How to learn Sentence Correction? Cannot improve above 50%. GMAT Scheduled in 3 days.

Question

Tl;dr at bottom. Hi all, I have my GMAT scheduled in 3 days and am aiming for a 750+. My studying has went mostly well, my most recent quant scores on my last four practice tests have been Q51,Q50,Q51,Q51 which is a huge improvement over the Q45, Q46 I got on my first two diagnostic tests (one month ago). My verbal on the other hand has not improved despite significant practice (over 10 CATS, all reviewed after, and another 100+ practice problems). Even more disheartening, I seem to be scoring worse the more I practice, specifically at sentence correciton. I started with a good verbal score of V40, V42 on my first two diagnostic tests. My last 4 verbal scores however have been all over the place: V41, V37, V35, V36. I also managed to get V45 about 8 tests back, although now that's feeling like a complete fluke. My mistakes are almost exclusively in sentence correction. On my most recent V41 test I got 11/11 CR correct, 10/12 RC correct, and... 6/13 sentence correction correct. The test before (V37) I got 9/10 CR correct, 12/12 RC correct, and... 7/14 sentence correction correct. It's frustrating because it seems like if I were able to figure out sentence correction, I could be aiming for 770+ scores. The more I study sentence correction the more I seem to overthink it and mess rules up, I seem to have more trouble with it now (after doing 100+ questions of it) than prior to any study. At this point I almost feel like I am better off just reading the questions and choosing what sounds "right", rather than overthinking all the various rules, but if I do this I know I will also inevitably make mistakes. Has anyone been in this situation and if so, were there any tools that helped? Are there any good online resources that can teach me sentence correction? Is there a better way to approach sentence correction? Currently I read through all 5 answers, eliminating ones that are clearly wrong. I then compare answers that seem like they could be correct, establish the differences between them, and try to determine which version of the difference is the correct idiom/tense/form etc. Is there a better way? Tl;dr: How can I improve at sentence correction, other than doing practice problems? Are there any resources that can help me improve a score in 3 days?

Answer 1

A: It seems English isn't your native language, which will make sentence correction difficult for you. I'm going to guess Russian is. Your second sentence, "My studying has went mostly well" should be "My studying has GONE mostly well", and your last sentence (the Russian signature) "Are there any resources that can help me improve a score in 3 days?" should be "Are there any resources that can help me improve MY score in 3 days?" My best suggestion for you, considering that you've mentioned already studying the rules of English grammar and having more trouble applying them than knowing them, is: (1) For 3 days, AVOID reading any typical social media, which notoriously have horrendous grammar; and (2) Read as much as you can in classic American Literature, let's say anything written in the 1980s OR BEFORE. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Rice Burroughs, George Orwell (British, not American, but in his case, close enough), etc. In 3 days, don't get distracted by the stories (though you might enjoy them as a bonus), but rather, focus on sentence structure, sentence by sentence. See their wording, sentence flow, and sentence construction. Do as much of that as you can for those 3 days.