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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Welcome back to our series on the new GMAT Official Guide 2019 (OG)! (If you\u2019d like, you can start with the first installment<\/a> of this article series.) Today\u2019s post focuses on the Sentence Correction questions in the big OG.<\/span><\/p>\n The GMAT Official Guide 2019 edition added 21 new Sentence Correction questions (and lost 21 old ones). I didn\u2019t see anything particularly new or surprising in the new questions, though I do think there are some quite nice ones from a study perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n I noticed a lot of issues around Sentence Structure, Modifiers, Meaning, and Parallelism\u2014and that didn\u2019t surprise me at all. The GMAT has continued to move more towards these global issues in recent years, so the new edition just follows that trend.<\/span><\/p>\n SC problems do test multiple issues at once, but I also assign a \u201cmain\u201d category to each one\u2014the thing that I think is most helpful in either parsing the original sentence or eliminating as many answer choices as possible (or, ideally, both). By that measure, here\u2019s how I labeled the 21 problems:<\/span><\/p>\n *I had to put an asterisk next to Meaning for this reason: A lot of the time, I really want to label something, for example, Modifiers \/ Meaning, because half the time, it\u2019s really that a grammar rule isn\u2019t quite properly applied\u2014and that leads to a meaning issue. But I make myself choose just one category, so I mostly end up labeling something Meaning only when <\/span>meaning is messed up in multiple different ways <\/span>or when the main issue is some sort of redundancy or illogical meaning in the overall language usage.<\/span><\/p>\n I also do a secondary labeling of everything that that problem tests\u2014so pronouns don’t show up at all in my \u201cmain\u201d categorization but they do in the sub-categories (still not much though).<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ll definitely be teaching #678 to my students. It\u2019s a great problem for learning about core sentence structure and how to unpack a complicated sentence. I can\u2019t give you the exact language (copyright law!) but you could go onto Amazon and look up this book. Use the \u201csearch inside\u201d feature to find this problem (search for the text \u201cTravelers from Earth\u201d including the quote marks).<\/span><\/p>\n Kind of messy, huh? The technical nature of the topic makes it hard to tell whether the intention is to list four totally separate things that are each equally parallel? Or whether some of these things are modifiers and so they should be introduced with –<\/span>ing<\/span><\/i> words?<\/span><\/p>\n Compare each item with the next. I have to <\/span>endure low gravity<\/span><\/i>. And is that what\u2019s helping me <\/span>avoid radiation<\/span><\/i>? Not really. Presumably, the spaceship I\u2019m riding in will shield me from radiation. And that stuff definitely isn\u2019t how I\u2019ll be <\/span>contending with<\/span><\/i> (the) <\/span>soil<\/span><\/i> of Mars.<\/span><\/p>\n These really are just four separate things I\u2019d have to do if I ever want to go to Mars. <\/span>(And…I kind of <\/span>do<\/span><\/i> want to go to Mars. How about you?\u00a0?<\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a similar sentence structure that makes the overall idea more clear:<\/span><\/p>\n To go to business school, you would have to write multiple essays, studying for the GMAT, plus asking colleagues for recommendations, and perhaps even move to a new city.<\/span><\/p>\n That sentence structure is built off of the original sentence (which is incorrect in this problem). Mine doesn\u2019t look as bad because the topic is a \u201cnormal\u201d one\u2014so it\u2019s easier to see that these different items are not parallel but should be. (In other words, the correct answer should use a 4-item List structure.)<\/span><\/p>\n If I can make these kinds of connections\u2014from \u201ceasier\u201d sentences with the same structure to the actual hard ones they give me on the test\u2014I have a better shot at understanding what the sentence is really trying to say. And if I can do that, I\u2019m more likely to be able to avoid the traps and get myself to the correct answer.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m also a big fan of #727. The various options combine a verb tense (either <\/span>attracted<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>have attracted<\/span><\/i>) with a time marker beginning with either the word <\/span>after<\/span><\/i> or the word <\/span>since<\/span><\/i>. Here\u2019s my own version of what\u2019s going on in part of this problem:<\/span><\/p>\n (A) The roses have attracted bees after I placed them outside. What do you notice?<\/span><\/p>\n Have attracted<\/span><\/i> is in the present perfect tense\u2014a tense that \u201ccrosses over\u201d from past to present. So I shouldn\u2019t use it in combination with <\/span>after<\/span><\/i> (something happened in the past), since <\/span>after<\/span><\/i> implies that the action is over and done. I need to pair <\/span>have attracted<\/span><\/i> with <\/span>since<\/span><\/i> in order to convey that \u201cstarted in the past but crossing over into the present\u201d sense that present perfect is designed to give.<\/span><\/p>\n And, for that same reason, I don’t want to pair the past tense <\/span>attracted<\/span><\/i> with the word <\/span>since<\/span><\/i>. That word, <\/span>since<\/span><\/i>, also introduces the idea of something that started in the past but carries over into the present (ever <\/span>since<\/span><\/i> then\u2026from then until now).<\/span><\/p>\n So answers (A) and (B) are incorrect. Answer (C) is fine.<\/span><\/p>\n I could also write a correct sentence this way:<\/span><\/p>\n The roses attracted bees after I placed them outside.<\/span><\/p>\n But of course, I can\u2019t give you both that option and option (C) above\u2026or I\u2019ll have made you choose between two correct answers.\u00a0?<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s all for today; join me next time, when I\u2019ll cover Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. And happy studying!\u00a0?<\/span><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of\u00a0her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a>\u00a0absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Welcome back to our series on the new GMAT Official Guide 2019 (OG)! (If you\u2019d like, you can start with the first installment of this article series.) Today\u2019s post focuses on the Sentence Correction questions in the big OG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,874,52871,930,2,52877,7,52945,10],"tags":[53602],"yst_prominent_words":[55213,55212,54040,54726,53635,54401,54398,54396,54402,54127,54399,54454,55215,55214,55211,53674,53669,54721,54407,53867],"class_list":["post-16748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-resources","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-in-the-news","category-news","category-products-and-services","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-gmat-official-guide-2019-edition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16748"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17101,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748\/revisions\/17101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16748"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sentence Correction<\/b><\/h4>\n
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A Couple of GMAT Official Guide 2019 Problems<\/b><\/h4>\n
\n<\/span>(B) The roses attracted bees since I placed them outside.
\n<\/span>(C) The roses have attracted bees since I placed them outside.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n![\"stacey-koprince\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/06\/stacey-koprince-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong>\u00a0Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests.\u00a0Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"