Agree with another person.

CORRECT: “ I agree with Joey on this issue.”

Agree to or upon something inanimate.

CORRECT: “ I agree to your proposal.”

CORRECT: “ A course of action was agreed upon.”

“Just as” can replace “in the same way that”.

CORRECT: “Just as Elvis changed the face of rock n’

roll, Hawking changed the face of astrophysics.”

“In contrast to”

CORRECT: “In contrast to most parents, Jimmy’s parents

let him stay out all night.”

“Similar to”

CORRECT: “Theresa’s parenting style is similar to Christine’s.”

“Whether” is correct when a sentence describes alternatives.

CORRECT: “Whether to vote or not.”

“If ” is correct when a sentence describes a

hypothetical situation.

CORRECT: “If he were to participate, he would…”

Use “rather than” to express a preference.

CORRECT: “I would prefer nonfat milk rather than

cream in my coffee.”

The best meaning for “due to” is “caused by.”

• “Due to” should not be used to mean “on account of”.

INCORRECT: “The game was postponed due to rain.”

CORRECT: “The game was postponed on account of rain.”

CORRECT: “The game’s postponement was due to rain.”

Use “not…but” to join linguistically equivalent (parallel)

things.

CORRECT: “Blake is not a golfer but a tennis player.”

Ambiguous pronoun reference - each pronoun must

agree in number with the noun it replaces

INCORRECT: “Fred and Vijay went to the soccer

match, but he said that he liked cricket better.”

Singular/Plural noun agreement - each pronoun must

refer directly and unambiguously to the noun it replaces

INCORRECT: “The average dentist expects patients to

be on time, and they are usually mistaken.”

INCORRECT: “Driving to a holiday dinner, Fred’s wallet

was lost.”

This sentence implies Fred’s wallet drove to a holiday dinner.

One way to fix example above: Rearrange sentence order and

alter second half of sentence so that inanimate object does

not refer to action verb in first half of sentence.

CORRECT: “Fred lost his wallet as he drove to a

holiday dinner.”

INCORRECT: “Driving to a holiday dinner, Fred’s wallet

was lost.”

Another way to fix example above: Change first half of

sentence into adverbial clause, which clarifies the subject of

the sentence that is in the second phrase.

CORRECT: “While driving to a holiday dinner, Fred

lost his wallet.”

A signal that you may have a parallel construction error is

a group of phrases set off by commas.

Spot this problem by:

• Finding a series of actions, lists, or sentences

divided into parts.

• Make sure that each list item has similar structure

(i.e., no one part of the list is distinct from the others

in terms of grammatical construction or length).

A sentence that begins in one tense should generally stay

in that tense.

• Often related to parallel construction questions.

EXCEPTION: Past perfect (ex: “had/have + verb”). An

action set in the past perfect must have another action

that comes after it set in the simple past.

CORRECT: “Bob was fired after he had worked at the

company for only two weeks.”

Politics – Singular word

CORRECT: “Politics is not for the faint of heart.”

People – Plural word

CORRECT: “People are often confused about

grammatical issues that arise on the GMAT.”

Compare nouns to like nouns:

CORRECT: “The roses at Sarah’s wedding were prettier

than the orchids at Jane’s wedding.”

INCORRECT: “I enjoy reading the poems of Kenneth

Koch more than Emily Dickinson.”

Compare actions to like actions:

CORRECT: “Beeswax candles burn more cleanly than

synthetic candles.”

CORRECT: “On the flight to Chicago, Betty had to 

choose between two drink options.”

CORRECT: “On the flight back to New York, Betty had

to choose among three dinner options.”

Countable Items: Non-Countable Items:

• Fewer                               • Less

• Number           • Amount, quantity

• Many                                • Much

20% of SC sentences are correct as presented in the first

instance on the GMAT.

• This is approximately three questions per test.

1. Read original sentence carefully.

2. Scan answer choices for differences that help identify

commonly-tested errors.

3. Eliminate a choice as soon as you find an error.

TIP: If you narrow a question down to two possible

“candidate” sentences, read each one slowly and

deconstruct each part of the sentence until an error

jumps out at you.

Beware collective nouns which are actually singular:

“audience, committee, everyone” merit singular verbs

Modifiers should be as close as possible to the word or

clause they modify.

INCORRECT: “Sarah Jane rarely sparked interest in

men, though not a plain girl.”

CORRECT: “Sarah Jane, though not a plain girl, rarely

sparked interest in men.”

Verbs agree with whatever follows “or/nor”

CORRECT: “Neither the musicians nor the conductor

is from Dallas.”

CORRECT: “Neither the conductor nor the musicians

are from Dallas.”

When the GMAT gives you a choice between one verb

tense that uses an “ing” form and another that does not,

usually the “ing” form is wrong.

1. Make sure that the verb tense you choose properly

reflects the sequence of events.

2. Use Present Perfect (verb + “ing”) to emphasize

continuing nature of an action or that two or more

actions are occurring simultaneously.

CORRECT: “I have been correcting Raul’s GMAT grammar constantly.”

“I was walking and chewing gum when I collided with a lamppost.”

3. Avoid Passive Voice. Use simple past tense instead of “had” +

past tense.

Use “So [ADJECTIVE] as to [VERB]” as a comparator.

CORRECT: “Her debts are so extreme as to threaten

her company.”

Do not use it to substitute for “in order to”

INCORRECT: “He exercises everyday so as to build

his stamina."

Compare like things only (ex: nouns to nouns, people to

people, actions to actions, etc).

Comparison words: “like, as, compared to, less than,

more than, other, that of, those of ”.

“like” = “similar to”

CORRECT: “Her graceful comportment made her seem

like a dancer, although she had never set foot on a stage.”

“such as” = “for example”

CORRECT: “I enjoy activities such as skydiving,

heliskiing and scuba diving.”

Memorize:

• “regarded as” (don’t use “to be”)

• “as long as”

• “such questions as”

• “plays as”

“None” should be singular, even when to your ear it

seems as though it should be plural.

CORRECT: “None of the boys enjoys camping as he does.”

“No one” is always singular.

CORRECT: “No one enjoys camping as much as he does.”

Avoid passive verb tenses! These are usually present or

past perfect forms of verbs.

• “Have/Had + VERB + -ing” is rarely the correct choice.

• Active tense is preferred in sentence correction questions.

• “By” is often an indication of the passive voice.

“Compare to” compares UNLIKE things, whereas

“compare with” compares LIKE things. “Compare to” is

used to stress resemblance.

CORRECT: “She compared the evening gown to the cocktail dress. “

“Compare with” can be used to show either similarity or

difference (usually difference).

CORRECT: “When compared with Laura’s work product,

Jim’s showed a world of difference.”

“Concerned for” = “worried, anxious”

CORRECT: “I am concerned for her safety.”

“Concerned with” = “related to”

CORRECT: “This matter is concerned with the

Smith case.”

“Greater than” is appropriate when describing numbers alone.

CORRECT: “Greater than 100…”

“More than” should be used when describing the numbers

of objects or when making comparisons.

CORRECT: “More than 100 fish.”

When “rates” refer to the price charged, it should be

followed by “for”

CORRECT: “Rates for telephone service have increased

in recent years.”

Coordination (comma + coordinating word/conjunction)

• Equal emphasis with independent clauses

• “and, or, but, for, nor, yet, so”

Subordination (placed before or after independent clause

with comma)

• Emphasize other part with one independent clause

and one dependent clause

• “although, while, since”

A pronoun must:

• Agree with its antecedent in number (plural vs singular)

and gender

• Refer to a specific antecedent without ambiguity

Remember: “that” is singular and “those” is plural

Participles are sentence fragments. They are often adjectives

formed from verbs. They are often grammatically ambiguous,

and cause problems due to this ambiguity.

CORRECT: “Peter, distracted by his cat and wanting to

do his work…”

Less is a word used to describe non-count nouns, but also

used for sums of money, periods of time and distance,

and citations of numerical/statistical data.

CORRECT: “It’s less than 35 miles to San Francisco.”

CORRECT: “We spent less than $100.”

CORRECT: “The town spent less than 95% of its budget.”

The passive voice is not grammatically incorrect, but the

GMAT usually considers it stylistically inferior to the active

voice.

• Eliminate passively worded choices if there is a

grammatically correct alternative in the active voice.

“One of the [PLURAL NOUN] that/who [PLURAL VERB]”

CORRECT: “He is one of the persons who bake

spectacular cakes.”

“Only one of the [PLURAL NOUN] that/who [SINGULAR

VERB]”

CORRECT: “He is the only one of the employees who

was promoted.”

When “consider” means “regard as,” “as” should not be

present with “consider” in the sentence. “Consider” is also

not followed by an infinitive like “to be”.

INCORRECT: “Scientists consider control factors to be

an integral element…”

CORRECT: “Scientists consider control factors an

integral element…”

CORRECT: “Deciding that the best course was to

continue, the Donner Party fatefully elected to

forge ahead.”