Must-know idioms for GMAT

The following GMAT idioms list is based upon official GMAT sentence correction questions that the test-makers publicly released.

Practice these idioms using our proprietary sentence correction questions.

GMAT Idiom	Book1	Question2	Answer Page3
Official Guide for GMAT Review (12th Edition)
x is more than y	12th Edition	4	686
unlike x, y	12th Edition	20	694
in contrast with x, y	12th Edition	20	694
in contrast to x, y	12th Edition	20	694
estimate to be	12th Edition	27	698
the same to x as to y	12th Edition	32	700
depends on whether x	12th Edition	34	701
so x that y	12th Edition	37	702
targeted ... at	12th Edition	40	704
rivalry between x and y	12th Edition	44	706
expended on	12th Edition	46	707
the ability ... to	12th Edition	51	710
x is to y what w is to z	12th Edition	58	714
amount of x	12th Edition	74	722
attributes x to y	12th Edition	79	724
not just because of x, but because of y	12th Edition	83	726
distinctions between x and y	12th Edition	96	733
either x or y	12th Edition	109	740
to consider x y	12th Edition	117	745
less successful than	12th Edition	123	748
so x that y	12th Edition	124	748
x is dated at z years old	12th Edition	140	756
Official Guide for GMAT Review (11th Edition)
x is more than y	11th Edition	2	662
in contrast with x, y	11th Edition	16	669
estimated to be	11th Edition	21	671
in danger of	11th Edition	27	673
seem + infinitive	11th Edition	29	674
as much as	11th Edition	30	674
to credit x with	11th Edition	31	674
as many ... as	11th Edition	37	676
between x and y	11th Edition	40	678
require x to do y	11th Edition	53	684
restrictions on x	11th Edition	54	685
not only x ... but also y	11th Edition	55	685
there is no doubt that	11th Edition	58	686
as a means to	11th Edition	60	688
attribute x to y	11th Edition	67	691
as many as	11th Edition	76	695
used x as y	11th Edition	79	696
not x, but rather y	11th Edition	87	700
order x to be y	11th Edition	92	702
just as x, so y	11th Edition	99	706
distinguish between x and y	11th Edition	107	710
both x and y	11th Edition	112	713
so x that y	11th Edition	118	716
Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review
not...but	Verbal Review	4	256
the rising cost	Verbal Review	8	258
range from x to y	Verbal Review	9	258
except for + noun	Verbal Review	13	260
between x and y	Verbal Review	14	260
to mistake x for y	Verbal Review	17	261
to think of x as y	Verbal Review	20	262
with the aim of + (verb)ing	Verbal Review	25	264
not only x ... but also y	Verbal Review	46	274
prohibit x from doing y	Verbal Review	48	275
more x than y	Verbal Review	50	276
not only x ... but also y	Verbal Review	52	277
so x that y	Verbal Review	58	280
not x, but rather y	Verbal Review	60	281
not only ... but also	Verbal Review	66	284
in order to x	Verbal Review	69	285
as x as	Verbal Review	75	288
worried about	Verbal Review	81	291
either x or y	Verbal Review	84	292
better served by x than by y	Verbal Review	89	295
ordered x to do y	Verbal Review	90	295
both x and y	Verbal Review	93	297
x rose almost as fast as y	Verbal Review	94	297
between x and y	Verbal Review	95	298
more x than y	Verbal Review	98	299
x rather than y	Verbal Review	99	300
isolated from	Verbal Review	106	300
not only x ... but also y	Verbal Review	108	304
as a result of	Verbal Review	113	307

This GMAT idioms list is available in PDF format.

via platinumgmat.com

For those who are too cheap to buy himself or herself a copy of Manhattan GMAT "Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide", here is the list of the most popular GMAT idioms that are likely already known by native speakers, and must be memorized by non-native speakers (like I am).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0982423861/iwhite-20

For those who do own a book, take a look at chapter 9, page 142. I am not sure I would be able to memorize all that, but at least I have one more useful guide to refer to.

# Posted via web from opportunity__cost

Sentence Correction must-have book

There is one book that is absolutely must have for you to do well on Sentence Correction part of GMAT.

That's a "Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide" by Manhattan GMAT.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0982423861/prokhorenkous-20

They do not have any either sample GMAT questions or a bunch of tests to try yourself on. But they did their best to cover a lot of potential tricks taken by GMAT creators to find your gaps in English. I'm really surprised and really excited about going through this. I just came to Chapter 4 and I have already learned a bunch of stuff. This is so great.

However, I do miss the sample GMAT questions. The books sends me to Official Guide and this is sorta lame. Been there, done that.

# Posted via email from opportunity__cost

Sentence Correction freaks me out

Out of 113 question I'm scoring barely 60% correctly. This is a total crash. I'm wasted.

Is it supposed to be that tough? I guess it's not tough for the most of natives, but what about not-native ones, like me? I don't have an academic experience in US.

While my math score is running high 80% - low 90%, and both Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning sections don't fall down the high 70% (what does, frankly speaking, suck too), Sentence Correction is a disaster.

I do have the 4th edition of Kaplan's Sentence Correction already. I heard a lot of positives about this book and hopefully it's suitable for non-native speakers, like I am. I'll do my best to spend the most quality time on it, to make sure I can improve my score and get to at least 80%'s. I'll let you know how it works out.

Okay, now I'm planning to get back to EZ solutions set of two math workbooks. While I think it's getting easier to me, I still want to make sure that I can get a solid 90%'s percentage on sample questions, so these two books might help me.

The rest is Sentence Correction one (ouch!) and that's it. I'm planning to run a few full-time sample tests and schedule a date.

See you soon.

# Posted via email from opportunity__cost

Kaplan's SC & few things more

I'm not going top write a lot, but a quick note -- I've just complete a quick quiz from Kaplan's book on Sentence Correction (50 questions).

My results were rather poor this time -- about 70% correct still. While I didn't improve my concentration issue, I also found myself having weak skills in this section (even when sometimes it seems easier).

Most of the time the questions were okay, but I didn't really like the explanations (too much and broad words, too little samples) and I found those explanations to work very bad for non-native English speaker like I am.

I think I have to agree with many other reviewers who said that verbal piece is very poor in Kaplan's book. I still have to see the math one.

On the other note, I have printed a 14 days free coupon for 24 hour fitness gym, so I'm planning to activate it within next few days and get back my everyday gym habit.

I've also spent some time looking around gyms nearby, that actually suck big times here, in Northern California. I keep remembering my bad and ugly LA Fitness gym in Pasadena, which charged me twenty something a month with no contract, had three levels of gym machines, sauna, steaming room and few more gyms in driving distance (~5-10 miles) with pool, basketball court, racket ball (wrong spelling?) rooms and few more bonuses on the top.

While I thought LA Fitness to be rather moderate gym, here, in Northern California, it would be cream on the top of all. Unfortunately, LA Fitness has no network in this part of California.

I looked at Bally's, Fitness 19, 24 hour Fitness, Equinox, local YMCA and few more. Ugh, didn't like anything (or didn't get a match price-wise ;).

However, have to choose, so the cheapest solution is getting a prepaid certificate for 24 hour fitness. It's still about 5-6 miles away from my place, and while there is one close by, but it's a Super-Sport one. This actually one more ugly thing about gyms here. This is one level several years old and absolutely unremarkable gym with no pool and very poor amenities is charging fifty something per month, while regular one can be bought for twenty something (and I'm not talking about Costco's certificates out there!).

Whatever, we'll see what I'll end up with. :)

Tomorrow is Reading Comprehension section.

Verbal

Well, let me make it straight. Now I know for sure -- I don't like the verbal section of GMAT.

It doesn't make me happy.

While I scored into middle third according to warm-up section of Cracking the GMAT, I decided to start with the first bin, instead of the second one. (Better more then less.)

You know what? I didn't mention any difference. The first bin felt pretty hard for me. Sometimes even really weird.

I made a few "educated" guesses, completed it rather quick, despite on the noise and overall distraction of TV and constantly beeping email coming in (yes, I receive a lot of emails on the weekend, too).

So well, what made me even more surprised is my result, which was about 90% of correct answers.

If you'd ask me about that -- I would say I made at least 30% of mistakes. However, I didn't.

So what could be my options to improve myself in the verbal part of GMAT? Still don't have a good answer for that.

Reading helps, however, to what extent? The texts posted in the GMAT are pretty weird and unlikely to belong to my list of readings. Other then that, I didn't mention any improve in my results.

From what I heard, Manhattans' Sentence Correction is very good. I have plans to acquire this book as soon as I'll finish with my official guides and one more (I guess Kaplan's one). I'm also thinking about Kaplan 800, however, I'm little bit concerned on some reviews saying that the questions in it not that good like even the free ones from mba.com.

I also have a set of printed material from my friends, with some sample questions and tests to go through. However, I'm not very fond of solving problems, that I can't get an explanation for. It will take more time, which I'm pretty limited for anyway.

P.S. Found a nice image to accompany this post. ;)

Sentence Correction

Finally, thanks God, I can face some interesting topics in Cracking GMAT. The Sentence Correct section it is.

While I had no chance to invest a fair amount of time into it, yet, I've already noted some interesting moments.

1. They do not say that you can't use your ear. Just don't do this first. The first step is visual spotting for errors.
   
2. They structurized errors spotting a lot. There is nice list of major errors featured on GMAT exam on pp.233-250. Very well organized.

For non-native speakers (as I am) I found a pretty nice pronouns matrix on p.234. Native speakers might find it too basic though.

Also, I found the most of sample questions described so far to be fairly easy. Of course, they give you an idea what type of error is there, but once you know that, I found it very easy to find the right answer. I did very well on this.

More to go, stay online. Hopefully I'll find an extra hour or two tonight to work some more on this.

GMAT SC

I just finished my GMAT Sentence Correction part and (sadly) should say that this is still one of the hardest piece to be done and, I guess, the least coachable one as well. I had the highest deviation of my correct percentage rates for the questions from this section.

Here comes the final difficulty equation for the GMAT sections:

CR < RC < PS = DS < SC

Okay, so I'll take a day or so for AWA theory practice and will start working on different techniques of "cracking the GMAT".

GMAT Sentence Correction

There is one thing I can tell you for sure - Sentence Correction (SC) part is going to be the toughest one for the exam.

First of all, it took me 44 days to complete 17 questions. Well, I'm kidding. ;) I just got absorbed by my move from Pasadena to Millbrae, and had no chance to invest time for study during this period. However, after finally sitting down, I found myself scoring 5, which is Below Average by the books scale.

And, you know what, I'm not sure about any single answer in the part. It wasn't a "Russian roulette" for me, but it's more like what sounds right and what's wrong with almost no science and theory behind.

This is something I need to invest the huge amount of time to. But right now I'm turning the page, it's number 107 now and we'll see what it works out to.