The following book review was written by Dana Jinaru.  Dana is currently a finance student in Europe and also serves as a moderator for Beat The GMAT.  On May 13, 2009 she scored a 770 on the GMAT.

Here is Dana’s analysis of the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction guide.

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The following book review was written by Dana Jinaru.  Dana is currently a finance student in Europe and also serves as a moderator for Beat The GMAT.  On May 13, 2009 she scored a 770 on the GMAT.

Here is Dana’s analysis of PowerScore’s GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible.

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The following book review was written by Dana Jinaru.  Dana is currently a finance student in Europe and also serves as a moderator for Beat The GMAT.  On May 13, 2009 she scored a 770 on the GMAT.

Here is Dana’s analysis of the Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2^nd Edition.

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This week, we’re going to analyze a particular GMATPrep® Sentence Correction question.

First, set your timer for 1 minute and 15 seconds and try the problem!

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This is the last of a short series of articles on the short list of what are known as coordinating conjunctions, short words themselves that show up very frequently in the GMAT Sentence Correction questions. Learning them can save you time, allowing you to eliminate wrong answer choices quickly and confidently; understanding them will of course also help add style and clarity to your AWA and admissions applications.  These coordinating conjunctions are often remembered by the acronym FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So); their job in a sentence is joining two or more parallel  . . . well, things in a sentence.

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As a non-native speaker of English, you may find the verbal portions of the GMAT especially daunting. You’re not alone. English is a particularly difficult language to learn as an adult. It’s a blend of several different older languages that still coexist uneasily in the grammar and vocabulary. The roots of English in German rub uneasily against its roots in Latin in ways that resist intuition. A lot of “wrong” usage by non-native speakers is more logical than correct usage. Knowing some of the back story can hopefully make you feel less frustrated as you try to absorb it all.

England wasn’t even the first home of English. In ancient times the people there spoke indigenous languages that are the precursors to Irish and Welsh. England was invaded and conquered by Germanic tribes that pushed the indigenous British tongues to the corners of the British Isles. Old English was a blend of German and Scandinavian languages. A few Latin words also entered via the Germanic tribes’ long interaction with the Roman Empire.

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This is the sixth of a short series of articles on the short list of what are known as coordinating conjunctions, short words themselves that show up very frequently in the GMAT Sentence Correction questions.  Learning them can save you time, allowing you to eliminate wrong answer choices quickly and confidently; understanding them will of course also help add style and clarity to your AWA and admissions applications.  These coordinating conjunctions are often remembered by the acronym FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So); their job in a sentence is joining two or more parallel  . . . well, things in a sentence.

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The GMAT has a limited bag of tricks up its sleeve to disguise incorrect answer choices. Think of the test-makers as politicians caught in a lie; they can exaggerate, change the subject, twist the truth further, or draw dubious inferences to throw you off their scent. In the end, though, any politician will tell you that the most efficient way to get away with a lie is to simply confuse your accuser into submission. This is one of the GMAT’s greatest tricks, and one of its most common techniques with which to accomplish it is to use negation and reversals in unexpected and mystifying ways.

Negations are words that reverse the meaning of a sentence. They include adverbs and adjectives, such as not, cannot, unlike, or without, as well as verbs that negate their subjects, such as neglect, deny, reverse, refuse, or counteract. Negations can make parsing them into a nightmare, especially during the GMAT, when reading quickly is a key skill. Dealing with negations and reversals effectively is doubly important for non-native English speakers.

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Grammar is, of course, an issue of concern on the Sentence Correction questions seen on the GMAT. But good grammar is also generally helpful and is of special importance on the writing sample, which is your chance to show the admissions committee that you are adept at communicating in written English. To improve your writing in general, sometimes it’s worthwhile to explore concepts in grammar that are only infrequently tested on the Verbal portion of the test.

One example of this kind of grammar issue is the possessive pronoun. Possessive pronouns are similar to their non-possessive cousins, regular pronouns. Both must have a clear antecedent, and both must agree with that antecedent in gender and in number. There are a few tricky rules that come into play with possessive pronouns that you don’t see elsewhere, however.

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What’s the difference between these two sentences?

He spoke clearly, articulating the points of his plan.

The points of his plan were articulated in his clear speech.

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A common point of confusion among those studying for the GMAT—as well as the general writing public—is the difference between “that” and “which.” Knowing which of these words to use in a given situation can often allow you to eliminate a couple of answer choices, speeding up your verbal test-taking and ultimately helping to improve your score.

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Verb tense is one of the more complex issues of English grammar, and usage experts can hold forth at length on the subtleties of the subject. Luckily, the GMAT doesn’t plumb too deeply into the nuances of tenses, but there are a few things beyond the simple past, present, and future that GMAT students should know. Perfect tenses are an example of a common situation in Sentence Completions: students can often use them correctly by ear, but if their ear fails them, they have no rules to fall back on. The two perfect tenses that the GMAT likes to test are the present perfect and the past perfect (there is also a future perfect tense, but it’s rarely used on the GMAT).

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This week, we’re going to take a look at how to tackle a particular kind of Critical Reasoning question: Draw A Conclusion.

First, grab your stopwatch and try the below problem; give yourself 2 minutes. It’s a ManhattanGMAT problem but we made sure to mimic the real test when we wrote it. When you’re done, do NOT check your answer or read the solution yet (the answer and explanation are at the end of the article). Continue through the article as written (you’ll understand why later).

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There are several ways in which the LSAT and the GMAT are alike: both have reading comprehension sections with fairly similar question types, focusing on the author’s tone and approach, the passage’s main idea, and the use of details to support and flesh out the author’s points.  Each of these tests also has a critical reasoning section in which the savvy test-taker uses similar approaches to many of the assigned tasks: identifying assumptions, strengthening and weakening arguments, and drawing inferences are examples.  However, it’s important to remember that there are also some distinct differences between the two; this can especially have an impact on how you study, since many students use LSAT questions to bridge the gaps in released GMAT materials.  The LSAC, or Law School Admissions Council, releases the majority of its questions, giving LSAT students access to a far larger official question bank than that made available by the GMAC.  Here are a couple of thoughts to consider:

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