How to ace Sentence Correction ?

[abhitechie]

Hi Stacey,

Brief Background: Non-Native Speaker, read MGMAT SC, OG12 2 to 3 times.

Currently when i make a mistake in SC official problems, i find that either
- its a new concept ("Thus" can stand for "in that way")
- its an old concept tested in a unique way. (http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/normative-model-of-strategic-decision-making-t16239.html ) (the second noun can be omitted in parallel elements.)

To tackle this making a document with the questions and takeaways.

I plan to do the same for all GMAT Prep problems + OG 10, 12, V2


What I am trying to ask is there a universe of less commonly tested concepts in GMAT SC that can be covered by the above exercise ? In actual GMAT roughly what % of questions will be based on new concepts (V35-40) ?

[StaceyKoprince]

The only thing we can know for sure is that anything on a previously published official question is fair game for future questions - but they can always decide to add new things. :(

Also, we don't know what percentage of questions that someone sees might cover something "new" like this - but it's ultimately going to be a small percentage. It is a standardized test, and there is a certain pool of "core" skills and concepts that they're trying to test.

I like your plan to go through official questions looking for these things (stick to official ones for this exercise though). But there's also a flip side to this: don't expect to know everything and don't expect to get every last thing correct. Sometimes, the test is going to "win" a point.

I would also try, where possible, to focus more on the "old stuff tested in a new way." What that really means is that you may not have learned the old stuff in a flexible enough way to be able to recognize it when presented in a new sentence, perhaps with some twist, but still ultimately testing the same thing. Ultimately, that's an easier thing to learn / improve than trying to memorize every last weird thing out there that you haven't seen before and that you may or may not see on the real test. :)

And, while you're doing this, make sure you concentrate on the more abstract: how am I going to recognize something similar in future, even though the topic of the sentence will be completely different, as will most or all of the words? That's a big leap to make - and one place where a lot of people fall short!