The Meaning Expressed by Choice (A) is Not the “Intended” Meaning

Pretty profound post for a first day registered account...

I agree, it would be interesting to get more comments or perhaps get an example of an official question where meaning does not play a role or perhaps is not intended. It is always helpful to see an illustration how to apply a rule or a principle.

Hi crackgmat22,

Let me help you with your query around the intended meaning-based approach being incorrect. I will restrain myself from commenting on the main post by TTP as every test prep company has their own pedagogy and methodology and we, as a company, respect that totally. We are not here to conclude whether their opinion is right or wrong. So, my main focus would be on, as pointed out by you, – “Whether the meaning-based approach for solving SC questions is incorrect”. Let us understand it in 2 steps – first through an illustration and then we will understand the logic behind it.

In case of GMAT SC questions, following the meaning-based approach is not just another way of solving such questions but an essential way of doing so, especially for non-natives. While going through the five choices, (and especially on hard questions) we frequently come across two answer choices that are grammatically and logically correct. In such cases, how is the student supposed to choose an answer choice without having derived the intended meaning of the original sentence. The intended meaning serves as the “benchmark” or the “guiding light” for the student and hence, helps to save time.

On basis of our research on Official questions, use of meaning-based approach to solve SC questions plays a significant role even in questions where just one choice is logical. Let us evaluate its validity through an illustration as rightly suggested by bb.

Illustration of the Importance of meaning based approach

Here is an excellent example of one such Official GMAT question (https://gmatclub.com/forum/although-fil ... l#p1119704):

Although films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills, in reality these gregarious creatures live in stable groups that occupy the same territory for long periods.

(A) films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(B) in films about the American West coyotes are depicted to be solitary animals that howl mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(C) coyotes are depicted as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills in films about the American West
(D) films about the American West depict coyotes as if they were solitary, mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills
(E) films about the American West depict coyotes to be solitary and mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills

Using data from the GMATCLUB, it can be seen that 53% of the students who have attempted the question have marked A as the correct choice and 25% have chosen C. The data speaks for itself.

Meaning of A:
• Films about the American West paint a certain image of the coyotes
~They are shown as lone animals howling sadly on the tops of hills
• But reality is different.
• In reality these social creatures live in groups – such groups live in the same region for long durations.
• In a nutshell--- we are talking about films vs reality -> films show coyotes as X, in reality they are Y.

Meaning of C:
• Coyotes are shown as lone animals howling sadly on the tops of hills
~These hills are in films about the American West
• But reality is different.
• In reality these social creatures live in groups – such groups live in the same region for long durations.
• In a nutshell--- we are talking about coyotes vs reality->
~ Coyotes are shown (by whom? we do not know—somebody; where?--we do not know--some location) as lone animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills in films about the American West.
~ Can you see the difference? It is as if coyotes are shown somewhere else (we don’t know where they are depicted) as if they were in films.

The construction of both A and C is correct, and each conveys a logical meaning, albeit a different one.

In such a situation, what should a student do if he/she has not fixed a benchmark against which he/she can compare the choices? If the student does not understand the original sentence in its true spirit, he may not be able to grab command over the answer choices as well.

However, if the student has used the meaning-based approach, he/she will keep that meaning as the benchmark and evaluate each subsequent choice. When going through C, the student will realize that though the meaning is logical, it is different from that of the original choice (which was not illogical to begin with). I myself struggled with SC for a long time and it was the meaning based approach that eventually helped me improve my score to V41.

Here I have shared only one such instance out of many depicting the relevance of the method. In case you are interested to refer to the other questions as well, we can always share more links with you. The answers to almost every SC question from the Official Guide can be correctly determined if this approach is followed in the right manner. In fact, even if there is only one logical choice in a question, focusing on the meaning communicated by the original sentence makes the process of elimination much faster especially for non-native speakers.

Why is Meaning based approach recommended?

This approach is helpful and time-saving for every GMAT aspirant, especially for the non-native speakers to whom the COMPLETE understanding does not come naturally unlike native speakers. Let me elaborate. When a person goes through a text in their native language, even if the language is complex, understanding the meaning is a natural process for which they don’t need to spend even a split of second additionally as their mind is trained to not only speak but also to THINK and understand in their native language (focus on the part “Think and Understand”).

For example, I am a native speaker of Hindi language. Even though I have had English as my first language and have been conversing in English for more than 20 yrs with a BAND 8 in IELTS, I still feel I do not have a native proficiency in English. Today, when I solve a SC question, I still have to pause and think about that sentence’s intended meaning, even if it requires me to spend just 10-15 additional seconds to do so. Whereas, when I read some text in Hindi, I need not think twice about interpreting the meaning of the text, all of it is natural to me.

The same logic applies to the native speakers of English language. English being their native language, most of their minds are naturally trained to speak, think, and understand in that fashion unconsciously. Hence, they need not put any extra effort on it. So, essentially, if a native speaker claims that they don’t follow the meaning-based approach, they aren’t lying – it is just that majority of them are naturally identifying the meaning through their Sub-conscious mind without realizing that they are doing so. Moreover, this approach works well, in fact better, for native speakers, meaning being intuitive to them.

Conclusion

So, coming back to your question crackgmat22 “Is the Intended Meaning Approach incorrect?”. Definitely not. It’s a very useful approach for all the aspirants in its own way. In fact, for a Non-Native speaker meaning-based approach is a Life-saver. I have advised the same to hundreds of students. That’s why so many of the students have been able to secure a great result, basically from the meaning perspective. You can check out some of their interviews here to see for yourself or check out our course reviews on GMATClub.

I hope this answer helps you in understanding the role of Meaning based approach. Please feel free to connect with us on support@gmatwhiz.com if you have any other queries. Happy to help!

Regards,
Piyush Beriwala

In a well-written SC question, such as an official SC question or well-written third-party SC question, there is only one sentence version that effectively conveys a logical meaning. In other words, we can always find a single choice that is clearly the best choice in terms of grammatical correctness and effectiveness in conveying a logical meaning. There are not two sentence versions that are grammatically correct and equally effective.

So, in all SC questions, there is one, and only one, correct version and correct answer.

In fact, in the vast majority of cases, we could tell by looking at one sentence version whether that version is considered correct or incorrect, and in the remaining questions, we can tell which version is correct by comparing the grammatical correctness and effectiveness of versions to find the one version that is the best, and which is best is determined solely by which is most grammatically correct and most effectively conveys a logical meaning.

There is only one correct answer to the above question, and that answer is choice (A). We can safely choose choice (A) because the (A) version is grammatically correct and effectively conveys the logical meaning that films about the American West depict coyotes one way, whereas the reality is different.

On the other hand, we can eliminate choice (C), because the (C) version of the sentence, while grammatically correct, is not effective and conveys an illogical meaning, and here's why.

Notice that this sentence expresses a comparison. The comparison is between two things:

- the "reality" that coyotes "live in stable groups that occupy the same territory for long periods"

- what is described by the first part of the sentence

So, let's consider what choice (C) says in the first part of the sentence and analyze the comparison expressed by the (C) version.

(C) coyotes are depicted as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills in films about the American West

Notice that, because choice (C) closes with the prepositional phrase "in films about the American west," which modifies the preceding action "howling mournfully," choice (C) conveys a meaning that emphasizes that coyotes are "in films about the American West." In other words (C) communicates that coyotes are depicted as solitary animals howling in films about the American West, as if the fact that they do these things "in films about the American West" is what matters.

OK, here's the issue. The fact that coyotes are "in films about the American West" does not contrast logically with the idea presented in the second part of the sentence, which is that coyotes "live in stable groups."

In other words, the (C) version expresses an illogical contrast, as we can see by considering this simplified version of the sentence:

Although coyotes are depicted as solitary animals howling in films, in reality these creatures live in stable groups.

We can clearly see that we can eliminate (C) without considering any other choice in the question because the (C) version is logically flawed. After all, the fact that coyotes howl in films does not logically contrast with the fact that they live in groups.

The basic approach we used to eliminate (C) applies to all Sentence Correction questions, and use of this approach is the path to high performance on Sentence Correction for all GMAT test-takers.

This intended meaning BS aka Myth wasted so much of my time, thanks for posting this folks, this is very timely as far as I am concern!

I agree. Thank you for pointing out that option A is not special in any way.