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Do You Speak GMAT? Sentence Correction for Non-Native Speakers
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To the surprise of many, the GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) questions can be as challenging for native English speakers as for English as a Second Language (ESL) test takers. SC questions require not just a strong grasp of grammar, but also a thorough understanding of the types of words, phrasings, and structures (to name a few) that the GMAT™ exam prefers – test takers have to utilize what I call the “GMAT language.”
Before this starts to sound foreign, the great news is the “GMAT language” can be learned and mastered. Best of all, when you “speak GMAT” in the real world and at business school, you’ll always be correct!
I’d like to highlight the top 3 GMAT Sentence Correction strategies that will successfully help ESL students avoid their most common pitfalls.
1. Don’t eliminate a choice simply because it sounds wrong
For ESL candidates, sounding out a choice to hear whether it “sounds” right or wrong is a dangerous strategy when you’re working on medium and hard difficulty level questions. What should you do instead? Look for set-in-stone grammar rules to help you evaluate the choices—use your grammar skills and check for correct and logical meaning rather than “what sounds right.”
2. Learn the “GMAT language”
In Sentence Correction questions, certain constructions are preferred to others, which aren’t necessarily wrong in the outside world. Confused? Take a look at these sentences:
1. The flooding was caused by heavy rains.
2. Heavy rains caused the flooding.
Technically both sentences are fine. Which one would you choose?
If you were taking the GMAT, you should choose the second sentence. Firstly, it’s structured in the form of a cause-effect: heavy rain à flooding; secondly, it is in the active voice.
These are just a few basic GMAT preferences. In SC strategy class, I equip my students with the ability to recognize the various GMAT styles, accounting for all the nuances that the GMAT prefers. While perfecting your “GMAT language” skills, it is equally important to work on speed and accuracy.
3. Practice with intent: Accuracy and speed
An important key to success on the GMAT is finding your most efficient and effective rhythm. I train my students to be able to recognize and tackle questions with confidence through the use of rule-based elimination.
Only use real GMAT questions. The best materials are the real test questions, so make sure you fully utilize each question in the GMAT Official Guides. It’s not necessary to do thousands of questions if you breakdown each question and its choices.
When you finish a question set:
- Do a blind review (that is, don’t check your answer yet – redo each question and see whether your answer changes).
- Treat the questions like a game—find ways to accurately eliminate choices faster.
- Recognize patterns that the GMAT uses for their wrong answer traps.
Once you perfect your skills, some questions can be done in under 30 seconds! At MBA KEY, I teach my students to recognize the most efficient signals a particular question is throwing out – and there are always plenty of signals! With MBA KEY’s SC Signal Set, it will only take you a few seconds to recognize these signals, recall the rules – eliminate or leave the choice alone – and move on to the next signal.
You will find that once you learn the “GMAT language,” Sentence Correction is actually pretty fun!
April Thanarat is an mba.com Featured Contributor and the Director of MBA Key.
She has over 20 years of experience teaching GMAT and counseling MBA candidates. Her passion and expertise have made her the most sought-after GMAT instructor in Thailand. As Director at MBA Key, April leverages her diverse, international background to help students build and achieve their academic and professional goals.