The Official Grammar Thread

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by sledger

Need to dig out the "poor standard of English" thread I made a while back tbh.

The whole concept is still wrong tbf.

[_Ed_]

Originally Posted by 8ankitj

First question I wanted to post: I have seen many of you write different to instead of different from which I thought would be more correct. When I first saw the usage of different to I found it very odd. Now I have got more used to it here. Is it a more common expression used in Australia as opposed to UK? We in India study UK English btw.

I've seen both used quite a bit, and even 'different than'. I have to be honest and say I don't know which, if any, is more correct. I certainly get the impression that they're much of a muchness.

OED agrees. Different from, than, or to? - Oxford Dictionaries Online

[Jono]

[Spark]

Tenses suck. My contribution for the day.

[Hurricane]

To pass the GMAT for MBA school you have to be a grammar king. I eventually found a useful book on grammar and I passed.

At one point I understood who vs whom can't remember now.

[Turbinator]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

To pass the GMAT for MBA school you have to be a grammar king. I eventually found a useful book on grammar and I passed.

At one point I understood who vs whom can't remember now.

Writing my GMAT in 5 weeks. The sentence correction portion seems the easiest to improve on, of the 5 sections.

[Spikey]

i can't wait for the chinese language to become king

[Hurricane]

Originally Posted by Turbinator

Writing my GMAT in 5 weeks. The sentence correction portion seems the easiest to improve on, of the 5 sections.

if you find a good book you can go from 50th percentile to 85th percentile.

At one point I wrote out all my tips for how to pass the GMAT adn I was going to publish them online.

I studied non stop for 2 months and ended up with 700.

What tips can I remember

1) Have a good title for your essay

2) Take your time on the 1st ten questions or you will never recover.

3) Buy a book on grammar. I found the perfect book can't speak highly enough of it.

4) Memorize the pythagorean triangles cold. They only used 4 or 5 variations of them. This will save you major minutes on the exam.

[sledger]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

The whole concept is still wrong tbf.

Wrong!

[silentstriker]

WRONG!

Unless of course you want the language to die and for people to move on. In which case, fair play.

[Turbinator]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

if you find a good book you can go from 50th percentile to 85th percentile.

At one point I wrote out all my tips for how to pass the GMAT adn I was going to publish them online.

I studied non stop for 2 months and ended up with 700.

What tips can I remember

1) Have a good title for your essay

2) Take your time on the 1st ten questions or you will never recover.

3) Buy a book on grammar. I found the perfect book can't speak highly enough of it.

4) Memorize the pythagorean triangles cold. They only used 4 or 5 variations of them. This will save you major minutes on the exam.

Nice score. Yeah, definitely looking to break that 700 barrier. Which book did you use?

I am studying off of the Manhattan GMAT guides, which in my opinion do a fair job covering all the topics and strategies. After that I guess it's just a matter of doing as many problems as you can, and in timed/pressure conditions.

[silentstriker]

I used to tutor people in GMAT/LSAT/MCAT. General strategy for success is that whatever resource you use, spend about 25% of time "learning" and 75% of time doing problems. If you get an answer right OR wrong, go over the explanation if they exist and make sure you completely understand WHY every other answer was wrong and yours was right. Eg make sure you know the meanings of all the other choices too. You will improve the most that way. Pretty true regardless of the standardized exam.

Also give yourself 20%-25% less time to do each problem than you have on the exam.

[Hurricane]

Originally Posted by Turbinator

Nice score. Yeah, definitely looking to break that 700 barrier. Which book did you use?

I am studying off of the Manhattan GMAT guides, which in my opinion do a fair job covering all the topics and strategies. After that I guess it's just a matter of doing as many problems as you can, and in timed/pressure conditions.

I can't remember the book now.

My other advice to you is what school to go to. Don't get caught up in the rankings. Decide what city you want to work in and then go to school in the best school in that city. That is the best advice I never took.

Most firms will recruit at their local MBA school.

[Turbinator]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

I used to tutor people in GMAT/LSAT/MCAT. General strategy for success is that whatever resource you use, spend about 25% of time "learning" and 75% of time doing problems. If you get an answer right OR wrong, go over the explanation if they exist and make sure you completely understand WHY every other answer was wrong and yours was right. Eg make sure you know the meanings of all the other choices too. You will improve the most that way. Pretty true regardless of the standardized exam.

Also give yourself 20%-25% less time to do each problem than you have on the exam.

Yeah, definitely working with these things in mind. I feel the biggest challenge is to remain calm during the actual exam, and not spend too much time on any one particular question.

Originally Posted by Hurricane

I can't remember the book now.

My other advice to you is what school to go to. Don't get caught up in the rankings. Decide what city you want to work in and then go to school in the best school in that city. That is the best advice I never took.

Most firms will recruit at their local MBA school.

True. But I am not really looking to apply to MBA programs just yet, will be getting some work experience for the next few years. Just getting the GMAT under my belt early, while I'm still relatively fresh out of undergrad and haven't lost that test taking intuition. Then depending on my score and other factors, I'll decide from there.

[Turbinator]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

I used to tutor people in GMAT/LSAT/MCAT. General strategy for success is that whatever resource you use, spend about 25% of time "learning" and 75% of time doing problems. If you get an answer right OR wrong, go over the explanation if they exist and make sure you completely understand WHY every other answer was wrong and yours was right. Eg make sure you know the meanings of all the other choices too. You will improve the most that way. Pretty true regardless of the standardized exam.

Also give yourself 20%-25% less time to do each problem than you have on the exam.

Thanks man. Followed this advice leading up to the exam, and scored a 720 today. Was quite relieved especially since the fatigue really started to kick in by the end of the verbal section. I had 11 questions left with 14 minutes on the board, started to panic, and the long passages stopped making sense. I am sure I lost a few crucial points there, but now I'm just glad it's all over and I won't have to look at another GMAT question ever again.