How to improve verbal, sentence correction

Question

Dear all,

I have a question on verbal section of GMAT: Sentence Correction

How to improve score in this section? I have around 95% accuracy in 500-600 level questions. However, for 600-700 level questions I have only 60% accuracy. Due to this low accuracy level on 600-700 level questions, I rarely get a 700 level question in SC. 
Is practice only the way?. The concepts are clear for me. The thing is that the application part in limited time is leading to errors. Please suggest a way!

Rgs, Santora

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Santora,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

vipulshahi · Answer

Dear  santorasantu ,

I am also on the same boat as you but as per my little experience I can only say that the practice is the only key in Gmat world. And I truly recommend you to prefer e-gmat strategies. If you didn't enroll till yet . Give some try I think you will be benefited in much greater sense.

Thank you

HKD1710 · Answer

Hi  santorasantu 
Suppose you see many questions in which 'AND ALSO' together is not correct. So you make a general understanding that whenever you see such usage you'd eliminate that choice. Now what GMAT would do is, it will throw a question (higher level of course) at you in which AND ALSO together is correct. This is where most of us go wrong because we need to learn how a concept is twisted and layered with difficulty of 500/600/700 level.

Do this to improve on SC:

1. Go through entire MGMAT SC guide. Also watch each RON's video on SC and you will improve really quickly. it is going to be time taking but will pay off really well.
2. Make a strategy to tackle the SC question and follow it.
3. Start doing official SC questions.
4. Start writing Take away from each question you do. Of course you don't want to make the document unnecessary long by writing the same learning coming from two questions. So write UNIQUE take aways.
5. Do more practice, learn more concepts, learn more from other official SC questions and every day revise from the document you keep updating with take aways.

This document will make you see how GMAT exploits a concept in different questions. you will then see the difference in a 600 and a 700 level question testing you on a same concept.

Apart from official practice questions, you can practice MGMAT questions too.

Please post if you have nay follow up questions.

santorasantu · Answer

Here are the answers to the questions:

Studies:

1.) I decided to prepare for GMAT in June/July 2014, 4 years ago. However, due to work/family issues I stopped my preparation in December 2015. My preparation was not continuous. I would just read whenever I had time. I gave mock test in 2014/2015 and I scored around 670. I took up e-gmat full course in 2015.In 2015, my son is born, resulting in a lot of sleepless nights, also giving a break to my gmat preparation.
I started my preparation again a month ago, End August 2018. so, technically it's been a month that I started preparing for GMAT.

2.) I used Manhattan Strategy guides, Manhattan on Demand course (verbal only), videos from Dominate the Gmat and finally this forum.

3.) My quant score varied from 47-51 in all the mock tests I took till now. Verbal score varied from V23- V35, never went beyond 35. Verbal is my biggest weakness, especially the 600-700 level.

Goals:

4.) Goal score is ~710

5.) End of 2018/beginning of 2019

6.) In 2019/2020, depending on scholarship

7.) Still have'nt really decided but for sure one of the top business schools (Stanford, Wharton, Harvard, LBS, INSEAD, IBS ..)

I hope to have provided you with sufficient info.

Rgds,

Santora

santorasantu · Answer

Thanks for the tip Vipulshahi. I did try egmat, quite some time ago. I bought MGMAT Interact and the concepts/videos are quite good.

santorasantu · Answer

Hi HKD1710,

Thats exactly the issue that GMAT exactly knows how to make me go wrong. The problem with SC is that there is a rule and there are exceptions to that rule, mastering the rule itself is not sufficient but application is more important. With 500 level questions, I see that the rule is quite straight forward. However, with higher level questions, its the exception to that rule which is more or less making me go wrong. Unfortunately I do not have a good example question as of now.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Santora,

Since you've been focused on studying for the last month, we need more detailed information about your CAT results (not just the 'ranges' of your Score, but the exact results for each CAT that you've taken. This will help define how well you've been progressing, potential patterns in your performance and any outliers to your Scores.

1) On what day - and what time of day - did you take each CAT?
2) How did you score on EACH CAT (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH?)
3) Did you take the FULL CAT - including the Essay and IR sections?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

GMATPill · Answer

Focus on SC sentence structures -- because those sentence structures will also appear in CR and RC passages. Having 100% confidence in the sentence structures will make reading passages so much easier to make sense of. So take baby steps -- dedicate multiple "SC Days" to your studies - where you do nothing except eat, breathe, sleep, and do SC. Then, when you are ready, transition to CR/RC.

During your SC studies, we encourage you to follow along expert video explanations to guide you in your thought process.

Here's a shared Google doc of video links you may find helpful:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1f_ckd ... H1HmTgctJI

You can learn more about GMAT Pill at:

https://www.gmatpill.com

santorasantu · Answer

Thanks for the tips GMATpill. I shall post the results in few days after following your strategy.

AjiteshArun · Answer

The GMAT doesn't normally do that. Perhaps in a (very) small number of cases, but not normally. I really think that you'll have to evaluate whether you've learnt the right concepts if you feel that the primary reason questions become tougher is that they test the exceptions to the rules tested in easier questions.

LauraOrion · Answer

Hey  santorasantu ,

If you're confident that you are comfortable with most of the main rules, chances are that it isn't just an issue of practice - it's probably a matter of strategy. One of the things that many people overlook on sentence correction is that there are indeed rules and exceptions to those rules. However, when there are exceptions to the rule in the answer choices, generally the GMAT is going to give you another way of differentiating between answer choices.

One thing that help is prioritizing the order in which you look at each of the differences between the answer choices -- don't just work from left to right. Suppose you have a subject/verb agreement change, passive voice versus active voice, and a modifier at the end of a sentence. Even if that passive voice versus active voice change in the answer choices comes before the subject/verb agreement decision point, you should prioritize the subject/verb agreement decision point because it's straightforward. (After all, passive voice can sometimes correct.) Then move on to the modifier at the end of the sentence. By the time you've eliminated answer choices based on these decision points, chances are you won't even have to make a decision between active and passive voice.

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