陷入瓶颈啊~~~求助如何突破SC ……哭死了！！！

杨雨琪

前几天做OG，正确率都很稳定在70%，今天早晨做了十几道题，发现70%变成错误率了，突然傻脸……

victor198506

试试去看看杨鹏长难句，或许会有帮助

victor198506

有可能正好碰到了连续的中等+偏难题

Zihuatanejor

我个人觉得最有用的SC材料就是Prep08语法笔记，你可以集中精力把他认真做一遍，一共200多页，知识点很全很详细。当然顺便也把题都过了一遍。题不在多，而在于能让你学到什么。语法笔记是那种能提高能力层级的学习材料，让你水平上一个台阶，因为他能帮你夯实基础。我做之前正确率在70%左右，现在很少下85%。

walt77

怎样分析语法题目？
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/21/how-to-analyze-a-gmatprep-sc-question

walt77

This is the latest in a series of “How To Analyze” articles that began with the general “How To Analyze A Practice Problem” article (click on the link to read the original article). This week, we’re going to analyze a specific Sentence Correction question. The GMATPrep® problem we’re using this week is one that we’ve already discussed how to solve in a previous article; click here to read that article and try the problem first.

Here’s the GMATPrep® problem again; if you didn’t read the first article and try the problem already, then try this problem now (1 minute, 15 seconds):


Research has shown that when speaking, individuals who have been blind from birth and have thus never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do, and that they will gesture even when conversing with another blind person.

A) have thus never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do, and that

B) have thus never seen anyone gesture but nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way that sighted people do, and

C) have thus never seen anyone gesture, that they nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do, and

D) thus they have never seen anyone gesture, but nonetheless they make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way that sighted people do, and that

E) thus they have never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way that sighted people do, and

After trying the problem, checking the answer, and reading and understanding the solution (if available), I try to answer these questions:

1. Did I know WHAT they were trying to test?

Was I able to CATEGORIZE this question by topic and subtopic? By process / technique? If I had to look something up in my books, would I know exactly where to go?

The question is an SC question that’s testing parallelism, modifiers, and idioms. If I don’t remember how to deal with any of those grammar issues, I’d go look in the appropriate chapter in my book right now.
Did I COMPREHEND the symbols, text, questions, statements, and answer choices? Can I comprehend it all now, when I have lots of time to think about it? What do I need to do to make sure that I do comprehend everything here? How am I going to remember whatever I’ve just learned for future?

[Note: I’m going to pretend I got this one wrong when I first did it.]

When I first read the sentence, I didn’t understand the full structure. The full structure consists of the core of the sentence (subject, verb, possibly an object, and possibly some other necessary extensions) and the modifiers (the additional information that “hangs” onto the core at various spots). I knew that I wasn’t quite getting it, but I was also feeling pressed for time, so I thought I could get away with not figuring out what the basic structure was. That was a mistake. In future, I have to make sure that I take the time to understand the basic structure on sentences such as this one, even if it takes me another 20 to 30 seconds to answer the problem. I should also practice breaking down the structure so that I get more efficient.
Did I understand the actual CONTENT (facts, knowledge) being tested?

I do know parallelism, though I messed up with parallelism on this one because I didn’t understand the overall structure. Once I took the time to break down the structure, I had no problem with the parallelism. In terms of the idiom, “in the same way as” sounded better to me than “in the same way that” but I didn’t know for sure that I was right until I checked the answer. I still don’t know why I’m right, though, so I have to go check my book and dig into this a little more.
2. How well did I HANDLE what they were trying to test?

Did I choose the best APPROACH? Or is there a better way to do the problem? (There’s almost always a better way!) What is that better way? How am I going to remember this better approach the next time I see a similar problem?

No, I definitely didn’t choose the best approach, and that cost me the question. I knew there was parallelism, but I interpreted it as “Research has shown that X, that Y, and that Z” so I chose answer C. I should have tried to figure out the structure first, and I didn’t do that, as noted above. Here’s how I should have figured out the structure: (see original article, linked at the top of this article, to learn how to split out the core from the modifiers; this is where you would want to write all of that out.)
Did I have the SKILLS to follow through? Or did I fall short on anything?

I did have the skills to find the core – but I didn’t have the “test-taking” skills to know that I should have done it then. Basically, I have to make a choice: either I’m just going to give up on this one as too hard for the time I have (and therefore I’m going to answer more quickly than usual), or I’m going to invest the extra 20 to 30 seconds to figure out the core because I know that I can do it. (And I don’t think it will take more than 20 to 30 extra seconds – that’s critically important.)
Did I make any careless mistakes? If so, WHY did I make each mistake? What habits could I make or break to minimize the chances of repeating that careless mistake in future?

I didn’t read the full sentence using my chosen answer, C. If I had, I might have realized something wasn’t right. “Research has shown that individuals who <A and B – modifier>, that they make, and that they will gesture…” Where’s the verb for the first one, the verb that goes with “individuals?” There isn’t one. Oops. Also, I did finally figure out why “in the same way as” was right (it was due to parallelism again! see the original article for details), and I consider missing the parallelism signal a careless mistake, because I absolutely know that “and” is a parallelism signal.
For verbal, the following two questions can be combined:

Am I comfortable with OTHER STRATEGIES that would have worked, at least partially? How should I have made an educated guess?

Do I understand every TRAP & TRICK that the writer built into the question, including wrong answers?

I already know why answer C is tempting, because I chose it! And now I also know why it’s wrong.
I wasn’t personally tempted by B, D, or E because of the “in the same way that” issue, but it would be easy to miss that we need “as” there. The “just as frequently and in the same way…” structure is really confusing – they’re trying to get me to miss the “just as frequently as” idiom.
3. How well did I or could I RECOGNIZE what was going on?

Did I make a CONNECTION to previous experience? If so, what problem(s) did this remind me of and what, precisely, was similar? Or did I have to do it all from scratch? If so, see the next bullet.

Not well enough, no. I’ve seen these super-convoluted sentences before and I really should have known that I needed to break the sentence down first – but I let the time pressure get to me. I’m going to go back and look at some similar ones that I’ve done in the past.
Can I make any CONNECTIONS now, while I’m analyzing the problem? What have I done in the past that is similar to this one? How are they similar? How could that recognition have helped me to do this problem more efficiently or effectively? (This may involve looking up some past problem and making comparisons between the two!)

Basically, this problem was all about convoluted parallelism: a long core, lots of modifiers, and various levels of parallelism. I’ve definitely seen problems like this before – just in the past week, in fact – and I’m going to go back over some of them right now.
HOW will I recognize similar problems in the future? What can I do now to maximize the chances that I will remember and be able to use lessons learned from this problem the next time I see a new problem that tests something similar?

I need to do everything I already described in my notes above. When I go back to look at some of the recent problems I’ve done, I’m going to repeat this full analysis for several of those, just to hammer home that I need to break these sentences down better and more efficiently. (And I’ll also look for new things, of course.)
And that’s it! Note that, of course, the details above are specific to each individual person – such a write-up would be different for every single one of you, depending upon your particular strengths, weaknesses, and mistakes. Hopefully, though, this gives you a better idea of the way to analyze a problem. This framework also gives you a valuable way to discuss problems with fellow online students or in study groups – this is the kind of discussion that really helps to maximize scores.

* GMATPrep® question courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.

walt77

如何分析总结？
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/10/09/how-to-analyze-a-practice-problem

walt77

We spent the last two weeks discussing how to analyze practice tests. Let’s dive a bit deeper into how to analyze each practice problem. (You can find the two-part article on analyzing practice tests here: Part 1 and Part 2.)

When we study practice problems, our overall goal is to master the problem we’re working on right now. What does mastery mean? It means that, when we see a future different problem that tests the same thing as this current problem, we will recognize that the future problem has certain things in common with this current problem, and we will know what steps to take as a result — we will, literally, recognize what to do on the future different problem, a problem we’ve never actually seen before.


It’s necessary to get to this level of mastery because the problems we study will never be the actual problems we’re expected to do on the test. But we will see similar problems — problems that have something in common with problems that we’ve already studied. If we can recognize what to do, then we will be faster (which is always important on this test), and we will be more effective — we’ll be more likely to get it right because we’ll know that the method we’re using actually worked the last time we saw a similar problem.

This mastery we’re talking about — the ability to recognize what to do on a new, different-but-similar problem — comes from the analysis we do after we’ve already finished trying a new problem for the first time. And that’s the focus of today’s article: how do we analyze the practice problems after we’ve tried them?

First, of course, you have to try the problem itself, and you should generally hold yourself to the time constraints given by the test. Pick an answer to that problem within the expected time frame, even if you have no idea what the answer is — every aspect of this test needs to be practiced, including how to guess when you don’t know what to do!

Okay, so you’re done with the problem. Now what? Well, the first thing everybody does is check the answer, right? Interestingly, the analysis doesn’t depend much on whether you got it right or wrong! But we all want to know, so go ahead and check the answer. Just be aware that this doesn’t change your review process much.

Next, answer a series of questions.

1. Did I know WHAT they were trying to test?

Was I able to CATEGORIZE this question by topic and subtopic? By process / technique? If I had to look something up in my books, would I know exactly where to go? (If I couldn’t do this, I need to take the time to categorize it now, while I’m analyzing the problem.)
Did I COMPREHEND the symbols, text, questions, statements, and answer choices? Can I comprehend it all now, when I have lots of time to think about it? What do I need to do to make sure that I do comprehend everything here? How am I going to remember whatever I’ve just learned for future?
Did I understand the actual CONTENT (facts, knowledge) being tested? (Go back to your books and teacher to learn / understand anything that gave you trouble.)
2. How well did I HANDLE what they were trying to test?

Did I choose the best APPROACH? Or is there a better way to do the problem? (There’s almost always a better way!) What is that better way? How am I going to remember this better approach the next time I see a similar problem?
Did I have the SKILLS to follow through? Or did I fall short on anything? (Again, go back to your books and teacher to learn / understand anything that gave you trouble.)
Did I make any careless mistakes? If so, WHY did I make each mistake? What habits could I make or break to minimize the chances of repeating that careless mistake in future?
Am I comfortable with OTHER STRATEGIES that would have worked, at least partially? How should I have made an educated guess? (Think about this even for questions you get right — it’s often easier to develop alternative strategies and learn how to make an educated guess on problems that you got right. Then, you use the lessons learned when you see a harder problem of the same type / category.)
Do I understand every TRAP & TRICK that the writer built into the question, including wrong answers? (Again, it’s often easier to understand and learn to avoid traps on problems that you got right! Learn how to spot them consciously so that you can still avoid them even on harder problems.)
3. How well did I or could I RECOGNIZE what was going on?

Did I make a CONNECTION to previous experience? If so, what problem(s) did this remind me of and what, precisely, was similar? Or did I have to do it all from scratch? If so, see the next bullet.
Can I make any CONNECTIONS now, while I’m analyzing the problem? What have I done in the past that is similar to this one? How are they similar? How could that recognition have helped me to do this problem more efficiently or effectively? (This may involve looking up some past problem and making comparisons between the two!)
HOW will I recognize similar problems in the future? What can I do now to maximize the chances that I will remember and be able to use lessons learned from this problem the next time I see a new problem that tests something similar?
If you are not doing the above analysis on every GMAT problem you study, then you are not getting the most out of your study. If you have done tons of OG problems but haven’t done the above analysis, then you aren’t done with those questions. Go back and start doing this analysis. It doesn’t matter if you do fewer problems — obviously, this kind of analysis is going to take lots of time! But this kind of in-depth, high-quality review is exactly how you master this test.

I would far rather see my students do 20 problems with this kind of analysis than 50 problems without this kind of analysis. Generally, we should be spending about two to five times as long on analysis as we spent doing the problem in the first place. On a 2-minute problem, that means spending 4 to 10 minutes analyzing!

Okay, so what are you waiting for? Start studying! And good luck!