1. Introduction to Grammar for GMAT / CAT: Strategy for success (Class 1)
Free Online Class taken Live on Jan 30th 2010
Introduction to Grammar for GMAT / CAT: Strategy for success (Class 1)
By: Satyadhar Joshi

2. Content of Presentation
Introduction to Grammar for GMAT
Structure and strategy of the course
Basics of Articles, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Verbs
Common mistakes
Pronoun Errors
Parallelism
References
More to read…..

3. Structure of My Course on Grammar
The most comprehensive strategy to get you a top score
1/3 questions in GMAT based on grammar*
Before going to GMAT grammar lets learn basic grammar and terminologies (Class 1: today). This glossary will help you to understand grammar so that we can jump to specifics in GMAT grammar
Specific GMAT grammar (Class 2)
Questions Basic Level (Class 3)
Questions Advanced Level (Class 4)
(Course targeted from Feb to March)
Also Applicable for AWA Essays

4. Scaling with CAT may bring it down closer to pattern of GMAT in 2011
In order to ensure appropriate interpretation of an equated raw score, the scores must be placed on a common scale or metric. A linear transformation was used for this scaling process, which is an industry standard practice (Kolen & Brennan, 2004)
The IIM scaling model is as follows: Section Scores = (Mean of 40 and Standard deviation of 24) 0-150
Total Exam Score = (Summation of three section scores)

5. Introduction
Areas of class includes: Articles, Preposition, Common mistakes and important rules.
Today my aim is to introduce you good enough so that you can take this area on yourself
Also I will be talking about the toughest questions, RCs, critical reasoning and fill in the Blanks of Big- book in future
Our focus here is on sentence correction
Book Reviews: GMAT Verbal Princeton, Manhatten, and Winners guide
References are very useful to understand this presentation

6. Grammar areas in GMAT / CAT
Pronoun Errors
Misplaced modifiers
Parallel Construction
Tense
Subject Verb Agreement
Idiom
Applies & Oranges
Quantity Words’
Comparison
*Application in sentence correction
Page of Book: Cracking the GMAT CAT, Princeton Review

7. Strategy for Grammar Questions
Train yourself with all the skills you need to understand the fundamentals of grammar
Never rewrite question in your brain and look for the options matching in the choices
Take the hints from the answers and remove the wrong sentences
Use power of elimination to remove the choices very carefully
When reduced into two choices don’t leave the question at that point, get it done to a 100% (the destination is nearby so don’t give up)
Page 9-13, Book:Verbal workout for GMAT Princeton

8. Restate: Five imp points for Sentence Correction
Don’t rewrite sentence in mind and look for match, but use power of elimination
Learn Grammar to catch grammatical errors
Get rid of choices with same error ( keep looking and fine-tuning and improving your scope)
USE POE (process of elimination)
If you are down to two choices , find flaw in wrong one
Page 17-19, Book: Verbal workout for GMAT by Princeton

9. Common Mistakes
Apostrophe: Omitted when the word becomes a proper noun. Ex. Technical teachers convention. Avoid adding apostrophe to any kind of noun. Ex. Society’s well being vs. well being of society
Countable and uncountable
A collective noun
Conjunction & Verb

10. Removing the Middleman
Remove the unwanted information and cut down sentence is shorter for effective scrutiny of the errors
Sometimes picking only one aspect is a good strategy
Page 19-20,Book: Manhattan GMAT sentence correction Guide

11. Physics of Grammar: An attempt to develop energy for learning
Grammar can be understood as Physics, where we can break the complex things into simpler laws
I have been trying to build some analogy which I will discuss in the future classes in details
Constrains of areas that comes under the exam domain
Logic always prevails
Law of conservation of momentum is like parallelism
Law of optics like convergence of focus can be seen as convergence of all ideas at the subject
Misplaced modifiers can be seen as free body diagram

12. Articles
a/an (used before the singular noun which is countable (i.e. of which there is more than one) Ex. I live in a flat, they live in a flat, he bought a flat. Also used with complement ex. He will be a good actor. Also used when ratios are used like Rs 5 a kilo. And in exclamations
Omission a/an (i) before plural if a noun ex. Plural of a dog is dogs (ii) before uncountable nouns
Be careful in replacing one with a
One is used with the combination of another/other Ex. Onw wanted to read, another/other wanted to watch TV
A little(uncountable)/ a few (countable) & little/few
The (the definite articles): It is mostly used when the objective is unique. Also used before names
The is also called the definite article
Book: Chandresh Agrawal, CAT Priyanka Prakshan

13. From Wiki
In grammar, a preposition is a part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. For example, in the sentence "The cat sleeps on the sofa", the word "on" is a preposition, introducing the prepositional phrase "on the sofa". In English, the most used prepositions are "of", "to", "in", "for", "with" and "on".

14. Examples of Prepositions

15. Preposition
Omission of to and for before indirect objects: Ex. I gave the book to Priya = I gave Priya the book (we omitted to); I will find a job for Priya vs I will find Priya a job (we can omit for).
Position : the people with whom I was traveling (better) vs. the people I was traveling with
Use and omission of to with verbs of communications. Ex. Verbs of commands needs to whereas verbs of complain don’t necessarily require to Ex. They advised him to wait vs. Ajay (to her ) complained about the food.
Time and date: at, on, be, before, in
At a time: at midnight; at an age. On the morning/afternoon/evening/night
On time (at the time arranged), in time (not late), in good time (with comfortable margin)
At the beginning (of) /end (of), in the beginning/end, at first / at last : Ex. At the beginning of the book there is often a table of contents
Time: from, since, for, during. From is normally used with to or till/until.
Time: to, till/until, after, afterwards. After must be followed by a noun or pronoun
Travel and movement: from, to, at, in, by, on. Onto, off, out, out of. Ex We traveled from our starting home to our destination.
Book: Chandresh Agrawal, CAT Priyanka Prakshan

16. More prepositions At, in; in, into ; on, onto Above, over
Preposition used with adjectives and participles
Verbs and preposition
Adverbs and preposition

17. Apostrophe: The Most Common Mistakes
Mixing up it's and its
Wrong: The dog wagged it's tail.
Right: The dog wagged its tail.
Wrong: Each program has it's own quirks.
Right: Each program has its own quirks.
Pluralizing words with apostrophes
Wrong: Piano's for Sale!
Right: Pianos for Sale!
Wrong: I design web site's.
Right: I design web sites.
Using improper contractions
Wrong: Your going to be in trouble.
Right: You're going to be in trouble.
Wrong: He let's his son run wild.
Right: He lets his son run wild.

18. Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns
Countable (use a/an or a number in front of countable nouns)
Uncountable (there is no a/an or number with uncountable nouns)
An Apple / 1 Apple
Rice
I eat an apple every day.
I eat rice every day. (not I eat a rice every day.)
Add (s) to make a countable noun plural
There is no plural form for an uncountable noun
apples
rice
I eat an apple every day. Apples are good for you.
I eat rice every day. Rice is good for you.

19. Possessives
Add an apostrophe and an s to singular nouns to indication possession. According to several current grammar texts, add the apostrophe after the letter s to indicate a plural possessive, unless the dual s sounds are pronounced. It is also standard to use the “apostrophe s” with Biblical names, probably out of tradition more than for reasons of phonology or grammar.
He located the cat’s toy under the chair.
The cats’ toys were tattered after years of play.
The Smiths’ two cats chased the Wilsons’ dog.
Plural possessives can be challenging:
The Williamses’s dogs chase cats. (Strunk & White style) The Williamses’ dogs chase cats. (AP Stylebook and MLA version)
The first version of the last example looks odd to many readers. Strunk and White suggest the apostrophe plus s, AP Style omits the last s. We tend to pronounce the -ez sound instinctively when it helps clarify the quantity of the noun. The last s desired by Strunk and White is seldom vocalized. The second version, without the s, is more common and closer to the spoken version of the sentence.

20. Introductions to Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word which merely joins together sentences, and sometimes words.
Until: As long as
Until expresses time before, as long as expresses period of time
In grammar, a conjunction (abbreviated conj or cnj) is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" should be defined for each language. In general, a conjunction is an invariable grammatical particle, and it may or may not stand between the items it conjoins. (From Wikipedia)

21. Some Conjunction
Below is a list of subordinating conjunctions used to introduce adverb clauses. TIME after as once every time (that) before as soon as as/so long as the first time (that) when since whenever the last time (that) while until by the time (that) the next time (that)

22. Tense: Basic and advanced
Present past and future
Past prefect, present perfect and future perfect
Use present to express habit or routine
In adverb clause of time and condition, the present tense is used for future. Ex. If you will be going to Madras, you will meet him vs. If you go to madras, you will meet him
In the same sentence, care must be taken that there is no shifting of tense
Historical Present: Asoka is one of the greatest of king
The Had tense: When two events of the past are related through time, the earlier of the two events is indicated by had-tense. Ex. When I went to his house, he went to his office vs. When I went to his house, he had gone to his office(correct)
Page 48-50, Book: Verbal workout for GMAT by Princeton

23. Subject Verb Agreement
It is the most seen subject in the GMAT
The simplicity entangled with the complexity of questions in this area makes it an all time favorite.
The number of arrests of drunken drivers are increasing every year: (wrong)
The number (of arrests of drunken drivers) is increasing every year: (correct)
Most asked question in Indian Exams

24. List of Singular Subjects
Nouns
The Netherlands
The family
The audience
Politics
Measles
The Number
The amount
Pronouns:
Each
Everyone
Nobody

25. Pronoun: An Introduction
A pronoun is a word that stands for a noun, known as the antecedent of the pronoun. The key point for the use of pronouns is this: pronouns must agree with their antecedents in both number (singular or plural) and person (first, second, or third).
Example: Steve has yet to receive his degree. Here, the pronoun his refers to the noun Steve.
Each pronoun must agree with the noun it replaces
Each pronoun must refer directly and unambiguously to the noun it replaces
It, its, they their

26. Examples of Pronoun Errors
Subject verb agreement

27. Modifiers Adjective Preposition Appositives
Misplaced modifier is the major questions we are going to get
MISPLACED MODIFIERS
As a general rule, a modifier should be placed as close as possible to what it modifies.
Example:
Following are some useful tips for protecting your person and property from the FBI.
As written, the sentence implies that the FBI is a threat to your person and property. To correct the sentence put the modifier from the FBI next to the word it modifies, tips:
Following are some useful tips from the FBI for protecting your person and property.

28. Parallelism Question type: sentences which aren’t parallel
Individual parts must be parallel
We cannot compares apples with oranges
Page 30-32, Book: Verbal workout for GMAT by Princeton
Page 77; Boook:Manhattan GMAT verbal Manual

29. Example of Parallelism

30. References & More readings
Book: Manhattan GMAT verbal Manual
Book: Manhattan GMAT sentence correction Guide
Verbal workout for GMAT Princeton
Winners guide to GMAT Grammar
Chandresh Agrawal, CAT Priyanka Prakshan
English Grammer by Wren & Martin

31. Websites http://www.scribd.com/doc/17337550/Grammar-Strategies- GMAT
strategies
grammar.html
Notes
torial/page_76.htm
Etc…

32. Youtube videos http://www.youtube.com/user/ManhattanReview
Etc…