GMAT preparation progress 9/30/09

- Using accounts of various ancient writers, scholars have painted ...

- The Iroquois were primarily planters, although they supplemented their cultivation of maize, squash and beans with fishing and hunting.

- Sunspots, vortices of gas associated with strong electromagnetic activity, are visible as dark spots on the surface of the Sun but have never been sighted on the Sun's poles or equator.

- double the figure


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Sentence Correction by Manhattan GMAT... hopefully finish in two- three weeks.

I will try to note down some summary .

Extracted from the book,

Chapter 1
- Do not rewrite the sentence in your own words! You must choose the best answer choice from among those available.

- Usually, the easiest slits to spot are at the beginning or end of the answer choices.

- Most sentence Correction problems test multiple issues of grammar and style. During the exam, you need only one path to the right answer.

- Make sure that the answer you choose works in the sentence as a whole.

Chapter 2
- Even though a sentence may sound natural, it may not be grammatically correct according to the rules of SWE.

- The right answer will always clearly reflect what the author meant to say.

- Little words, such as helping verbs, are extremely important to the meaning. Do not overlook them.

- Sometimes, changing the position of a single word can alter the meaning of an entire sentence.

- Words that are connected in a sentence, such as subjects and verbs or pronouns antecedents, must always make sense together.

- If two words in a GMAT sentence mean the same thing, check the sentence for redundancy. Only one of the words may be necessary.

- If you can express an action as either a verb or a noun, pick the verb. It will be shorter and stronger.

- The verb is the "engine" of a sentence. By picking a verb over a noun or adjective, you are making the engine stronger.

- Since adjectives are designed to modify nouns, they often do so more concisely than longer phrases.

- In some situations, the verb to be is unnecessary. Run an "Elimination BE" to get rid of excess occurrences of be.

- Avoid making the sentence too short. You might change the meaning of the sentence dramatically.

- Certain small words and phrases, such as That after a verb or That of /Those of, may be essential in the sentence.

- As you apply the Concision principle, avoid redundancy and wordiness, but don't make it too short.