Attention GMAT Takers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (very important)

This is a shock, I'm not too sure how confident one can be of SC preparation before sitting for the real GMAT

same here budddy
please share your thoughts

Dear hoogly
after reading your post i am confused what are you upto
are you happy about the change
or you are sad about the changes

I think
either you are not aware of the gravity of the situation or this post
or you are ready for GMAT today
go and write
and then you will surely have something substantial to write here

and if you are ready then please ignore
this post is not meant for extra ordinary people like you

Hi guys,

I am non-native and I tend to think that these changes will be positive. i think these will make the exam more equal between native and non-native testers. However, natives will always have some advantage

hey Dom1
read the post properly
1 we dont have any specific material which handles meaning issue
2 native speakers normally prepares for idioms and grammer rules only for gmat SC but now they dont need to as meaning is a daily routine for them
as its their language



we all know that there will always a bias (or advantage)
all i want to say is that now its huge instead of small earlier

hope you understand what i am trying to say

Strategy to fight this. May be we can strt concentrating more on the CR part and RC part. Try to reduce timings on them. We should get advantage out of it.
But i guess, there will be more insights by prep companies on this.

But then srsly worried....

i have mixed opinions and i am not able to decide if it is for the good or for the bad... maybe i can only tell after the test...

ofcourse memorizing each of the idioms was a real pain.. and i used to get 1 or 2 of the q's wrong because i was not sure of the idioms.. so its a relief that we wont be tested in this sense...

on the other hand, i am not sure what gmac says when it means... testng sentence meanings...
lets hope its not too complex... i dont want to get more wrong answers on the meanings, than i did on idioms..

btw.. do we have some practice questions.. on types of q's gmac is going to test on?

You are right. Idioms are real pain to memorize.
The point bothering me is.
There might be two answers with correct grammar.
And the right one will be the one with proper meaning.

Previously i ll narrow down to 2 options where idioms will come into play.

But then we need sample problems to exactly know what the changes are.

thanks... re-read your comments again..so we dont have any material with examples of the change that is gonna come our way.. its an interesting challenge...

hey warlock.. i am a non-native speaker... but then again i dont think gmac as an international testing committe would want to offer any bias as such.. so really... instead of fighting over spilt milk (changes), lets face the challenges and give our best shot...

lets take this as a scenario where the client might suddenly change his plans at the time of signing contracts... and we have to make our effort to beat around him to get our job done!!

WarLock ...?

" 1 GMAC indirectly saying that they are going to favor native speakers now as only native speakers can do this without any specific study "

Where did GMAC say this ??? The only thing it says is " they are moving towards completely phasing out idioms! They don’t want to penalize non-native speakers for things that don’t really interfere with comprehension and communication"

Do you understand what the above statement means ? It means Idioms have nothing to do with comprehension ( meaning or logical understanding ) and so Idioms have been in the process of phasing out ? I do not understand where it is mentioned that they are going to favor native speakers ! Meaning refers to logical meaning of a sentence. an option might be grammatically correct but depending on words chosen or placement of words sometimes can change the meaning of the sentence ! This is what is being emphasized ! Analyze a given fact even before you dwell out scaring thousands of minds preparing for the GMAT !

Dude WarLock , may be your test did not go well and you are frightening number of native speakers on the forum !!!

This is pessimistic attitude and if you are planing to re take I wish it does not come in the way and you reach your target !

I am emphasizing once again, As per the gmat blog from Mgmat , all we could decipher is :

1. Emphasis has been on questions with normal grammatical errors but after elimination we are always left with two grammatically correct answers now. So, eliminate the one that intends the meaning of original sentence .Seems like this is already in place. I do not understand how it will be a disadvantage to non native speakers like us. We are giving a international standardized test and whats the point if our standards of deciphering the meaning upon reading a sentence is low ? Are we that bad at understanding the logical meaning a sentence tries to convey ? These are just rumors or wrongly understood by warlock based on Mgmat blog.

2. Idioms will be completely eliminated soon. As of now there a few questions based on idioms in the pool. This is definitely good news to non native speakers, we need to cram several idioms as before !

As Mgmat blog mentions, let us wait till Monday to get more information on this. As of now I really do not think there is need to raise an outrage . At least most of the test takers here i guess are intelligent enough to not panic based on a biased view of a disappointed individual. We are Gmat takers and people with work experience. All these things should induce a sense of deeper analysis of the things. This is what most of the Gmat verbal section expect from us. We prepare for Gmat and yet fail to apply our reasoning skills to practical situations and panic on even every small change we hear of !

I already gave a reply to this ! check out my latest post. Dude no overlapping conflicts or neither I am after you. All i am asking is to wait till Monday and do not agitate people with completely deviated understanding of the blog Hope you take it in a good sense and we are here to prepare for GMAT ! - Our Common Goal !

Hiii,

When you write reported speech, please report things unambiguously. Don't write 'gmac is indirectly saying tha't,but instead write 'in my opinion , gmat is indirectly saying that'.......

As far as Gmac is concerned, Gmat has got to make few changes in its structure to maintain its standard. Already GRE is being accepted by few business schools. Also GMAT is a exam of America and they don't have any obligation to make life easier for non-native speakers. Thirdly but not the last, if Gmac is not testing idioms then it is great for non-native speakers. Though I respect your personal view as what you feel about changes. Yet another thing, there are many non-native people who have been scoring 770 or good scores recently. Last but not the least, one punctuation mark after 'attention Gmat test takers' would have done fine, too many!!!! makes the thread ugly and looks shouting.

Lets wait till monday for more insights.

Keeping fingers crossed.

Dear KSP and other posters
where did I write the word PANIC

you are reading it wrong its ATTENTION

my only motives were as below
1 is there any material which accounts for this new orientation of GMAT
2 what strategy we should implement to counter this as earlier non natives have been mastering GMAT SC
3 the effect is far more than it looks from this post as the Meaning Issue will be too subtle it will not be a cakewalk as it was for idioms in which you need to remember almost 50-60 idioms
4 people who are not worried by this simple need to ignore this they are ready for GMAT SC by now as there will be less of rules and idioms and more of a meaning thing

last but not the least
instead of pointing out fingers please post something concrete in terms of material/approach

all the best to all GMAT takers

hey BB
thanks for the kudos
but your expert advice is needed man

please post your views on this

Firstly, I never asked the GMAT to make anything easier for anybody. As a STANDARDISED test, the GMAT HAS an obligation to make the test EQUAL for everyone. If thousands of b-schools are accepting the GMAT, then I believe it is subject to some integrity. GMAT removing idioms is, perhaps, good news - I would still say that learning idioms is very easy - but testing the questions on meaning makes them more difficult in that it will be hard to PREPARE for the test the way we used to. Grammar can be learned because the rules are fixed. But meaning is a totally different ball game, something that is developed over years and CANNOT be understood too quickly. And if these changes are to COMPETE with GRE then honestly, I don't think its any test-taker's problem. If the changes have been made, they should reflect in GMAT PREP or IMHO, they should have released OG 13 earlier. How do you justify, GMAT Prep throwing questions that are as old as 2008, when those questions are quite far from the real thing. I also understand that GMAT Prep is to give us a FEEL of the test, but then for those weaker students, shouldn't there be some more official questions that reflect the changes on the test ??

I never asked to make the test easy. Infact I love the GMAT. Its much better than many other standardised tests. But there should have been some indications to reflect the changes in the test. I had always feared this.

I think I would put little more blame on the of test prep companies that make non-standard material and actually ruin a candidates preparation. I wont name any company, but I think a GMAT Test taker should be extremely cautious in choosing a prep company's material.

Memorising idioms is a cakewalk ? :O

Meaning change = misplaced modifier + Dangling modifier + omitting a crucial word like 'May' etc etc. Its not that meaning change has not been taught in test prep books till now. Meaning change is a big part of modifier error and even faulty comparisons.

Incorrect meaning -Jim biked along an old dirt road to get to his house, which cut through
the woods.

Corrected version - To get to his house, Jim biked along an old dirt road, which cut
through the woods.

Altered intent also makes meaning changes.

original sentence > Red wine, the finding of recent studies, may prevent serious heart problems in many adults (mgmat 1st edition)

corrected version 1 > Recent studies have found red wine to prevent heart problems in many adults.

corrected version 2 > Recent studies have found that red wine may prevent heart problems in many adults.

corrected version 1 is incorrect because it changes the meaning by omitting key word 'may'.

Again I say from your first post it looks you are seriously thinking Gmat's changes is absolutely against non-native speakers . You derived an absolutely wrong conclusion from manhattan blog. Be calm and cool and focus on studies. May be you and I cant beat Gmat. so what ? many people do. many people have done. Its not right to get demoralised by structural changes. Take everything in a positive way. and if you re-read the blog with cool head you will find the blog said 'There are already some examples of this in the existing, released materials (more about this on Monday), but these didn’t used to be as common'.

And again, the way you have reported manhattan blog is absolutely incorrect.

Many people getting destroyed etc ?. Considering many test takers don't even bother to write debriefs its completely illogical to derive inferences on small sample of any statistics.

Very interesting discussion indeed. I saw a similar discussion in Sentence Correction forum of BTG as well. Check out the post with the title "Changes in Sentence Correction. An Important read!". I cannot post the url since I have fewer than 5 posts on GMATClub (disadvantages of being a silent spectator)..

My 2 cents - meaning has always been an integral part of SC. Its just we get lost in the myriad of rules and lose sight of this big picture...So the only "new" information here is the Great news that "idioms" will no longer be tested...I am really elated today...

Will definitely have a beer or two just to celebrate this...(I know I will see idioms in my test since idioms will not be phased out right away) but still i will celebrate...!

PS: (Will post the link once I have 5 posts)