Meaning Matters in GMAT Sentence Correction
Sometimes, incorrect answers in Sentence Correction are perfectly grammatical, yet they convey illogical or nonsensical meanings. Unfortunately, many GMAT students focus on finding grammatical errors in order to eliminate answer choices while neglecting to analyze the sentence meaning.
Don’t allow yourself to fall for this trap. It’s very easy to get stumped deciding between two answer choices because you failed to consider each sentence’s meaning or to choose a wrong answer because it’s grammatically correct, and you didn’t notice that it makes no sense.
Of course, your knowledge of grammar rules will allow you to spot common SC errors such as subject-verb agreement errors, pronouns without logical antecedents, and dangling modifiers. Spotting those grammatical errors will allow you to quickly eliminate certain answer choices. However, any time you don’t find a “slam dunk” reason (or two) to eliminate an answer, you should ask yourself, “What is the meaning conveyed by this version of the sentence if I read it literally? Does that meaning make sense?” Furthermore, when you think you have a correct answer, double-check the meaning conveyed by that version of the sentence to ensure that the meaning is logical. You know that grammatically incorrect answers are incorrect; just don’t assume that grammatically correct answers are automatically correct.
Watch the short video tip here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z70uEPF7ox0
Sometimes, incorrect answers in Sentence Correction are perfectly grammatical, yet they convey illogical or nonsensical meanings. Unfortunately, many GMAT students focus on finding grammatical errors in order to eliminate answer choices while neglecting to analyze the sentence meaning.
Don’t allow yourself to fall for this trap. It’s very easy to get stumped deciding between two answer choices because you failed to consider each sentence’s meaning or to choose a wrong answer because it’s grammatically correct, and you didn’t notice that it makes no sense.
Of course, your knowledge of grammar rules will allow you to spot common SC errors such as subject-verb agreement errors, pronouns without logical antecedents, and dangling modifiers. Spotting those grammatical errors will allow you to quickly eliminate certain answer choices. However, any time you don’t find a “slam dunk” reason (or two) to eliminate an answer, you should ask yourself, “What is the meaning conveyed by this version of the sentence if I read it literally? Does that meaning make sense?” Furthermore, when you think you have a correct answer, double-check the meaning conveyed by that version of the sentence to ensure that the meaning is logical. You know that grammatically incorrect answers are incorrect; just don’t assume that grammatically correct answers are automatically correct.
Watch the short video tip here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z70uEPF7ox0
