GMAT Strategies For The Verbally-Concerned, Part I

by , Aug 29, 2009

We have a guest-author this week: Chris Ryan, Manhattan GMAT's intrepid Director of Instructor and Product Development. If you've used any Manhattan GMAT material in your prep, Chris is the man to thank: he may have written it, proofed it, managed it - somehow, he has touched everything that Manhattan GMAT publishes.

This week and next, we'll be giving you his advice (slightly edited for length) on general strategies for the major verbal question types. This week: Sentence Correction.

Maybe you can solve equations just fine; its this fuzzy language stuff that gets you down. Maybe your teachers never gave you a good solid foundation in grammar. Maybe English isnt your first language, in which case I sincerely admire you. Or maybe youre not so bad at English, but you want to do great on the verbal because youre actually really worried about the math and you want to get all the points you can.

Fear not! Here are five strategies to guide you on verbal. [Editor's note: two will be presented this week; the other three will be presented next week.]

1. Break down Sentence Correction.

Grammar is the set of rules for putting words into sentences, and it is very much like a puzzle; sentence parts fit together precisely. Master the fitting rules, and Sentence Correction becomes practically mechanical.

True, English grammar can be tricky, because no central authority holds sway over the language. So you have to study how the GMAT makes certain controversial calls. For instance, consider the following two sentences:

I play sports like lacrosse and soccer.

I play sports such as lacrosse and soccer.

In its Manual of Style and Usage, the New York Times says that you should prefer #1. And to my ear, #1 sounds great. But all you care about is the GMAT and the GMAT says that like means similar to, while such as means for example. So go with the GMATs call: #2.

Likewise, study how the GMAT specifically applies stylistic principles, such as clarity and concision. In the wider world, these concepts may be sprawling. But on the exam, concision always means something very specific; for instance, you should say indicates rather than is indicative of.

Use the Official Guides and the GMAT Prep practice exams as your primary source material for Sentence Correction problems. And to master the rules of GMAT grammar and style, get our Sentence Correction Guide. [Editor's Note: of course, we're a bit biased, but our Sentence Correction Guide gets lots of good reviews! Whatever you use, do make sure that you have a reference book that teaches you English grammar and usage rules as tested on the GMAT.]

2. Rewrite Sentence Correction sentences to retrain your ear.

Even though Im a native speaker of English, my ear can be wrong. Even with my command of the grammar rules, I can sometimes get Sentence Correction practice problems wrong just like the next person. What do I do to improve?

Any time I get an SC problem wrong, I apply a great technique to hone my ear and my grasp of subtle rules. What I do is burn the correct sentence into my mind. All it takes is one patient minute of review, during which I rewrite the sentence in a notebook with the correct answer inserted. As I do so, I analyze the rules that make this version of the sentence correct, in comparison with the wrong answer choices. Finally, I say the sentence aloud.

Store the sentence in your head using two different senses sight and hearing. Force yourself to produce it two different ways on paper and aloud. Then youll always have it somewhere inside you, and youll remember the associated rules that much better.

This technique is especially helpful for idiom mastery. By the way, dont go off and study huge lists of idioms that you find on the Internet or in non-GMAT-specific books. You need to grasp and recall the idioms that appear on the real GMAT, in sentences as they appear on the GMAT. So reviewing a GMAT-specific list is useful. Making such a list is even more useful. And writing out corrected Official Guide or GMAT Prep sentences that contain those idioms? Thats super-useful.

Next week: Three tips on Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning