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ehudal
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 01 May 2008, 12:02
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Hi all,

Just took the gmat today,got 680... with a bad verbal score... I just cant seem to nail SC...I've used manhattan SC guide,but it didnt change much for me... does anyone here have any advice on how to improve SC? my CR and RC hit rates are about 85-95%...

Thanks
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kidderek
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 01 May 2008, 13:02
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ehudal
Hi all,

Just took the gmat today,got 680... with a bad verbal score... I just cant seem to nail SC...I've used manhattan SC guide,but it didnt change much for me... does anyone here have any advice on how to improve SC? my CR and RC hit rates are about 85-95%...

Thanks
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If you're a non native speaker, I'd say start and end with idioms. Idioms are probably the most pervasive because even on a question that tests parallelism or subject-verb agreement, you'll be able to eliminate an answer choice just b/c of an incorrect idiom.

Most of the time, you will be able to eliminate 3 answer choices quickly. Get into the practice of it. And if you're stuck between two answer choices and must decide, go with the shorter answer choice.
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 01 May 2008, 13:07
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Hi, I thought I share my experience as well. I am not a native speaker but I've lived in the US for a while now. I am not sure what you struggle with but I really struggle with reading passages dealing with geology, history, art or politics. In college I've taken chem and bio classes so I am fairly comfortable with that language. And I am also comfortable with reading business passages.

So what I do is depending on at which point in the test I see a hard passage, if it's somewhat towards the end, I will blow through them to save precious time for SC and CR. I find that I am better at SC and CR because it's more logical.

I am practicing what I preach so I wll let you know if I can improve my verbal score. I am currently 690 (M-52, V-32) So I guess I am in a worse off position than you are in. But best of luck and I am sure we will both get over to the 700 side.

:P
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 02 May 2008, 12:21
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start doing the 1000 Sentence Correction problems (search gmatclub for the doc) and memorizing idioms.
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uphillclimb
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 09 May 2008, 11:38
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Kidderek is correct. I've found that many non-native English speakers have a tendency to get bogged down trying to parse out other errors when they try SC, such as phrase construction, wordiness, etc. It is to your advantage to get a solid handle on the common idioms first. Look for "splits" in the answer choices - once you start doing even moderately well on the verbal section, you may see two different sets of splits in the answer choices for the same question! Do this first, narrow down your choices as best as you can, and THEN address whether or not the sentences have unwieldy construction, etc. I guarantee you will be able to give your verbal score a nice bump...
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ehudal
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 09 May 2008, 11:43
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Thank you all for the replies, That's probably what i'll try.

Is there a list of common idioms available somewhere?
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kidderek
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 09 May 2008, 11:59
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ehudal
Thank you all for the replies, That's probably what i'll try.

Is there a list of common idioms available somewhere?
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Yes, it's out there, but rarely is it a complete list. What i would do is jot down on an index card all idioms you are not 100% sure about.

To the non-native speaker, the correct & incorrect forms of idioms "sound" right. So you have to memorize these. But the key is to memorize them in context (<--did I emphasize that enough?)

NOT in context:
not only . . . but also

in context:
Sentence correction is not only difficult, but also tricky.
or
Not only do I hate sentence correction, but I also fear it.*

*Notice how some idioms can be spliced up.
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680(Q:48,V:35) - how to improve SC? I just dont get it 11 May 2008, 07:02
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I used the MGMAT book on SC for my retake and I thought it helped a ton, I would recommend that.
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