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I'm so lost - Where to start on SC?

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I'm so lost - Where to start on SC?

by KatieB » Tue Sep 07, 2010 7:16 am
I just took my first GMAT practice test - I missed 9 questions, 3 CR and 6 SC! I'm a native English speaker, and I write fairly well, but when it comes to grammar rules - I'm really mystified. Honestly, I have a hard time even figuring out what is the subject sometimes.

My thoughts are that I need to at least be able to get the 'easy' SC questions right - but I don't even know where to begin. I have Kaplan's GMAT Verbal Foundations book and the MGMAT Sentence Correction book. I find I usually get about 50% of the practice questions right, and of those I got wrong I'm not really clear on why the correct answer is right.

Here is what I found has been a bit helpful - is to write. I've been trying to do an AWA question each morning, and I'm now beginning to see the parts of a sentence. A bit easier when you're the author! I think I just really need help with the basics first, and then once I have the basics down pat - I can then start to apply the rules from the above-mentioned books.

Is there a method to SC questions that I can put in place? Maybe its something like 1st - identify the subject and main verb, 2nd identify the independent and dependent clauses, 3rd - ???

Are there online courses that focus only on SC? I plan to take the GMAT the first part of Oct. - so I want to get right on this.

Thanks for any help!
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by scorpionz » Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:08 am
Hi,

I've used the same books that you've mentioned above and can vouch that both are excellent sources to get your SC right..

I started off with Kaplan verbal and then did Manhattan SC..On hindsight, I think that going through the Manhattan book first would have been probably more helpful as it really gets all your concepts straightened out..

Once you go through both the books, or even the first one, you will realize that there aren't too many different types of sentence correction problems. By types I mean the kinds of errors such as pronoun errors, modifier errors, verb tense errors, parallelism errors etc. For most of the questions you can easily spot what the type of error is and that's half the battle won right there. The other half is then purely dependent on how quickly you can isolate the various components of the sentence i.e. the subject, verb, object etc. and zero in on the correct solution.

Some people advocate knowing all the above elements of grammar (subject, object etc.) thoroughly in order to solve the questions accurately while some advocate just going for the option that "sounds right". I belong to the latter school of thought because more often than not I am able to hit the correct answer that way..Since you mentioned that you are a native speaker both methods should be equally easy for you. You need to try out both and just see which one is more comfortable..

You need not worry about the time factor. October is still almost a month away and if you plan on solving the above two books, you should be thorough with the concepts & examples in the two books in SC in 7 days max. If I were you, and if SC was my main sore point, I would follow a study plan like this -
1. Manhattan SC
2. Kaplan Verbal
3. OG 12th Edition

The more examples you solve, the more confident you will be heading into the real thing. Knowing the concepts is one thing, but do make sure that you understand them inside out by solving plenty of examples. This is the main reason I included OG in the above list.

Hope this helps!!

All the best!
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by beatthegmatinsept » Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:54 pm
Katie, I would recommend that you try e-gmat.com for Sentence correction. Their course has helped me tremendously. This was the section that I Struggled with the most initally. I reviewed the Manhattan SC and solved the problems in OG, however I could improve my accuracy from 30 - 40 % to 60. I then tried e-gmat.com and it helped me in a great deal. I improved my my SC accuracy from 60 - 70 to about 90%.

I would like to single out that in addition to providing a comprehensive overview of the concepts, e-gmat provides a standard process to solve SC problems. This standard process has helped me a lot in improving my accuracy. Overall, the approach to solve the SC problems and the clarity and depth of the concepts in https://e-gmat.com/home.php is unbeatable.

There are others who have benefited from e-GMAT as well. I would like to point out a couple of posts that you should go through.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/what-percent ... 63597.html

https://www.beatthegmat.com/700-49q-37v- ... 63767.html

They also offer a free trial. I hope that helps you.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:22 pm
Hey Katie,

It looks like people have given you some great advice thus far, so hopefully I can still add a little value. A few things I'd add are:

1) Know that there are only so many errors that they specifically test (scorpionz mentioned this, too). Look proactively for those errors - misplaced modifiers, incorrect pronoun agreement/subject-verb agreement, etc. - and save the idioms/"sounds right"s for later. Once you have a few pet favorite errors (I dare anyone to beat me with a modifier!), you'll start to seek them out right away and save valuable time for the rest of the test.

2) Train yourself to only read the words that matter. Modifiers, like this one that describes the preceding word just in more detail with lots of excess description, is only important if they contain an error - if not, they're just there to make you read more and lose track of what's going on in the sentence.

In the previous sentence, if you remove the modifier, you just have: Modifiers is only important... Clearly, that's wrong - modifiers is plural and "is" is singular. But the presence of the extra text in between can confuse the subject.

If you try to eliminate adverbs, adjectives, and correct modifiers from what you read, those errors will jump off the screen a bit more. It's much easier to spot errors when you're reading fewer words - it's like needle in a much smaller haystack.

3) As you're practicing SC, hold yourself accountable for "real" decision points (those major error categories) and note any times that you get it right just because "it sounded wrong". The more frequently you're describing the errors with distinct categories, the more systematic you become at SC. That's what the GMAT is after - Sentence Correction is every bit as objective and mechanical as the math section, and those who fail to agree with that are usually those who are doomed to struggle.
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by ChrisBKnewton » Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:48 am
Hi Katie,

Glad that you've gotten some tips for the SC section already! Just wanted to point your attention to a few more resources.

Check out Knewton's Top 10 Tips for the GMAT SC Section. It's a short list of some of the most common errors to look out for on the test.

A few more helpful resources:

5 Bad Habits on the SC Section: What not to do when you're struggling.
It's Wordy, It's Awkward, It's... Correct!
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by KatieB » Wed Sep 08, 2010 2:11 pm
Thanks for everyone's detailed and excellent advice. I loved Brian's example with the long distracting phrase followed by the wrong verb - yep, didn't pick up on it at all.

I spent about 5 hours yesterday on Subject-Verb agreement. I'm getting a little bit better and starting to recognize those prepositional phrases that need to be skipped over (I think?). I think part of my feeling of being overwhelmed was not spending enough time on any given topic. After spending all yesterday on Subject-Verb, I think I have a better handle on it, and then on to the next topic. I plan to devote a solid day or two to each area where I just immerse myself in the subject. Will keep you all posted on how it all turns out.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:02 pm
Great to hear, Katie...I'm glad you're making progress! I've always told students that, if time permits, they should try to master 1-2 error categories a week, and even if you're a category or two short of "really confident" (we break it into really 8 categories, so you can even aim for being great at 5-6 of them and still do really well), then at least you'll save yourself time and energy to really work on the others.

Definitely keep us posted!
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