{"id":11100,"date":"2016-03-03T16:47:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T16:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/?p=11100"},"modified":"2019-09-05T16:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T16:00:09","slug":"a-good-ear-isnt-good-enough-on-gmat-sentence-correction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/blog\/a-good-ear-isnt-good-enough-on-gmat-sentence-correction\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u201cGood Ear\u201d isn\u2019t Good Enough on GMAT Sentence Correction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Manhattan<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re anything like me, you read books and articles avidly (although maybe less often than you did in college), and you\u2019ve been told that you\u2019re a good writer (although you definitely <\/em>write less than you did in college). The Sentence Correction portion of GMAT Verbal seems like it should be easy for you: fix anything that sounds like bad writing, and you\u2019ll do well here.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that assumption is wrong.<\/p>\n

You might think that if your Verbal percentage is high on your first practice test, you don\u2019t need to learn a lot of grammar rules. Your time would be better spent memorizing geometry or practicing exponents. For one thing, focusing on your percentile rather than your raw score is a fallacy<\/a>. For another, neglecting grammar rules means leaving “getable” points on the table.<\/p>\n

The GMAT has clever ways of messing with students who don\u2019t bother to learn grammar, and who just rely on their ears\u2026<\/p>\n

Things that \u201csound fine\u201d may be wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The GMAT knows which grammatical errors the average ear won\u2019t pick up. Take a look at this sentence from a GMATPrep\u00ae problem, and ask yourself how it sounds:<\/p>\n

Both weakened by concern about the government\u2019s agreement with the International Monetary Fund and by growing fears of a rise in inflation, the country\u2019s currency continued its slide to a record low against the dollar, which forced the central bank to intervene for the fourth time in a week. <\/em><\/p>\n

You might think, \u201cit sounds wordy, and the \u2018slide to a record low\u2019 sounded a bit weird, but the rest sounded fine.\u201d If so, you were distracted by non-issues, and you missed two of the GMAT\u2019s favorite traps!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In a parallel structure with both X and Y<\/em>, the X and Y portions must be in exactly<\/em> the same format. If the meaning is clear enough, your ear will not hear the mixups in the structure. Look at what comes directly after both<\/em> and what comes directly after and<\/em>:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Both weakened\u00a0<\/strong>by concern about the government\u2019s agreement with the International Monetary Fund and by\u00a0<\/strong>growing fears of a rise in inflation, the country\u2019s currency continued its slide to a record low against the dollar, which forced the central bank to intervene for the fourth time in a week.<\/em><\/p>\n

    This structure is not parallel. A right answer would have said \u201cWeakened both by\u2026 and by\u2026\u201d<\/em> or \u201cBoth weakened by\u2026 and weakened by\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    You need to know exact<\/em> rules of parallelism!<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The modifier starting with \u201cwhich<\/em>\u201d is not correct here. This is one that your ear is unlikely to catch, because we\u2019re almost all guilty of using \u201cwhich\u201d incorrectly in colloquial English: \u201cI\u2019m a good reader, which means I should do well on SC.\u201d That\u2019s incorrect grammar and<\/em> incorrect logic!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      A dependent clause starting with \u201cwhich\u201d should refer to the NOUN that comes directly before it. In our example sentence, the structure \u201c\u2026 against the dollar, which forced the central bank to intervene<\/em>\u2026\u201d implies that the dollar<\/em> forced the bank to intervene. If we want to express that the ACTION of the currency sliding is what\u2019s causing the bank to intervene, we can\u2019t use \u201cwhich<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

      The grammatically correct way to express this is to use an ADVERBIAL modifier, such as a present participle: \u201c\u2026 against the dollar, forcing<\/strong> the central bank to intervene<\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

      You need to know the grammatical difference between noun modifiers and adverbial modifiers.<\/p>\n

      Things that \u201csound bad\u201d may be right.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      On the flip side, the GMAT also knows that most students have a hard time distinguishing between sentences that are grammatically incorrect and those that are correct but awkward in style. You will see archaic or convoluted structures, and be tempted to cross them out. Make sure you\u2019re only eliminating sentences that violate real grammar rules, or that have illogical meaning!<\/p>\n

      Consider this GMATPrep\u00ae sentence:<\/p>\n

      The bones of <\/u><\/em>Majunatholusatopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex<\/em>\u00a0and closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.<\/em><\/u><\/p>\n

      \u201cNope! That sounds terrible,\u201d you might think. You\u2019re not wrong \u2013 it does sounds terrible! Any decent high school English teacher would have made you edit and rearrange this sentence if you had written it in a paper.<\/p>\n

      I have frustrating news for you, though\u2026 this was the correct<\/em> answer on this problem. There is nothing grammatically wrong with this sentence! The \u201chave\u201d sounds awkward because it\u2019s so far removed from its subject, but the subject is \u201cbones,\u201d so \u201chave\u201d is perfectly correct.<\/p>\n

      Your task is not to ask yourself \u201cwhat\u2019s the best possible version of this sentence? How would I have written it?\u201d That ideal sentence may not be there in the answer choices.<\/p>\n

      Instead, ask yourself: does this sentence violate any grammar rules that I know? Or is it illogical in meaning? If the answer to those questions is \u201cno,\u201d then don\u2019t eliminate that answer choice.<\/p>\n

      Studying grammar isn\u2019t as bad as you think<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

      Most of us hated studying grammar in high school, because it seemed nit-picky, and the list of rules seemed endless. The good news about the GMAT, though, is that there is a much shorter list of rules tested, and most of these rules involved logical meaning as well as structure.<\/p>\n

      These are the most commonly tested rules:<\/p>\n