Educated Guesses on SC

[wind]

" Sentence Correction: Play the Odds on Certain Splits

There are certain pairs of differences, or splits, in the answer choices that more often resolve one way than the other (more often - not always). If you know what these are and you have to make a guess, then you can "play the odds" by guessing the variation that is more often correct. For instance, in a split between "like" and "such as," the phrase "such as" is more likely to appear in the correct answer. (This is because people often make the mistake of using "like" when they actually should use "such as," so the trap is to think that "like" is okay to use in place of "such as.") In a split between "rather than" and "instead of," "rather than" is more likely to appear in the correct answer."

This is what the really amazing Stacey Koprince wrote in her topic : How to Make Educated Guesses on Verbal

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... verbal.cfm

despite I could easily figure out patterns in RC and CR as she kindly advised and this really helped, yet I am still struggling with the application of her advice regarding SC . Any further guidance please? Thanks in advance :)

[tim]

the advice seems pretty straightforward. can you give more detail on what is causing you trouble?

[wind]

First , many thanks for the care and quick reply , Tim . What causes me trouble is that I still cannot find such splits or identify any repeated pattern in SC despite I am reasonably advancing in my results . In both RC and CR after some practice I started to find clear patterns , I can expect certain traps ( reverse logic , true but irrelevant ,...etc) as well as knowing what are generally the qualities of a correct answer ( a new piece of info but not quite of scope , and supports the argument conclusion ...etc).In SC , I am still working problem by problem , unable to have a clear or even rough observation of any pattern .

Thanks in advance for your kind help :)

[jlucero]

Unfortunately, we don't have any great lists of topics off the top of our heads. I think that's why Stacey wanted to outsource this one to our fabulous students and forum guests:

It’s up to you now to keep studying and find more of these. Talk to your friends. Ask your instructors. STUDY the problems you’re doing from this point of view: how do the test writers get someone to choose this wrong answer? How do the test writers get someone to eliminate this right answer?

Also, I’d like to invite some enterprising Beat the GMAT member to start a new thread in the Verbal forum. Title it "Educated Guessing" or something similar. Link to this article and include whatever other strategies you’ve devised. Include a sample problem and your written-out reasoning of the educated guessing process for that problem. Then ask others to start listing other strategies, along with specific problem examples and written reasoning. Send a link to the thread via PM to the experts and ask them to contribute as well. Let’s get a good list going that Beat The GMAT can make a permanent resource for everyone!

The only suggestion I can give you is to keep track of the problems that you get wrong and try to notice the language that they frequently misuse. These are the things that native American-English speakers probably use their ear to eliminate and other students often struggle with. Review these problems in bunches and see if there's any trends you notice. Stacey's point in that article is that grammar will be the ultimate guide, but if a test writer is trying to make 4 incorrect answer choices, there might be ways that people make sentences that "sound wrong" while also adding true grammatical errors. We want you to help find those answer choices that "sound wrong" so you can start using your ear (and eyes) to help decide between those last two answer choices.

[wind]

First , many thanks for the care and quick reply , Tim . What causes me trouble is that I still cannot find such splits or identify any repeated pattern in SC despite I am reasonably advancing in my results . In both RC and CR after some practice I started to find clear patterns , I can expect certain traps ( reverse logic , true but irrelevant ,...etc) as well as knowing what are generally the qualities of a correct answer ( a new piece of info but not quite of scope , and supports the argument conclusion ...etc).In SC , I am still working problem by problem , unable to have a clear or even rough observation of any pattern .

Thanks in advance for your kind help :)

I wish this forum had Kudos like GMAT Club or a Thank you icon like BTG . I would have clicked this a billion times for your helpful advice , Joe :)

[RonPurewal]

the most important thing that can be said about guessing methods like these is that they're guessing methods.

that looks like i'm just stating the obvious, but the point is that it's a mistake to prioritize these kinds of things.
stacey has pointed them out because they produce better results than random guessing - i.e., they are more likely to be correct than not - but they still don't qualify as actual problem-solving methods. (a perfectly good sentence can, of course, contain "like" or "instead of".)

so, if you're going to learn these, make sure you keep them in the bucket of "desperation methods", i.e., things you should use only if (a) you don't have enough time left or (b) you are absolutely clueless on some problem.

[wind]

the most important thing that can be said about guessing methods like these is that they're guessing methods.

that looks like i'm just stating the obvious, but the point is that it's a mistake to prioritize these kinds of things.
stacey has pointed them out because they produce better results than random guessing - i.e., they are more likely to be correct than not - but they still don't qualify as actual problem-solving methods. (a perfectly good sentence can, of course, contain "like" or "instead of".)

so, if you're going to learn these, make sure you keep them in the bucket of "desperation methods", i.e., things you should use only if (a) you don't have enough time left or (b) you are absolutely clueless on some problem.

and this was exactly my aim of the question ... to find a way out when totally stuck . Thank you Ron for your reply and let me take this opportunity to hail your wonderful Thursdays :)

[tim]

:)