example
you
hi I'm Michael sentence correction is one of the three types of questions
we'll see in the verbal section in these questions we will read a single sentence
which contains an underlined portion and which is followed by five answers these
answers may at first glance sometimes seem identical to the underlined portion
and to each other but are in fact all slightly different four of them have a
mistake and only one of them is correct these questions test our English
language proficiency and our ability to identify mistakes in grammar terminology
and sentence construction preparing for these type of questions requires
studying concepts such as the relationship between subjects and verbs
or between nouns and their pronouns the different forms and tenses of verbs and
modifiers and parallelism in each sentence correction question the first
answer choice a will always be identical to the underlined section in the
question choosing it means there's nothing wrong with the original sentence
all four other options are alternatives to the original phrasing only one of
which can be correct as with all verbal questions time is of the essence we have
to identify what's wrong and figure out what's right as quickly as possible
let's look at some examples taken straight from the real test with a
special approval from the GMAC executives and federal officials say
that the use of crack and cocaine is growing rapidly among workers
significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse which already are
a cost to business of more than 100 billion dollars a year in this sentence
we can figure out just by looking at it that there's something wrong the phrase
already are a cost to business is wrong since the effects cost business but they
are not a cost in themselves but what do we do now if what
supposed to come here isn't immediately obvious we should take the alternative
approach of checking the other answer choices B looks good it doesn't have the
problem a hat the drugs are presented as costing not as being a cost but unless
we're 100% certain that everything is right with it we should look at the
other options as well C is problematic since the phrase
already with business costs of makes it sound as if the drugs and alcohol
themselves have business costs and not as if they create costs sometimes
different answers will share certain characteristics which we can check once
and thus eliminate a few answers at once an example of this is D and E
significant as opposed to significantly is wrong as it's not clear what it
refers to thus we can eliminate them together so
this question was best answered by doing an answer comparison but this is not
always the way to go with verbal questions first because there's simply
not enough time to read all of the answers to all of the questions and
compare them even more so if you're not a native English speaker second as the
answers can be very persuasive they may lead us in wrong directions that we may
not have even considered in the first place how else can we solve them then
let's see another example from the official test like Auden the language of
James Merrill is chatty arch and conversational given to complex and
tactic flights as well as prosaic free-verse strolls this question can be
quickly solved in a precise way since we can figure out what is wrong with the
original sentence just by looking at it how so
this question exemplifies something called parallelism this means that when
there's a connection between parts of the sentence with the same function
verbs pronouns clauses etc they must have the same
form here the underlying section makes the mistake of creating a parallel
between two things which are fundamentally different a person or then
and a language that of James Merrill as the rest of the sentence is clearly
referring to a language and not to a person chatty conversational syntactic
we know the correct answer must refer to a dense language this is exactly what
answer choice C does by adding a possessive apostrophe s we have a
parallel sometimes correcting the sentence will require we understand its
logic pause the video and try to solve this question the world's largest
carmaker announced that bonuses for its Japanese
workers be raised to two point zero five million yen per person up from one point
seven seven million yen last year due to the company's forecast that it more than
tripled its net profits this year to eight hundred and sixty billion yen in
this sentence the company is announcing something that will happen and thus we
need the word will before be raised another thing that stands out is that a
forecast is by definition of something hypothetical that happens in the future
and thus the forecast must be that this company would triple its profits this
year and not tripled taken together these Corrections point to answer E the
bottom line is that while knowing our grammatical rules is essential for
sentence correction we must still pay attention to logic not sure we'll just
compare the answers and see what they say
critical reasoning is one of the three types of questions we will see in the
verbal section in this type of question we will read a single paragraph passage
in which some argument will be presented and will be asked a question about it
these questions deal with one concept how facts turn into conclusions in other
words when we learn something new about the world what is the basis for what
we've learned is it only facts or are there assumptions as well what could
make us doubt this conclusion what could strengthen it the arguments we read
always imply a certain causation based on this evidence X causes Y and the
questions require us to assess this claim as is the case in the entire
verbal section our main challenge in these questions is time thus the biggest
mistake we can make is read all of the answers
besides being incredibly time-consuming this can also be misleading it's like
meeting five people who tell you a story and you know four of them are lying but
there are all trained actors these guys are so persuasive we don't want to
listen to them we're much better off figuring out exactly what we are looking
for before letting them speak that way we won't be fooled let's look at an
example you may want to pause the video and answer
many new hotels and resorts were constructed in Central Africa during the
last decade as a result of the constant increase in the number of tourists
traveling there nevertheless although there was no reduction in the prevalence
of the mosquitoes causing Swamp fever the number of tourists to Central Africa
who suffered from the disease decreased which of the following if true most
helps explain this decrease in this question the passage gives us enough
information so we can answer the question precisely if changes in the
number of mosquitoes were not the cause of the decrease in the number of
tourists suffering from Swamp fever it must be the tourists themselves who are
better protected against the disease which is exactly what si tells us let's
look at another question pause the video and give it a go
many new office buildings have emerged in Saint Maarten virtually doubling the
available office space the city is expected to maintain its population and
does not currently have any shortage of office space nevertheless investors have
almost tripled the amount they are willing to pay for any available office
space or any future office building projects in the city which of the
following if true most justifies the investors willingness to pay more for
office space in Saint Maarten this question calls for us to approach it
using the logic of pricing if the investors are willing to pay more for
the product they must be expecting to make a higher profit off each unit of
the product but how well using the same logic will see there are really only two
options here lower cost or higher revenue and since the passage tells us
their costs are actually higher three times as much we know we are looking for
an answer choice which gives us a reason as to why they can expect higher revenue
and that's exactly what Z provides can afford higher rental rates means higher
revenue sometimes though the question doesn't give us enough to go on and
we'll simply have to as a matter of last resort look at the answers growing wheat
in 500 to 200 BC in the region of Dom John required the use of large
quantities of water for irrigation which had to be brought from remote locations
and yet the dams on people kept growing wheat although they had the option to
grow other less water demanding crops such as vegetables which of the
following if true most helps to explain the Dom John's preference to grow wheat
during the period of 500 to 200 BC here were being asked to identify a solution
for a mysterious phenomena this question requires the alternative
approach of using the answers it's not immediately obvious what the answer
should be and it seems to make sense to compare the answers but let's do so
critically of course a is irrelevant because it involves something which
happened before the period were discussing notice we're talking about
500 to 200 BC that's five hundred to two hundred before Christ
so before 500 BC is out of our range it's not interesting similarly B is
irrelevant because it describes something these days and not in the
relevant era C looks promising it tells us the reason the farmers planted these
crops but wait we're asked why the Tangshan people in general made this
choice and the ruler is part of the people why did the ruler order this we
don't know it's not our answer D doesn't help us
it describes other crops and the fact that they weren't grown only makes the
case of the wheat more mysterious he is what we're looking for a legitimate
reason for weak to be grown so to recap we'll try to answer before reading the
answers this is the first commandment of critical reasoning questions it's really
the only way to solve all the questions in the time we are given and it's a
crucial way to avoid confusion and zero in on what we're actually looking for
reading comprehension is one of the three types of questions we will see in
the verbal section in this type of question we will be presented with a
short academic passage two or three paragraphs long and will be asked three
or four consecutive questions about it we should expect to see about four
passages in each verbal section making for about 12 to 16 questions out of a
total of 37 these questions are the only ones on the GMAT which are not adaptive
once we get a passage the questions that come with it are set and won't change
according to our performance however the passages themselves as a whole are
adaptive the ones you see will depend on how you are doing on the tests up till
that point so what do we need in order to succeed in this type of question
three things are needed for success quick reading speedy analysis and a
time-saving problem-solving strategy let's talk about these three skills
one-by-one first of all reading the first thing we need to do is read the
entire passage and since each passage is 200 to 250 words and in the verbal time
is especially tight we better do this quickly this means we need to work on
our speed reading ability that's especially the case if we are non-native
English speakers but also if we are native speakers but are unfamiliar with
academic writing thus we should spend at least 75 consecutive minutes every day
for at least a few weeks before the exam reading articles from popular science or
business magazines 75 minutes because that's the time we have to complete the
verbal section since our time is short we can't afford to first read and only
then start thinking about what we read academic reading is very different from
reading literature where we can read leisurely and wait till we've gotten to
the end of a texts reflect on how it made us feel
here we need to analyze what we're reading while we're reading it the
method we recommend to accomplish this is that of active reading while reading
the passage will stop every sentence or two to make sure we understood what
we've just read ask ourselves questions to make sure we understand how one
paragraph connects to the other and most importantly take short notes about the
main message of each paragraph or sentence we will continually ask
ourselves what has the passage told us up to now how did what we just read
connect to everything that came before it to do this it's extremely helpful to
pay attention to the connecting words negative connectors such as however
although and instead signal that one idea contradicts or weakens another
while positive connectors such as furthermore additionally and moreover
signal that one idea builds upon or strengthens another the third thing we
must do is approach our see passages strategically first of all we'll read
the whole text and only approach the questions after we're done second we'll
use different strategies for different types of questions if the question asks
us about a specific place in the passage great no need to waste time reading the
answers we can use the precise approach and extract the answer straight from the
text if we're not sure what we are looking for we can use the alternative
approach and just eliminate the wrong answers for example we may want to do
this if we're asked what would an appropriate title for this passage be
thinking of a title on our own makes less sense than comparing the answers a
word of caution though we'll only do this when we have to since reading
answers is both time-consuming and confusing as the different answer
choices can be very persuasive finally we may need to use the logical approach
in questions which require us to analyze the claim
in the argument if for example were asked about evidence which would weaken
or strengthen an argument made in the passage we need to think logically about
what it is the passage is claiming so the bottom line is that since lack of
time is the number one killer in the verbal section and reading comprehension
requires a lot of reading we must read fast read as little as we can and apply
the best solution strategy exam pal