Blog

The Graduate Management Admission Test is a computer-based test conducted to evaluate GMAT aspirant’s aptitude for management programs. It assesses a students’ writing, verbal, quantitative, analytical, and reading skills. Sentence Correction GMAT rules form an important part of the verbal section of the GMAT.

GMAT measures an applicant’s grip over grammar, data analysis, and algebra, among many other aspects. It analyses your critical thinking, evaluation, and ability to solve problems. 

Overview: GMAT Grammar

The verbal section in the grammar portion of the GMAT exam makes up about a third of the verbal section which is about 36 questions in total and sentence correction is an important part of the section.

Sentence correction questions on the GMAT exam require you to select the answer choice that will make the sentence grammatically correct, concise and logical. Most questions will test you on more than one of these factors at a time.

The GMAT grammar is based on specific rules even though colloquial might sound a little different. It is important to learn each of the grammar rules tested by the exam.

The bonus point is that the sentence correction GMAT rules are repetitive. You’ll find the rules repetitive and if you prepare well and thoroughly, you’ll know exactly what to expect on sentence correction questions.

Following is a list of sentence correction GMAT rules to follow:

1. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Misplaced Modifier 

Sentence correction GMAT rules questions always contain some misplaced words or phrases that describe some other parts of the sentence like, “My mother, the doctor, is going to visit her patient.” Misplaced modifiers are the most common types of errors asked in the GMAT verbal section. The questions or phrases are mostly misplaced, illogically placed or describes some incorrect words.

2. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Verb-subject Compatibility

Sentence correction GMAT rules questions frequently cover verb-subject compatibility errors. The nature and subject of the sentence must match the verb. A singular subject has to tag along with a singular verb. A plural matter has to be tagged along with the plural verb. 

3. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Idioms

Sentence correction GMAT rules comprise most phrases that involve certain statements. For example, “indulging in illegal activities is if to sign”. GMAT sentence correction is more than correcting grammatical mistakes, it involves sentence creation that is idiomatically correct as well.

4. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Correct Verb Tense

Sentence Correction GMAT rules contain questions that mostly test your verb tenses the basics of past, present, and future. These sentences inform us about some action taking place or will take place. For example, by the time the pizza arrived, he slept. 

5. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules– Illogical Comparison 

Sentence correction GMAT rules consist of questions that mention sentences with an illogical comparison, “Bob loves his TV, more than his wife”. Illogical comparison compares two unrelated things without meaning to produce a sentence that does not make sense or add up grammatically. 

6. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Pronoun Usage

Sentence Correction GMAT rules also contain questions on the proper usage of pronouns. Correct pronoun represents their forerunner meaning that the sentence should match its occurrence. For example, Tamas switched off his phone, “Tamas” is the forerunner for “his”. Singular pronouns match with their singular forerunner. Plural pronouns match with their plural forerunner. 

7. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Countable and Uncountable

Sentence correction GMAT rules questions comprise phrases that are used to measure critical thinking in terms of putting situations with countable and uncountable things like, many, more, few, some, any (countable with plural nouns). Uncountable things include the much, less amount with singular nouns. 

8. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules– Parallelism 

Sentence correction GMAT rules consist of some parallelism with sentences comprising of consistently repetitive nouns, verbs and phrases. For example, playing outdoors, emphasizing on exercise, and convey a message of a healthy lifestyle. The sentence should follow a pattern of consistent nouns and verbs that complement each other like playing outdoors, emphasizing on exercise and conveying a message of a healthy lifestyle. 

9. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Paired Words 

Sentence correction GMAT rules consist of questions related to pairing and construction of sentences. Words or phrases that are always used together to give a similar meaning to the things compared like:

So much..that

As…as 

Not only that..but also

For example, the pandemic not only created havoc but also took away many lives.

10. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules: Redundancy

The sentence correction GMAT rules consist of questions that apply for synonymous redundancy. The GMAT is particularly fond of redundancies involving increasing and decreasing.

Incorrect: Radio stations were initially established for the first time by radio equipment manufacturers and retailers who offered programs in order to sell more radios to consumers. It also consists of questions of two consecutive clauses that should not both contain conjunctions.

Correct: Radio stations were initially established by radio equipment manufacturers and retailers who offered programs in order to sell more radios to consumers.

11. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules: Whether vs. If vs. That

Sentence correction GMAT rules also apply for the use of whether to indicate uncertainty or to indicate/imply the presence of alternatives. With phrases involving “the question,” whether should always be used. That would be used when only one possibility is presented.

Incorrect: The country’s court is examining allegations of irregularities in the counting of postal ballots during the election, for it is already clear whether rules on when those ballots should be counted and processed were often broken.

Correct: The country’s court is examining allegations of irregularities in the counting of postal ballots during the election, for it is already clear that rules on when those ballots should be counted and processed were often broken.

That vs. of + gerund

For instance:

Incorrect: Many athletes at the Olympic Trials insist of their avoiding all performance-enhancing substances but do not share the same confidence about the competition they could soon face.

Correct: Many athletes at the Olympic Trials insist that they avoid all performance-enhancing substances but do not share the same confidence about the competition they could soon face.

12. Sentence Correction GMAT Rules – Have Clarity

Look for any confusion in the sentences being asked. Have clarity if all the sentences or any other element of the statement seem correct. Justify whether the intended meaning is conveyed by the right response, or if the meaning is modified in a bad way. Is the overall message and sentence structure clear, or does it feel awkward? Get yourself clear with these questions while attempting the verbal section of the GMAT Exam.

Tips To Follow While Attempting Verbal Section: Sentence Correction GMAT Rules

Patience – Learning and implementing new information is a gradual process involving a specific timeline. Don’t try to get ahead of the game and learn it all at once. Learning is a gradual process. Before you can answer the most difficult Sentence Correction questions, you must go through a series of processes.

Comprehend First – While attempting the sentence correction section of the GMAT, it is important to comprehend first. Understanding the overall meaning of the sentence and what the author is attempting to convey is arguably an essential part of Sentence Correction questions, especially as they progress with complicated modifiers, clauses, parallelisms, and difficult-to-understand changes in meaning, etc. Overall, make sure you read for clarity first and then try to understand the content.

Be Attentive – It is important to minutely observe and attend to the details of the grammatical rules and the content of a phrase. This entails learning how to scan a line slowly and comparing two phrases for little features and details like an extra or missing ‘s’ or a comma.

Trust The Process – Often while attempting the Sentence Correction section of the GMAT questions we are in a hurry to solve the problems with limited observation and understanding based on their gut feeling or “ear.” This may work on certain occasions but will most likely fail you. The Work Order is built on a hierarchy of error types and teaches how to remove incorrect response options in a methodical manner (grammatical and logical errors before stylistic errors and ambiguity). You will only be able to master this section if you go according to the Work Order and follow it to the letter.

3 Tips for Learning GMAT Grammar Rules

There are a few key ways to master the GMAT grammar to prepare for the sentence correction questions. Let’s look into the steps and ways to master the grammar section, undertaking effective GMAT grammar practice, and learning GMAT sentence correction rules.

1. Use Flashcards to Study Idioms

Idioms can be the most challenging part of the sentence correction section of the GMAT grammar questions. It’s important to learn about the most common idioms you’ll encounter on the test as part of your GMAT grammar practise routine so you can eliminate answer choices that use idioms incorrectly right away. Once you get familiar with them, answer options with incorrect idiomatic expressions speed up the process of elimination.

Particularly for a non-native English speaker, learning idioms can be a tricky aspect. Creating and studying with flashcards that include the meanings of idioms as well as examples of their proper usage can help you get through the GMAT idioms section.

2. Verify the Underlying Grammar Concepts

The GMAT grammar practice session should include a review of the basics of grammar, including parts of speech, sentence structure, modifiers, verb tense, and pronoun usage. Princeton Review’s Grammar Smart includes an overview of many of the GMAT-relevant grammar rules, as well as drills to complete as part of your prep.

3. Learn How Grammar Rules Are Tested on the GMAT

Practice your GMAT rules with the best. GMATPrep Software or other study resources, target GMAT grammar rules by selecting sentence correction practice questions. As you learn to identify various question types, you’ll become more aware of the way each of the GMAT sentence correction rules are tested on the exam. This will help you learn how to approach each grammar concept as it is presented on the GMAT and how to work through each question type more efficiently, effectively, and accurately.

Regular practice is key to learning the GMAT grammar rules. Remember that shorter is better. One of the major concepts that the GMAT tests is the conciseness of your answers. As a result, short, clear constructions are generally preferred to long and wordy ones. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, and you must judge each question individually.

If you are unable to identify what concept a question is testing, however, working from the shortest answer to the longest can help you stay focused and work systematically. Likewise, if you are stuck between two answers, length can be a helpful “tip” factor to take into account.

2) Avoid gerunds (-ING words) wherever possible, especially BEING

As a general rule, conjugated verbs are preferable to gerunds because the latter tend to create wordy and awkward constructions as well as fragments. Answers that include the gerund being are almost never correct and can often be eliminated immediately.

In addition, when the noun form of a word is more idiomatic than the gerund, the noun should be used. The GMAT frequently uses gerunds this way in incorrect answers.

3) Avoid the passive voice

In a passive construction, the normal order of subject and object is flipped.

Active: x does y.

Passive: y is done by x.

You can also think of this rule as an offshoot of rule number 1: by nature, passive constructions are always wordier and frequently more awkward than active ones.

Read more on GMAT related information:

Read more

If your question is whether you can prepare for GMAT in 3 months, the answer is yes. Although the pace of learning differs for different applicants, 3 months is enough time to prepare for the GMAT and achieve a good percentile of marks.

The secret ingredient of this success is strategic planning and a lot of hard work. If the whole idea of preparing all by yourself gets a little overwhelming for you, you can always seek help from institutes offering a prep course for the GMAT. Getting admitted into one will help you ease your work and provide assistance in your preparation and choose from the business schools.

GMAT Exam Pattern: How to prepare for GMAT in 3 Months

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a multiple-choice, computer-based and computer-adaptive standardized exam. The GMAT exam is one of the gateways to getting admitted to the top business schools for MBA Programs. Along with your educational qualifications and work experience, Business schools also ask for an excellent GMAT score. The exam evaluates your grasp over areas of algebra, geometry, basic arithmetic, multi-source data analysis, grammar and has four sections. The GMAT exam is divided into four sections. The four sections that form the GMAT exam paper are:

• Analytical Writing Assessment
• Integrated Reasoning
• Quantitative
• Verbal

However, schools do look for your overall score in all the sections therefore giving equal attention to each section of the GMAT is necessary to attain a good score.

Here is an overall outline of what are the areas you need to work upon for your GMAT exam preparation.

Section	No. of Questions	Types of Questions	Time	Range of Score
Analytical Writing	1 question	Analysis of Argument	30 minutes	0-6 [in increments of 0.5]
Integrated Reasoning section	12 questions	Data Interpretation, Table Analysis, Multi-source Reasoning, Two-part Analysis	30 minutes`	1-8 [in increments of 1]
Quantitative Reasoning	31 questions	Data Sufficiency, Problem Solving	62 minutes`	6-51 [in increments of 1]
Verbal Reasoning section	36 questions	Reading Comprehension passage, Critical Reasoning questions, Sentence Correction questions	65 minutes`	6-51 [in increments of 1]
Total	80 questions

Week 1: Prepare for GMAT in 3 Months

Take a preliminary diagnostic test to assess where you stand. Learn the basic parameters of all the sections including scoring and question types. Take a look at the GMAT Exam Pattern and get an outline of what to expect in the exam and how to go about it. This is the first step where you prepare yourself mentally and collect all the best resources available.

Week 2-4: Prepare for GMAT in 3 Months

Practice! Practice as much as you can. Do as many practice questions as possible and get feedback on what went wrong and analyse how to make it right and look for the correct solutions. Assess what is your strong areas as well as weak areas. Pick up which section is your strong area. 

If Quant is your strong area, specify which section. Specify which section fetches you the most marks, if it’s critical reasoning, sentence correction or which question types, strengthening arguments or usage of idioms appear most difficult to you. 

Week 4-8: Prepare for GMAT in 3 Months

Now that you have a basic foundation of the overall course, try and bring a conceptual understanding o fall the question types and analyse patterns and categories. If you had difficulty in any sections, try going back to the fundamentals first and then work your way back once again. 

Besides, you should maintain your routine of practising daily questions on all the sections with a priority to your weaker sections. 

Week 9-12: Prepare for GMAT in 3 Months

Strategise! For the last few days focus on building strategy. Try out of the box thinking for the questions and repeat. Try plugging in numbers on the problem-solving sections. Work on sketching outlines for passages.

Review on the grammar and math problems that still seems foggy and continuing practising.

The last few weeks are for you to work on your timing strategies. Try setting a timer to replicate the exam situation. A few repetitions with the standard set time would increase your time efficiency. Review how you have scored.

This practice will boost your confidence and keep you stress-free before exams. You will have a clear idea of how much time to spend on each question. In these weeks, do not try your hand at a complex math problem. Set this time for revisions only.

Besides the essentials, do not let stress and anxiety take away all our sleep and appetite. Take good care of yourself mentally and emotionally. Keep time to review the essentials and remember you have prepared well.

Tasks for Week 1:

• Begin with the Quant section. Look at its contents and revise basic concepts of Number Properties, Percentages, Ratios.
• Go through the Grammar rules and make a mental note of which areas of the writing section you can deal effectively with.
• Set a reminder to invest some time in reading newspaper to improve your Reading Comprehension skills.
• Start practising questions on Ratio and Proportion, Algebra, Permutation and Combination, Sentence Correction, Subject-verb Agreement etc. 

Tasks for Week 2:

• Review the concepts of Linear equations, Quadratic equations, inequalities and start from the basic questions.
• Critical Reasoning questions comprises almost 1/3rd of the verbal section so its time to start practising questions from weaken the argument, strengthen the argument, find the assumption etc.
• Integrated reasoning sections carry questions on the case study, graph reading and interpreting data etc. Start practising 2-3 questions every day.
• Continue reading books and novels to improve reading comprehension
• While practising topics make a note of your mistakes so that you can get back to it later.

Tasks for Week 3:

• Revise basic concepts of Geometry and Coordinate Geometry.
• Learn about Data Sufficiency questions and the concepts that are most likely to appear in the test.
• Keep practising reading comprehension in everyday reading. Look for keywords, recognize the question type to master reading comprehension.
• Now that you have practised a majority of quant topics, prepare a formula sheet of all important concepts of Maths for last-minute revision.

Tasks for Week 4

• Revise basic concepts of combinatory and statistics.
• Zero in some trendy topics to practice your writing skills and try to use very specific examples to support your argument.
• Practice a mixed number of critical reasoning, sentence correction, reading comprehension, paradox, parallelism, rhetorics etc.
• For the Integrated Reasoning, practice questions on problem-solving, data sufficiency.

Tasks for Week 5-8

• Start with topic wise questions of the difficulty level 600-800 for the first 2 weeks.
• Practice timed Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning questions. After each attempt evaluate your marks and mistakes.
• Go through your mistakes and for the next attempt try reducing some time.

Tasks for Week 9-12 

• Appear for 3-4 Sectional tests.
• Try to attempt at least 6 Full-length tests.
• Examine your tests and go over questions which went wrong before you appear for the next test.
• Do not forget to focus on accuracy and time management.

Essential Advise while You Prepare for GMAT in 3 Months

• Do not get Overwhelmed: Do not get overwhelmed by too many study materials available. Pick one at a time. Try conquering one topic at a time. Do not get into 100 ways to solve a problem. Stick to one way and master that well. Pick up one resource material at a time and try sticking to it.
• Consistency is the key: At times you might fall out of your routine. Do not overstress yourself. Try joining online GMAT forums and discussions with people who wish to study in groups. Actively participate for a dedicated amount of time. Remember that consistency is the key.
• Prep Courses: There are instuitutions offering help to strategically prepare for your GMAT. Some notables ones are EduAims, Jamboree Education, TIME, etc. Also, an online interactive MBA community, GMAT Club Test helps you fulfill your target score with efficient strategies.
• Focus on Your weak Areas: In the initial month of your preparation, focus specifically on your weak areas. Sit with it and work through it. Review, analyse and repeat until you get a clear understanding of what went wrong.
• Do not overemphasize practice questions: Although, practice is a key point in all of the strategic planning, do not try to overemphasize anything. remember, balance is everything. You don’t have to everything about the type of questions that might be asked in the exam. You need to prepare strategically.
• Believe in yourself and a have a realistic approach. Initially plan and work out what lies ahead. This helps you prepare mentally about what are things that you would anticipate and have to deal with. Aspirants who already have a visualised experience of what to anticipate and the level of dedication required while preparing for the GMAT exam and in their MBA application will not quit easily.
• Three months is enough time: If you strategically prepare for the test you don’t have to go through the hassle of waiting for a year after you complete your graduation to prepare for the GMAT test. Three months is enough time if you can make appropriate use of it.

GMAT Preparation Tips you Must be Well Aware of

The only way to ace your GMAT is to strengthen your conceptual knowledge and strategical preparation. Here are a few general tips that could help you prepare for GMAT in 3 Months:

• Practice on a Computer: As the GMAT exam is a computer-based exam and it runs for a duration of 3-hours, get yourself acquainted with practising on a computer to save time at the day of the exam. If you are among the few people who can not pull the mental fatigue of sitting in front of a computer for a long time, this would be greatly beneficial for you. Make sure you are well prepared for it and the best way for being ready is to practice as many sample papers as you can, on a regular basis.
• Set a Timer: Your success or poor performance in the GMAT exam is greatly dependent on how well you can manage time. There’s no point if you know a lot but do not know time management and go on and on for your favourite topic. The GMAT exam comes with a specific time duration and you need to answer every question in the stipulated time. Start this exercise of tracking your speed with a timer when you practice for the exam to avoid any silly mistakes or leave out questions you knew very well because you coul dnot manage time.
• Feed the Brain: Having a good memory aids in solving questions effectively. A good memory comes with practise and a keen observation of how the question needs to be answered. Start by solving sample papers, mark your incorrect questions and work on them until they’re perfect. Discuss among other applicants. This helps a lot in memorizing the content.
• Find your Forte: It is nearly impossible to be perfect at everything and know it all. There will be some sections of the GMAT exam which will would reuire more time and more of your energy. There will also be some sections which won’t take you long to ace. Thus, gauge through your strengths and weaknesses to come up with an appropriate strategy to ace the exam.
• Keep an Eye for Mistakes: Make it a habit to identify and rectify your mistakes immediately. If you struggle with a particular question, eliminate the process of guessing and answering incorrectly. Take your time and fill the answer which completes the sentence! Work through it.

Additional Readings to Clear Your Doubt Regarding GMAT exam and Selection of Best Colleges to pursue your MBA:

Read more