APPROACH TO SC, PLS, HELP, EXPERTS, MEMBERS.

[thanghnvn]

Ron, Manhantant experts, and members, pls read my following post carefully and comment to help me.

I wish you to discuss with me about a problem with SC approach. How to do a SC problem is important. I want to make clear the process of doing a SC problem. It is possible that the successful persons on SC do a SC problem too fast and can not realize the steps they perform when they do a SC problem. I wish to learn the steps of doing a SC problem. Please, do a SC problem and write down the steps you do for a SC problem. Why do I need you to write down the steps? because the problem with me is that I can understand the explanation of a SC problem fast but can not perform on the test.

When I begin to do a SC problem, I meet the one of the 2 following cases.

1. THE FIRST CASE:

the first thing we have to do is to read the entire sentence. In this first case, after I read the original sentence, I understand the meaning/intent of the sentence easily

then, I continue to read choice B,C,D,E. I compare the answer choices to find the differences among answer choices and look for mechanical grammar errors before looking for logic errors. This is process of doing a SC in this case.

the important point of this case is that I understand the meaning/intent of the SC problem immediately after I read the original sentence. Understanding the meaning/intent of the SC problem before comparing answer choices makes me VERY EASY to find errors. But most of SC questions are in the second case.

2. THE SECOND CASE:

the important point in this case is that after reading the original sentence, I can not understand meaning/intent of the SC problem. I continue to read choices BCD. after I finish reading the choice D, I still can not understand the meaning/intent of the SC problems. Why? because the choices ABCD are complex and long and are made so incorrect that I can not realize the intent/meaning of the SC problems. But, even I have not understood the meaning/intent after I read choice D, I can still eliminate choice B, for example, because choice B contain mechanical grammar error which dose not require me to understand the meaning to realize.

After I read choice E, I realize the meaning/intent of the SC problem. I return to choices ACD, compare them, look for differences among them, and look for errors

I can find out the logic errors ONLY WHEN I understand the meaning/intent of the SC problems.

from above process of doing in second case, I conclude that the priority when doing a SC problem is to look for meaning/intent of the SC problem when you read the original sentence and the answer choices. Of course when you are looking for the meaning, you still can eliminate the answer choices with the mechannical grammar error which dose not require you to understand the meaning.

Once I got the meaning/intent of the SC problem I can realize the logic error easily.

So, I make a slogan

SLOGAN: LOOKING FOR MEANING/INTENT FIRST WHEN READING THE ORIGINAL AND ANSWER CHOICES.

I am now applying this slogan/approach to a few new long SC questions to see whether this slogan is effective.

Can any of you detail the steps when you do a SC problem. please, slow down your process of doing an SC and write down the steps here so that I can learn from you.
is my thinking correct?, pls, help me find out the best approach for SC. pls comment and give your idea. Thank you.

[thanghnvn]

Sory, I want to post more.

The problem in the second case is that after I read choices A,B,C, and D, I still do not understand the meaning/intent of the SC problem and that reading choice A,B,C and D is time-consuming and hard. GMAT deliberately distort the meaning/intent heavily to create choice A,B,C and D. If GMAT make choice A wrong a little, we will understand the meaning/intent immediately after we read the original and the realizing the errors will be much much more easy.

the process of reading choic A,B,C and D while not understanding the meaning/intent is hard and time consuming, expecially for non native speakers. Dose anyone has any solution for dealing with this process? pls, help, explain.

Ron, your explanation of the errors is wonderful. But, we also need a good approach. Please, help us in this problem. Thank you.

[thanghnvn]

sorry, I wish to post a little more. pls, comment.

when a all or most of SC question is underlined , the dificulty will be that I do not understand the meaning/intent after reading the first few answer choices. This kind of question is one example of the second case I said above. after reading the original sentence and 5 answer choices, I can eliminate only 1 or 2 choices which contain mechanical grammar errors. And there are 3,4 answer choices left. What do I do now? I can not realize the intent/meaning and can not realize the logic error at this step. please, help.

[tim]

Ron, Manhantant experts, and members, pls read my following post carefully and comment to help me.

...

1. THE FIRST CASE:

the first thing we have to do is to read the entire sentence. In this first case, after I read the original sentence, I understand the meaning/intent of the sentence easily

then, I continue to read choice B,C,D,E. I compare the answer choices to find the differences among answer choices and look for mechanical grammar errors before looking for logic errors. This is process of doing a SC in this case.

the important point of this case is that I understand the meaning/intent of the SC problem immediately after I read the original sentence. Understanding the meaning/intent of the SC problem before comparing answer choices makes me VERY EASY to find errors. But most of SC questions are in the second case.

Please note that when you say "Ron, Manhantant experts, and members", it makes it sound like you are enumerating three separate groups. I for one would definitely count Ron in the "expert" group.. :)

It sounds like your approach here is good; you just need to focus on moving more of the questions from the second case to the first one. Finding a workaround for sentences where you can't tell the meaning will probably not work as well as you'd like, as then you are missing a crucial component to understanding the problem. You should be able to get at least some sense of what the sentence is about from reading the original. Go back to the ones where you were unsuccessful at that and spend some more time figuring them out..