Verbal Reasoning

Overview and Strategies Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Overview 3 types of questions: • 40% sentence correction • 30% reading comprehension • 30% critical reasoning The entire verbal section is about structure rather than content.

Verbal Overview Sentence correction content: • All basic grammar, but especially: • Parallel constructions / clauses • Verb tense or agreement errors • Misplaced / dangling modifiers • Inappropriate pronoun usage • Selection among prepositions

Verbal Overview Sentence correction questions: • A sentence will be given, with a section underlined; the answer choices will represent alternative renderings for the underlined section (including no chnage).

Verbal Overview Reading comprehension content: • Identify the “main topic” of a piece • Answer “according to…” questions • Make [very] simple inferences • Identify narrative structure • NOTHING ABOUT CONTENT

Verbal Overview Reading comprehension questions: • “The main topic of the passage is…” • “The passage suggests which of…” • “According to the passage, which…” • “The author considers which of…” • “The 2nd paragraph serves what role...”

Verbal Overview Critical reasoning content: • Distinguish between assumptions, premises/evidence, and conclusions • Analyze structure of an argument • Consider additional information • Identify analogous structures

Verbal Overview Critical reasoning questions: • “The passage assumes that…” • “The purpose of the passage is…” • “Which if true would most weaken / strengthen the above conclusion…” • “Which is best supported by…”

Verbal Overview Critical reasoning questions: • “Which must be true based on…” • “Which information would be most useful in evaluating the argument…” • “Which most closely resembles the argument / logic in the passage…”

Grammar Strategies The GMAT is not a vocabulary test. The purpose of sentence correction questions is to assess whether you can construct a sentence following the standard procedural grammar rules, not whether you can write “at grade”.

Grammar Strategies You are NOT looking for the best or most natural way to render a sentence. Your only goal is to identify the option that contains no errors—specifically, the option that is most unambiguously correct, even if it doesn’t “sound” right.

Grammar Strategies “Unambiguously correct” sentences are usually those in which auxiliary words that are often omitted in speech are included consistently throughout. Look at the little words: is, are, has, have, do, does, that, those, which, etc

Grammar Strategies For sentence correction questions, be sure to assess the correctness of each option within the entire sentence rather than as an isolated clause. The options may be long, but usually only one or two key words matter.

Grammar Strategies Focus on structural words / sentence parts—identify all subjects, objects, verbs, and auxiliary words present. Ignore the content of the sentence, and check only that these components are used correctly and are “matched”.

Grammar Strategies “Many political pundits believe that dissension over immigration priorities among an increasingly polarized U.S. congress decrease the likelihood of significant action being taken in 2016.” The choices here will obscure the error.

Grammar Strategies “dissension over immigration priorities among an increasingly polarized U.S. congress decrease the likelihood of significant action being taken in 2016.” Answers might be “… likelihood that signification action will be”, and so on.

Grammar Strategies “dissension over immigration priorities among an increasingly polarized U.S. congressdecrease the likelihood of significant action being taken in 2016.” The only error is one of subject-verb agreement: “dissension”-“decrease”.

Grammar Strategies “dissension over immigration priorities among an increasingly polarized U.S. congressdecrease the likelihood of significant action being taken in 2016.” “over immigration priorities” is only an adjective—“priorities” is not a subject.

Grammar Strategies “dissension over immigration priorities among an increasingly polarized U.S. congressdecrease the likelihood of significant action being taken in 2016.” The most likely solution is “decreases”; an alternate could be “will decrease”.

Grammar Strategies GRE vocabulary questions will offer multiple potential sentence renderings that make intuitive sense or parse easily. Your task is not to find a “best sounding” sentence, but to identify the two or three words in the sentence which are related most to the word you are asked to fill in.

Grammar Strategies “Since she believed him to be both candid and trustworthy, she refused to consider the possibility that his statement to the board of directors should be construed as _________.” The majority of words are unnecessary.

Grammar Strategies “Since she believed him to be both candid and trustworthy, she refused to consider the possibility that his statement to the board of directors should be construed as _________.” First find the “key” / “target” phrase.

Grammar Strategies “Since she believed him to be both candid and trustworthy, she refused to consider the possibility …” Identify intended word relationships. Does the target phrase negate or affirm the word you are intended to fill in?

Grammar Strategies “Since she believed him to be both candid and trustworthy, she refused to consider the possibility that his statement to the board of directors should be construed asinsincere.” Choose based on target and relation.

Grammar Examples “Stories are a haunted genre. Far from a _Blank 1_ kind of story, the ghost story is almost the paradigm of the form, and a feeling of _Blank 2_ was undoubtedly one effect that Poe had in mind when he wrote about how stories work.” • debased • normative • meticulous • pessimism • goosebumps • curiousity

Grammar Examples “Dreams are _______ in and of themselves, but, when combined with other data, they can tell us much about the dreamer.” Select two of the six answer choices • astonishing • disordered • harmless • inscrutable • revealing • uninformative

Grammar Examples “Dreams are _______ in and of themselves, but, when combined with other data, theycan tell us much about the dreamer.” Select two of the six answer choices • astonishing • disordered • harmless • inscrutable • revealing • uninformative

Grammar Examples “Even in this business, where ______ is part of everyday life, a talent for lying is not something usually found on one’s resume.” Select two of the six answer choices • ambition • mendacity • prevarication • insensitivity • prejudice • avarice

Grammar Examples “While in many ways their personalities could not have been more different—she was ebullient where he was glum, relaxed where he was awkward, garrulous where he was________—they were surprisingly well suited.” Select two of the six answer choices • solicitous • munificent • irresolute • laconic • fastidious • taciturn

Grammar Overview Misplaced modifiersoccur when a phrase clarifies or describes another element in the sentence (subject or verb, usually), but the construction of the sentence positions the phrase too far from the element it describes.

Grammar Overview In order for a phrase to be considered a misplaced modifier, see whether it contains both a subject (could be just a pronoun) and a verb; if the phrase (or part of the phrase) cannot stand on its own as a sentence, it is a modifier.

Grammar Overview To identify whether a phrase could be a misplaced modifier, see whether it contains both a subject (could be just a pronoun) and a verb; if the phrase (or part of the phrase) cannot stand on its own as a sentence, it is a modifier.

Grammar Overview “Although not as liquid an investment as a money-market account, financial experts often recommend a certificate of deposit for its high and stable yield.” The modifier here is misplaced next to “experts” (who are not investments)

Grammar Overview “Although not as liquid an investment as a money-market account, financial experts often recommend a certificate of deposit for its high and stable yield.” We could say “money-market account, a certificate of deposit is often…”

Grammar Overview “Although not as liquid an investment as a money-market account, financial experts often recommend a certificate of deposit for its high and stable yield.” But, the latter half of the sentence is not underlined, so we cannot fix it.

Grammar Overview “Although not as liquid an investment as a money-market account, financial experts often recommend a certificate of deposit for its high and stable yield.” The only fix is to make the first half into a phrase that can stand alone.

Grammar Overview “Although it is not as liquid an invest-ment as a money-market act., financial experts often recommend a certificate of deposit for its high and stable yield.” The only fix is to make the first half into a phrase that can stand alone.

Grammar Overview “Upset by the recent downturn in productivity, the possibility of new pay incentives was raised by the board of directors in their annual meeting.” The modifier here (not underlined) is misplaced (a “possibility” is not upset).

Grammar Overview “Upset by the recent downturn in productivity, the possibility of new pay incentives was raised by the board of directors in their annual meeting.” We can change the sentence to put the modified element next to the modifier.

Grammar Overview “Upset by the recent downturn in productivity, the board of directors raised the possibility of new pay incentives at their annual meeting.” Who is upset? The “board of directors”, so that phrase must follow the comma.

Grammar Overview Parallel constructionerrors occur when a sentence contains a compound subject or verb whose parts are not “matched”, when it contains two full clauses whose structures are not the same, or when it makes a comparison between elements of different types.

Grammar Overview To identify whether a sentence might contain a poor parallel construction or comparison, see whether it contains a list of elements joined by “and” / “or”, whether it contains multiple clauses, or whether it makes a comparison or an analogy between two elements.

Grammar Overview “The reasons cited for the governor’s decision not to seek re-election were the high cost of a campaign, the lack of support from his party, and desiring to spend more time with his family.” There’s a list; check for poor parallels.

Grammar Overview “…the high cost of a campaign, the lack of support from his party, and desiring to spend more time with his family.” “… the high cost” “… the lack of support” “… desiring to spend more time”

Grammar Overview “…the high cost of a campaign, the lack of support from his party, the desire to spend more time with his family.” “… the high cost” “… the lack of support” “… the desireto spend more time”

Grammar Overview “To say that the songs of the common robin are less complex than those of the indigo bunting is doing a great disservice to both species of birds.” There are 2 clauses; are they parallel?

Grammar Overview “To say that the songs of the common robin are less complex than those of the indigo bunting is doing a great disservice to both species of birds.” “To say that the songs…” “[is] doing a great disservice…”

Verbal Reasoning