Distraught : Sentence Correction ! Please help.

Question

Hi,

I have three weeks left for GMAT and I continue to struggle with sentence correction . It is not that I don't know grammar, I know my nouns, verbs and what not, but I think the problem is with implementation. Whenever I start working through the SC workbook, I am fatigued by the end of a 10 - 12 question exercise. I usually end up with 6-7 questions right out of 10. 
 
On the other hand, I love RC and CR. I can start from the beginning and complete 50 questions on the trot before giving rest to the workbook. The accuracy is great too. I don't think I have more that 5 - 6 incorrect out of those 50.

So, its not that I don't know my english either. Where am I going wrong? How can I improve this?

Please help me ! If this continues, I might contemplate postponing my GMAT date, which I don't wish too!!

Thanks.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear bschool2k15 , I'm happy to respond. :-)

First of all, I would urge you to be more nuanced in your self-description. It's too simplistic to think in terms of the binary "I understand" vs. "I don't understand." Think in terms of levels of understanding: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/understand ... rformance/ You say you "know grammar", and I assume you do know quite a bit. It's one thing to understand grammar mathematically, each piece in isolation. It's very different to understand grammar in context. Similarly with English --- clearly, your English is strong, but are you the equivalent of Shakespeare? There's always more to learn. The mediocre students assumes, " OK, I am done with this ." The excellent student keeps digging: " How can I understand more deeply ?" Here are some GMAT idiom flashcards that you may find helpful: https://gmat.magoosh.com/flashcards/idioms I would strongly suggest: do as much outside reading as you possibly can in the next few weeks --- read newspapers, magazines & journals, etc. See this blog for some recommendations on what to read: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-reading-list/ In everything you read, find long sentences, and figure out the grammar of these sentences. Look for complex parallelism. Look for sentences with multiple subordinate clauses. Make it your goal to analyze 50+ sentences in this way each and every day. If the structure of any sentence confuses you, post it here to ask for my input. Also, remember that grammar is only part of the story on the GMAT SC. If you think the GMAT SC is only about grammar, you will miss the majority of what it is testing. The GMAT SC has three big focuses: 1) Grammar 2) Rhetoric 3) Logic & Meaning For more on Rhetorical Construction , see: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/rhetorical ... orrection/ For more on Logical Predication , see https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/logical-pr ... orrection/ https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/logical-sp ... orrection/ Magoosh has a whole series of recently revised lessons on the GMAT SC question. You may find these help you appreciate what you are currently missing. Here's a sample lesson: https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/914-the ... rb-mistake Here's a free SC question: https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3597 When you submit your answer, the following page will have a full video explanation. Magoosh has 100+ SC questions, each with its own VE. I think that this kind of immediate & detailed feedback is precisely what you will need to accelerate your understanding forward. I hope all this helps. Mike :-)

Distraught : Sentence Correction ! Please help.

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