Sentence Correction

GMAT Sentence correction tests the use of a preposition at the end of the sentence. From our school days, we are taught that this is a violation of Basic English grammar. But a common mistake that we make while spotting prepositions at the end of the sentence is our inability to differentiate between proposition & a phrasal verb.


Preposition as the name suggests is pre-position. It comes before a noun or a pronoun and connects to another word. However, there are exceptions where preposition comes after a noun or a pronoun.

Let us look at a list of some of the common Prepositions & find out the difference between a preposition and a ‘Phrasal Verb’

Modifiers are words or phrases that modify the subject. Common GMAT Sentence correction modifiers are phrases. You rarely see a word modifying the subject, unless it is the use of “only”, “almost”, and other adverbs.

Misplaced modifiers are easy to spot, and test takers should master this concept before learning the nuances of GMAT Sentence correction.

Learn about modifiers commonly tested in GMAT Sentence Correction

The question of using I or “Me” - the subject or the object has bemused even the best of the writers. The Authors of classic literature have made this mistake while other modern day writers have unknowingly mixed it up.

Luckily, there is an easy way to check the rule, and spot errors in GMAT Sentence Correction. Read More!

“Whom vs Who” is a commonly tested concept in GMAT Sentence correction. Some experts advice test takers to listen to the sentence while others advice to focus on the ‘subject’. This rule is partly correct, but in a sentence with multiple potential subjects, applying the rule consistently is a challenge.


Learn how to decode the ‘Whom vs Who’ problem with a simple formula

Possessive pronouns should be handled more or less the same way as the nominative and objective pronouns: make sure that there is a clear antecedent in the sentence and that the pronoun agrees with that antecedent.

Apostrophe placement and pronoun forms are rarely tested on the GMAT, so a quick review of those issues should be enough to ensure that you’ll be prepared for them if they appear on GMAT. Learn how to handle possessive pronouns in GMAT.

It’s important to make sure that whenever you compare two things, those things are similar enough to make a comparison appropriate.  For example, if you and a friend are both preparing for the GMAT, but your friend has the luxury of studying full-time while you have a job and a family competing for your attention, it’s not appropriate to compare your score improvements with those of your friend. Learn how to solve GMAT Parallelism Questions.

As you may know, diction refers to word choice. Usually, we use the term “diction” to describe an author’s tone or style - rarely does word choice have an effect on grammar. In some cases, though, it does. The GMAT Sentence Corrections will test you only on those occasions when word choice affects grammar, not when one word will be more effective than another.

Find out when!

I have been struggling with SC since the last 2 months. I have done the Manhattan GMAT SC Guide, as well as, the Official guide multiple times. But my scores are just not going up. I seem to know all the rules like the back of my hand but when it comes to the actual test I seem to make mistakes in the most obvious of places. What is worse is that even after practising so hard I don’t seem to figure out where I am going wrong. Is there anything – just about anything – I can do to improve my accuracy in SC?”

When you deal with the simplest formal logic statement: If X, then Y.  But what happens when our necessary or sufficient factors become more complicated?  Let’s look at a couple of examples, using the idea of a vegetable salad.  The simplest statement and its contrapositive might look like this.

If the salad has lettuce, then it has tomatoes.
If the salad has no tomatoes, then it has no lettuce.

When you are forming a contrapositive, you already know that the necessary and sufficient factors are switched around and negated. Learn how.

Many GMAT students complain that the use of passive and active voices on the GMAT is random.  Sometimes, the correct answer to a Sentence Correction will be in the passive voice, but other times, a choice will be eliminated for being in the passive voice.

How can you tell when it matters and when it doesn’t? Learn about GMAT Active and Passive Voice Usage.

Some GMAT sentence correction questions test not only for the accepted rules of grammar but also for the specific preferred style of the GMAT. Luckily, “who” vs. “whom,” is not one of those issues; this is a pretty straightforward issue, and is usually not tested in a complicated way. However, since even the most knowledgeable and educated writers sometimes misuse “who” and “whom,” it’s worth reviewing a couple of rules that can help guide you in determining the correct usage of these pronouns.


GMAT Sentence Correction - Using "Whom" and "Who"

Sentence corrections on the GMAT tests many of the same issues in subject-verb agreement as in pronoun-antecedent agreement: it’s important to distinguish singular nouns from plural ones, even when the test-makers have made it difficult to do so. Learn How!

A common trick used by GMAT test makers is to insert modifying phrases incorrectly. Let us look at 10 Sentences and see how GMAT test creators strategically place modifying phrases, and how to spot the error in usage.

Errors in pronouns—words like he, she, it, they, our, etc.—and antecedents—the words that the pronouns refer to—are among the most common errors in English Grammar.

Find out how to correctly use Pronouns in Sentence Correction

GMAT Sentence correction(SC) comprises 15 of the total 41 verbal questions, which means that the majority of verbal questions are from GMAT SC. With SC questions, you will be presented with a question followed by five answer choices. The question will be underlined in part. You have to select the best answer choice that rephrases the underlined part of the question. Remember - the first answer choice will repeat the original text so don't bother to read it again. Find out the strategies to solve GMAT Sentence Correction Questions.

Once in a while, the GMAT will hurl a particularly nasty question in your direction, one that seems deliberately designed to make you feel uncertain about all of the answer choices. These sorts of questions will most likely include rare idioms, awkward phrasing, and suspicious pronouns to keep you off balance.

Learn how to listen to sentences for your GMAT Sentence Correction Section.

Verbs make fantastic decision points, as they are involved in subject-verb agreement errors, verb tense errors, and comparison errors (are we comparing an action to an action?).  Pronouns also lend themselves well to decisions, as they can disagree in number or they can fail to refer to anything specific. Find out how to spot decision points in GMAT Sentence Correction

The single-most crucial type of Sentence Correction error, Modifiers, Comparisons, and Verb Tenses all share one thing in common: you do not  need to be an expert editor to recognize that this sentence is illogical! 

The introductory phrase in this sentence, “the single-most type…” is clearly meant to describe one item, but the rest of the sentence lists three.  This does not make logical sense! Learn More!

Sentence Correction is not about the grammar!  Sentence Correction exists to test your decision making abilities first and foremost, and does so by taking a common and much-shallower-than-you’d-think pool of skills and knowledge and using that as a basis to test your higher-order thinking. Learn about the 3 Crucial GMAT Sentence Correction Strategies