Improving SC in 15 days

Question

I began my GMAT preparation 45 days ago. 
My CAT scores have been the following:

GMATprep1 (02/06/19) : Q46 V35 Total: 660
Manhattan CAT1 (16/06/19): Q49 V32: Total: 650
Experts' Global CAT1 (23/06/19): Q49 V38: Total 720
GMATprep2 (30/06/19): Q51 V36: Total 720

I think Quant comes to me naturally. I even began preparation for quant a week ago and completed it. I have struggled with Verbal from the beginning. I was weak in all 3 areas (SC, CR, RC in order of decreasing weakness).
After my Manhattan CAT, I began using 2 books:
Manhattan SC
Power CR Bible

Power CR bible has really benefitted me. In fact, in the final CAT that I gave, GMATprep2, I got a full score in CR.

SC is still a problem. In GMATprep2, I got 11 questions wrong in verbal out of which 7 were of SC.

I have the official exam on 19th July 2019. I have 18 days to prepare. Any tips on where to improve my score in SC? My aim is 700+ and I wish to score the maximum that I could.

rajapavan4444 · Answer

Please revisit your solving methodology and ensure ur basis are correct

Posted from my mobile device

billionaire · Answer

Hello pdchhaparwal Of course that you want to score your max. However, it is not that easy to advance any section of the test in just two weeks. Still the best thing you can do now is to check ultimate GMAT grammar book, link is below: https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gma ... l#p1092927 You can continue to take official mocks and Manhattan ones. Manhattan will be harder and little bit different in verbal part, so that should not discourage you, in terms of score. Stay positive.

Good Luck

GMATin · Answer

Full score in CR is amazing! How did you go about Powerscore if you can elaborate, please. I have a fairly decent grasp on CR but need to improve.

For SC, e-GMAT massively helped me. So you might want to consider their Verbal course.

akela · Answer

Hi  pdchhaparwal ,

Welcome to gmatclub!

Here is a great post on SC:
 Ultimate SC Guide for Beginners

I'd recommend to stick to the official SC questions at this point. If you practice enough number of official questions, you should be fine. You can find the official questions from the gmatprep question bank here:
 The Most Comprehensive Collection Of Everything Official-SC

Great videos by Ron:
 Consolidated "Thursdays with Ron" Sentence Correction 
In addition to the explanations on gmatclub, you can read Ron's explanations on manhttanprep forum (mainly for gmatprep questions).

MGMAT SC guide is great, read  here  and  here .

As you practice, try to eliminate wrong answers instead of trying to find the correct answer.

Hope this helps!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Regarding Sentence Correction, there are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects. Furthermore, the reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is likely that you have not been working on all three of those aspects.

Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure. This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns in the sentence clearly refer to nouns in the sentence? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.

There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.

As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices in a Sentence Correction question, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.

To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. For instance, are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently that would have extended your streak.

Feel free to reach out with further questions.

Good luck!

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