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More Than Just Grammar: The Search for Meaning in the New SC (Part 5)

By jim jacobson posted February 2, 2012

People are talking about the new GMAT, and the way that Sentence Correction will test your comprehension of the sentence’s meaning as well as its grammar, style, and concision, by giving you more answer choices that are grammatically correct (but still wrong). In this series of articles, I want to explore the ways this could happen, with some example questions for you as well. Last time, we talked about a solution to a problem I posed; this time, let’s take a look at how word placement matters.

Placement/choice of conjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs

Sentence A: Sergei chose to buy a house because of the increase in both the number of houses on the market and the number of his friends who owned their own homes.

Sentence B: Sergei chose to buy a house because of both the increase in the number of houses on the market and the number of his friends who owned their own homes.

Both sentences feature Sergei buying a house because of the number of houses on the market and the number of his friends who owned their own homes, but in Sentence A, both of those numbers are going up, while in Sentence B, only the number of houses is increasing. (I tried to come up with a sentence that had a more amusing shift in sense; I will envy you a little if you are able to come up with one.

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More Than Just Grammar: The Search for Meaning in the New SC (Part 4)

By jim jacobson posted January 29, 2012

People are talking about the new GMAT, and the way that Sentence Correction will test your comprehension of the sentence’s meaning as well as its grammar, style, and concision, by giving you more answer choices that are grammatically correct (but still wrong). In this series of articles, I want to explore the ways this could happen, with some example questions for you as well. Last time, I gave you a question using conditional statements; this time, let’s take a look at the answer.

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In case you missed it or forgot, this was the question:

A group of well-regarded economists has recently published projected figures for the economy next year, which predict that if interest rates remain at their current level, lending should continue to increase as slowly as it has this year.

A. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending should continue to increase

B. when interest rates remain at their current level, lending can continue its increasing

C. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending continues to increase

D. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending will continue to increase

E. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending could continue to increase

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More Than Just Grammar: The Search for Meaning in the New SC (Part 3)

By jim jacobson posted January 25, 2012

Conditional statements

If you are very hungry, you eat too much food.

If you are very hungry, you may eat too much food.

If you are very hungry, you will eat too much food.

If you are very hungry, you should eat too much food.

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An Introduction to Two-Part Analysis Questions on the new GMAT

By vivian kerr posted January 23, 2012

The new Two-Part Analysis questions (one of four new question-types in the Integrated Reasoning section set to launch in June 2012), will present a short paragraph with information. Answer choices will be presented in several columns and rows. Each column stands for a component, and each row is part of the solution. You’ll need to choose one answer from each column since the complete answer will have a two-part solution.

Below is a sample question that GMAC has provided at MBA.com to familiarize students with the format of this new question-type. You can see that for this question, you would click one circle to bubble in a choice for Organization A’s column, and then separately click for Organization B’s column. The choices are made independently, and both must be correct to receive credit for the question. To try out this question and see the correct answer go here.

Two-Part analysis questions measure your ability to solve complex problems. This is designed to mimic complex, multi-part, real-world problems faced by MBA students. MBA.com further describes the Two-Part format as lending “itself to a wide range of content and skills measured, including the ability to evaluate trade-offs, solve simultaneous equations, and discern relationships between two entities.” Because of this, your acquired skills in solving complex algebra and in discerning harder word problems will be essential skills to solve Two-Part Analysis questions.

The question is called “Two-Part Analysis” because of the multiple components. They may be independent or dependent on each other. These questions commonly ask about simultaneous equations, variables, rates, or differing opinions. They may focus solely on Quantitative concepts, or may include aspects of Verbal such as inference and reading comprehension.

To practice for this new question type before the June 2012 launch, you can create a Custom Game in the Grockit GMAT lobby and work on the questions involving Word Problems, Linear Equations, Rates and Work, and other advanced algebra concepts. As you practice your Reading Comprehension skills in the Grockit GMAT Verbal games, you will also be preparing for Two-Part Analysis!

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More Than Just Grammar: The Search for Meaning in the New SC (Part 2)

By jim jacobson posted January 20, 2012

People are talking about the new GMAT, and the way that Sentence Correction will test your comprehension of the sentence’s meaning as well as its grammar, style, and concision, by giving you more answer choices that are grammatically correct (but still wrong). In this series of articles, I want to explore the ways this could happen, with some example questions for you as well. Last time, we talked about punctuation; this time, let’s answer the question posed at the end of the last post.

Last time, I gave you this question:

On her way to the store, Priya decided to purchase a personal organizer, a new computer with a wireless network card, and a barking toy robot dog that would make her life easier, she decided.

A. and a barking toy robot dog that would make her life easier, she decided.

B. and a barking toy robot dog; that would make would make her life easier, she decided.

C. and a barking toy robot dog that would make her life easier; she decided.

D. and a barking toy robot dog making her life easier, she decided.

E. and, deciding that would make her life easier, a barking toy robot dog.

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More Than Just Grammar: The Search for Meaning in the New SC (Part 1)

By jim jacobson posted January 17, 2012

People are talking about the new GMAT, and the way that Sentence Correction will test your comprehension of the sentence’s meaning as well as its grammar, style, and concision, by giving you more answer choices that are grammatically correct (but still wrong). In this series of articles, I want to explore the ways this can happen, with some example questions for you as well. First, let’s talk about punctuation.

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Punctuation

Sentence A: Let’s eat, Grandma!

Sentence B: Let’s eat Grandma!

Sentence C: Every dog knows its master.

Sentence D: Every dog knows it’s master.

The ancient Romans wrote with little or no punctuation, and usually without even putting any spaces between the words. It is hard to imagine the confusion that could arise from that, when in English a simple mark (such as a comma or an apostrophe) can make such difference in the sense of the sentence. In the first pair, Sentence A conveys familial devotion, while B implies cannibalism; in the second pair, Sentence C features man’s best friend looking up to humans, while in Sentence D, the dog looks down on humans.

Of course, the GMAT is unlikely to feature something so simple (or potentially comical), but punctuation is often needed to reduce ambiguity or to change the meaning of a phrase or clause. Relative clauses – clauses starting with a relative pronoun like which, who, or that – are prime candidates for a change in meaning, especially ones starting with which or that. Semicolons and commas, because they separate clauses, can also change the meaning of a sentence by changing the point where one clause begins and another ends.

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Issue Essay Template for AWA

By vivian kerr posted January 8, 2012

This is a sample outline for the GMAT’s Issue Essay. Here we are aiming for 5 paragraphs total. You may opt for a shorter 4 paragraph version, but aim for 5 paragraphs. If you have trouble completing 5 paragraphs, see if you can streamline your body paragraphs. They can often be bloated with unnecessary wordiness. Keep the introduction and the conclusion short and sweet.

For more great admissions advice check out this post by Stacy Blackman: Making your MBA Application Stand Out

Paragraph 1 – Introduction (3-4 sentences)

You will want to begin your essay with one of the following: a generalization about the topic, a quotation, a short anecdote to set-up the correctness of your position, a historical framework, a piece of news illustrating the contemporariness of the issue. Admit the complexity of the issue.

You have two goals in the beginning part of the essay: introduce the topic, and provide the scope. In what context will you be discussing the topic? Your talent as a writer lies in your choice of scope. What aspect of the issue do you want to focus on?

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How the AWA is Scored on the GMAT

By vivian kerr posted January 2, 2012

The AWA section of the GMAT is made up of two essays – the Argument and the Issue essay. Each essay will be given two independent scores, one of which is done by an automated essay-scoring engine called the E-rater. The other is done by a human grader, and the two scores are averaged then rounded to the nearest half-point. For example, if the E-rater gave the essay a 4 and the human rater gave the essay a 5 it would have a final score of 4.5.

The E-rater is a computer program that checks for structural and linguistic features, such as (according to MBA.com) “organization of ideas, syntactic variety, and topical analysis.” It has hundreds of graded essays stored for each of the GMAT prompts, so it “knows” what a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 essay “looks like” for each prompt. Your essay is scored based on how closely it resembles other essays that is why good organization, clarity, and effective transitions are very important to your score.

It is rare, but occasionally the human and the E-rater differ by more than one point (For example, the E-rater gives an essay a 3, and the human rater gives the essay a 5). When this happens, a second human grader is brought it to determine the final score.

The main qualities that the readers look for are the organization of your ideas, the quality of the ideas themselves, the strength and relevance of the examples, and your grasp of standard written English. Readers are trained to take non-native speakers’ abilities into account when grading so that scores are fair. If you have any reason to believe your AWA scores are inaccurate, you can fill out an Essay Rescore Request Form on MBA.com to ask for a review.

To the left is the official AWA Scoring Percentile ranking from MBA.com. You can see that the mean score is a 4.4, and a perfect score of 6 places you in the 91^st percentile, meaning it’s quite plausible to achieve such a score!

Make sure to check out the AWA topics for both the Issue and Argument essays on MBA.com. You will want to practice writing several of each before Test Day! Need more help? Contact a Grockit GMAT Tutor to set up a 1-hour AWA lesson. Review templates for each essay, get insider tips on what to include/leave out, and get graded feedback on your essays!

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GMAT Sentence Correction: Gerunds and Possessives

By jordan schonig posted November 29, 2011

You may have heard native English speakers hesitate when using a gerund in the possessive case. This particular grammar issue is often shirked by textbooks and school teachers, so many of us are never quite sure whether to use a possessive adjective with a gerund in certain cases. Take this example of a common mistake below:

Incorrect: Jake dancing is the result of weeks of practice.

Many English speakers would use this sentence without noticing the error, and probably many of us would not hear any error if we heard the sentence as it’s written. The problem with the sentence, though, is that the noun, Jake, as the agent of the action, dancing, must be in the possessive case. The simple reason is that Jake himself cannot be the result of weeks of practice. Rather, it is Jake’s dancing that is the result of weeks of practice.

Try this GMAT sentence correction for practice!

Correct: Jake’s dancing is the result of weeks of practice.

Now while this seems simple enough, there are still some nuances that have to be reviewed before we can safely decide when to use a noun in the possessive case when it precedes a gerund. The main rule we must remember is that the “ing” verb that comes after the noun does function as a noun; in other words, make sure the ‘ing’ verb is a gerund before you use the preceding noun in the possessive case. Notice the subtly different meanings created by sentences below:

Ambiguous: I like Jake dancing.

Apart from any given context, the sentence above is a bit ambiguous and odd, though not grammatically incorrect in the formal sense. What the sentence suggests is that I like Jake when he dances.

Clear: I like Jake’s dancing.

The above sentence is clear and unambiguous. It means simply that I like the dancing that Jake happens to be doing.

Clear: Jake dancing is quite a spectacle.

You may think that you should immediately change Jake into Jake’s, but this sentence does make sense. Ask yourself, “can Jake himself be ‘quite a spectacle?”’ Yes. Thus, as it stands, the sentence means that Jake, while dancing, is a spectacle.

Clear: Jake’s dancing is quite a spectacle.

This sentence means almost exactly the same thing as the previous sentence, but notice the subtle difference: now I am specifically saying that the dancing itself is a spectacle.

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GMAT Sentence Correction: Special Usage of It

By jordan schonig posted October 19, 2011

While the pronoun “it” is most often thought of as a pronoun taking the place of a thing, we also use “it” as a placeholder that helps us manipulate the subject and object of a sentence. In these cases, “it” does not have an antecedent.

With Infinitives

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We can use “it” to delay infinitive subjects (e.g. to run). Here is an example of a sentence with an infinitive subject that does not use “it” to delay the subject.

Awkward Infinitive Subject: To run often is good for the body.

Delayed Infinitive Subject with “it:” It is good for the body to run often.

Notice that the “it” in the above sentence, which functions as the subject, lacks an antecedent. The version of the sentence using “it” reads better than the other, and so is preferable on the GMAT. Note, also, that changing the infinitive “to run” to the gerund “running” would also improve the sentence without delaying the infinitive with “it.”

With “That” Clauses

Sometimes, a sentence can use a “that” clause as its subject.

Example: “That the government failed to act was disconcerting to many.”

While the above sentence is grammatically correct, it reads awkwardly. It would read a lot smother if we delayed the “that” clause with a placeholder “it.”

Example with “it:” “It was disconcerting to many that the government failed to act.”

As with postponing with infinitive, postponing the “that” clause makes the sentence a bit easier to read, and so is a preferable alternative on the GMAT.

With Infinitives and That Clauses as Objects

When we use infinitives and “that” clauses as objects, you must use a placeholder “it” unless you change these objects to nouns.

With “it:” He made it mandatory for us to attend the meeting.

Notice that the above sentence, as long as you keep the infinitive “to attend,” must use the placeholder “it.” We can get rid of “it” only if we change the infinitive to the action noun “attendance.”

Without “it:” He made mandatory our attendance at the meeting.
Without “it:” He made our attendance at the meeting mandatory.

The key point you need to remember is that not all correct usages of “it” need clear antecedents, and you needn’t consider the placeholder “it” an unnecessary addition that results in wordiness.

Try this GMAT sentence question for more GMAT practice.

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