MGMAT - Bonus Online Question Banks

9. Despite entering the courthouse with police escort, the lead attorney and his assistant, manhandled by an aggressive crowd of reporters that bombarded him with questions, was injured seriously enough to warrant immediate medical attention.

Skip the Middlemen (prepositional, modifier and subordinate clauses)

Opening Modifier (Preposition):
Despite entering the courthouse with police escort
Preposition: Despite
Verb Phrase: Entering the courthouse
Corrected: "Despite" requires "Noun Phrase"

Past Participle Modifier:
manhandled by an aggressive crowd of reporters

Relative Pronoun Modifier:
that (relative pronoun) bombarded him (pronoun) with questions
Corrected: Pronoun is ambiguous so repeat the noun, like "The Lawyer"

Find the subject and verb - agree in number, meaning and sense?

Subject: the lead attorney and his assistant
Verb: was injured seriously enough to warrant immediate medical attention

Agree in number? No.
Corrected tense: WERE injured

10. The Diary of Anne Frank tells the true story of a young girl and her family that were hidden during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands by a gentile Dutch couple, though they were eventually discovered.

Pronouns

Main Clause
The Diary of Anne Frank - Subject

Tells - Verb

the true story - object

of a young girl and her family - preposition + connecting conjunction (connects words)

who (relative pronoun/subject) were hidden (verb) - relative clause modifying noun phrase

Deadly Five Pronoun "They" is ambiguous

Modifiers - By a gentile Dutch couple

Carbon monoxide levels in the atmosphere grew by enough of an increased percentage during the twentieth century that it began to trap heat radiating from the Earth, and it caused the average surface temperature to rise.

Carbon monoxide levels - Subject Noun

Grew - Verb

By enough of an increase percentage - Redundancy (increased sufficiently)

That - Relative Pronoun/Modifying Clause

Pronoun

It - Deadly Five - Ambiguous

And - connecting conjunction (subordinate Vs coordinating conjunction)

Subordinate - de-emphasize the second clause and emphasize the main clause

Which - Modifies noun only, not the whole clause

Having lived in Tahiti for several years, where life was slow and relaxed, it was difficult for Paul Gauguin to readjust to the hectic pace of Paris upon returning.

Having - Present Participle Modifier
Where - Relative pronoun modifying place

Though some education experts claim that the low test scores of children in the city can be raised by hiring more teachers and an increase in the amount of funding for textbooks and other supplies, others insist that doing this cannot guarantee any improvement.

Parallelism Marker - And

By hiring more teachers and increasing funding for textbook and other supplies

Pronoun cannot replace verbs/verb phrase, pronouns can only replace nouns. Instead use "so".

17. An economic recession can result from a lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.


An economic recession (Subject) can result (Verb)
Preposition modifier - From a lowering of (falling) employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes (causing) people to cut (cutbacks in) consumer spending and starting

Practice Problems - MGMAT FlashCards

1. She requires that all of her children are to churn butter; resulting from this daily chore, the children have formidable biceps.

Verb Mood
She requires that all of her children are to churn butter

Command Subjunctive
Bossy Verb + that + Subject + Command Subjunctive
Requires + that + Children + Churn

Command Subjunctive
= Bare form (no "to" in infinitive)

Idiom
resulting from this daily chore, the children have formidable biceps

Resulting from = idiom error
As a result of = correct

2. If I was the owner of our building, I would demand, under threat of eviction, that you should cease playing your djembe at all hours

Verb Mood

If I was the owner of our building

Hypothetical Subjunctive
- As if, As though, If (except for If, Then cases)
- Use "Were" for "To Be Verb"
- Was = To Be Verb

Correct: If I were the owner of our building...

I would demand... that you should cease playing your djembe at all hours

Command Subjunctive
Bossy Verb + that + Subject + Command Subjunctive
Demand + that + you + cease

Command Subjective
= Bare Form (No SHOULD CEASE, just CEASE)

3. After the president of the college worried publicly about the sharp drop in the value of its endowment, the head of faculty suggested that they initiate a fundraising campaign immediately.

Its = possessive pronoun
They = ???

One way to fix it is to replace it with the noun you want to refer to.
*Deadly five: Its, It, They, Them, Their

4. As being the world's top collector of empty vitamin bottles, Mrs. Simpson has ten times as many bottles in her robust and famous collection than does Mr. Flanders, a mere hobbyist.

Idioms
As Being = wrong
As (Without the Being) the world's top collector =in the role of

As Many... As

5. Between my two brothers, Salvatore is the most intelligent. Between my three sisters, Julia is the most clever.

Comparison

2 people = Between = Comparative Form
Comparative Form = More Intelligent

3 people (three sisters) = Among = Superlative Form
Superlative Form = Most Clever

21. Timmy on expresses affection for this dog, Lassie; as a result, Lassie only eats top-shelf dog food.

Idiom

24. Mr. Vega's mother noticed that a button was falling off his coat and that his clothes were in a general state of disrepair, so he was advised by her to fix the coat.

26. Once you show her the ropes, Josephina's natural skill as a salesperson will allow her to run the store by herself in no time.

Modifier

Noun Modifier (Type: Conjunction): Once you show her the ropes

Modified noun: Touch Rule, Possessives (Josephina's natural skill, not Josephina)

Pronouns/Nouns

Noun: Josephina's natural skill as a sales person

Pronouns: her, herself --> Cannot modify Josephina's

Corrected Version:

27. Alexander the Great remarked that conquering foreign states couldn't compare to the vanquishing of his enemies at home.

Parallelism - Simple Gerund Vs Complex Gerund
Parallel marker: Compare to

Simple Gerund (nouns on the outside, verbs on the inside): conquering foreign states
Complex Gerund (nouns through and through):
Article + ing verb form + of prepositional phrase
The + Vanquish-in + Of his enemies at home

Reasoning: Simple gerund cannot be parallel to complex gerund

28. Us attending the conference is dependent on our pilot receiving clearance to take off.

Verb Tense
Present Participles: Attending & Receiving

Present participles = ing forms

- used to modify nouns, verbs, or even whole clauses

29. The highly-advanced robot is proficient both in Japanese and English - and there is an expectation by us that the new model should be produced only in limited quantities for maintaining the product's cachet.

Idioms
The highly-advanced robot is proficient both in Japanese and English

Parallelism marker/Idiom - both x and y (must be parallel)
- both IN Japanese and IN English
- in both Japanese and English

Corrected: The highly-advanced robot is proficient in both Japanese and English

Passive Voice: and there is an expectation by us
Corrected active voice: We expect that

Verb Tense: that the new model should be produced only in limited quantities
Corrected Verb Tense: will be

Meaning: for maintaining the product's cachet
Corrected meaning: In order to maintain the product's cachet

31. My mother considers my vegetarianism as an insult to her cooking - it seems like she is obsessed with convincing me to try the rack of lamb.

Idioms:
Considers X as Y
Considers + my vegetarianism + as + an insult to her cooking
Corrected: Considers X Y
Considers + my vegetarianism + an insult to her cooking

36. Peter thinks he can swim fast like Michael Phelps does; he has also claimed to be an unrecognized world champion of sports like sprinting and boxing.

Type: Comparisons. How do we tell? With comparison signals: Like, Unlike, As, Than

Comparison signal here: LIKE

What is it comparing?

Clause/Verb: Swim fast, Does

37. Since 1973, the record was broken eight times due to technology that advanced even more rapidly than commentators have predicted.

Since = From past to present (Use perfect tense)

Since.... Has Been (present tense) Broken, has advanced (present perfect)

Commentators predicted (happened before the breaking of records) = Use Past Perfect

Past Perfect = HAD Predicted

38. My child has better hygiene than those of my sister; neither of her boys ever seem to wash their hands.

Demonstrative pronouns: This, That, Those, These

Remember, for THAT and THOSE: Can be used as adjectives OR new copy

What's new copy? Same thing of a new antecedent

Must also agree in number

My child has better hygiene than those of my sister

What's the problem here? It doesn't agree in number. We mean to refer to my sister's boys.

Also remember, for This and These: Means the exact same antecedent

Week 1 - Jan 2 - Kaplan Practice Questions & Error Review

What I did

• 10 Practice Questions from Kaplan
• Review Errors (7 out of 10 correct, 3 slow)

I analyzed my errors using the method Kaplan has in the answers section as well as this article by Beat the Gmat.

Find your weaknesses

Roadblocks
1. Question Stem
• Identify the question type
• Forgot what strategies to employ

2. Stimulus
• Unable to digest the dense language
• Struggle to identify the assumption
• Unable to Form a confident prephrase
• Misread the scope

3. Answer Choices
• Did no answer seem correct?
• Did more than one answer seem correct?
• Misread the scope of the stimulus?
• Struggled to connect the ideas in the answer choices to the ideas in the stimulus?

Blindspots
• What you thought you were doing right?
• What you were doing wrong?
• What happened?

Reinforce your strengths

• Read explanations you got right