Sentence Correction

Correction Center

One thing common to all high scorers is that they all do the SC's with almost 100% accuracy. I feel that Sentence Correction is very very tricky and can make or break your 750+ dream. But even while I'm writing this post, I'm not so sure how to make the best of it. I am confused as to whether I discuss the grammar rules here, or make it a discussion forum for SC questions. So, just now I've decided not to do any of those and tell you how you can master SC. You must have heard that thing about giving a hungry man a fish to eat, or teaching him to fish and help him feed himself for the rest of his life. So I think I'll help you learn fishing. Let's fish!!

Your fishing gear:

1. Official Guide
2. Mahattan SC
3. Kaplan Verbal Workbook
4. A good eyesight!!

In addition to all this, i would recommend you to keep a good grammar book handy for reference. I have my good old Wren & Martin. My mantra is to keep your basics straight. Right after you finish reading this post, go and wipe off the dust off the book and start with the following topics:

1. Nouns -- collective nouns, singular/plural rules
2. Verbs -- subject-verb agreement
3. Pronouns -- antecedents
4. Adverbs
5. Tenses, sequence of tenses

This is pretty much which you can cover from your grammar book. Once you enter the GMAT land, you will see many new terms -- dangling modifiers, split infinitives, things like that...scary stuff. But don't be scared. Just make sure you have covered the basic topics listed above thoroughly. When I say thoroughly, I presume that you've made notes and listed out the rules on a small notebook that you can keep handy with you. I stress on making notes, simply because it helps....a lot!!

Okay so now you have covered the basic stuff...time to move on to a higher level...start with the Manhattan SC. It has around 15 chapters I guess. I finished it off in a week. One important thing here...make sure that before you do the exercises...you've covered the stuff thoroughly.

I know doing the problems over and over again helps...but there's a catch...if you do the same problem over and over again...your performance is bound to go up, although your actual performance may not be going up at all simply cuz you've memorized the answers. So whenever you take up the exercise for the first time...make sure you are properly prepared and don't cheat yourself.

Don't be smug about finishing off the book, you've to do it again after you realise you're doing some mistakes over and over again. So now it's time to start the OG. Follow the same 50 questions a day schedule and finish off the OG SC in not more than 15 days. Remember you have to take all the sections together and still manage to finsh them off simultaneously. The key is to schedule your sessions in a planned manner and execute the plan accordingly within strict time limits.

Finishing off the OG means that you've a list of all the mistakes, question type-wise analysis chart, accuracy meter readings and everything as told in my earlier posts. This is pretty much what you will do in with your CR, or RC or for that matter any section. Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes...they are your enemy. Spot them, destroy them!!

I'll come back with some really cool tips for SC and then you'll see how your accuracy rises up!! Till then happy prepping...lemme know about your preparations and problems you are facing.

Sentence Correction Tips & Tricks :

Okay I'm back!! Let's start right away....

1. Try to spot the mistake before looking at the answer choices.
2. Go over the list of common SC errors in your mind. There are around 8 common errors. (Kaplan gives you the 8 most common errors...subject-verb, pronouns,.....pick out the first letter from all these and form a word and go through it whenever faced with an SC.)
3. Scan the answer choices vertically...this is very very useful!!
4. Most of the answer choices have a 2-3 formation....that is 2 of one type and rest 3 of other type...so try to narrow down on choices.
5. Elimination....very helpful!!
6. Last but not the least...don't right away discard choice A...trust me I think 5 out of 15 questions on my my final exam were A!!! (atleast I think they were A...and I got 45 on verbal :-D)

Here I would like to add that 2,3 & 5 did it for me...simple!!

Guys...these are only tips...but until and unless you focus on your weak areas in SC...nothing is gonna help. My weak areas were Parallelism and Pronouns. But I worked on them...wrote down every type of error I found and eventually got better on those types of SC.

Don't forget the idioms. It will take sometime to familiarise yourself with idioms. And everyone knows idioms are VERY important if you want to reach that 95% accuracy level. I have a list of idioms....go thru it...I stuck it before my study table and now I have memorised most of them without an extra effort.

To be continued...


Suggested Books : Wren & Martin, Manhattan SC, Kaplan 800, Kaplan Verbal Workbook, Official Guide

Comments Please :-(

Is it worth the effort?? This is the question I was asking myself...I'm new to this blog business...so may be I'm missing something here...
Guys I put in effort here which I hope you would find useful...it's my humble request to the visitor to leave a line or two to lemme know how did ya find the stuff here...and may be a suggestion or two to improve upon it...and what more would be of interest.
I see my visitor count increasing, but I've not got many critical comments. Please help me help you and all the future GMAT takers. I feel good after I post and look forward eagerly for suggestions. Your contribution will be appreciated. :-)
Enjoy!!

Test Strategies

I Know I haven't completed the section wise discussions as yet, but I thought may be I put in the test preparation section to help out guys who are already half way through their prepping. And honestly I couldn't resist myself from writing this section....simply cuz this is going to be the best post ever and I guarantee you guys that this is going to push your scores by at least 20-30 points if you really practice what I preach here.

So let's just start...I promise it's going to be exciting...

What all you need?

1. Kaplan cds (4 tests which you get with the Kaplan GMAT Edition)
2. GMAT powerprep (2 tests which is free to download from MBA.com)
3. Any other test CDs (at least 4 tests)

In sum you should have 10 tests.

In addition to Kaplan and power prep, I had IMS test cds (having 12 tests!!) I must add here that these tests were not up to the GMAT mark, at least the verbal section. The CR was nothing like what you see in the actual GMAT. But this doesn't mean they didn't help me. Practicing those tests helped me build up my stamina to perform under test conditions....and that's very very important. In the actual test I hardly had any problem. I didn't even take the optional break after the essay section and just moved on to the Quant section. (You must have seen the invigilator's face :-D )

Summary:

Kaplan and power prep will be the actual indicator and must be given seriously. They are like industry standards against which you can benchmark your performance.

Other tests should also be taken seriously, but keeping in mind that they may not be very consistent, one should not benchmark one's performance against that. I would recommend them for stamina building and spotting silly mistakes which you wouldn't want to make in the actual tests, or for that matter even in the Kaplan and power prep tests.

Rules for the Game:

1. You are not allowed to take breaks which are not a part of the actual exam.
2. You have to be totally aware of the actual examination rules and instructions.
3. You can only use 6 scratch papers for rough work.
4. Try to simulate actual exam conditions as much as possible. So you would want to avoid keeping a water bottle with you :-)
   

Read my post describing the actual exam (I will put up that soon)

How to schedule your tests?

I presume you have already taken the diagnostic test by now. There's no such thing as an ideal schedule. It's up to the individual's pace and stamina. But I feel the following is a great way to schedule tests:

Kaplan Diagnostic
---Break---
GMAT power prep 1
---Break---
Test 1
Test 2
---Break---
Kaplan Test 1
---Break---
Test 3
Test 4
---Break---
Kaplan Test 2
---Break---
Kaplan Test 3
---Break---
Kaplan Test 4
---Break---
GMAT power Prep 2
---Chill!!---
THE GMAT

Break?? Yes Breaks!!

After the first Diagnostic, take a week going through all the concepts in Quant. Learn the Grammar rules. Familiarize yourself with the concepts, question stems, etc. (Read Chapter I)

Take the GMAT Power prep after 10 days. Prepare yourself for the test. Feel the importance of it and try to do your best.
My score was 710. I feel you can easily add 50 points to this to get an idea of your actual score. Obviously this applies only if you are taking this test at an early point of time. Learn from mistakes. See which type of questions you screwed up. Learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat them. If you are able to do so, there's no stopping you.

Test 1 and Test 2...Learn from your mistakes...keep updating your grid...analyze your performance in every section. Remember you have to do all the practicing and solving problems from the study material side-by-side. Tests tell you which areas you screw up in the Exam.

TIP -- Always have a rough idea about the timings. As in after 10 mins you should be on the 5th question. After 30 mins you should be on 15th question....something like that. You would want to spend an extra effort and time on the first 10 questions...which will push you towards the high score region.

TIP -- I have observed that the first 9-10 questions are always SC or CR...not RC's. SO make sure you avoid silly mistakes in SC/CR.

Schedule all the tests in a manner that you get at least a one day break for each break mentioned there and you're still left with three days before the exam to take the 2nd Power prep Exam.

The 2nd Power prep will be the fairest approximation. I believe you will get 10-20 more on the actual exam. I got a 740 in that.

Summary:

1. Learn from your mistakes.
2. Keep updating your analysis chart.
3. Spot your weaknesses.
4. Ascertain your test strategy after experimenting in 3-4 tests.

My Score chart looked something like this:

Kaplan Diag 680
Kaplan 1 630
Kaplan 1 680
Kaplan 1 650
Kaplan 1 630
Power prep 1 710
Power Prep 2 740
IMS Diag 1 680 (630)
IMS Diag 2 690 (650)
IMS 1 630 (610)
IMS 2 760 (710)
IMS 3 730 (680)
IMS 4 620 (600)
IMS 5 700 (650)
IMS 6 730 (680)
IMS 7 720 (670)
IMS 8 690 (640)

The figures in brackets are Kaplan(2004) conversion of the same score. Basically Kaplan calculates your score based on number of wrongs and rights. I prefer it that way. Even though Kaplan’s scores are highly skewed they are consistent. So if you are somewhere around the 650 mark you are doing well. I had the 2004 version, but I believe it’s not much different from the latest ones.

In addition to all this, what you must do is consider every exercise to be a mini test. Solve the exercises under a similar environment and with the same sincerity and vigour. ATB.

Great News!!

I'm becoming a blogger too!! As you see now this blog has a ClustrMap and a visitor counter too!! But nothing is more exciting than this news :

All you gmatters, now you can download files too!! Box.net has done the trick...I was looking for some place where I can upload files for you all...so that you don't have to clear through the jungles to get to the right material. Now you can just go to the download link I have stuck on the links section. Click here to get the feel :-) GOOOOO

Problem Solving

Let's Warm up with Numbers!!

Ideally anyone preparing for the GMAT should schedule the study sessions in such a manner as to include atleast three topics a day (i.e. PS+SC+CR or RC+DS+CR or....). This helps you in the tests, simply because you will be better able to switch between question types and also this kind of scheduling helps your 'prepping' not going askew. Obviously while prepping you can't mix question types, but you surely can take up three sessions of 50 questions in three different sections each day...easily. 50 is not a magical figure here...but I feel 50 questions per hour will attune you to the right speed. The actual speed is lower, no doubt...but remember its an adaptive test, which means you will have to get the earlier questions correctly so as to improve your chances to get a good score. And that means you will have to spend more time on the, let's say, first 10 questions. That will leave you with the later tougher questions with lesser time.

Let's start!!

Pick up the OG. Start your stopwatch and start...
......1 hr passes by.....
Go through your mistakes. Analyze your GRID for mistakes...you will get to know your weak areas. You will know where you made mistakes...was it algebra or was it mensuration. The mistakes I made were mostly the silly ones...here goes the list (may be not the entire list...but look out for them!!)

1. units...feet/inches, miles/kms...I screwed up mostly because I forgot to convert them for my final answer.
2. I didn't read the entire information and wasted my time doing the question over and over again until realizing that hey, it's an equilateral triangle...or this angle is given to be 90...or something else.
3. I solved the problem correctly, but I found something that was not asked. Let's say I found out the number of chocolates Jack initially had, only to realize that I was supposed to find the number of chocolates he is left with. The best way to handle such questions is : take 'x' to be the quantity you have to find, i.e., take 'x' to be the number of remaining chocolates. (Silly sounding tips?? That's cuz they're for silly mistakes)
   

I think the OG has around 400 problems. It will take you around 9-10 sessions to solve them completely and also go through the explanation. (I have uploaded OG 10. It's in parts and also the OG grid). By the time you're through with the OG PS, you will have a grid, wherein you will have a detailed analysis highlighting your weak areas. Make a note of all the mistakes you did and swear that you won't make the same mistakes again.

Guys I've put up a Formulae sheet. This is very important. You won't find many of these formulae in either OG or Kaplan. I hope you'll find this very useful.

The next step in PS is to start solving Kaplan 800. It's a great book...read it carefully for all the tips it has for the 800 test taker. While doing Kaplan 800 you can include fewer questions per session. That's because you need to give more attention to these problems. And your primary goal here is to learn concepts rather than simply solving questions in time bound conditions.

Once you're done with OG and Kaplan 800, start OG and Kaplan 800. :-D Yes!! do it again. But this time you may want to solve only those problems which you screwed up in your first attempt. That you can easily filter out from the grid (that's also there on my google base).

Finally, you would like to solve the "tough quant problems". Download the file and start doing it. It's fun. You will learn many new things in Permutation/Combination, Probabilty, etc.

Suggested Books : Kaplan 800, Maths Workbook : Kaplan/Manhattan/Princeton/OG

Gear up!!

There are certain things which you will realise in the actual course of your preparation. But by that time you might have already lost some of your precious time. And that's the precise reason I thought of writing this, so as to keep you guyz from making the same mistakes as I did.

Performance Chart

It can do wonders for your preparation...trust me. It's a simple grid which can have columns for the question number, your answer, right/wrong, a brief description of the concept used (e.g. idioms, modifier, parallelism...for CR it can be Strategy...likewise). I would suggest you to make an excel and get like 50 print-outs with 100 questions per page. You can group them according to section/book. I would prefer a section-wise categorization. Generally you would do 50 questions per session. So at the end of 50 questions you can have an accuracy meter or something. I am sure all of you are creative enough to make such a chart which you can refer back to assess your difficulty areas.

This chart will help you filter out the tougher problems. So in the next round of solving the same problems (Yes!! next round...you have to solve the same questions again till your accuracy level goes up!! Atleast you would like to make sure that you are totally confident in the question types you have in your material).

Click here to download!!

Take a test date

Yes!! Take it. Without a test date you will never actually start respecting the entire thing. It will keep you focussed and up on your toes. Register yourself on the site. Get a date. I made a big calender for myself and stuck it before my study table. And obviously I highlighted the test date with a horrible colour :-D Also I put up stick-ons all around my place (mirrors, refrigirator, with dates on them) It's not getting psyched about it...but it really helps!!

Books!!

This is very important guys. I mean surely you wouldn't want your preparation to be going on a wrong line. Some books aren't just complete in their content. Some don't give you those "tips" which anyone aiming at a good score would want to have. So it finally boils down to having a set of materials rather than having just one book or one study material. But the question remains...which ones??

1. Official Guide is a must have. GO FOR IT!!
You will realise it isn't enough to satiate your thirst for the "750" figure. That's true, atleast for most of us.
2. Kaplan Guide.
CR & RC stuff, which you will not find anywhere else. Very very good book...I dare say, indispensable.

Trust me guys, these two are the only things on which you will have to spend money. Rest all is out here on the web.

But hey!! You still might ask...what about crossing the 750 mark?? So here's the trick. Get yourself KAPLAN 800 and Manhattan Sentence Correction guide. These are great books. Simply great!! I am sure they will add an extra 30 to your score, and that's a lot!!

A detailed list of materials (with links) will follow in a section wise discussion.

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The GMAT Experience!!

Okay, so you're frustrated with your job...you often think about your college days...and how everyone else has landed up in nice univs or high paying jobs...while you're still browsing Monster.com!! And you think that this Java coffee is a bit too bitter for your taste and you need to move ahead...

You then decide to take GMAT. Considering your below average work-ex, you reckon that only a gooooood performance can bail you out. I decided to dedicate this post to all the future Gmatters. I'm sure anyone reading this would not want to move ahead without knowing my performance. :-)

I took it on 30th Oct '06 and got a 770!! Quant-50, VA-45, AWA-5.

Okay so you might be asking, "Why even bother to read this post? There's so much on the web already!!" You are quite right. I, myself had to prepare taking help mostly from the forums and blogs, and I encourage you to do so. But what I would like to add here is that the worst enemy for you is the "confusion" which surrounds the GMAT preparation. And this confusion can only get worse by looking at so much information lying out there. So my mantra is to keep it simple :-)

Let's start...why this confusion. The reason being many, the ones I can think of are :

1. How to start??
2. Which books to follow :-?
3. Too much material (yes!! that's not a good thing sometimes)
4. What to expect on the D-day?

Guyz I feel that the best way to start something is to make a quick plan...a layout which has weekly targets. I would try and make a rough plan which will enable you to make your own. But before that a little introduction of mine would help you understand and relate to this post much better.

I am currently working in IBM India (Pune to be exact). I did my B.Tech from IIT Delhi...rest of the story is more or less told in the first few lines. To sum it up...before starting my prep I had a good level in Quant, as is expected from an IITian. In my verbal portion I was quite comfortable with the RC(Reading Comprehension) portion. But CR(Critical Reasoning) and SC(Sentence Correction) were a total mess at first. Keeping these points I think we are ready to move ahead.

Know the GMAT!!

First things first...What is it? Its a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT), i.e., to say that it adapts itself to your performance. You can get plenty of info on this. I would recommend you to visit the official GMAT site. In short as you keep on getting the questions right, it will throw tougher questions at you, till the time you won't be able to solve the next tougher question, but are able to solve the next lower level.

Before I recommend you to take a diagnostic test, I would like you to spend not more than two days on researching the question types, reading about the test and familiarizing yourself with the GMAT.

Time for a check-up!!

When you are comfortable with the GMAT jargon : CAT, SC, CR, VA, DS, AWA, blah blah blah... its time to test yourself. Do not be afraid of taking a diagnostic. The biggest mistake you can make is not take a diagnostic and channel your efforts in the wrong direction.

There are many diagnostic tests available but I would suggest you to download the official GMAT prep Software and take the test. There are two reasons for taking the GMAT prep test :

1. It's standard...so you can compare your scores with other guys.
2. The other thing is that it's an exact copy of the actual GMAT test which you would see on the test day (obviously I am talking about the looks of the application and not the questions :-D)
3. Make sure you have read all the instructions carefully, as you would certainly not want to waste time on reading instructions that day!! Be prepared...that's the key to success in GMAT.

Shock Therapy??

Ohh!! So you didn't do well in the diagnostic?? You expected something better, didn't you?? You thought the questions were easy and you were gliding through but still ended up getting a not so good score!! That happens...let me tell you why!! GMAT is adaptive...remember?? You were not doing well, and that's why you were getting easier questions :-D

Never mind...you will do much much better in the actual test if you start it from today!! Okay so you want to know how much?? Let's say around 100 more than the actual score...assuming that you took it without preparation. Even if you preapred a bit before taking it, but it was your first test...you can easily hope to score 60 more. I took it after some preparation, but nevertheless it was my first test and I got a 710. After a month of preparation I took the second test on the same CD, and I got a 740. I finally got a 770 on the actual test. Let's not get into the score analysis thing right now. We'll come to that later, when I will give you the list of all my test scores to compare.

Medication Time :-)

It was an eye-opener...right?? It was for me!! Typically one would find that most of the mistakes in Quant section were silly mistakes. Especially the DS section. Most of the time one got mixed up with the two statements. Or the confusion between Yes/No type questions. Yeah it's tricky and that's why you need to work on your quant as much you need to work on the verbal section. Keep one thing in mind here...mistakes in quant cost you more...a score of 50 puts you in the 95%le slot. While even a score of 45 in the verbal section (as with me) puts you right in the 98%le slot. So one should ideally aim for an 100% accuracy in the quant section...and believe me thats doable.

As for the verbal section...SC is very tricky...and I dare say... the easiest. You need to know all the rules and you will see your accuracy climbing up to around 80% in no time. And remember...unlike CR & RC questions, SC questions takes up the least amount of time. We will take up each section one-by-one...but before that an important message!!

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Check out all you would need!!