GMAT & MBA Admissions

GMAT Review Series: Sentence Correction - Parallelism

Written by Mark Skoskiewicz | July 25, 2019 2:00:00 PM Z

In today’s GMAT Review Series video, we’ll take a look at a Sentence Correction (Parallelism/Verb Tense) question from GMAT’s Official Guide 2019 – Verbal Diagnostic Exam.

Key pointers from this video:  

  1. Begin by setting up your scratch pad to help you ID the Error Category
    Write the question number with a line beside it to write any errors you identify in the sentence or the answer choices. List answer choices below to facilitate the process of elimination as you work.

  2. Ignore Punctuation as a Standalone Issue
    The GMAT does not test punctuation, so never worry about punctuation as a standalone issue. Punctuation can be subjective and all errors on the GMAT have to be absolute.

  3. Look to Main Subject & Verbs for Errors

Look at the subject and verbs for the clearest understanding of any potential errors. Find the subject and any verbs in the underlined portion of the sentence.

  • In this case “dolphins” are the subject and “recognizing” and “to grasp” are the verbs, these are not parallel verb tenses, so we have identified the error category (parallelism/verb tense).

Always default to the original sentence as it was written when considering different meanings. As you move through the answer choices, read the sentence literally to see if it makes sense.

This video was produced by MyGuru's Director of Online Instruction and expert online GMAT tutor Stefan Maisnier. Visit our YouTube channel for more GMAT analogy videos.