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Sentence Correction Strategy needed

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Sentence Correction Strategy needed

by resilient » Sun May 11, 2008 11:12 am
I believe that I have a firm understanding of the grammar rules that are tested. I am well aware of the general kinds of issues being tested also. However, I would like to learn of the best strategies to employ when tackling these questions. Is there a place to go to or a blog to read on this?

Secondly, I narrowed down the main reason why I am making irrational errors that keep me from answer the easy questions that I normally would answer correctly. I identified that the race/pressure against the clock is causing me to make a majority of foolish errors that I normally wouldnt make. I believe that this is called test anxiety. To remedy this, I have been practicing as much as possible under timed constraints. Are there any other strategies to fix this problem?
(the good news is that I figured out the root of the problem)

I had a similiar issue on testing numbers for DS but then figured out some great strategies that kept me from leaving precious points on the table.
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by mayonnai5e » Mon May 12, 2008 4:34 am
My strategy involved finding errors one at a time and targeting the ones that would most likely be high yield errors first. For example, there are certain types of error types that scream out 2/3 combinations. If you see this type of error, immediately go to the answer choices, find the erroneous ones and cross them out. Doing so immediately removes 40% or 60% of the answer choices, which significantly lowers the complexity. But sometimes answer choices do not have this type of pattern.

I simply went linearly. As I read through the sentence, whichever error I picked up on first was the one I would attack. After fixing that and crossing out the incorrect answer choices, I would move onto to the next error found and eliminate as necessary until only 1 choice was left.

Some people may read the entire sentence first, absorb all the errors then try to eliminate, but I found this to be too complex as it requires juggling many more things mentally in your head and this lowers your focus. The more you can focus on 1 error at a time, the less distracted you get. In addition, reading for all the errors at once can sometimes lead to using "intuition" as you are more likely to "hear" the sentences and search for the correct answer based on what you "hear" is right.
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SEtence correction strategy

by resilient » Mon May 12, 2008 5:53 am
To add to this great advice, I first off want to thank you. Second, I noticed that a big issue is finding the errors and understanding what is at the ROOT of the question. THis is also called the CORE. Finding the core of the sentence invloves basically pushing all the modifiers and decriptive words and phrases to a side and focusing on the 3-5 words that are going to be tested. It helps tremendously and helps me focus on the main idea of the sentence.
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by netigen » Mon May 12, 2008 8:47 am
Ask yourself these questions:

1. Can you find the subject and the verb
2. Can you list down all the different types of errors tested on the GMAT (major bucket types from MGMAT book)
3. If you can then can you identify the basic flags for these in the sentence i.e. verb, tense, voice, modifiers, nouns, idioms, parallelism, comparison, odds and ends. For e.g. can you identify an idiom or parallelism for that matter in a given sentence.

These two are the building blocks. I also created my own flashcards from MGMAT book. It helped me remember all the rules.
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Excellent news

by resilient » Tue May 13, 2008 9:21 pm
In dealing with the OG questions (yellow book) I got 103 out of 138. Dealing with all mistakes, I encountered these findings of my weaknesses.

1. 19 mistakes simply from not being agressive and tackling the problem. The remedy for this is to actively seek out grammatical problems and nto answer on how you feel.
2. Idioms: even though I know them and its old news, I dont follow them in the excitement of the questions. The remedy here is obvious to just follow the idioms.
3. Parallelism is tested heavily and I need to work on that section a bit more but Im happy to say that my previous weakness of pronouns, subject verb agreement etc. were all weaknesses. Now, they are all great tools to seek out the wrong answers that will guide me to the right answer choice.
4. I need to check each answer after choice for brevity and akwardness. These can no longer slip by.
5. The OG does talk about logical predication and I dont quite grasp the meaning of this. Will do some research.
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by beatthegmat » Tue May 13, 2008 9:58 pm
Moved this thread to 'GMAT Verbal' area
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