooking other errors in concise answer choices.

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session? 
 The biggest revelation for me was the clear demarcation between deterministic and non-deterministic errors. I was able to understand why I used to feel less confident when I couldn’t find any major errors in Choice A and thought that maybe it’s a wordy/ awkward structure. It was simply because these are not deterministic errors and such errors are required to be dealt with in a different manner, as discussed in the session. This has made me feel even more confident about the SC process.

Error-Log Entry for Question # with Question Text (enter question number and some part of the text of the question for easy identification) And then copy and paste the following entries from your filled up SC-error-log

Q#1 (Although manufacturers have learned the process of how to produce synthetic diamonds)
 Reason for Entry:   incorrect

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A:   Did It! 
 Meaning of Choice A as-is:   Illogical 
 Summarized Meaning in my own words:   Pretty close 
 Probe questions:   None

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:   Could not identify

Answer Choice Analysis 
Incorrect choice I marked as correct:  (A) Could not spot meaning error 
 Reason for rejecting the correct choice:   Thought that meaning was changed 
 Conceptual gap:   Pronoun & comparison

Details
Comments: 
 I inferred the correct meaning but could not see that said meaning is not actually being conveyed by the sentence.
Although scientists have learned how to produce synthetic diamonds, 
 these diamonds are still extracted from the mines of …
I couldn’t see that the use of 'these diamonds' implies that the author is referring to the 'synthetic diamonds'- which is illogical- synthetic diamonds cannot be mined. Should've been able to identify this error at meaning stage as well as during error analysis. 
I thought the entire structure of the sentence is incorrect- because the contrast should be - 'Although manufacturers have learned the process, they are still extracting the diamonds from...' What I didn’t realize was that such a structure would actually introduce the doer of the verb-'extracting the diamonds from mines’. Since I am less confident in comparison questions, I tend to do this. I overemphasize on comparison and even contrast given in the sentence and think of ways in which it could be incorrect. And since I’m not confident with comparison, I mostly tend to convert non-issues to errors and then overlook the actual errors in the sentence. 
As regards correct choice- I thought that in choice C- 'Although manufacturers have learned how to synthesize diamonds, they are still extracted from...' the pronoun 'they' is incorrectly referring to manufacturers, while it is the diamonds which are extracted. As I had completely exhausted myself - going back and forth - looking to rectify an error which was not an error in the 1st place- I finally selected choice A as I could not find any meaning error in the same.

Corrective Actions: 
 I can lay focus on the meaning while doing meaning analysis, but at least during error analysis, I need to ensure that the meaning I inferred is actually being conveyed through correct grammar. Even if I feel that there was an error in structure as comparison is not clear, I should still check all the other aspects of the sentence. 
Every time, I am not completely confident about the error identified in a choice, I must consciously remind myself that if I am not confident- it must be a non-deterministic error and hence I need to re-check to find a deterministic error in the choice.
For each pronoun, check if there is a unique logical antecedent. Mere presence of other nouns does not lead to pronoun ambiguity, so long as the pronoun cannot logically refer to the other nouns. 
I need to revisit pronoun and comparison concepts. 
'How to synthesize diamonds' and 'how to produce synthetic diamonds' is the same. Whenever I come across a slightly different form of presenting an idea, I must check if it really changes the meaning. 
Ananya

ramk12 · Answer

Date: (24-Aug-2022)
Summarized Learnings: (Answer at least one of these two questions)
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?
- Eliminating choices based on deterministic error and understanding intended meaning in first go by making sentence structure. Even though choice is wordy, make sure to eliminate on solid ground and filling error log specific to what makes me choose incorrect choice.

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?

The biggest revelation for me was not to panic in case there is no error in choice A and how an error log should be filled to my specific problem.

Q#1 (Although manufacturers have learned the process of how to produce synthetic diamonds)

Reason for Entry: incorrect

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: Did It
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Illogical 
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried but failed
Probe questions: What is extracted

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:(A) Could not spot meaning error
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: Thought that meaning was changed
Conceptual gap: No

Details
Comments: I missed to note that choice A is presenting illogical meaning that synthetic diamonds cannot be extracted from mines. They are created artificially outside mines. They was referring to Synthetic diamonds and that's why incorrect. 
I was confused between choice A and C , I knew usage of had is fine however I was not confident with use of "syenthsize diamonds"., I thought there is meaning shift. Also I didn't notice that "they" in choice A refers to Synthetic diamonds and that's not logical . I didn't think that meaning is illogical.

Corrective Actions: Understanding meaning is upmost important as it can lead to grammatical error. Watch closely pronoun errors i.e what exactly it referring to. 
I should be very focus with change in phrase and what sentence actually wants to convey .

Q#2 (Even though when the termite Neocapitermes taracua is young, it will store only a drop of 
poison)
Reason for Entry: incorrect

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: Tried but failed
Meaning of Choice A as-is: Illogical 
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Tried but failed
Probe questions: What is getting accumulated?

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A:(A) Could not spot meaning error
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: Thought that meaning was changed
Conceptual gap: No

Details
Comments: I missed to note that choice A is presenting illogical meaning that it is poison, which is getting accumulated and not Termite. Thereby landed with wrong choice. We have done similliar kind of error as did with 1st question i.e not understanding exact meaning when Choice A presents illogical meaning.

Corrective Actions: Understanding meaning is upmost important as it can lead to grammatical error. Watch closely pronoun errors i.e what exactly it referring to. 
Though we have asked probe question correctly and we were thinking that it could be poison , which accumulated over period of time but in the end I was not confident and since I timed myself , got confused .

sakshigarg2294 · Answer

SC Ability Booster Session with Payal
Date: 08/24/2022

Summarized Learnings:
1. After attending the Ability Booster session, what tweaks did you plan to make to your SC process to improve your accuracy in hard questions?
I plan to focus on the meaning and take corrective actions accordingly.

2. What was the biggest revelation for you from the Ability Booster session?
understanding the meaning is the key.

Error-Log Entry for Questions:
Q1 "Although manufacturers.....citizens.

Reason for Entry:Incorrect

Meaning Analysis- Did not catch the meaning error of synthetic diamonds being extracted from the mine.
SS of Choice A:Did it.
Meaning of Choice A as-is: found it to be correct. I thought that the question is correct meaning wise. 
Summarized Meaning in my own words: Did it. missed the incorrect meaning. 
Probe questions: NA

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: Pronoun error

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: A
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: I thought there was a meaning change as synthetic diamonds was changed to "synthesize". But the incorrect meaning was conveyed by the original option.
Conceptual gap: NA

Details
Comments: The sentence is trying to convey that even though manufacturers now know how to produce synthetic diamonds, they still extract natural diamonds from the mines of diamond rich nations.

Corrective Actions: Need to pay attention to the logical sense of the sentence. I thought that I understood the meaning of the sentence but it was illogical. Therefore I need to pay more attention to the meaning of sentence.
Reason for Entry:

Q2 "Even though when ..."

Reason for Entry: Correct

Meaning Analysis: done
SS of Choice A: done
Meaning of Choice A as-is: understood
Summarized Meaning in my own words: yes, able to correct locate that there is a pronoun error.
Probe questions:NA

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: pronoun "it" refers to the subject of the previous clause. here it doesn't seem very logical.

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: NA
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: NA
Conceptual gap: NA

Details
Comments: take care of the pronouns
Corrective Actions: None

Q-3
Reason for Entry: Correct

Meaning Analysis
SS of Choice A: done
Meaning of Choice A as-is: 
Summarized Meaning in my own words: yes
Probe questions:

Error Analysis
Grammatical Errors in Choice A: couldn't identify, though the answer choice sounded a little offbeat.

Answer Choice Analysis
Incorrect choice I marked as correct: A. i thought clearing and saving need to be parallel otherwise the meaning will change. 
Reason for rejecting the correct choice: clears and saving were not parallel as per the original sentence. 
Conceptual gap: Yes

Details
Comments: Modifier must make sense
Corrective Actions:

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