heh. i'm probably the wrong guy to pm on this issue, since, in all honesty, i don't really know exactly what is a "subordinate clause" and what isn't.GMATMadeEasy wrote:I have PMed Ron to put his comments on this.
in fact, i know very few grammatical terms, other than the basics (noun, verb, prepositional phrase, etc.). on these forums it may seem that i have more knowledge than that, but this is the case only because i'm on the internet -- i generally just look up the names of the terms before i post here, if i'm going to name them.
so that brings me to my first points:
(1) when you solve problems, do not be concerned with labels (such as "subordinate clause").
... and therefore,
(2) don't worry about labels at all unless they specifically help you understand.
the importance of not relying too much on labels cannot be overstated, since time management is so important on this exam.
here's the analogy that i give when i teach classes:
imagine the following two situations:
a) you are driving on a road. you see a red light in front of you. you realize that when you see that, you must stop. therefore, you stop.
b) you are driving on a road. you see a red light in front of you. you say to yourself, "hmm, what is that called?" you tell yourself that it's called a "circular red signal". then you ask yourself what is the significance of a "circular red signal". then you realize that its significance is that you must stop. therefore, you stop.
you can see why the second of these situations is definitely inferior to the first -- and, in a situation where time is of the essence, potentially disastrous.
the same is true for spending excessive effort putting labels on things in these sentences.
at best, the necessity of labeling grammatical elements should be temporary. once you get to the point where you can correctly classify them as correct or incorrect just by looking at them, you should completely STOP labeling them, so that you can have better time management.
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analysis in next post.
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