Sentence Correction

David@VeritasPrep wrote:Just don't get caught up in all of the memorization. People want to have a list that they can memorize. But the GMAT is not like that and guess what Business School is not like that and business is not like that either.

THANK YOU. (or, as the internet is fond of saying, "this.")
it's good to see this stated, and restated, from other quarters.

one way in which i've explained this to some students is that the test is sort of a hybrid between a school test (on which there are memorized rules) and an IQ test (on which the *whole point* is NOT to state the rules, and instead to let the test-take her figure out the rules for him/herself). the test is not wholly in either camp; it's pretty nicely situated in the middle.
the reason why i don't make this point more often online is that "IQ test" seems to be somewhat of a swear word in most professional communities, but the analogy is still valid.

By the way, how do you know this is a 700+ sentence correction?

hahahaha dude, you've been around here long enough to know that the people who make these documents have no idea at all about actual difficulty levels, and that they just make up difficulty levels at random -- most likely because anything titled "700+" gets more attention.

for instance, check out the following document, many of whose problems are clearly from the lowest levels of the real difficulty scale:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/198-level-70 ... tml#378457

ironically, as i pointed out, this whole "fake 700+" thing may wind up helping students -- because most students can get a better and clearer idea of the necessary concepts from problems that are slightly easier. this goes especially for sentence correction, on which exactly the same constructions that are easier to see in shorter sentences can become nightmarishly difficult to see in longer sentences -- so that students who start with the easier ones will get a stronger conceptual foundation, while the students who really *do* only use the "hard" problems will basically just be thrashing around.

voodoo_child wrote:David and Ron,
I am sorry but this is a High difficulty level question from K@pl@n. I believe that [High] equates to 700+. Every prep company has its own ratings scale. K_____ has only three categories. However, I am not that experienced as you. If you wish, I can change the title of this thread.

ok, fair enough.
but don't forget the main point, which is that it's completely pointless to think about difficulty levels, ever, if you are a student/test-taker. the only people who ever need to worry about numerical difficulty levels are people who write tests.

I didn't have any intention to misguide people or attract attention. I am a self-study guy and just needed help. Honestly, I have learned a lot from K___n questions.

oh no no, i wasn't saying that *you* were trying to attract attention -- this was not a statement about you, this was a statement about the general population of people studying for the gmat.
basically, there is a huge population of students who basically start salivating whenever anyone declares that a problem is "700+ level", even if it's objectively clear that the problem is much easier than that.

let's put it this way -- if i were a less scrupulous person, i would just scrounge up a list of random algebra problems, label it "750+ LEVEL GMAT PROBLEMS", and then start selling it. the sad part is that a lot of people would pay me good money for it (at least until it started going around the file-sharing sites... heh)

that comment wasn't directed at you at all. sorry if it seemed that way -- wasn't the intention.

and, no, you definitely shouldn't change the title of the thread. if the title of the thread brings in more readers to this discussion, then all the better.