GMAT Verbal: Sentence Correction Questions

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English language pedants will be over the moon with the sentence correction questions in the GMAT’s Verbal section. However, for the grammatically challenged amongst us, it can be fearsome.

These set of questions, as the name ‘sentence correction’ suggests, require GMAT test-takers to correct deliberate mistakes contained within an underlined sentence in a short passage of text. Like the rest of the Verbal section of the GMAT, participants will be given five multiple choice answers, of which only one will be correct – obviously, this is the answer they should select.

The first multiple choice answer in the sentence correction questions will always be the same as the original sentence in the passage. GMAT test-takers should be aware that this may, or may not be correct. In other words, sometimes sentence correction questions can be trick questions, where the original sentence has nothing grammatically incorrect, and should be left as it is.

As the first multiple choice option is always the same sentence as included in the original passage of text, participants can save valuable time here by not reading the first multiple choice answer, as it should have already been read as part of the original passage.

The English language and the GMAT

For GMAT participants with a developed knowledge of the English language, the best advice here is to trust your ear, so to speak.

Read each sentence, as part of the original passage in your head, and if it anything sounds incorrect, then chances are it probably is. However, always bear in mind that sometimes the correct answer may not be perfect – it might sound awkward, but grammatically it could be the best choice out of the five multiple choice answers.

If you have any difficulty in selecting the correct answer, then a process of elimination is often the best course of action.

Some of the multiple choice answers in the sentence correction questions of the GMAT Verbal section will contain grammatical errors on their own, without test-takers needing to try them out as part of the whole sample passage. Once these have been eliminated, it can prove to be a far simpler process in selecting the correct answer.

While grammatical mistakes should always be considered first in the sentence correction questions, participants should also be aware that their understanding of the message conveyed within the sample text is also judged. As a result, before selecting their final answer for each question, GMAT test-takers should consider reading through the whole passage one more time, replacing the underlined sentence with the answer that they believe to be correct.