hi i'm erica one of the senior
curriculum managers here at magoosh and
a gmat expert
and in today's video i'm going to talk
about 10 of the most common idiom types
on the gmat
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now before we jump into the list i want
to do a quick disclaimer
and that's the idioms are for the most
part not worth
your sentence correction study time and
that's because idioms
rarely show up on their own on sentence
correction questions
they're most commonly paired with other
more consistent grammar rules like
parallelism
agreement verb tense sentence structure
all of that good stuff so because
questions will very
rarely hinge just on idioms and because
there's no guarantee of which idioms are
gonna show up on your test day
you're gonna get more bang for your buck
by focusing on
those more consistent grammar rules that
we talked about earlier now that said
some idioms are going to show up more
frequently than others on gmat sentence
correction questions
and being able to recognize them can
help you get a quick win
on some more complicated gmat questions
now there are quite a few idioms
and we cover a lot of them in the
playlist of idioms videos
by kevin so check that out if you're
looking for a more comprehensive list
but if you're looking for 10 quick wins
i'm gonna cover them in this video
so let's jump in idiom number one is
require
that x be y so as an example
the gmat requires that test takers
be prepared to answer questions on a
variety
of standard grammar rules it's worth
noting that require two
is also an idiom that you might see on
the gmat so
as an example the gmat requires
test takers to be prepared to answer
questions on a variety of grammar rules
idiom number two
is estimate to be so as an example
based on my practice tests my gmat score
is estimated to be
around a 650. the main mistake with this
idiom is estimate
as which is never going to be correct so
you would never
say my score is estimated as
a 650. idiom number three is prohibit x
from y so as an example your gmat
testing center will prohibit you
from using your own scratch paper or
your own calculator idiom number four is
believe
x to be y so as an example
admissions committees at business
schools believe your gmat score
to be one of the best indicators of your
future success
in getting your mba idiom number five is
consider
xy so as an example many business school
admissions committees consider
your gmat score one of the most
important elements of your application
now the most common mistake here
is consider x to b y much like believe
x to b y however while there is a to b
with believe there is not a to b in any
cases with
consider idiom number six is x expected
to
y so an example the importance of the
gmat in mba admissions is expected to
change as more schools go
test optional idiom number seven is not
only x
but also y so an example in order to
succeed on the gmat you need not
only extensive content knowledge but
also
rock solid test taking strategies the
important thing with the not only x but
also
y idiom is that x and y must be
parallel so if x is a noun y must also
be a noun
if x is a verb y must also be a verb
if x is a prepositional phrase y must
also be a prepositional phrase
idiom number seven is neither x nor y
so an example it's important when
planning your gmat practice tests
to take neither too many nor too few now
just like in idiom number seven the name
of the game here is parallelism
so make sure that the part of speech for
x matches the part of speech for y
idiom number nine is just as x
so two y so an example here
just as timed practice can really
benefit your gmat performance
so too can untimed practice now once
again
the x and y in this idiom must be
parallel in order for it to be
grammatically correct
but there are a couple of things worth
noting so the two
in this idiom is optional uh so you may
see it as
just as x so y and that's totally fine
also worth noting that this idiom in
particular is really commonly paired
with subject verb inversion
which may mean that at first glance it
might look
not parallel but if you go in and really
break down the structure you'll see that
x and y
do have the same structure just in
slightly different orderings
and idiom number 10 is prefer x to y
so as an example i prefer a realistic
online study experience like the one in
magoosh
to a less realistic gmat study
experience like the one
found in a lot of paper-based prep now
the most common mistake here is
something like
prefer x over y which is not
going to be correct and those are 10 of
the most common idiom types on the gmat
now if you're looking to continue your
idiom study i really recommend
our complete guide to gmat idioms ebook
which you can find on the magoosh blog
now if you're looking for more
generalized gmat verbal tips
i recommend the video i just put out on
three tips to help score a 40 plus
on gmat verbal let us know if this video
helped you by liking and subscribe for
more videos from me and the other
experts at magoosh
and if you have suggestions for future
videos or comments or
questions or anything leave those in the
comments below
thanks for watching and i'll talk to you
soon um so an example of
not only but also i don't have one okay
leave your gmat score nope that's wrong
so as an example admissions committees
at business schools believe
that nope