ScoreHattLan SC Guide

The Scoretop community is pretty unanimous; the Manhattan SC book is one of the
most important materials for covering SC. However there isn�t a lot to it and
this money would be far better spent on Scoretop VIP access. So�

In order of importance:

1) Manhattan SC

2) OG 11 SC explanations (All OG question grouped by problem type at the

bottom of this thread)

3) 1,000 SC�s with Scoretop explanations

I have ranked the information provided in Manhattan above OG 11 for good reason.
OG 11 questions and explanations are far more valuable than anything contained in
Manhattan GMAT. However, Manhattan helps to unlock OG with it�s strategy of
focusing on one question type at a time. At the end of each chapter in the guide
there is a breakdown of corresponding questions in the OG (chapters only contain
one or two pages of info each. 10 chapters) This is the BEST way to learn GMAT
problems types, by focusing on one area at a time. Once you�ve got a question
type down, it�s time to move on. Make sure you read the explanations for every OG
problem even if you don�t understand them. I�m a native speaker and I understood
maybe 60% of the verbal explanations (too much grammatical jargon to follow).

I also completed the Kaplan classroom course and their online materials (over
$1,000 USD). I never used their tutoring services as they cost around $100 USD
for ONE hour with someone that may not even have a 90%tile scorer. Kaplan has a
good GMAT overview if you�d like to waste that much money on an �overview�. For
those starting prep that need an overview read the �Experience Posts�. It was
late in my prep when it became very clear that Scoretop private tutoring was an
outstanding value. A 99% scorer for what would amount to less than $10/ day?

Unfortunately, I was too far along in my prep to really get the value out of
private tutoring. I used this service and recommend it, especially for someone
beginning prep. The Scoretop tutors can save you tons of time in identifying your
weaknesses and pointing you in the direction of the most critical resources as
well as personalize your study plan.
My recommendation for the beginner is to go over the experience posts, read all
the stickies on the different freely available forums, contact

Stone about private tutoring and start posting questions and answers on Scoretop
forums. For those of you who feel the private tutor is a bit costly, do NOT get
cheap with VIP access. Take advantage of a three-month membership. I was a VIP
for five months. This way if you�re not able to do all the months material due to
other obligations you�ll still know all the latest GMAT traps and tricks... and
know them well.

Why all the above info for an SC guide Bevo? Give us the goods man! First, I
know most beginners start with SC. Secondly, I mentioned Kaplan because the notes
I�m about to provide are a compilation of notes I took from Kaplan and Manhattan
SC guide. For the critical areas I�ve missed please add your own notes and
examples to this thread.

Make the following notes into notecards and use them along with the
www.beatthegmat.com SC notecards. The following is in no particular order.

In my exam I got four questions testing knowledge of how to use the semicolon and
colon. I feel these are some of the higher level questions as they were testing
at least two other SC question types as well.

Semicolon;

Both statements must be able to stand alone as independent clauses. Translation-

would each part before and after the semicolon work as a sentence by itself.

Incorrect: Andrew and Lisa are inseperable; doing everything together.

Correct: ;� they do everything together.

Semicolon:

One of the best tricks, how does the sentence read after you insert the word
namely where the semicolon goes. This helped me answer a question on the exam.
Only the first part of the statement should be able to stand as a single sentence.

Correct: I hate GMAT questions: (namely) DS, SC and RC problems.

Watch for modifying clauses that begin with which (usually wrong).

Incorrect: The house overlooked the lake, which was set back from the shore.

How can the lake be set back from the shore? Which always refers to the noun
immediately preceding it.

Comparisons:

Wrong: �Our cleaning product is better than any product on the market�

The problem here is any cleaning product includes our cleaning product.

Correct: Better than �any other�

When in doubt think singular (for subjects)

Avoid sentences that insert a word between to and the verb.

Incorrect: �I need you to run quickly to the shop�

Present perfect: Have/ had and past participle (usually ed)

Something that started in the past but continues to the present.

Past Perfect:

Had + past participle

An past moment to a later past moment

Passive Voice:

Don�t us it.

Subject of the sentence receives the ation of the verb subject will always be at
the beginning of the sentence when active.

Passive voice ok to maintain parallel structure, also correct when the person
performing action is unknown �support had been eroded by�.

Passive voice required when the non underlined portion of the sentence contains
the agent performing the action preceded by the word.

You can usually eliminate answer choices that contain the following words:

Was, were, be, being, has been, will be, is being has been

When words in the subject position are connected by either� or, neither� nor, the
verb agrees with the last word following the �nor� or �or�

Either or and neither nor disjunctive phrases

If one subject is plural and the other is a singular verb

Should take that of the subject nearest verb.

Neither Leo nor his friends ARE going to the beach.

Neither his friends nor Leo IS going to the beach.

When either or neither are alone, it�s a disjunctive phrase

Only the word AND can change a singular subject into a plural one

Joe and his friends ARE going to the beach.

Singular subject followed by an additive phrase are still singular

Leo along with his friends IS going.

Mathematics, in addition to history IS blah blah

When EACH or EVERY is the subject, it requires a sing verb.

Every dog HAS paws.

Every dog and cat HAS paws.

When each follows the subject there is no bearing on the verb.

They EACH are great.

Collective nouns are singular

The crowd is cheering.

Indefinite pronouns usually singular:

Pronouns that end with one, body and thing

Anyone, anybody, anything

Whatever, whoever

No one, nobody nothing

Adverbial modifier:

When the word being modified is not a noun.

The football player ran towards the goal, faster and harder than he had ever run
before.

Self Prononouns:

Use a self pronoun (myself, yourself etc) only when the antecedent of that pronoun
is right there in the sentence.

Chris hurt himself while running.

Beatrice and (I or me) are going home early.

Consider pronouns separately. I am going home early or Me am going home early.

Had/ would have:

You can use would in the then clause but never in the if clause

If Cleopatra�s nose had been (not would have been) shorter,

If� then clause. Then often omited.

Would and could never appear in the IF clause.

Verb const. in then clause must match if clause.

If you HAD STUDIED you WOULD HAVE SCORED your way into the 700 club.

Whether is preferred to if

I don�t know whether (not if) I will go to the dance.

Who/whom

Isolate the pronoun in it�s clause

Ask yourself who or whom did the action? Who or whom wrote the book.

Answer with the ordinary personal pronoun. �He did� NOT �Him did�

He= who

Him= whom

If two things happen at the same time the verbs should have the same tense

Singular or plural: All, None, Some, Most, More

Like As
Use like to compare nouns.

As to compare actions or introduce a clause

Don�t use like when you mean �for example�. Use the phrase �such as�.

Like is always preferable to �just like� or �similar too�

�There� constructions are rarely correct.

Orders and recommendations:

Should be followed by THAT and the infinitive form of the verb. He demanded THAT
Pearson refund his money for putting him through such a horrible experience.

Hypothetical Situations:

Use were or would. If I were a rich man.

GMATS favorite grammar topic is parallelism.

Never use �in that�

The word Declension is seldom used. Use decline instead.

�That� must be used when whatever is being decribed is essential to the meaning of
the sentence.
After �which� anything that follows insn�t essential to the meaning of the
sentence.

�There is� sentences are usually wrong.

�They� never refers to a singular you.

Not reading entire sentence in SC is a mistake.

Read all ans choices.

Look for classic errors and eliminate.

Scan vertically for differences.

Do NOT choose A without looking at other options.

A could be grammatically but not stylistically correct.

Which, where when:

Which must be preceded by a comma and refer to the noun just before it.

Where must refer to an actual location.

When, must refer to a time reference.

Parallel structure:

All activities must have equal emphasis.

Either� or

As much�.as
Not so much�as

And or yet

Both� and

Neither� nor

Not� only

But� also

Not only is always followed by BUT ALSO.

NOR only comes after NEITHER.

Some idioms I had trouble with:

Credited with

The Cardigans are credited with

Refuse A for B

WRONG: Refuse in favor of

Afflicted with

WRONG: Afflicted from

Each other

Two sides are involved

One another

More than two things

Warned of

Patients should be warned of risks

WRONG: warned about

Debate over

A debate over the adequacy of a law

WRONG: debate about

Says that

In her letter Jane says that

WRONG: Expresses that

For one thing

WRONG: For one

In regardS to

As regards to your downsizing

With REGARD to
Ignorant of

He is ignorant of the ways of the world.

WRONG: Ignorant to

Happen by accident

WRONG: on accident

Things don�t happen on accident they happen by accident

Concur in a decision

WRONG: Concur with

Responsible for:

WRONG : Responsible to

Acclaimed as

Doubled

WRONG: Increased by twice

Credit X with discovering Y

Aid in
Allocated to

Eihter Or

Both must be followed by a verb/ noun parallelism

Agree with a person

Agree to an inanimate object

Usual vs is Usual

If something is compared to a subgroup it belongs in IS USUAL.

When something is compared to itself usual is fine.

A Mercedes is more expensive than is usual for a car

If introduces a condition, whether produces a choice

Native of- refers to humans

Native to- everything else

Can vs Could

Could- assuming something is correct

In that is preferred over because

Because is preferred over on account of

Who refers to people

That and which refer to groups or things

So as is never correct on the gmat

Hopefully is always wrong

Better served by X than by Y

So X that Y

Clear and Concise

11th edition: 8, 12, 14, 33, 36, 44, 80, 101, 118, 120, 124

Verbal Review: 2, 22, 26, 43, 54, 69, 75, 87, 105, 109

Subject-Verb Agreement
11th edition: D41, D43, 1, 21, 34, 41, 42 52, 61, 70, 90 116, 131, 138

Verbal Review: 8, 16, 24 34, 35, 44, 59, 74, 77, 102, 104

Verb Tense, Mood, and voice

11th edition: D39, 15, 28, 57, 58, 59, 62, 63, 74, 75, 76, 81, 83, 94, 108, 126,
137

Verbal Review: 3, 13, 21, 28, 30, 37, 40, 65, 83, 86, 95, 103

Pronouns:

11th edition: D42, 5, 25, 32, 43, 89, 127, 130, 133
Verbal Review: 12, 15, 19, 29, 41, 49, 53, 55, 58, 61, 67, 71, 72, 73, 85, 89

Modifiers:

11th edition: D40, D44, D49, 7, 20, 24, 38, 45, 50, 71, 72, 78, 93, 98, 102, 105,
107, 109, 110, 114, 125, 135

Verbal Review: 7, 18, 32, 38, 39, 57, 63, 78, 79, 84, 88, 91, 96, 107, 110, 112,

Parallelism:

11th edition: D36, D38, D46, D48, D50, 9, 11, 17, 18, 19, 22, 35, 39, 46, 47, 48,
49, 54 ,56 ,60, 64, 65, 84, 86, 88, 91, 106, 112, 113, 115, 117, 119, 129, 132,
134, 136,

Verbal Review: 1, 4, 6, 25, 27, 47, 51, 52, 56, 70, 81, 82, 97, 99, 100

Comparisons:

11th edition: D35, D37, D47, D51, D52, 6, 10, 13, 23, 29, 37, 66, 68, 73, 77, 79,
85, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100, 103, 104, 122, 123, 128

Verbal Review: 10, 23, 31, 33, 36, 42, 45, 50, 68, 94, 98, 101, 106

Idioms:

11th edition:D45, 2, 16, 27, 30, 31, 40, 53, 55, 67, 82, 92, 121,

Verbal Review: 9,17, 20, 46, 48, 66, 76, 90, 108, 113

Odds and Ends:

11th edition:4, 26,51, 69, 87,111

Verbal Review: 5, 14, 60, 80, 92, 93, 111

You�re welcome ;) Now go get a VIP membership with the money you just saved. I'm
fairly certain I didn't miss any SC's in my exam and that was a big contributer to
my V47 score.