Really worried : Poor Verbal Score on GMAT Prep

Here are some things about RC and SC that I've posted elsewhere. Hopefully, they'll be of some help to you. If you have specific issues outside of these, I'll try to help with those too.

RC
I think with long RCs its really easy to get lost in all the words and the best thing to do is just read for the main idea. Don't get caught up trying to remember all the facts, just get a picture in your head of what the main idea is. Go back and look at the details if you have a question that asks for it, but don't stress about it otherwise. Also remember the main idea is usually (but not always) in the first or last paragraph.

NEVER answer an RC question unless you can find direct support for it in the passage. Every answer is there, you just need to find it. Almost always, extreme answer choices are incorrect, so eliminate them. Remember that your answer *must* be true from the given information in the passage.

If the question does contain a specific reference (with line number) go back and reread that sentence, as well as the sentence preceding and the sentence following it. This should be enough to give you a good idea of the content/tone/overall message of that sentence.

GMAT Sentence Correction:

Sentence Correction is probably the easiest section to improve in verbal because, like quant, grammar follows a specific set of rules. SC isn't asking you for analysis or extrapolation like CR or RC, it is simply asking you to apply those rules.

The most important thing to remember about SC is that there is always a reason to eliminate a wrong answer. Unlike RC or CR, where right answers could be a matter of debate, you should never eliminate an answer on SC unless you can point to something specific as grammatically wrong. The trap for native speakers is that often, our ear catches things that are awkward, or you would never say that way, but they are still technically grammatically correct. Never eliminate something just because it "sounds wrong" -- always have a reason, whether its redundancy, wordiness, or any actual grammatical issue. The correct sentence should be grammatically correct, as concise as possible (if you have two answers that are technically correct, and one is wordier, pick the shorter one), and not change the sentence's intended meaning.

[disclaimer: most of these examples are gathered from the web, since I'm too lazy to make up my own]

The most typical issues you'll see in SC are:

Misplaced Modifiers
This is probably GMAC's favorite SC tool to test. It's simply a phrase describing something that is incorrectly placed and ends up describing something else.

For instance:
At six years old, my father took me to my first day of school.

In this case, though it is clearly me that went to school "at six years old," the clause is modifying my father. There are many ways to correct this sentence, but the simplest thing to remember is the modifier should be as close as possible (ideally, directly touching) what it's modifying.

For instance, the phrase "the gold man's watch" is unclear, since we don't know if the watch belongs to a gold man, or if the man's watch is gold. What would be better is "the man's gold watch."

Parallelism
Another favorite. Parallelism simply means that sentences should balance verbs/phrases/etc. It essentially ensures that you have a consistent sentence. The most typical place you'll see parallel structure is in a list.

To use a simple example,
I like running, swimming, and to hike.

Most of us would say this is wrong, because "to hike" is in a different form than running or swimming. The sentence should read, "I like running, swimming, and hiking," or "I like to run, to swim, and to hike."

A more complex example would come when we need to employ parallel structure in a clause. For instance

The teacher told the students preparing for the test that they should get adequate sleep, that they should drink caffeine, and to study the notes from chapter 12.

The parallelism must extend through each clause, but in this case, "to study the notes" is in a different form than the others. The sentence should read, "The teacher told the students preparing for the test that they should get adequate sleep, that they should drink caffeine, and that they should study the notes from chapter 12."

Idioms
This is probably the most difficult part of SC, particularly for non-native speakers. Here are things that English speakers would/should say, even though another way to say it might be grammatically correct as well. I would recommend getting a list of idioms (there are some on this site, most test prep companies offer them) and studying them, even if you are a native speaker. For instance, the GMAT's correct answer will never be:

I consider you to be a friend.

Even though that is grammatically correct. Because the idiom of consider stands alone, the GMAT correct answer would be,

I consider you a friend.

It is definitely worth your time to review a list of GMAT idioms. I had them on flashcards which really helped me, but whatever works for you. There's a fairly good list here: https://www.prepfortests.com/gmat/tutori ... sions/list

Tense issues
Another well-loved GMAT question is to trick you with tense issues, by placing those differing tenses far away from each other, or using an incorrect tense that sounds like it could be correct. For instance,

After the police examined the fingerprints left at the scene of the crime, they concluded that their prime suspect committed the theft.

In this case, the prime suspected "had committed" the crime, since we're talking about events occurring in two different time periods of the past (the police examining, the suspect committing), so we need to use past perfect.

I would spend some time reviewing verb rules/verb usage. I hear Manhattan SC is a good book, though I didn't use it. Also good -- Elements of Style (sort of the ultimate grammar reference book), the Purdue OWL website, etc.

Agreement issues
This is the last major issue that's tested on the GMAT. Oftentimes, this occurs with pronouns that have no clear antecedent, incorrect pronoun form (its versus their), etc. Again, this is something any basic grammar book should help you get a good handle on.

Example:
Jackson Computer Specialists, a large regional consulting firm experiencing rapid growth, recently indicated that they would expand into new territory.

In this case, the GMAT is trying to trick you. Jackson Computer Specialists, though it looks plural, is actually a singular noun. Therefore we can't use "they" to refer to JCS, and would have to use "it."

Things that aren't really tested on GMAT SC:
- Spelling
- Most punctuation (I didn't expect to see any punctuation questions, but I actually did see one [incorrect semicolon usage])

One of the best tools in SC is process of elimination. POE works great here because you can have a solid reason to eliminate everything besides the correct answer, unlike RC or CR. I usually did SC by using POE -- ie, I would look for why an answer was wrong, not search for one that looked right.

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