Keys to improve your performance on GMAT Subject Verb Agreement

Reference & EducationCollege & University

  • Author John Christianson
  • Published August 31, 2010
  • Word count 520

Most of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) examinees find it hard to pass its Verbal section. It is the Sentence Correction questions that GMAT aspirants struggled most. Well, with no doubt, these examinees know how to read, write and speak. But why they are struggling then? One reason that we could consider as hindrance to easily pass GMAT Sentence Correction is the fact that they are not English native speakers. One thing here, Sentence Correction is difficult for them because they are still stutter towards English grammar, especially on subject verb agreement.

The mistakes in GMAT Sentence Correction test are commonly coming from subject verb agreement. The basic rule of subject verb agreement says that "the subject must agree in number." Seems easy to understand, right? But there are still people especially GMAT examinee get it wrong and becomes one of the reasons why they failed GMAT. Well, this calls to learn and familiarize with the subject verb agreement.

It should be remembered by everyone to listen with the sound of "s" when writing. Many of us are likely to drop the "s" sound when talking fast. This is the reason that resulted on the unconscious dropping of "s" sound when writing. However this common mistake can be simply solved by following this.

The verb should agree with the right subject. Common mistakes happen when someone writes long sentences and get confused on which noun that a verb should agree with. When this occurs, reading the sentence carefully with comprehension will do best to identify the right subject.

Another common mistake is the misconception about the collective nouns. Collective nouns are used to refer a group or family. Some of these are: a family, an army, a class, a company and a company. When these nouns are inside the sentence, the verb should be in singular form.

Identifying the subject in a sentence determines the right verb to use. For most of the cases, subject is usually immediate to the left of the verb. When the subjects are connected with "or" use a singular form of the verb. And the subjects that are connected with the word "and" should use plural form of the verb. However, if it’s still unclear, just remember that the verb agrees with the nearest subjects. The inclusive nouns should also be taken for consideration. These are the subjects that are sound plural but actually use singular verbs. An example of these are the word everybody, anybody, no one, somebody, nobody, each, either and neither.

There is no denying that English has the largest vocabularies in the world. And because of this, one could not expect that learning English grammar specially the subject verb agreement is very easy. However, this should not let GMAT aspirants to be discouraged for there are many GMAT exam resources online that offers exam practice tests in this area. These GMAT exam resources online are of great help especially for someone who needs improvement in subject verb agreement through online and downloadable practice tests. With goal focus and determination, learning the subject verb agreement could be fun and easy.

The GMAT bootcamp is a site authored by me to help students pass the GMAT. Find more on how to improve your performance on GMAT subject verb agreement in just no time by visiting http://www.thegmatbootcamp.com

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