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Taking Sentence Correction skills to next level...

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Taking Sentence Correction skills to next level...

by prodizy » Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:11 am
Hi,

My verbal scores in the mock tests are in the range of 38 to 40. Sentence Correction was my biggest weakness(I generally get 2 questions from CR and 1 from RC incorrect). So in the last two weeks I have gone through both Manhattan and Aristotle SC guides. Once through with them, I did all 140 SC questions from OG 12 in untimed conditions; I got 128 of 140 questions correct(this could be inflated as I had already solved some of the questions). Just now I took the SC portion of OG12 diagnostic under timed conditions and got 15 out of 18 questions correct. It took me 35 minutes to solve those 18 questions. Among 3 wrong questions, two of them are truely out of my league. I failed to do a simple SV agreement in the third question :( Anyway, according to OG I am right at the door of EXCELLENT category :)

Now my questions to the very helpful Beatthegmaters and experts:

1. How can I improve my timing? I don't think I can afford 2 minutes per SC question.
2. Is the OG 12 diagnostic at par with actual GMAT? I found the questions slightly tougher than the GMAT prep I.
3. Is there a need for me to practice more? If yes, then what is the ideal material to practice from? Official Verbal review? paper tests? Veritas SC questions? (I have all of them and more :))
4. Basically what next? I haven't done anything for RC and CR. Probably I will start with solving those questions in OG.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Thu Oct 20, 2011 2:59 pm
Hey prodizy,

Thanks for the invite to chime in! And congratulations on your progress!

As far as improving your speed, I think the biggest key is being proactive and not reactive. Look out specifically for the "Decision Points" in SC questions and don't just read and react. For example, if I ever see a sentence that starts with a description and a comma, I know I'm looking at a modifier. So I don't even read the back half of the sentence...I'm already looking at the modifier choices in A through E and seeing which choices I can eliminate. Similarly if I see that the answer choices each start with one of two verbs (say, is vs. are) I'm already looking at S-V agreement.

Another great way to save time is to read fewer words even when you do have to read. David@VeritasPrep coined the phrase "Use it or Lose It" for Modifiers, meaning that if you don't Use a modifier as your reason to eliminate that answer choice, you should "Lose It" (or read through as though it isn't there. So in a sentence like:

Brian, the extremely knowledgeable and handsome GMAT instructor from Santa Monica, California, punched the intruder.

That whole modifying phrase between the commas is irrelevant to anything but a Modifier error. And since that seems an apt description for "Brian", you can ignore it and only read the rest:

Brian punched the intruder.

The fewer words you read, the less time you take AND the more obvious the errors become.


_________________________________________________________________

Now, as for the other topic areas (CR and RC), I'd advise that you attack those with that same "proactive" philosophy. Read for a reason, don't read the subject matter and then figure out what to do with it. We have plenty of guidance articles here that will help you turn that into action, but philosophically I think the biggest key to verbal success is to recognize that business schools don't care whether you master the content of each paragraph or passage, but they really need you to know how to perform the tasks from the questions. Analyze the logic; determine the main point; think critically about the argument - you can get good at doing these over and over again, so read proactively to do those things...don't sit back and try to understand the passage about botany just for that context.
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by MBACenter » Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:40 am
Hello, prodizy,

Without being there to watch you go over a sentence correction question and see how you approach the problem, I can tell you that people often get blocked on Sentence Corrections because they are "looking for errors" before reading the sentence to figure out what it is saying. That is the most important part. The final answer choice should sound "good." Maybe not the way you would have written it, but it will sound like a human and not a chimpanzee wrote it. :)

If you "hunt for errors," you can easily fall into the trap of spotting errors when there are none.

It's not easy to get used to reading this way, and as the questions become more difficult you need to become extra-vigilant as well to read closely for very subtle sleight-of-hand shifts in the meanings.
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by sunman » Sat Oct 22, 2011 4:39 pm
Manhattan GMAT's Sentence Correction Strategy Guide. Best thing I've ever purchased for my verbal scores.
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by IJR » Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:36 am
You could try memorizing all the common idioms. If you know those cold, you can probably get 1-2 questions more right on the test. I think it's worth the effort.
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