SC approach flowchart

SC approach flowchart

Be done on original sentence:

1. Meaning:
Usually first verbal questions are medium level, so without proper understanding of original sentence meaning, one cannot go for long. Meaning is very critical, even if you have a simple sentence with ten or so words and couple of words underlined, without meaning grasp it will be challenging to find correct answer. There could be two or three grammatically correct answer choices, but conveyed meaning is different from the original one. So, if any GMAT test taker wants to score 700+, meaning approach is ESSENTIAL not only in SC but also in CR and in RC.
Myself at the beginning of my preparation didn’t pay that much attention to meaning, but when questions get harder I’ve changed my approach.
Meaning sometimes treated shallow, is a word that everyone here in GC is talking about and one must understand it, but in reality, when time is down to SC questions we forget about it and rush to answer to the question. But without meaning it won’t work.
Start to try to understand intended meaning of the original sentence from the beginning of your preparation, until it becomes your second nature and you will always follow meaning first. It will make your life easier later on the GMAT way and on your own way.

2. SV:
Every clause contains at least one SV pair. Collect all your SV pairs, every single Subject must have own Verb, and every single Verb must have own Subject. Moreover, once you’ve collected all your SV pairs you must make sure that they agree in number and make sense. Be careful with collective nouns, noun clauses as a subject, and some words that are always singular or plural such as police, fish, zooplankton.

3. Modifiers:
Modifier and modified entity must make sense, pay attention to the placement of the modifier in the sentence and type of the modifier. Always make sure that you know exactly modifier-modified entity in the sentence. GMAT uses these tricks to distort intended meaning of the sentence, so be strict with modifiers.
Please read more here: https://e-gmat.com/blogs/5-strategies-h ... t-meaning/

4. Heart of the comparison:
If we understand what entities are being compared, we have no problem with comparison errors.
So, we must find out ‘heart of the comparison’ of the original sentence. Comparison must be logical in grammatically correct structure. Be careful with omitted parts of the comparison.

5. // ism:
Again, here logic governs the grammar, if we understand intended meaning we can find out parallel entities. //ism has own markers, watch out for them. Errors may occur when double word //ism marker (either…or, neither…nor) is used to connect list of three or more entities. Any part of the sentence (nouns, verbs, adjectives, clauses etc.) can be in parallel list.

6. Pronouns:
Any pronoun in the sentence must have own ONE antecedent – logical and grammatical – must agree in number with its antecedent. If one pronoun can refer to two different nouns and makes sense – pronoun ambiguity creates. BUT in GMAT - pronoun ambiguity – is not an absolute case to eliminate the answer choice straight away. On GMAT, as long as meaning is clear, both object and subject case pronouns MAY have a possessive noun as antecedent. Pronoun error - can be used as last defense.

I haven’t put in this approach flowchart other miscellaneous grammar issues and idioms. As Mr. Charles said there are 25000 idioms in English, and there is no need to remember them all, unless there is some personal quest. Only remember some basic dozen used by GMAT. “Context governs grammar”. If we understand intended meaning clearly, we can identify correct answer, even if we are not grammar genius.

7. Once you’ve done all previous steps on original sentence, read other answer choices ONE BY ONE.

8. While reading if you notice the same mistake like in original sentence, cross out this answer. Then eliminate 100% wrong answer choices. You have some strong grammar basis, relay on this and eliminate wrong 100% answers directly without delving into this answer.

9. Usually we expect splits at the beginning and ending of the underlined portion of the sentence. Once we spot the correct one, can cross out incorrect. But if you have some doubt which split is correct then leave it and search for other definite errors, there is always some. Need to be careful if whole sentence is underlined splits may not work. Usually, it is meaning-based question and requires rigorous attention to modifiers, //ism and comparison.

10. After you’ve done all these analyses and cannot find correct answer and stuck between two or even three answer choices. Again, you need to compare the rest of the answers from the meaning standpoint, which answer choice conveys intended meaning unambiguously, then choose the most appropriate one. There is also un-official rule of GMAT: "the shortest answer is correct", sometimes it works, sometimes not, but at the end it can be helpful. Anyway, we need to avoid wordy constructions, just convey intended meaning with minimum amount of words.

Remember one absolute rule:

“Once you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”



It works 100%. Correct answer may sound awful and awkward. You may think that normal people won’t say like that. There is nothing about sound, this is not the music to sound good. Never rely on your ear, unless you have no clue of the right answer. By solving oodles of SC questions I’ve noticed one thing and concluded: You have to treat every single SC question as a small isolated government with own rules. These rules work only in this particular government, so you should not try to follow them in different governments (other SC questions). Currently I couldn’t remember exact questions, but if I find some, I will post them in comments later, or other GC member will help me to do so. Sometimes you see ‘like’ used to present examples, which is usually incorrect in GMAT. But in this particular government (SC question) ‘like’ is used to present examples in all 5 choices. Or ‘due to’ is presented to give the reason for the clause, and so on. But this kind of situation is considered correct only within this question. These rules cannot be applied to the different government (other SC questions). Once you’ve solved this question and find 4 wrong answer and 1 ‘correct’ – you are fine. But never consider that ‘like’ is acceptable for ‘examples’ while solving other questions. If you consider any single SC question as a small isolated government with own rules, you will gain as high accuracy as you want. But it doesn’t mean that 100000 SC questions have 100000 grammar rules, NO, there are approximately couples of dozens of rules, not that much, you can cope. General grammar rules can be applied to all SC questions, but you just have to keep in mind that some separate question may have some insubordination with these rules, and you don’t need to be shocked when you face them. Just solve one question at a time with clear mind without any prejudices.

11. Then when everything is said and done you couldn’t find the correct answer, you should do ‘educated guess’. Many test takers have own methods of ‘Educated guess’ and when to apply them. Myself still searching and working out good one. So far using ‘Advanced SC’ slides by souvik101990.
If you have your ‘Educated guess’ methods, could you please share with us.


Some people have good short-term memory some not. I advise to draw quickly this kind of table to mark and cross our answer choices. For me it saves a lot of time and increases my accuracy a bit. Before using this table, I used to come back to one crossed out answer choices again and check.


This is my own approach for SC question, it may work for you or may not.
Try to use this one, then generate your own one based on your mistakes and application of the grammar rules.
Everybody is welcome with improvement suggestions and share own SC approach strategies.

I'll update this post even if there is some good point to add or improve.

p.s. souvik101990 hope you won't mind that I share your Advanced SC

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