GMAT Verbal Series
Covering: Sentence Correction (Level 1)
Online Classes for GMAT
June 2011 Session; repeat possible in July also)
By: Satyadhar Joshi
shivgan3@yahoo.com
http://www.freegregmatclass.com/
http://onlineclasses.nanotechbiz.org/
Good things about the GMAT Sentence
Correction
 GMAT board sticks to basics
 No controversy allowed, so answers are distinct
 If you try to understand the rules of the games then things
are easy for you (go for reasons and logics)
 You will make clear and effective sentence after GMAT prep
 You will not make awkward, unnecessary, and unclear
sentence and will know how to repair them
 Also understand the meaning between correct and best!
GMAT Verbal Classes
(100 hours online Course)
 Introduction
 Importance of Grammar & Punctuation
 Critical Reasoning
 Sentence Correction
 Reading comprehension Strategies
 Level 1-2-3
 All ppts uploaded on website/courseware
 Mock Exams for the GMAT
 More…
Level 1 (Week 1)
 Review of all three sections of GMAT
 Discussions & Strategies
 7 Class (7 hours)
 10-20 Examples
 First Week
 Text Book: Verbal Workout by GMAT by Princeton
 Text: Cracking the GMAT by Princeton
Level Concept to tackle psychology
 Level 1 is 650
 Level 2 is 700 (no play of grammar jargons and LSAT)
 Level 3 is 780 (the best a man could do)
 Hence don’t worry about the timings and length
 Tame mind for a nothing to loose and taking something out
of the preparation
 Human mind is hard to tame!!!
GMAT English
 It’s own logic
 Different from what you hear and speak sometimes
 Remember it’s not English it’s GMAT English
 So Learn GMAT English!
Aspects
 Correct grammar (8 types of errors)
 Clear meaning (Understand what does it mean)
 Concise style (Idiomatic and common sense)
 Trishool concept
 Understand the choice
 Find the change in all by mental coloration and underlining
 Meaning matter vs don’t matter??? Really???
Type of Errors
 Word choice vs verbs vs pronouns etc
 Make a list of errors and program your mind to search on
them
 Train your mind to search for three types of error in the
right order
How to crack it
 Order difficulty
 Process of Elimination (start with a sure shot rather than
going in same order)
 Use of Scratch paper (extremely helpful to start with)
Elimination
 1/5 Choices are no change
 If you can’t sell a lemon, replace it
 Almost right
 Three down, two to go
Check list for errors
 Pronoun?
 Modifying?
 Series of things?
 Tense?
 Comparison with similar vs then?
 Quantity words?
 Subject Verb agreement?
 Apples and oranges being compared?
 Other idiomatic?
 Any other things to check
Reasoning
 Why are these rules made?
 Do they make any sense?
 Is it about memorization of the rules?
 Is there some way to understand how they came into
existence?
Text Books for the Course
 GMAT Books by Princeton (General and Verbal Specific)
 GMAT Manhattan Sentence Correction
 GMAT Kaplan
 GMAT Verbal Official Review & Verbal Review
 Conquering GMAT Verbal by McGraw Hills
 1000 SCs after exhausting all the other resources (Big book)
 Mandatory to buy the respective books from the Authorized
publisher
Ambiguity & Change in meaning
 Ambiguity Most important concept
 What we want it to mean, it should mean the same
 Each question has options that change the meaning
Registered brokerage firms have been required to
record the details of all computerized program
trades made in the past year so that government
agencies will be able to decide whether they should
be banned.
 Will be able to decide whether they should be banned
 Should be able to decide whether they should be banned
 Should be able to decide whether they can be banned
 Will be able to decide whether program trades should be
able to be banned
 Will be able to decide whether program trades
should be banned (best)
Terms often used in explanation
 Subordinate clauses or dependent clause
 Prepositional phrase
 Modifying phrase
 Two independent clauses
 Simple past tense
 Possessive
 Antecedent
 Infinitive: to-(infinitive)form
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinitive
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antecedent_%28grammar%29
Basic Grammar Terminology
 A noun is a word that’s used to name a person, place or thing
 A verb is a word that expresses action
Sue opened the box
 An adjective is a word that modifies a noun
 An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb
 A preposition is a word that notes the relations of a noun to an
action or a thing
 A phrase is group of words acting as a single part of speech. A
phrase is missing either a subject or a verb
 Sue opened the big box of chocolates
Preposition and Modifiers (Type)
 Preposition Phrase is a group of words beginning with a
preposition. Like any phrase, a preposition phrase does not
contain a subject or a verb
 Sue opened the big box of chocolates
 quickly=adverb, verb = opened, big =adjective for noun=
box
 Of is preposition because it shows relation between box and
chocolates; of chocolates is a preposition phrase that acts like
a adjective by modifying box
Clauses
 Pronoun is a word that takes place of a noun
 A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb
 Because she was famished, Sue quickly opened the big box of
chocolates
 The above sentence has 2 clauses. Independent clause and
dependent
 Application in modifiers
List of Pronouns
 “News”
 Singular: List a
 Plural: List b
 Opening the other file
 GMAT Games: Names of countries or things with end with s,
like New Brussels or News… both are singular
Side Effect
 Preposition Phrases
 (on for of by in on to from)
 Subordinate clauses
 Which when that whom where
 Modifiers
 Comma or -ing things
Pronoun Error
 While Brussels has smashed all Western European tourism





revenue records this year, they still lag well behind in
exports.
This year, they still lag well behind in exports
In this past year, they still lag well behind in exports
In the last year, it lags still well behind in exports
This year, they lags well behind in the exports
This year, it still lags well behind in exports
Pronoun Error
 While Brussels has smashed all Western European tourism





revenue records this year, they still lag well behind in
exports.
This year, they still lag well behind in exports
In this past year, they still lag well behind in exports
In the last year, it lags still well behind in exports
This year, they lags well behind in the exports
This year, it still lags well behind in exports
Misplaced Modifiers
 Coming out of the department, John’s wallet was stolen
 Coming out
 Wallet coming out?
 Who is modifying what?
Forms of misplaced modifiers
 Participating phrase precede by a preposition
 Adjectives (right to the right)
 Adjectival Phrases
 Makes things wrong or ambiguous
Written in 1961, Joseph scored a literary hit with
his comedic first novel, Catch-22
 Written in 1961, Joseph scored a literary hit with his




comedic first novel, Catch-22
Written in 1961, Joseph scored a literary hit with Catch22,
his comedic first novel
Written in 1961, Catch-22, the comedic first novel by
Joseph, was a literary hit
Catch-22, which was written in 1961 by Joseph, scored a
literary hit with his first comedic novel
Catch-22, the comedic first novel, scored a literary hit for
Joseph by its being written in 1961
Written in1961, Joseph scored a literary hit with
his comedic first novel, Catch-22
 Written in 1961, Joseph scored a literary hit with his




comedic first novel, Catch-22
Written in 1961, Joseph scored a literary hit with Catch22,
his comedic first novel
Written in 1961, Catch-22, the comedic first novel by
Joseph, was a literary hit (right answer)
Catch-22, which was written in 1961 by Joseph, scored a
literary hit with his first comedic novel (awkward)
Catch-22, the comedic first novel, scored a literary hit for
Joseph by its being written in 1961 (awkward)
Parallel Construction
 See the comma and the things it talks about
 All list, or all actions, must satisfy the same tone
 All should be in same form
In a recent survey, the Gallup poll discovered that
the average American speaks 1.3 languages, buys
a new car every 5.2 years, drinks 14 gallons of
alcoholic beverages every year, and forgot to pay
at least one bill per quarter
 Drinks 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and forgot to




pay at least one bill one quarter
Drinks 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and forgets to
pay at least one bill per quarter
Can drink 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every quarter and
forgot to pay at least one bill per quarter
Drinks 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and forgets at
least to pay one bill per quarter
Drank 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and forgets to
pay at least one bill per quarter
In a recent survey, the Gallup poll discovered that
the average American speaks 1.3 languages, buys
a new car every 5.2 years, drinks 14 gallons of
alcoholic beverages every year, and forgot to pay
at least one bill per quarter
 Drinks 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and forgot to




pay at least one bill one quarter
Drinks 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and
forgets to pay at least one bill per quarter (right)
Can drink 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every quarter, and
forgot to pay at least one bill per quarter
Drinks 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and forgets at
least to pay one bill per quarter
Drank 14 gallons of alcoholic beverages every year, and forgets to
pay at least one bill per quarter
Tense
 Present
 Simple past
 Present perfect (has walked)
 Past perfect (had walked)
 Future
 How to spot tense errors
Example
 When he was younger he walked three miles every day and
had has lifted weights too.
 Has lifted (the present perfect tense)
 When he was younger he walked three miles every day and
lifted weight too.
A doctor at the Amsterdam Clinic maintains that if
children eat a diet high in Vitamins and took vitamin
supplements, they will be less likely to catch the
common cold
 Took vitamin supplements, they will be less likely to catch
 Took vitamins supplements, they are less likely to catch
 Take vitamin supplements, they were less likely of catching
 Take vitamin supplements, they will be less likely of catching
 Take vitamin supplements, they are less likely to
catch
Subject Verb Agreements
 Singular Nouns List
 Singular pronouns
 Make subject Verb Agree
The administration of a small daily dose of
aspirin has not only been shown to lower the
risk of heart attack, and it has also been
shown to help relieve the suffering of arthritis
 And it has also been shown to help
 And it has also been shown helpful to
 But it has also been shown to help
 But it has been shown helpful in addition for
 In addition it has also been showing helping
Many political insiders now believe that the
dissension in congress over heath issues
decrease the likelihood for significant action being
taken this year
 Decrease the likelihood for significant action being
 Decrease the likelihood that significant action will be
 Decrease the likelihood of significant action to be
 Decreases the likelihood for significant action being
 Decreases the likelihood that significant action will be
Dissension= disagreement
Many political insiders now believe that the
dissension in congress over heath issues
decrease the to combat the rising cost of health
care likelihood for significant action being taken
this year
 Decrease the likelihood for significant action being
 Decrease the likelihood that significant action will be
 Decrease the likelihood of significant action to be
 Decrease the likelihood for(un idiomatic) significant action being
 Decreases the likelihood that significant action will be
 Subject: dissension(singular) Verb: decreases(singular)
Idioms
 List of Idioms
 40-50 Idioms
 Most of the Indians English speaking population knows about
them
 Meaning changes if we use them incorrectly
 Open file in a new tab
The administration of a small daily dose of
aspirin has not only been shown to lower the
risk of heart attack, and it has also been
shown to help relieve the suffering of arthritis
 And it has also been shown to help
 And it has also been shown helpful to
 But it has also been shown to help
 But it has been shown helpful in addition for (awkward)
 In addition it has also been showing helping
Apples and Oranges
 The people in my office is smarter than other offices
(wrong).
 Correct: The people in my office are smarter than the people
in the other offices.
 Synthetic oil burns less efficiently than natural oils
 Synthetic oil burns less efficiently than natural oils burns
(correct)
 Synthetic oil burns less efficiently than do natural oils (ETS)
Doctors sometimes have difficulty diagnosing
viral pneumonia because the early symptoms
of this potentially deadly illness are often
quite similar to the common cold
 Are often quite similar to the common cold
 Often resemble that of common cold
 Are often quite similar to those of the common cold
 Are often similar to the common cold’s symptom
 Quite often are, like the common cold, similar
Doctors sometimes have difficulty diagnosing
viral pneumonia because the early symptoms
of this potentially deadly illness are often
quite similar to the common cold
 Are often quite similar to the common cold
 Often resemble that of common cold
 Are often quite similar to those of the common cold
 Are often similar to the common cold’s symptom
(symptoms)
 Quite often are, like the common cold, similar
 Compare symptom vs symptom
Quantity words
If 2 items
If more than two
between
among
more
most
less
least
Countable items
Non –countable items
fewer
less
number
Amount, quantity
many
much
Of the many decisions facing the energy commission
as it meets to decide on new directions for the next
century, the question of the future of nuclear energy
is for certain the more perplexing.
 is for certain the more perplexing.
 is for certain he most perplexing
 It seems certain, is the most perplexed
 Is certainly the more perplexing
 It seems certain, is perplexing most
Of the many decisions facing the energy commission
as it meets to decide on new directions for the next
century, the question of the future of nuclear energy
is for certain the more perplexing.
 is for certain the more perplexing.
 is for certain he most perplexing
 It seems certain, is the most perplexed
 Is certainly the more perplexing
 It seems certain, is perplexing most (awkward)
The foresight that was evident in the court’s
selection of an independent trustee to oversee
the provisions of the agreement will probably
go unremarked by the press
 that was evident in the court’s selection of an independent
trustee
 That was evident by the court’s selection of an independent
trustee
 Evidenced with the court’s selection of an independent trustee
 Evidenced of the court’s selection of an independent trustee
 That was evident of the court’s selection of an independent trustee
The foresight that was evident in the court’s
selection of an independent trustee to oversee
the provisions of the agreement will probably
go unremarked by the press
 that was evident in the court’s selection of an
independent trustee
 That was evident by the court’s selection of an independent
trustee
 Evidenced with the court’s selection of an independent trustee
 Evidenced of the court’s selection of an independent trustee
 That was evident of the court’s selection of an independent trustee
Conclusion
 45 Days
 200 hours online live class on GMAT Verbal
 More questions might be done in the month of July
depending on request
For More see
 http://freegregmatclass.com/
 http://onlineclasses.nanotechbiz.org/
 Email: shivgan3@yahoo.com, shivgan3@gmail.com