The Sentence Correction of the GMAT is very doable. With the right study methods you can really improve your abilities on this section. This article will go through the best ways to study for this section of the test.
Sentence Correction is probably the easiest sub-section within the Verbal section of the GMAT for you to improve. Doing well on this section is really a function of knowing your grammar rules very well and then practicing them ad nauseum with high quality practice problems. Spend some time figuring out what the best materials are, study those materials, and then go back and study the materials a few more times to make sure you have the grammar rules down cold. It’s important to do this because you’ll want to get these questions done quickly so you can save time for the more time-consuming Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension sections.
There are a few good books out there to learn the fundamentals of sentence correction, but I used the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Guide. I’ve also looked through the Aristotle Sentence Correction book and can say that is of very high quality as well. The Manhattan GMAT book was really great and was very clear and concise in describing all the grammar rules I needed to learn. My main complaint about it is that it doesn’t have very many practice problems. From what I can tell, this book seems to be the standard book that people suggest when talking about this section of the test and I don’t disagree. In case you are wondering, you don’t actually have to learn that many grammar rules for the GMAT. The number of rules you have to learn pales in comparison to the topics you must know for the math section of the test. However, the questions on the GMAT are very tricky, so you should go through the Manhattan GMAT book 5-6 times and even make flashcards to make sure you have every rule absolutely down cold. If you do, then you should be able to focus on the meaning of each sentence, which is usually what’s required for the harder questions on the test. For practice problems, I really just used the Official Guide and the Official Guide Verbal Supplement. Those were really great resources for practice problems.
I would also recommend memorizing idioms for the test. As of the last few months, idioms are less of a focus on the test, but knowing idioms down cold is an easy way to get an extra question or two correct. You also don’t really need to spend that much time memorizing them, so why wouldn’t you want to do it?
As I mentioned before, there are instances on more difficult problems where you need to assess the meaning of the sentence and what it is trying to convey. Keep this in mind and try not to obsess over very detailed grammar rules. When in doubt, go with the answer choice that seems to have the most logical meaning over the one that appears to follow some minute grammar rule the best. If the meaning of the original sentence is changed in one of the answer choices, it is definitely a wrong answer choice. If you follow this advice, I guarantee that you will do well on the sentence correction section of the GMAT. Good luck.
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