ESR Report of my first exam - Need help with SC!

Question

Hi all - thanks for reading this.
I took the exam last month and scored 700 (Q49, V35). The main factor for my low score in Verbal is Sentence Correction as you can see in the ESR below.
I'm not sure how to improve this section anymore. I already tried the Manhattan SC Guide, YouTube videos, the Verbal OG etc.. Any tips of different methods or books?

ESR Verbal Summary

- Your Verbal score of 35 is higher than 76% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this section is 27.04.

- Your performance on Critical Reasoning questions was equivalent to a score of 41, which is better than 88% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.59.
 - Your performance of 100% on Analysis/Critique questions is considered Very Strong.
 - Your performance of 75% on Construction/Plan questions is considered Above Average.

- Your performance on Reading Comprehension questions was equivalent to a score of 40, which is better than 85% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.29.
 - Your performance of 80% on Identify Inferred Idea questions is considered Above Average.
 - Your performance of 100% on Identify Stated Idea questions is considered Very Strong.

- Your performance on  Sentence Correction questions was equivalent to a score of 30 , which is better than 57% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.19.
 - Your performance of 50% on Grammar questions is considered  Weak .
 - Your performance of 50% on Communication questions is considered  Weak .

Thank you all!

bebs · Answer

Hello. Congratulations for the 700. I think you are closer to a stellar verbal score than you think. I'd recommend e-gmat for your SC issues, especially if you are a non-native speaker.

Best wishes!

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  MAPP , Hi! Since you mention SC as your specific area of concern, thought I would mention that our sentence correction book  Sentence Correction Nirvana  is perhaps the  only  book that offers a score improvement  guarantee , and is especially designed for  non-native  speakers.

After reading the book  twice  (yes! it's an  academic  book, and so must be read twice in all seriousness, to  reinforce  the concepts), you will start looking forward to solving SC questions!

The book is available on  Flipkart  and  Amazon.in . You might want to refer to these sites, to also read testimonials of how readers have benefited.

See  here  how Mohit, who scored 750 on GMAT, vouches for our book.

If you want to  sample  a chapter before deciding to go ahead with our book, please PM me your mail-id (along with the chapter that you would like to sample) and I will be happy to send that chapter to you by mail. In addition, the entire Grammar section of the book is also available for free preview at  pothi .

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

You're going to have to report your SC performance in your GMAT Official mock exams and in your general practice if you want us to give you anything more than general SC advice.

We also need to know your background in English. Are you a native speaker? What did you major in college? Do you read English materials on a regular basis?

MAPP · Answer

Thanks, I´ll take a look.

MAPP · Answer

I added below my performance in mock exams during 3 months of studying. In general practice, I would say that my best days were around 50%..
No, I´m not a native speaker. I´m Brazilian and I started studying english in my adult life. 
I´m working in an US bank for the past years, so I read english materials all day long.

SC performance on mock exams 
 MGMAT 1 29% 
MGMAT 2 21% 
MGMAT 3 29% 
MGMAT 4 36% 
MGMAT 5 54% 
GMAT Prep 1 36% 
GMAT Prep 2 57%
GMAT Prep 3 54% 
GMAT Prep 4 46%

Thanks for taking the time.

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

Are those percentages percentiles? If so, I don't think your SC performance on test day deviates that much from your practice result patterns. It sounds like despite spending a lot of time on SC, you still have a lot of room for improvement. If I were you I would review my error log and see if the mistakes I made belonged to certain categories and then try to figure out how not to make the same category of mistakes. This would of course take a lot of time and introspection, but is a critical part of conquering the GMAT.

In addition, I would suggest you add literary works to your daily reading materials so that you acquaint yourself with complicated grammatical structures. Typical business writing is very simple and does not reflect the level of complexity of English that you are expected to comprehend for the GMAT.

Good luck!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi MAPP,

Here is some advice you can follow to improve your Sentence Correction skills.

There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
 
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns in the sentence clearly refer to nouns in the sentence? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
 
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. Find If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
 
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices in a Sentence Correction question, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
 
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. For instance, are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently that would have extended your streak.

After learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your Sentence Correction skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with SC questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
 
You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

ESR Report of my first exam - Need help with SC!

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