Cách học và thi GMAT ppt

For example, I compiled a spreadsheet that lists the difficulty of every question in the GMAT Official Guide from GMAC the creator of the test.. Manhattan GMAT Study Guide Books New!. An

GMAT Study Strategy Revised 4/25/05

Authors: Daveformba, Ursula, GMAT Club, Stephen Bolton, Erin

I’ve searched all over the internet and read all the major books on preparing for the GMAT The main thing that current GMAT prep books do well is to help identify what you’ll face on the test What they don’t do well is to help you to know how to actually study each type of question and how to apply the strategies effectively I’ve struggled to try and figure out how take a more active posture in studying such that information is not only retained, but efficiency improved I’m tired of hearing, “just do a lot of problems.” That’s not useful That was what people were telling

me One person, who attained a 740 on the GMAT at 46 years of age, the first time she took the test, stated how important it was to stay active and not be passive while studying The point of this whole guide is on how to become an active learner for the GMAT and avoid being passive (Read her Story here)

As I was studying, I realized that I had to lay down some very specific strategies for myself to become more active in my learning process This was because of a GMAT practice test I took where I got a 600 I had studied the Quant quite a bit, but not the verbal For verbal, I went mostly off of what sounded right to me I needed… I wanted to come up with a way to approach the rest of my studying more effectively because there seemed to be too much memorization or gut reliance going on in my test taking skills I knew that just going by what sounded right wasn’t the best way approach the real GMAT

This guide was created as a result of brutally asking myself specifics on how I could and would improve in each area of the GMAT How does one move from, “just do a lot of problems” or

“study hard” to “studying effectively” and most importantly… Getting results? As this is a guide that is being refined and added to, I hope you’ll join me in letting me know what you feel needs to

be re-worked or further explained by you or me to improve it This will be of great benefit to you and me as well as others that might need this in the near future Over time, I’ve received

permission from several authors and teachers that have provided great strategy guidelines and have inserted them into this document

I’m not sure how you have discovered this GMAT study guide as I have not advertised it anywhere In any case, I say good for you because it shows that you’re doing your homework Hopefully, you weren’t just looking for the easy way out? Trust me, no matter how much you look, you won’t find a study guide better than this on the internet It’s not that I searched myself and judged this guide to be the best Rather, anyone who’s creating anything that’s even close is trying to sell you something I’m not There’s no extended version of this guide that I sell This is

just me helping others I do only ask for two things as you use this guide 1) I have included links

to books and study guides where I do receive very small referral fees Therefore, I ask that you use the links in this document to purchase the GMAT books you’ll be buying used or new to help support this web site you found this document on (By the way, I have and always will only

suggest resources that have been their weight in gold I don’t work for or receive kickbacks ever and never well As you progress through this document and the associated links, I think you’ll see that I’ve put in a significant amount of time into putting this all together) 2) Provide me with feedback on how to improve this document such as information you may want to submit to me For example, I have received some feedback that they would like to see more specifics on Math prep As this is a lot of work, I’m taking my time on that, but have included some information in this latest revision

I have compiled a web page of various resources to file my research and organize it for easy browsing You can find it at Future MBA Resources (FMR) I have created one specific page just for GMAT resources This will be where you’ll find a wealth of resources and free tests to help you on your journey For example, I compiled a spreadsheet that lists the difficulty of every question in the GMAT Official Guide from GMAC the creator of the test

Dave’s Editorial Corner

As I’ve received quite a bit of e-mail asking me questions about the GMAT and managing

difficulties in progress, I’ve decided to add this new section that includes my responses

GMAT Question Answered

Dear Dave,

Thank you very much for putting your GMAT strategy guide on the net, it's the best so far! I am not a native speaker, I am struggling with my preparation I feel like I am not progressing, can you please advise something on this regard? I really appreicated it

Best Regards, "T"

Answer:

That’s a difficult question to answer I’ll try my best

I’m hoping that you’re doing well in Math If this is not the case then the answer may be in how you review and think through why you get the wrong answer and ESPECIALLY why you got the right answer You have to do your best to commit to daily reviews of the ones you got wrong from the previous day OG is the best book for practice questions Review all the answers in it

Moreover, you should review all the ones you’ve been getting wrong at least once a week If you keep getting them wrong then you’re approach has been to just solve the problem rather than understand the concepts If you're interested in which questions are difficult, medium or easy, you can check out the spreadsheet that I pulled from GMAC to help you

For English If you think about it… verbal is a math skill too There are rules and guidelines and many ways to approach the answer You have to understand the basics I started to do that

in my study guide You have to make sure you memorize the basics Then it comes down to repetition and practice Don’t just try to do as many problems as you can when it comes to

English Understand not just why you got the question right buy exactly why the other choices were poor Don’t just say makes sense or sounds right It's better to figure out which rule it broke

or which concept the wrong answer didn’t adhere too

By the way… take a practice full exam… not just verbal or math… but a full exam at least 1 per week or every other week Find any test you can get your hands on It doesn’t matter if the test is adaptive or not And put yourself under the same time pressures of both the test taking time and the length of breaks This part is crucial

What I described is the big picture approach for the GMAT When it comes to discipline… there are two things that I would suggest

1) Take a class, but quit the class if the teacher sucks They should blow your socks off

otherwise, it’s a waste of your time

2) Whether you take the class or not… get to a place where you can focus and study with little or

no distractions I study at universities myself For example, while I wrote my Business School application essays and studied for the GMAT, I went to Stanford at their 24 hour study center and took some drinks and sandwiches everyday It was not unusual for me to get there by 6pm and

leave by 1am Most Universities like Stanford don’t require a parking permit after 5pm weekdays and no permit is required on the weekends I called and e-mailed my friends that I wouldn’t be around much because of my studies and I canceled a lot of appointments and activities in my life

I gave myself permission once a week to go see a movie after taking a practice test because my brain was fried anyway

I'm definitely not an expert at the GMAT, but in my humble opinion I've written what I believe

to be a good approach to studying for the GMAT Not all ways work for everyone I hope you find what works the best for you But trying various methods such as what I've outlined will hopefully get you there

Best wishes

The Hard Facts About Your GMAT Score

See how the chart below shows GMAT scores in 3 Tiers? I think people generally have a vague

notion that 3 tiers exists, but with no hard evidence like this chart who's to say otherwise

Here's a follow-up to the last chart Again 3 tiers of applicants regarding GMAT scores

Here's an interesting graph from Kellogg's 2004 entering class This is a good GMAT question possibility If 5282 applied to the 2-year MBA class resulting in 469, what percentage of students were admitted with the various GMAT brackets of scores as shown in the graph? When you do the math (Taking into account that Kellogg admits 12% more than needed for instances where the applicant chooses another school), you get the following: 640 or less GMAT = 1056 apps with

42 accepted at 4% acceptance 650-690 GMAT = 1584 apps with 158 accepted at 10%

acceptance 700-740 GMAT = 2059 apps with 252 accepted at 12.2% acceptance 750-780 GMAT = 581 apps with 74 accepted at 12.7% acceptance That means the 2004 class had 25%

of all students who scored 700 or more accepted However, the actual student population is actually 62% people who scored 700 or more This is actually a great challenge and

encouragement as I thought it was much worse So 38% of the class scored 690 or less? That's cool 700-740 is only 2% more likely to receive acceptance than those who had 650-690 Not much of a difference I think this is why we ought not to kill ourselves for not getting 700 and for not killing our self if we do get 700 or more and don't get into a top Business School That 2% can't hurt though

Comments from a GMAT Instructor

Last year, I received some feedback from a 12 year veteran Princeton Review GMAT instructor Here are some comments he wrote in an e-mail to me that may be helpful for you

What we do for high scoring students to make them get their scores up (in a classroom

setting) is to run classes that focus on ONE AREA For instance, Statistics and GMAT Miscellany,

SC, CR, Data Sufficiency People at or above the 600 level have to revamp their study plan Random info dump won't be effective anymore If you can get a 600, then you basically know most of the information there is on the test What you are probably lacking is a systematic way of using that information and an understanding of good GMAT strategy

I told the instructor that I wanted to focus on probability a bit more His reply on that was

as follows:

You are basing some of your plans and concerns on forums In the last 5 "Test Recons" there have been an average of 1.3 probability questions per test 1.3 think of all the energy and time dedicated to probability in the forums and think of what kind of wasted effort is poured into that subject Forums are 95% noise, 4% good intention, and 1% information If you think of it that way you will actually look at them with an entirely new eye and perhaps glean the little there is there to

be had Test prep companies sometimes fall for the same sort of paranoia They respond to the concerns of their students and when those students' fears are being fed and influenced by the forums a nasty little spiral starts to form Ask how many people teaching the GMAT took the GMAT in the last 6 months I think you will be shocked and dismayed While I do not think that someone has to take the test often to be a good teacher, a good teacher will take the test often to

be able to screen the noise

The graphic below is part of how I assess student needs Each red zone is a plateau It is a score range that is REALLY hard to break through You are in the plateau that the course is designed to get people to Don't believe the nonsense out there There is no super effective one-size-fits-all solution to maximum GMAT improvement Achieving and moving through each plateau has its

own unique set of needs and concerns

What you’ll find in this document

1) GMAT online forum resources and why they are helpful

2) Study habits of 19 people who achieved 700+ GMAT scores

3) How to track your progress and improve your review process

4) What kind of schedule should I use? What order should I go through the material?

5) Ongoing help resources – Daily e-mail questions

6) What GMAT resources should I use? In other words, what books and resources out there are good and what sucks

7) Should I use a Test Prep Company?

8) What kind of study schedule should I use?

9) A summary study guide for each section of the GMAT

10) A study guide on probability There just aren’t any books out there that cover probability well

GMAT online forum resources and why they are helpful

A couple of websites I found in my research were www.testmagic.com and

www.gmatclub.com Both are tremendous resources because you can post questions there and people will help you to understand why one answer is right and another is wrong You should see the generous amount of time people take to post responses One thing I noticed was how a few people who did well on the actual GMAT mentioned how the forum benefited them so much They went on to mention how they stayed active in the forums A good forum is created when people take the time to explain an answer and not to just simply try to guess at the answer or write out a quick formula to show how you got the answer How did you get the formula? What led you to start out with certain steps? What concepts were used in your solution? Putting your answer in this kind of context is helpful and most importantly forces the person who is posting the answer to explain the answer through fact and theory To write out the answer requires a

reasonable understanding of the concept being tested To explain the answer to someone is literally like being a teacher Teaching a topic is the best method of learning Now that’s active learning! Here’s an example of a typical posting

Posting

Hi Guys!

Help me with this one

Q What is the volume of a certain rectangular solid?

(1) Two adjacent faces of the solids have areas 15 and 24 respectively

(2) Each of two opposite faces of the solid has area 40

I think statement (1) alone is sufficient to answer the question If not, please explain me why?

Thanks XXXXX

Reply #1

Statement (1) alone is not sufficient as we can get multiple results for volume: Face 1 can have an area of 15 with sides 15 & 1: 15 * 1 and Face 2 can have an area of 24 with sides 1 * 24 The volume would be 15*1*24 = 360

Face 1 : 5 * 3 Face 2 : 3 * 8 Volume : 5*3*8 = 120

Statement (2) alone is not sufficient as we have info only about 2 sides

Combining Statement (1) & (2), Areas with 15, 24 & 40 correspond to three sides with lengths measuring 5,3 & 8 Ans should be C Please let me know the correct answer

Reply by Original Poster

The answer was infact C

Reply #2

According to B each opposite face of solid has an area of 40.So all the faces of the solid are equal in area.So the solid is a cube.So each edge is (40)^1/2 long So we can definitely find volume with B.So "B" should be the correct answer Please let me know if I am missing some point over here

Reply #3

Statement 2 just says that each of two opposite faces of the solid have an area of

40

As therez no info about the remaining 4 faces of the cube, this statement alone is insufficient

Thanks, XXX

I found about 19 people who scored 700+ and found quite a few similarities in their study habits and what books they chose to prepare with Here is a summary of that analysis

Books used (98% used the following)

1 Kaplan GMAT book

2 Princeton Review book

3 Official Guide for GMAT

4 Power Prep Tests

5 Manhattan GMAT Study Guide Books (New!)

Book/Resources used (About 4-5 people used the following)

1 Kaplan 800 - Hard GMAT questions - more than a few argued that this had the hardest questions they found

2 800-score tests – A good resource for tests

3 GMAT Plus – A good resource for tests

4 DeltaCourse - primarily a combination, probability, permutation advanced study guide with plenty of sample questions to practice with

5 Barron's - All said study guide part sucked, but questions were useful

6 Verbal Workout for GMAT -Princeton

Books/Resources all said sucked

1 Arco Master the GMAT CAT – Many of the answer are wrong But the study guides are good

2 Petersons

3 Crack-GMAT – Don’t waste your time or money on this one according to many

4 Kaplan’s in-person GMAT prep course – a few who did it said that it didn’t help

Study tips that every single 700+ scorer mentioned

1 Record all mistakes on wrong questions and revisit them no sooner than 5 days If still getting wrong, then zero on the subset's and go for more help

2 Always read the explanation in the book to see why you get it wrong and take enough time to really understand the concept

3 Pick a date and register Don't study then register There was a tendency to not take prep time as seriously

4 Quite a few went through OG questions more than once Not all questions on the repeat though; Mainly verbal sections and Quant that were areas of weakness

5 Wrote practice essays at least 20 times under timed conditions

6 Visit the test center before the day of test Many did so a week or two before

7 Time spent by most averaged between 3 and 4 months

8 All averaged 2-3 hrs per day and no less than 10-12 hrs on the weekends

9 Took advantage of every break during the GMAT Take a bathroom break, some washed their face to wake up, got fresh air

10 Study in blocks One person mentioned studying in 80 minute blocks without getting up to build stamina Another person mentioned studying in 75 minute blocks with exact

numbers of questions that are on the real GMAT to build stamina and skill Many agree that the ability to handle the time constraints is nearly as important is solving the problem Scores in the actual GMAT are worse if you leave an answer blank than if you get the answer wrong

Interesting note:

The Official Guide for GMAT contains questions that are in the 550 to 650 difficulty range

Let’s Get Started

The first step is to get a bit analytical When going through questions, use either one of the

following tracking sheets

http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/GMATTracker.xls http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/GMATAnswersForm.zip

What this will help you do is track your progress in a way that can tell you in a measurable way whether carelessness or lack of skill caused a wrong answer In other words, using this sheet will help you to zero in on the what you can target for improvement Instead of saying, I need to

improve in math you’ll be able to say, “I need more work in probability, more work in stamina or

more work in seeing various forms of misplaced modifiers in sentence correction questions One thing is for sure, most people find that 50% or more of the reason why they get a question wrong

is due to carelessness, or a loss/lack of stamina Without a good tracking system, you may not

be able to measurably know by how much this is true or whether it’s something else It’s also good to use the notes area frequently to note the kind of subcategories of question types or if it was a concept you didn’t know or a concept you did know, but weren’t solid on yet

When you start out, it’s helpful to spend a week or two un-timed Then as you progress, start putting yourself under moderate time pressure to at least record how long it’s taking you to do a particular question It would be completely ridiculous to record how long it took you to answer every question It’s far better to track yourself in blocks of time For example, with 12 questions, you should have X minutes left and with 24 questions, you should have X minutes left and so on Another excellent tracking method is to put one, two or three X’s in the slow box if you took longer than real GMAT time conditions to answer the question This is one strategy I rely on heavily I use both block time tracking and slow progress tracking actually, but find the slow progress tracking the most helpful

Another good strategy is to go through questions in the following manner

1) Do about 40 questions at a time In this way, you should be giving yourself 80 or so minutes to complete them This will help you to get used to doing questions in blocks similar to the GMAT This will build your physical stamina and build longer periods of mental toughness and focus

2) Check your answers and DON’T look at the explanation of the answer Circle the right answer in red and the sheet

3) Go back, and use the teaching method as explained earlier to resolve the problem Note whether you find the reason why you got the answer wrong as careless or due to concept error in the chart A concept error is defined as an error where you didn’t understand the theory enough to know which steps and in what order to solve the problem It could also

be a relevant piece of knowledge that you forgot or haven’t learned yet See the sample posting above to get an idea of what a teaching method solution looks like

4) Next go through the explanations to try and understand if you your methods were right or

if the book offers an alternative solution method There is more than one way to explain

or solve many problems, so don’t feel like you have to follow the particular explanation in the book If your method solved it, and you can repeat it, then stay with what you know

as long as it holds up to scrutiny when slight changes in the problem don’t allow your method to work In which case, you’ll need to adapt the book concept or dig deeper into

asking yourself whether you really understood the concept to begin with By the way It’s really helpful to ask yourself two questions when you’re done with each test problem re-solve 1) would I be willing to bet $20 that I really understood the concept being tested? 2) Did I write out my explanation well enough that most anyone could look at it and

understand how I solved the problem?

Ongoing Help

You can have e-mails of GMAT questions sent to you on a daily basis The two popular ones are Delta Course and Manhattan GMAT

• For Delta Course, go to http://www.deltacourse.com/gmat/gmat-email.asp

• For Manhattan GMAT, go to http://www.manhattangmat.com/ Select the Student Center menu and create a profile At the bottom of the profile registration, you’ll

be asked if you want the daily question or not This is free by the way

What Resources should I use?

• Kaplan Workshop – This is the CD you get when you sign up for the KAPLAN class It’s awesome Both the Quantitative and Verbal reviews are helpful I struggled with

Sentence Correction and the Workshop exercises and walkthrough started from the basics and had mini-quiz’s to drill you on the material as you went through The number properties review was very helpful as well You can get it at scoretop

http://www.scoretop.com/bbs/uploads/workshops.rar It’s a compressed file If you don’t wave winrar to decompress it, you can download it at www.rarlab.com for free

• The Official Guide to the GMAT – Can be obtained from Amazon

• Manhattan GMAT Prep Books – This is by far the best set of study guide books for the GMAT on the market Where Kaplan, Princeton Review, and the Official Guide all fall short is in the study prep material I browsed a set of the books from a friend I liked them so much that I went ahead and bought them

• Princeton Review, Cracking the GMAT 2005– Can be obtained from Amazon

• Kaplan GMAT 2005– Can be obtained from Amazon

• DeltaCourse – Only available online

• Powerprep Tests – ETS, the company that makes the GMAT

• GMAT Tutor has a good Math basics reference sheet to help you memorize formulas and math basics

• To see if your GMAT essay abilities are up to snuff, you can use GMAC’s services to review some sample essay’s They’ll use the exact same software that is used on the GMAT to review and score your essay You can get it at:

• Test Magic – www.testmagic.com - Excellent forum to get questions answered or

explained

• GMAT Club – www.gmatclub.com – Similar to Test Magic

• GMAT Club Prep material - It’s pretty good

• http://daveformba.blogspot.com – my weblog Obviously, this is where you got this guide from, but you’ll find that I make enough updates and additions to make it worth your while

to check it regularly

• Scoretop.com – If you don’t have access to GMAT software or your CD got fried, go to http://www.scoretop.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=6

• Future MBA Resources – This is my GMAT and MBA resources web site

That’s a lot of resources isn’t it? Here’s a short summary of how to approach the

Resources

• Study Guides

o Manhattan GMAT prep books ($150) and worth it

o Kaplan or Princeton Review Both do a reasonable job on the Verbal section of the GMAT However, both are weak in Sentence Correction

o This Study guide you have before you (You’ll find that SC (Sentence Correction)) is highly emphasized

o Kaplan Workshop

o DeltaCourse – Without a doubt, the best resource for probability, combination type problems

• Practice Problems

o The Official Guide – This is a must buy

o Kaplan and Princeton Review books

o Check my blog for practice problems resources

o Deltacourse (for math)

o

• Practice Test simulations

o PowerPrep – 2 free simulations

o Score800 – excellent resource of test like situation

o Arco CAT- Manhattan GMAT sells a version of this on their web site that is put together VERY well

o GMATClub Challenge – Hard as heck math problems on a timed schedule And it’s free

• Personal tutoring

o See my Blog for lists of GMAT companies that provide private tutoring

o You can get free tutoring from your peers through GMATClub.com, Testmagic.com and Scoretop.com They’ll answer your questions and show you 5 different ways to answer the same problem And the 3 forums are free

Should I use a Test Prep Company?

It’s really up to you If you find that you struggle with discipline or life is really busy Then you should

Highly recommended is Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com) and Veritas

(www.veritasprep.com)

If you have the money and desire more personal instruction, check out Manhattan GMAT (www.manhattangmat.com) They’re very good

What kind of schedule should I use? What order should I go through the material?

Again, it’s really up to you, but here is a basic plan that most people have used that showed great results

1) Go through the Kaplan Workshop FIRST It’s the best Basic review that I’ve found of Math and Verbal

2) Go through the Princeton Review Quant and Verbal Study Guide section

3) Do at least 50 questions of each type

4) Take the one Princeton Review Test from the CD Use it as a reference point to see where your at Do it under the strictest time conditions

5) Finish the Princeton book

6) Get the Deltacourse material and go through it

7) At the same time, begin going through the Kaplan questions

8) At a MINIMUM take one full GMAT practice test a week Whether it’s Kaplan or

Princeton Save the last Powerprep for when your about 2-3 weeks away from the test The Powerprep tests are well known to provide results quite similar to the real GMAT The Kaplan ones are traditionally harder and therefore give lower average scores Don’t worry about the scores if they are lower If you are worried, go to

http://www.gmatclub.com/content/resources/estimator/index.php There, you’ll find a score estimator It will take the Kaplan score you get and average it out to a more

realistic score

9) Go through the Official GMAT Guide Do all the questions

10) If you have the time, use the GMAT Plus material for an additional source of questions to

12) Do at least a dozen practice essays Do each one under timed conditions

13) Don’t study the day before the test And make sure to visit the test center at least a week before the test Bring ear plugs to the test center if noise will be an issue Get used to studying with them if you do though

14) Create regular review sessions where you go over all the questions you got wrong on a weekly basis Make a binder or something similar

Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency Study Strategy

Kaplan and Princeton are good for most topics except for Combination, Permutations,

Probability and Counting They don’t cover these Quantitative math skills very well The best resource I’ve found is from Deltacourse Their material is highly focused on these topics It was extremely helpful For $27, I wouldn’t even hesitate about ordering it online You can’t buy it in bookstores For a scaled down version of this, go to Appendix A of this Guide

For every Data Sufficiency and Problem Solving question you get wrong, write out in long hand the solution Don’t just write out the formula This will help you process the theory being tested Explain why you did certain steps I call this the teaching method explanation

Here’s a number Property table from Kaplan Workshop that neither the Kaplan or Princeton

books provided and was extremely helpful as I realized that there were number properties I didn’t remember or recall having learned years ago

Pi X

Points of emphasis:

O is an integer, it is neither pos of neg

Negative numbers are not prime

0 and 1 are not prime

Reading Comprehension Study Strategy

1) Aggressively read each paragraph for its main idea If you can’t write down in a few words what the point of each paragraph is, you weren’t reading actively enough You should jot down the following

a Main idea or primary purpose

b Organization/Structure

c Tone or attitude of author (if applicable)

Note: Be careful to not write facts down It’ll bog you down and usually results in a loss of the big picture and moves you to focus to much into the details

2) Note any trigger words, same train of thought words, yin-yang parallelism See the Princeton Review book for more explanation

3) Weed out possible disputable answers Vague, wimpy answers are often correct over stronger statements ETS doesn’t want to get many complaints that a particular answer that was strongly stated, that exceptions could arise ETS would rather play it safe 4) Minority passages are often positive in tone and answers tend to be positive in tone as well Again, ETS, wouldn’t want to look prejudiced

5) Always eliminate bad choices first before answering You’ll almost always be able to narrow down to 2-3 and that significantly improves your odds of getting the question right

6) Read the entire passage before answering the questions Other books say skim, but it’s not always successful with more difficult passages where minute details change

meanings of the passage and could get you going down the wrong path on inference or main point questions Give yourself 3 minutes or less

7) For Inference questions, (Note: these are usually the hardest of all RC questions) go find the general area being referenced Read a bit above or below it and then make your choices Don’t go by memory This is going to cause more problems that be helpful with saving time in the long run Your answer should never contradict the main point of the passage

8) Most people get main point and inference questions wrong so focus more carefully on these

9) "According to the passage/author" question type of questions Whenever you see this question, tell yourself, "Stop and stop thinking I need to FIND, not think."

10) For main point or central idea type of questions, re-read the first and last sentences of each paragraph before making elimination choices and answering Getting the overall structure is really helpful before answering

11) In Summary: Consider weeding out answers that

a Are disrespectful to others/professionals ETS doesn’t like to be disrespectful

b Too strong an answer Use of words like “only”, “definitely”, “positively”

c Condone/approve prejudicial attitudes ETS doesn’t like to be disrespectful 12) For a much more detailed strategy for Reading Comprehension, go to Appendix D

Sentence Correction Study Strategy

3) For all future questions, make sure you write, verbally, or mentally talk through the rule that was violated Make notes on a scratch piece of paper If you pick an answer and can’t explain EXACTLY what method the answer corrects, then you are just guessing or going off of what sounds good - Therefore, reinforcing a bad habit

Spotting bad sentences is the key to doing well on sentence structure test questions

1) Pronoun error

a Plural and single – once you start with one, you need to stay in the same

quantity

Singular Pronouns (Memorize these Period)

Hint: Do you see the categories I setup? It’s SANE to memorize this

Some - Any—

No—

Every

Everyone Everybody Everything

Someone Somebody Something

Either Neither

One Each

Anyone Anybody Anything

No one Nothing Nobody

Whoever Whomever

His

Be aware that group, jury, team, country, family are singular Society today uses them sometimes as plural This is because these act as a single unit when they

do something

Plural Pronouns (Memorize these Period)

To memorize this, try Frightening TOMBS

Singular and Plural Pronouns – depends on whether the noun is singular or plural (Memorize these Period)

The plural and singular clause error

When two nouns are in the sentence doing an action together but they are linked with

Janie, with her poodle limping behind her, walks to the dog park

Explanation: Janie is singular The poodle is singular They both do the action together, but the use of “with” means that we need to keep the verb singular

“Walks” is singular and “Walk” is plural

Remember, a verb that ends with an –s is singular

b Pronoun reference error- referring pronoun is not correctly placed

c Relative pronouns are often used incorrectly today

1) Referring to things or animals – that, which 2) Referring to people—who, whom

3) They – be careful that you don’t use this unless you’re positive there is

a referring noun Today we often use “they” to replace the use of a proper noun which it is not It’s a Pronoun

2) Misplaced Modifier (modifiers must stay close to home)

a Definition: Sentences that begin with a verb, adjective+verb, adjective phrases need to be followed by the noun or pronoun they are modifying Usually end with –ing

b Example: Coming out of the department store, John’s wallet was stolen

“Coming” is the modifier Was john’s wallet coming out of the store? Incorrect sentence

Possible solution to look for:

a) Correct the reference b) Put a noun or pronoun into the 1st part of the sentence turning the 1stpart into an adverbial clause

c) Correct answer might be, “As he was coming out of the department store, John’s wallet was stolen.” Alternate could be, “As John was coming out of the department store, his wallet was stolen.”

Absolute Phrases: Introduction

1 Introduction

Definition and rules An absolute phrase is a modifier (quite often a participle), or a modifier and a few other words, that attaches to a sentence or a noun, with no

conjunction An absolute phrase cannot contain a finite verb

Absolute phrases usually consist of a noun and a modifier that modifies this noun, NOT another noun in the sentence

Absolute phrases are optional in sentences, i.e., they can be removed without

damaging the grammatical integrity of the sentence Since absolute phrases are optional

in the sentence, they are often set off from the sentence with commas or, less often, with dashes We normally explain absolute phrases by saying that they modify entire

sentences, rather than one word This is an important concept, since many similar

phrases that we work with modify other words For example, adjectives modify nouns, and adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs That said, however, in some cases, it seems to make more sense to say that absolute phrases modify nouns

We will look at some of these examples a bit later

First, let's look at some examples of absolute phrases:

Examples of Absolute Phrases:

The absolute phrase look like this:

• Her determination stronger than ever, Nexisa resolved not to give up until she had achieved her dreams

• The sun shining bright and the pale blue sky forming a backdrop of the Sacre Coeur, Carl stepped into his future as a traveler and observer

• We finished the hearty meal quickly, our appetites satisfied, our minds at peace

• All things being equal, the active voice tends to be correct more often than the passive on standardized tests

Please notice that in every case the absolute phrase provides some sort of information that works to put the whole sentence or idea in context Please also notice that the

absolute phrases themselves do NOT contain verbs, nor are they connected to the main sentence with a conjunction Finally, please notice that the primary components of most (but not all) of these absolute phrases are a noun + a modifier, although it is possible to use only a modifier

Here is the next pattern we should know:

2 noun + participle

This is one of the most common ways to form an absolute phrase It might be helpful for some people to imagine this pattern with a verb between the noun and the participle For

example, if you say The question was still unanswered, you have a complete sentence; if,

on the other hand, you say The question unanswered and you then attach that phrase to

a main sentence, then you have an absolute phrase

Here are some examples The absolute phrases look like this

• The question still unanswered, the teacher decided to address the confusion of her students more closely

• The train running late, we decided to get off at the next stop and take a taxi home

• There are many industries in California vital to its economy, with technology being one of the most important

Compare these sentences with the verbs and conjunctions in them:

• The question was still unanswered, and the teacher decided to address the

confusion of her students more closely

• The train was running late, so we decided to get off at the next stop and take a

taxi home

• There are many industries in California vital to its economy, and technology is

one of the most important

Similarly, having + past participle is often so semantically similar to the sentence without

it that many sentences are written without having + past participle

An example would be very good here:

• Having been chosen to head the committee, Angus Ng thought about how he could help raise money for his chess club at Harvard

This sentence could look like this:

• Chosen to head the committee, Angus Ng thought about how he could help raise money for his chess club at Harvard

This concept is important for the Sentence Correction section of the GMAT, so if you're preparing for that test, pay attention to this!

3 noun + adjective

Another pattern is to use an adjective after the noun it modifies

Look at these examples:

• Their meal still not ready after 45 minutes, the hungry and angry customers left the restaurant

• His hat in hand and pride in check, Horace asked his former boss for his job back

• The previews still showing, Kelly and Chris decided to leave the theater and enjoy the sunny day

3) Parallel Construction

a Is there a list?

b Is the sentence in two parts?

Both types must have parallel types of verbiage

to , to or ate _, slept , drank

Bad construction might look like

to , _ or ate _, sleep _, drank

c Comparisons must be logical

Find the two things being compared and see if the sentence is structured in balance Don’t be afraid to consider changing verbs or adjectives to get the balance

d Parallelism is not just about clauses, but verb usage

Example: -ing and –ing, to…… to…… , either … or, neither …… nor

e The words "like," "unlike," "similar to," "as…so", “when” and "in contrast to" are

the most common indicators of comparisons In comparisons, compatibility is determined by subject matter For example:

As domesticated animals, indoor cats typically lose their ability to hunt for their own food, so too do domesticated dogs come to rely exclusively on their owners for sustenance

Here, domesticated cats are compared to domesticated dogs, and the

comparison works because they are both domesticated animals — they are like terms Whenever you see a comparison being set up in a sentence, check to see that the terms of the comparison are compatible

4) Verb Tense

a Is the whole sentence in the same tense

b Some major categories of tense: Don’t need to memorize types Just be familiar

Present tense example: He walks three miles a day

Simple Past example: When he was younger, he walked three miles

a day

Present Perfect example: He has walked

Past Perfect example: He had walked

Future example: He will work

Present Perfect – Describes action that began in the past but continues until the present

Key identifier – “has” “have”

Sidenote: Sometimes used when deadline exists

Past Perfect – Describes action that started and stopped in the past

Key identifier – “had”

Present Progressive – Used as emphasis by the speaker that the action is happening this very minute

Key identifier – verb ‘to be’ + a verb with an –ing ending

Perfect Progressive – Occupies more than one moment in the past In other words, ongoing for a period of time

Key identifier – “had been”

c Two events that have taken place , are taking place or will take place at the same time must have the same tense in the sentence

d Passive verbs begin with the form of “to be” (Example: to be, were, was) and end with a different verb in the past tense

5) Subject-Verb agreement errors

a Singular + Plural agreement Do the two agree in plurality? Can be made very complex when prepositional phrases separate verb from noun/subject by 5 or more words Easy to overlook cross referenced subject-verb relationship

b To tell if a verb paradigm is plural or singular

1) Mentally put “They” in front of the verb
plural 2) Mentally put “He” in front of the verb
singular

c Verb plurality: (This comes up A LOT on the GMAT)

Adding an “s” to the end of an adjective makes it singular

For example, dislike
plural dislikes
singular

Subject/Verb Inversion

So you already know that the GMAT test is an adaptive test, meaning that your score goes up or down depending on the difficulty of the questions that you answer correctly or incorrectly On the sentence correction section of the GMAT, the questions that test you

on subject/verb inversion tend to be the harder questions, and are therefore worth more points

So, to raise your GMAT score, you should be very familiar with most or all of the items on this list!

There are at least eighteen types of inversion:

1 neg intro Never do I sleep

Only at night can I study

In no way could I help you with your Japanese grammar question

I believe that only rarely will I need your help

Not until I got home did I realize that my shoes were untied

Question form is obligatory

Used with all verbs

This one is very common on the TOEFL and somewhat common on the GMAT and GRE

We need to learn the various types

of words and phrases that require this type of inversion

Notice that sometimes the inversion occurs right after the neg intro form and sometimes it occurs in the next subject and verb

Type Examples Notes

2 intro adverbial Into the room ran the lady

First comes love, then comes marriage

After A comes B, then comes

Notice that sometimes we have an adverb, like first and down and sometimes we have an adverb phrase like into the room or after A These adverbs and adverb phrases usually show location or direction This type of inversion usually only occurs with be-verbs, linking verbs and verbs that show direction or movement, like come, go, run, etc

3 intro –ed Found in San Francisco is

Lombard Street, the so-called crookedest street in the world

Lost among the old tables and chairs was the priceless Victorian desk

Located between San Francisco and Marin County is the Golden Gate Bridge

Inversion is obligatory

Used with be-verbs

This one is very common on the TOEFL, GMAT, and GRE

This type of inversion usually occurs with be-verbs, but sometimes with linking verbs

Notice that the phrase is the complement of the be-verb

4 comparatives Cheetahs run faster than do

Used with all verbs

This form of inversion is common

on the TOEFL, GMAT, and GRE

We normally only have inversion here if we are comparing subjects

Type Examples Notes

Benjamin of the verb, not objects For

example, in the following two sentences, we are comparing objects, carrots and potatoes, not the subject I.:

ϑ ϑI like carrots more than I do potatoes

Λ ΛI like carrots more than do I like potatoes

Now, in this sentence, we are comparing subjects, I and my friend Carl:

ϑ ϑI like carrots more than does my friend Carl

No less impressive than the invention of the laser was the development of the wheel

Inversion is obligatory

Used with be-verbs

This form is more common on the GMAT and GRE than it is on the TOEFL

Notice that we can only use this form of inversion when the verb is a be-verb since in every case, the comparative is the complement of the be-verb

Remember that less than is also a comparative

6 as Megumi is from Japan, as is

Used with all verbs

We can only use inversion if we are using as for comparisons

as is one of the trickiest words in

Type Examples Notes

can swim, as can cats English; it can have many different

meanings

7 so… that… So happy was I that I bought

flowers for everybody in class

So quickly did she leave that

we did not even realize was gone

So rarely does a comet appear visible to the naked eye that when one does, it is considered

a major event

Question form is obligatory

Used with all verbs

This is not so common on the TOEFL, but is fairly common on the GMAT and GRE

The so… that… clause must before the verb in for this type of inversion

8 had, should,

were for if-clauses

Had I remembered Tomomi’s birthday, she wouldn’t be mad

at me now

Should you need a hand, I will

be more than happy to help you

Were I you, I think I would study more for your exam tomorrow

Inversion is obligatory

Used with all verbs

This is somewhat common on the TOEFL and more common on the GMAT and GRE

This type of inversion is kind of special Notice that we can only use this type of inversion when we are using an if-clause In other words, if

is omitted: even though the word if does not appear in the clause, we still have the meaning of an if-clause

For more information, see had, should, were

9 there is, there

are, there exists,

there comes, etc

There is a good restaurant nearby

There comes a time in every person’s life when she realizes

Type Examples Notes

that she is responsible for her own happiness, not other people

Scientists hypothesize that there exists a certain type of particle that can travel faster than the speed of light

as well as in spoken and written English

Most people remember there is and there are BUT we must also remember that there are other verbs that we can use instead of is and are The most common ones are exist, come, and go

10 here is, here

are, here comes,

or on the GMAT or GRE It could, however, appear on the Listening Comprehension Section of the TOEFL We use this form mostly in spoken English

11 intro -ing Burning out of control was the

forest located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains

Coming in last in the race was Joe “Elephant Legs” Blow

Not helping the situation was little Susie, who was throwing newspaper on the spreading fire

Inversion is obligatory

Used only with be-verbs

This form is not common on the TOEFL, but might show up on the GMAT or GRE

Notice the intro –ing phrase is the complement of the be-verb

12 emphasis Boy am I hungry

Is it ever hot in here!

Do you know how to cook!

Inversion is optional

Used with all verbs

You will probably not see this on the grammar section of the TOEFL

Type Examples Notes

or on the GMAT or GRE It could, however, appear on the Listening Comprehension Section of the TOEFL We use this form mostly in spoken English

13 the bigger, the

better

The closer an object is to another object, the greater is the gravity between the two objects

Question form is optional

Used with all verbs

14 questions Is this the last example?

Do you enjoy reading these lists?

Are we finished yet?

Inversion is obligatory

Used with all verbs

You will probably not see this on the grammar section of the TOEFL (TOEFL doesn’t test questions anymore) or on the GMAT or GRE

It would, however, appear on the Listening Comprehension Section

or on the GMAT or GRE

16 nor No one has volunteered for the

job, nor do we expect anyone to volunteer in the future

Inversion is obligatory

Used with all verbs

You might see this on the adaptive

Type Examples Notes

Hok-ming cannot speak Portuguese, nor can José speak Cantonese

The zoo regulations will not permit you to touch the animals, nor would most people advise you to do so

TOEFL if you are scoring high and

it could appear on the GMAT or GRE

Remember that nor is considered a conjunction, but we use it between two sentences (not between any two elements like the other conjunctions)

17 "so do I"/

"neither do I."

“So do I.”

“So can Terry.”

“Neither do most people I know.”

Inversion is obligatory

Used with all verbs

You will probably not see this on the grammar section of the TOEFL

or on the GMAT or GRE

18 intro adjective Beautiful beyond belief was my

baby daughter

Happy about their acceptance into their dream schools were Lany and Tomo

Quick and painless will be your medical procedure

Inversion is obligatory in most cases

Used with be-verbs

This one is fairly rare and probably would not appear on the TOEFL, but you might see it on the GMAT

or GRE

Inversion is sometimes not used in poetic language

6) Parallelism (Apples + Oranges)

a When the sentence compares two items Ask yourself, can they be really

compared?

b When the sentence compares two actions as well

Usually, the problem is with hidden comparison where two things or actions are compared, but another two items or actions are intertwined and you lose the

comparison relationship

Example: Synthetic oils burn less efficiently than natural oils

The sentence is wrong because we are trying to compare well each oil burns and not the oils themselves But do you see how the actual thing being compared is easily missed?

In a series of two or more elements, what you do on #2 determines what you do

on 3+ In other words, everything after #2 must match #2:

• I like to swim, to run, and to dance

• I like to swim, run, and dance

are okay

• I like to swim, run, and to dance

• I like to swim, to run, and dance

are NOT okay

7) Quantity Words

a The words measuring quantity may be used incorrectly For example, when comparing two items, it would be inappropriate to use “among” to compare them Here’s a chart:

1) Example: Either his parents or he is bringing it (notice “is” is singular) This can be a confusing sentence because parents is plural, but we pay attention to he which is the noun “he” tells us that we need to keep

“is” singular

2) Example: Either he or his parents are bringing it Notice “ parents” is plural and since this is the noun that is closest to the verb, we use “are” which is plural

• There are three types of idioms that you'll see on the GMAT:

1 word pairs that go together

2 prepositions and the verbs that use them

3 standard expressions

Idiomatic preposition usage

Many idiomatic expressions tested on the exam involve prepositions There's no overarching grammatical rule that tells you which prepositions go with which verbs Again, the rules are determined by usage, so you'll have to "listen" to the expression and determine if the verb is followed by the correct preposition

Be on the lookout for commonly tested prepositions like "of," "at," "by," "in," "from,"

"to," and "for" If you have difficulty determining whether a usage is correct, try testing out the idiom in a simpler version of the sentence

Example:

Although he was considered as a leading proponent for the controversial new initiative, the professor nevertheless sought refuge from the media uproar

The sentence above becomes:

The professor was considered as a proponent

Does anything sound unusual? Could this sentence be worded differently? In fact, to be, not as, is the correct idiom:

The professor was considered to be a proponent

Would rather
present tense if referring to myself and past tense if someone other than the subject is doing the action

Example: Would rather I speak
present tense

Example: Would rather you spoke
past tense

Major Idioms you should be familiar with

as good as or better than

as much as (SC-105,pg 720 of OG)

assume to be of

different from/differ from

distinguishes between X and Y (SC-15,pg

699 of OG)

more X than Y (SC-175,pg 737 of OG) more than ever (SC-98,pg 718 of OG) must have (done)

neither nor

no less than noted that (Sc-258,pg 759 of OG) not in a flash but in a (SC-22,pg 701 of OG) not only but also

not so much asnot X but rather Y (SC-172,pg 736 of OG) one attributes X (an effect) to Y (a cause) (SC-21,pg 701

of OG) One X for every ZZ( some numeric number) Y's (SC-89,pg 717 of OG)

persuaded X to do Y (sc-173,pg 736 of OG)prohibits X from doing Y

potential to range from X to Y (SC-58,pg 710 of OG)range of (SC-77,pg 714 of OG)

reason… that incorrectly seen as reason… because regards X as Y

regard as regardless replacing with

research to (SC-112, pg 721 of OG) responsible for

resulting in restitution for (SC-130,pg 726 of OG) retroactive to

same to X as to Y (sc-54,pg 709 of OG)seem to (seem is plural)

seem to indicate (SC-95,pg 718 of OG)

so X as to be Y

so (adjective) that

so X that Y (SC-177,pg 737 of OG) subscribe to

such as targeted at ( SC-195,pg 742 of OG)that X that Y (SC-250,pg 757 of OG)

for jobs (SC-109,pg 721 of OG)

for over XXX years

used in the construction

X [is] expected to Y (SC-131, pg 726 of OG)

X ordered that Y be Z'ed (SC-218,pg 748)

X ordered Y to do Z (sc-121,pg 724 of OG)

X ordered Y to be Z'ed (SC-218,pg 748 of OG)

X prohibits Y from doing Z (SC-100,pg 719 of OG)

Examples of Idioms in Sentences

A

access to The company has access to large capital reserves

act as The poison pill in the contract acts as a preventative measure against hostile takeovers

allows for The design of the robot arm allows for great flexibility

as as Chocolate tastes as good as ice cream

associate with He associates beer with potato chips

attribute to The poor first quarter results are

attributed to the restructuring

a responsibility to The CEO has a fiduciary responsibility to all shareholders

a result of The recent Nasdaq decline is a result of higher interest rates

a sequence of The Sumerian text was a sequence of incomprehensible symbols agree with The Teamsters do not agree with the Republicans on many issues

among Used when discussing more than two items He was the finest policeman among the hundreds of rookies

as good as/or better than The new software is as good

as or better than anything on the market

as great as The new house looks as great as I had hoped

attend to (someone) The emergency room doctor

attended to the injured victim

attribute X to Y/X We attribute the results to the new management

attributed to Y The extinction of the dinosaurs has been attributed to an asteroid collision

B

based on The results are based on a comprehensive ten year study

begin to He will begin to study twelve hours before the test

believe X to be Y After seeing the flying saucer, I

believe UFOs to be a real phenomenon

between Used when discussing two things (if there are more than two, then use among instead)

He could not decide between Corn Flakes or Raisin Bran

C

care about How much do business schools care about your score?

centers on + noun The GMAT centers on the knowledge of basic math and

writing/reading skills

choose to The number of students who choose to go to business school has

increased in the last ten years

consistent with Your grades are not consistent with your abysmal GMAT scores contend that He contends that the GMAT has a cultural bias

consider + noun How important do you consider the test?

continue + to If you continue to study, you will succeed

contrast A with B If you contrast A with B, you can see the difference

convert to You may convert muscle to fat if you study too much

compare A to B (compare to stresses similarities) The music critic favorably

compared him to Bob Dylan

compare A with B (compare with stresses differences) Broccoli is good for you

compared with ice cream

count on + noun He counts on management support concerned with They are

concerned with investor relations more than actual profitability

conform to When you work at a new company, you should try to conform to its

corporate culture

D

decide to We decided to continue

decide on We decided on the new format

depend on The global economy depends on improving productivity

different from The CAT is very different from the paper and pencil GMAT

difficult to Many students find the CAT difficult to take

distinguish between X and Y Distinguish between domestic and international

production

distinguish X from Y Juries must attempt to

distinguish truth from falsehood

depends on whether Our place in the playoffs depends on whether we win tonight

flee from The convict fled from the country

invest in He is too risk-averse to invest in the stock market

identical with His DNA is identical with his twin's

in contrast to The candidate claims to support tax cuts, in contrast to his prior

leads to Rapid growth often leads to problems

like Usually only used for direct comparison: He walks

like Joe walks

localized in Most Internet venture capital is

localized in a few areas of the world

M

mistake + noun + for I mistook you for an old friend

modeled after The judicial building is modeled after the Parthenon

more than ever Companies demand MBA graduates now more than ever

N

native to There is a unique business culture native to the U.S

a native of It infects those who are not even a native of America

need to Living in New York City is an experience everyone needs to try

to be + necessary + to It is necessary to get a high GMAT score to get into Stanford neither nor Neither Tom nor Sam has the necessary skills to finish the job

not only but also Stanford not only has the highest GMAT average, but also the highest GPA

P

prohibit from + gerund You are prohibited from using a calculator on test day

potential to A graduate of a top business school has the potential to make over

$100,000

R

range from X to Y The GMAT scores at top business schools will range from 650 to

750

refer to If you have any more questions, you should

refer to a grammar book

regard as Wharton's finance program is regarded as the finest in the world

require + noun + to You require a GMAT score to go to most U.S business schools rivalry between X and Y The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees is one of the most celebrated in professional sports

responsible for The manager is responsible for seven entry level employees

retroactive to The tax policy change is retroactive to last year