All posts filed under: GMAT Verbal

Sentence Correction – How To Increase Your Speed On Sentence Correction 3

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In a few previous posts, this and this, we had discussed the importance of identifying the 3/2 Split as a way of really crashing the solving time on Sentence Correction. Strategically this is crucial since the average time available per question on the Verbal Section is only 1 min 49 sec. Since most Indian test-takers end up taking at least 2 min. per question on Reading Comprehension questions (including passage reading time), it is imperative that they solve SC and CR in under 1:49 sec per question. Between Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction questions, the former will take longer purely because the amount of new information that one has to process in each option, both in terms of length and logic, is greater than it is for the latter.

Sentence Correction – Identifying the Subject

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While most test-takers prepping for the Sentence Correction questions on the GMAT® are aware of the Subject-Verb Error, very few are aware of the importance of identifying the subject as a standalone error. The GMAT® question below best illustrates how identifying the subject can reduce the time taken to solve some Sentence Correction question. Turning away from literary realism to write about the peasant life and landscape of Northern Sweden, in 1909 Selma Lagerlof was the novelist who became the first woman and was also the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Critical Reasoning – The Evaluate Question

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The Evaluate Question Type on the GMAT® is perhaps the question type that best tests your technique on Critical Reasoning questions. Whatever the question type there two things that are a must-do if you want to develop a flawless technique to answer GMAT® Critical Reasoning Questions: • Precisely Identify The Argument • Clearly Define What The Right Option Should Do The answer options on this question type are always framed in the form of questions. So the best way to tackle this question is to evaluate the argument with respect to answer to each question.

Sentence Correction – The Tricky Parallel Structure

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Parallelism is an error-type that anyone who has ever prepped for GMAT® Sentence Correction will know. It is a very popular error type with test-takers since it is easy to spot and eliminate incorrect answer options. But there is a specific kind of parallel structure that the GMAT® test-makers disguise so well that it is almost impossible to pick! The GMAT® question below is the perfect example.

Critical Reasoning – The Statistics Question 2

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In the previous post on Critical Reasoning we looked at the method of tackling statistics-based CR questions on the GMAT®. Let us look at another statistics-based questions to reinforce our learning. As discussed in the previous post, the answer to a statistics-based question will either be a statistic or an interpretation of the stat being discussed in the argument. More often than not, test-takers answer these questions incorrectly because they do not take time out to understand the stat being discussed. The GMAT® question below is the best example.

Sentence Correction – The Minor Error

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In a previous post we had discussed how very often test-takers get stuck to the Major Error error when tackling Sentence Correction questions on the GMAT® . The Major Error in a sentence might be related to tenses or parallel structure or modifiers. This error might be corrected in more than one sentence. What GMAT® test-setters do very well is introduce another Minor Error while correcting the Major Error. The Minor Error more often than not is related to Subject-Verb or Pronoun Usage. The GMAT® question below best exemplifies this.

Critical Reasoning – The Statistics Question 1

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Critical Reasoning questions on the GMAT® , often have questions that have some stats. The most important thing to remember is that stats-based questions have stats-based answers or answers that require an interpretation of the stats. So answer options that give explanations that do not have a statistical implication can easily be ruled out. Let us look at the question below.

Sentence Correction – The Other Error

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One of the frequent things that test-takers keep telling us is that despite memorizing all the rules, they are unable to move beyond a particular level of accuracy on GMAT® Sentence Correction! Well one of the big reasons behind this is that once test-takers have mastered the rules they are able to immediately spot the error and pick option that rectify the error. There is only one catch, they ignore the fact that while major error has been corrected, another error that might have been introduced in another part of the sentence. The question below best exemplifies this.

Critical Reasoning – The Inference Question

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Of all Critical Reasoning Question Types on the GMAT® , the Inference question is probably the easiest one after the Conclusion Type. The easiest inference questions are like Chemistry experiments, if green fumes come out it must contain ammonia (or whatever is green). Let us look at the question below: A company’s two divisions performed with remarkable consistency over the past three years: in each of those years, the pharmaceuticals division has accounted for roughly 20 percent of dollar sales and 40 percent of profits, and the chemicals division for the balance.