Why may you not succeed in Sentence Correction?

1. The first reason you may not succeed in Sentence Correction is that you may not practice Sentence Structure (SS) enough

You may think: 

“SS takes a lot of time. Thus, I’ll anyway not be able to do it in the exam. Thus, there is no point doing it during practice.”

Please understand that SS is a pillar of our approach to SC. If you don’t master SS, this course MAY NOT help you at all.

I understand that SS takes a lot in the beginning. However, with practice, the time to do SS is expected to decrease significantly.

Also, you’re expected to do Sentence Structuring in your real GMAT. Thus, you need to practice it enough to do it quickly.

2. The second reason you may not succeed in Sentence Correction is that you may not get rid of the misconceptions you will form around grammar rules and meaning issues

Please notice that I did not write that you may not succeed in SC because you may form misconceptions; I wrote that you may not succeed because you may not get rid of the misconceptions.

I believe that forming misconceptions is a part of the learning process. I don’t expect you to understand everything the way it is exactly. I expect that as you go through the course materials, you’ll understand a few things correctly and a few things incorrectly. The latter ones are your misconceptions.

If you understand that forming misconceptions is a part of the learning process, you should also look for a way to get rid of those misconceptions.

SC, fortunately, offers a very solid way to get rid of misconceptions. The responsibility lies on you – whether you use it or not.

The way to get rid of your misconceptions around grammar rules and meaning issues is to apply your understanding very sincerely to non-underlined parts of the SC questions and the correct options.

How will that help you get rid of your misconceptions?

Let’s say you apply your rules to the non-underlined part of the SC question and end up finding an error there. Congratulations! You’ve come across a misconception! The non-underlined part of the SC question cannot be incorrect. Thus, your finding an error there means that you’re carrying a misconception. It’s now time to get rid of that misconception (and also review the questions that you may have solved by using this misconception!)

You can also apply your SC rules on sentences that are a part of CR and RC questions. Barring rare exceptions, all sentences in CR and RC questions are correct. (Why would GMAC write incorrect English in CR and RC and expect you to be clear about correct English in SC?!)

3. The third reason you may not succeed in SC is that you may practice SC questions without finding ALL the errors in ALL the options

You can solve SC questions by finding just one error per incorrect option. Finding one error per option is MUCH EASIER than finding all the errors in all the options. So, you may choose to take the easy path. As a result, you may not be able to build the requisite clarity to deserve a high score in SC. 

4. The fourth reason you may not succeed in SC is that you may force-fit rules to the answers

If you come across a correct option in an SC question that seems to violate grammar rules or have meaning issues, you should ideally evaluate the correctness of your existing understanding. However, I have seen that some people instead choose to ‘somehow’ fit in such questions with their existing understanding. At times, they choose to ignore such exceptions. As a result, they keep carrying misconceptions or incorrect understanding of grammar rules and meaning issues.