Idioms - Why to learn them?

Question

Hi, I have a general question about idioms: What's the point in learning tens or hundreds of idioms if there is a bunch of other - less familiar - idioms that it is impossible (almost

) to learn? let's assume that i have learned all the correct idioms in the Manhattan strategy guide. Even than i'll not be able to eliminate choices on idioms grounds (even if one of the idiom i'm familiar with will appear) because i'm not familiar with all the idioms in the world. So what the hack? What is the value in learning idioms if it dose not allow me to eliminate choices on idioms grounds?

septwibowo · Answer

I got your point. Actually, I'm on my last stage of GMAT preparation - and idiom seems to become my biggest weakness. I only memorize several famous idioms, not spent too many times only to memorize a number of other idioms. Believe it or not, idiom can make easy questions become hard questions for me - and vice versa - just because in the easy question, sometimes they just only test the idiom. On the other hand, hard questions often test several things in one single questions - and sometimes you do not need to break the idiom problems because you already solve another point of grammatical and logical mistakes. GMATNinja has written down wonderful explanation about this struggling, you may check it also : https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-5-29-17-no-bs-guide-to-gmat-idioms-241848.html Happy studying!

oryahalom · Answer

septwibowo Thanks for the response

I try to understand. You face a question that tests idioms (solely or together with some other issues). let's assume that you identify one of the correct idiom-usage you have learned. How does it help you to eliminate choices that dose not include the idiom you learned but different versions? How the idioms knowledge helps you to decide that the other usage are wrong? I want to learn the idioms if its worth something (even if not much) but i struggle to understand what it worth.

AjiteshArun · Answer

I'm really looking forward to seeing the OA to this question

I agree with you to some extent. I certainly don't ask my students to memorize long "idiom lists". However, there are some structures that occur quite frequently. It might be a good idea to go through those. For example, you do want to be able to remove an option that uses both X as well as Y instead of both X and Y .

oryahalom · Answer

AjiteshArun - Thanks for your response (the answer will pop up right away

) i understand what do you say, but if it actually means that i have to learn the "right idioms" as well as the "wrong ones", doesn't it?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  oryahalom , indeed chances are almost  zilch  that an option would be incorrect  solely  because of incorrect idiom usage.

Having said that, the use of idioms is so prevalent in English that it is highly  unlikely  that GMAC will completely stop testing them.

Hence, we believe that the extreme choices of either learning  no  idiom at all, or memorizing  hundreds  of idioms, are both inefficient approaches.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    collates a list of around 20-30 most  prominent idioms , their application and examples. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

GMATPill · Answer

The usage of idioms on the test has been reduce substantially over the years so as not to produce an inherent bias in the test.

There are, of course, certain stylistic elements that will be tested -- such as X&Y consistency, and how certain words are placed together -- but there really are just a handful.

We've structured our SC course around these small handful of commonly tested idiomatic expressions that pretty much cover all you need for the test. I believe there's an overestimation of the importance of idioms on the test -- but that really has changed a lot compared to 10-15 yrs ago -- to the benefit of non-native English speakers.

I'm confident that if you are able to master the most common SC stylistic idiomatic expressions -- you will be 100% prepared for what you will see on the actual test.

You can learn more about GMAT Pill at www.gmatpill.com/testimonials

davidhibner12 · Answer

Because it's nationally biased phrases that are used in everyday speech in each country. I'm sure that you have used them at least 2 times. Because with their help you can beautify your speech and show attitude to different things. Also, with the help of idioms you can say smth that can hardly be explained or have a very long explanation.

ccooley · Answer

The MPrep Sentence Correction guide has two lists of idioms for exactly this reason! Focus on two things:

1. The 'short list' of commonly tested idioms, in the 'idioms' chapter of the book (NOT the long list in the appendix)
2. Any idiom that actually causes you to miss a problem while you're practicing.

There are many things you should focus on before you work on idioms, such as modifiers and parallelism. If you aren't already at a pretty high level with the more commonly tested SC topics, don't waste your time studying hundreds (or even dozens) of idioms that you likely won't see on the test. It would only be worth doing if you had basically infinite time to study; in reality, idioms are often a low-value topic.

Idioms - Why to learn them?

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