Learning Sentence Correction pt 2.

Question

Hey everyone,

My GMAT studies started around christmas time. I decided to start with Verbal since I think that's more of a strength for me than Quant. I got through it pretty well and have recently started on the Quant studies.

To stay up on the approaches for verbal i've been doing 10 questions from both Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning out of the official guide 12 book. The pattern i've noticed is that I kill Critical Reasoning 90% of the time. Sentence Correction on the other hand I sometimes get 7-8's out of 10 or even a 5/10.

I used the Veritas prep book set to study. I also have cracking the GMAT as a way of introducing new topics.

My question is: at this point how would you recommend moving toward "re-learning" the approaches of Sentence Correction? I know dissecting the ones I got wrong is a good starting place, and I plan on doing that. But has anyone run into this problem?

Thanks for bearing with the long message.

AtlanticGMAT · Answer

Hi there,

Great job on the CR! It really helps to have a strength to lean on. A few questions on the SC:

1. The questions are arranged in order of difficulty. Have you been getting more questions wrong as the questions get more difficult?

2. Have you been keeping track of the types of SC questions that you are getting wrong (Verb agreement, modifiers, lists, parallelism, comparisons...)?

3. Have you revisited questions that you have gotten wrong? What was the result?

Overall with SC having a methodical approach that you can apply for every question puts you in a high percentage position for spotting errors. What I have found useful is breaking down the types of errors into big categories (Verb agreement, Pronoun Agreement/Ambiguity, Modifiers, Lists, Parallelism, Comparisons) and then scanning for the errors in those big categories for every single question.

I have no experience with the Veritas books but the MGMAT SC book is very thorough. One way to break down the information is to go through let's say the MGMAT book and to make flashcards out of the rules that you are not familiar with. This way you reinforce the information as you are making the flashcards, you have the flashcards as a quick reference, and as you master a rule you can pull that card out of the deck.

With SC I have found that a greater mastery of fewer rules, a methodical approach, and a focus on the meaning of the sentence trumps knowing every single grammar rule that MIGHT be tested. And remember there are usually multiple rules tested simultaneously so not knowing one of them is often unimportant.

If you can answer my questions when you get chance I would be happy to provide more insight.

HG.

exploringm · Answer

To answer your questions:

1- the scores have been pretty consistent i'm about halfway through the questions in the official guide and i got a 5/10 more recently, so it's possible. But I can usually follow that up with a more typical 7/10.

2- not really. I should do that.

3- Since I've been focusing on the quant during my morning sessions, so i've lagged a bit on really analyzing my mistakes. Need to do better with that.

You're definitely right about having a systematic approach. I think i've done a better job with critical reasoning and that might be why i'm doing so much better with those. With Sentence correction i'm sort of just hoping to find something and not taking a standardized approach.

Vercules · Answer

Hi exploringm,

Good suggestions by HerrGrau. I would like to add a few points. In order to get everything out of the OG you should ask yourself for every question.

What concept is the question testing?
Why is the correct choice correct and more importantly, why is a choice incorrect?
What traps you need to avoid?
Is there another faster way to solve the question?

OG must be treated as a bible for GMAT and you should try to get everything out of the official questions. This is extremely vital to achieve a good score.

To achieve a goal, the first step is to set a goal.
As you have just started your prep, taking one GMATPrep test would be a good idea. This will give you a realistic understanding of your present level. With this data point in mind you can make you realistic intermediate and final goals for your desired score.

Hope that helps,

Vercules

AtlanticGMAT · Answer

OK - It sounds like you could be doing more analysis. In general,  spend at least as much time analyzing as you do solving  (but avoid doing these things at same time. Do not analyze while you are doing a practice set.) Analyzing means reviewing your error log, spotting trends in your mistakes, addressing those trends by seeking out solutions/rules/methods (on forums/in books), and re-solving your error log questions after a week or so to reinforce the knowledge.

One thing that I've found helpful is to  keep a short list of your BIG SC ISSUES . Before you do SC practice remind yourself of the types of questions that give you trouble and the rules that you either forget or have trouble seeing in the question. Often, I have trouble with tricky parallelism where the question fools you into trying to make certain elements parallel when it is another set of elements that need to be parallel. So I would always remind myself to  "look elsewhere when having a difficult time with parallelism".  Often times the missing parallel pair was farther away, earlier in the sentence. The other thing that would remind myself in a difficult question:  solve by using the meaning of the sentence.  What are they trying to say?

As Vercules said, the OG is THE reference so try to get the most out of it by not burning through questions without doing an appropriate amount of reflection along the way.

I hope that this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or would like more advice on this subject.

HG.

PS: There the ten 10 FLT's floating around this forum that have good SC practice. I think that they are old GMAT tests so some of the SC questions focus a bit too much on idioms but overall good practice. Also, the GMAT Paper tests from GMAC are great verbal practice (not very good for math).

exploringm · Answer

Hey Guys,

First: thanks for taking the time to give helpful and extensive advice.

I have completed 100 of both the CR and SC questions out of the Official Guide 12. My plan of attack is to look in depth at each one I got wrong and analyze each rule that could help eliminate an answer.

I was wondering at this point: how do you think I'm doing in terms of a translation to a verbal score? I know this leaves out Reading Comprehension.. but "in a vacuum" how would you say i'm doing? I got 72/100 on SC and 84/100 on CR. Like I said previously: this is from sitting and doing sets of ten in the morning and evening sessions. The SC is a bit lower than I would like but I think I have a lot of room for improvement in SC because, as addressed, I tend to fall back on intuition to arrive at an answer.

My Goal, at a minimum, is to score in the high 600's but of course 700 or higher would be great.

Vercules · Answer

Hi exploringm,

It is a good accuracy if you are solving these questions for the first time. If you score a similar percentage in the actual GMAT (same % in RC as well), your score could be anywhere from 36 to 41 ( percentiles ranging from 73 to 93). Anything above 35 is a good score. 
To get a 700 you will need 47 - 50 in quant along with the verbal score. But be cautious, this is just a rough estimate. After studying all the OG questions and other study materials take a GMATPrep test or any other test. This test will give you a more realistic picture of your score and your weaknesses and strengths.

Moreover, you will get most out of your prep time if you completely analyze the all questions, even the ones which you got correct.

Vercules

AtlanticGMAT · Answer

Hi,

That level of accuracy is a good place to be starting from. It is a great idea to analyze all the wrong ones (I agree with Vercules that you may want to analyze the correct ones too, especially the correct ones that took a while to solve or introduced some grammar doubt). It is hard to translate your OG practice to a score but again agreed with Vercules that you are somewhere in the high 30's low 40's provided that your RC is on par with the SC/CR. Also, keep in mind that the SC/CR nearer to the end of the OG is more difficult. So your right/wrong ratio may change as you approach the more difficult questions.

You may want to take a few official paper GMATs (only the verbal sections). I have found them to be good predictors of verbal performance. If you do take them go ahead and do all of the sections in succession in one 80 minute session. I like to give an extra 5 minutes because there is far more time pressure on these paper GMATs then there is on the real test and the extra time balances that out a bit.

HG.

exploringm · Answer

Hey, apologies for not knowing the lingo but what are FLT's? Full Length Tests? Where can I access those?

Per your guys suggestions I took a verbal mock exam today. I did the GMATClub one called "v06."

I ended up scoring 33/41. This is the first timed test I've taken in about a month so i was a bit faster than i needed to be (in fact I finished with about 20 minutes to spare... :/ ) But I guess it would be much worse the other way around. What would my verbal score be on the actual gmat if I got 33/41?

Thanks again guys, it's good to have knowledgeable people to take these questions to.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I am registered to take the test on April 20th. I've still got a pretty decent amount of time left for preparation.

exploringm · Answer

Took a Princeton Review verbal test... got a 34/41. At least i'm consistent.. with some mild improvement. It estimated a 38 on the verbal portion.

Vercules · Answer

Hi exploringm,

38 in verbal is a good score, have you taken any GMATPrep tests. If, yes then what is your score in that.

Vercules

Dipankar6435 · Answer

Hi Vercules
I have finished studying MGMAT SC book but i have some doubts regarding my SC preparation
1. I just cannot get all the Grammar lingo (participial phrase, verb-ing modifiers, verbe-ed modifiers etc). However I could solve most of the practice questions given at the end of each chapter in the book. I have done some questions on the SC forum here and realized I could solve majority of the 700 level questions. I had read somewhere that one should be able to explain in detail why a particular choice is right or wrong which i am unable to do due to lack of understanding of Grammar terms. Most of the times, the only explanation i got is that the right answer just looks right while the wrong answer looks awkward. Could you guide me if i am fine here or whether I should go back to MGMAT book and try to learn the grammar and then come back to practice questions??
2. Can you suggest some good practice question banks for SC apart from the OG??

sdas · Answer

Hi Dipankar,

My personal experience and advise

I was in similar situation as I could understand from your message. As a non native speaker, especially being academically out of touch from English Grammar, it was difficult for me to follow MGMAT SC. Foundation book was also tough for me (partly because I did not spend much time on it). This book, and also the live sessions that I attended, expects us to know the basics right and just attack strategies in live sessions and advanced discussions in the book (advance for me, who lost touch with grammar for more than a decade).
It took me sometime to analyze where I was going wrong - i think, I was not mastering the concepts in depth, of grammar, by heart, but trying to solve the practice questions vaguely - resulting in frustration. I changed my approach.

Took egmat SC course, a good start, very briskly and effectively touches upon all basic finite rules (majority), well explained, got my grey cells moving. After I got this foundation, I used the club grammar book, which is much more in depth and well laid out level wise. Following both now, I am more confidant about the rules and concepts to be precise. Can solve the problems effectively. But yes, it will need me more browse through the forum and revision, revision, revision and practice, practice and practice to come up in my scores. Gradually we can start following threads on strategies, Ron's free sessions etc to hone skills more

Recently I did not take any mocks, but next week I will, and hope to do well.

Hope this adds a bit to your improvised approach.

Vercules · Answer

Hi Dipankar,

It is fine if you are not able to explain the answer choices in terms of grammatical lingo as long as you are able to determine why an answer choice is correct/ incorrect. For instance,

Scoring 70% in the test, John was admired by everyone.

Scoring 70% in the test, everyone admired John.

In the above two examples you should be able to determine that the first one is correct because the starting modifier requires a subject and it has to be John. Knowing exactly what is this modifier is called (fyi... adverbial modifier) is not necessary. GMAT is an exam of application, so, one needs to be skillful enough to apply them on the questions. If you able to understand the explanations and apply those rules in solving SC questions you are good to go. I know a lot of people who have scored 700+ without knowing the grammatical lingo. It is really good for you that you are able to solve a majority of 700+ level questions efficiently, but, you should also be able to do so with same efficiency in mock tests (especially GMATPrep). If you are able to consistently achieve a good score, you need worry.

Regarding the question banks, If you are done with OG 12, 13, you can go for Verbal review 2nd edition. Next best thing after OG and GMAT prep tests is the MGMAT CATs. Moreover, GMAT club questions will surely serve as a good question bank for you, but as there are hundreds of question here and it is impossible for one (also not required) to do all, you may want to make a selection based on your weakness/ improvement areas.

Personally I only referred to OGs, Verbal Review, MGMAT and GMATPrep tests during my each attempt for GMAT(I did take a few courses/ classes but it didn't really help me). Not surprisingly, in my last attempt I thoroughly did just OG + GMAT Prep and it paid off.

Bottom-line - You can score really well without knowing all the formal grammatical terms, but, knowing them would surely add up to your existing knowledge. When practicing, nothing comes even close to the actual GMAT questions from official sources.

Hope this helps,

Vercules

exploringm · Answer

Hi Vercules,

I'm still plugging away at my studies. Quant has taken more of the fore-front of it but I try to re-visit verbal from time to time just so it stays fresh. I've taken 2 gmatprep mock exams now. The results were 35 on the first one and 37 on the 2nd. I think the first once is somewhat attributable to test fatigue. That was the first time I had taken the verbal immediately following taking the quant.

Dipankar6435 · Answer

Sdas....Thanx Man

I guess we are in the same boat as far as SC is concerned. I have my GMAT in a month so I do not have much time to spare. BTW just attended egmat's free SC session yesterday and was really impressed by it. Registered for the free trial, gave its diagnostic (scored 83 but ni idea wat percentile is that). However, I am reluctant to join its SC course owing to time constraints(I mean I have to take all the mocks and then there is Quant, RC and CR too). So I intend on practicing some questions and see if i can manage without the egmat course(69$ is also playing a role here :wink:

). All the best for your prep. Cheers

Dipankar6435 · Answer

Vercules you are awesome 8-)

So some more queries coming your way :wink:

1. I have read somewhere in this forum that we MUST NOT exhaust official questions till just before the actual GMAT. Taking cue from there, I have not touched the OG 13 as yet. Should I change my approach? 2. I only have the OG 13 right now with me. Does OG12 contain different questions than those in OG13. If yes, I think i will need to purchase OG12 too

3. How are the Verbal review 2nd edition questions in comparison to OG 13 questions(easier, harder or of the same level). Apologies if i m being too greedy in my inquisition here

Vercules · Answer

Thanks, you are not being greedy at all

and these are very justified questions. 1. I have read somewhere in this forum that we MUST NOT exhaust official questions till just before the actual GMAT. Taking cue from there, I have not touched the OG 13 as yet. Should I change my approach? Many people do that, please do not do that. If you save OG 13 till the end, then you will not know the exact patterns that GMAT tests. I did the same in my previous attempt and found very little time to assimilate all the official guide questions + explanations. OG13/ 12 should be the book that you should refer to from the beginning and till the end of your prep. Believe me, I still have OG13 on my table right now. Each and every test prep company uses OG to come up with their questions/ course materials. I think you may have read that one should save the GMATPrep tests and not exhaust them. Surprisingly, I do not completely agree to this point of view as well. I strongly suggest everyone to take the first GMATPrep test at the earliest possible time during ones preparation. It is vital to get a feel of the format of the test and a comfort level with the online testing platform. Moreover, it will give you the true picture of your current level on GMAT. Suppose one wants to score 720 on GMAT, but how will he know where he/ she is starting from? If one scores 550 on the initial GMATPrep test then one will have a starting point and end point in mind and realize that he/ she has to cover a gap of 220 points. If one scores 650 the gap is 70 and so on. 2. I only have the OG 13 right now with me. Does OG12 contain different questions than those in OG13. If yes, I think i will need to purchase OG12 too

Yes OG 13, has new questions but they are very few of them. You can find the list of unique question in both the official guides HERE . You will also find the excel in THIS post helpful, which also lists unique questions and contains links to GMATClub posts with discussions thes questions. 3. How are the Verbal review 2nd edition questions in comparison to OG 13 questions(easier, harder or of the same level). Like OG13, the Verbal review also contains questions arranged in the order of their difficulty level. So, in this book you will get additional set of questions to practice/ learn from. In my opinion the Verbal Review contains a greater number of difficult question than does OG. Hope this helps, Vercules

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