The Sentence correction questions in CAT are
designed to test your ability to identify written English that
is both formal and grammatically-correct. Each question of SC
begins with a sentence, parts of which have been underlined. You
will then be presented with different choices of answers
presenting alternative ways of stating the underlined portion of
the text. Usually one of the answer choices just repeats the text
without any changes (thereby meaning that the sentence in the
question correct) whereas the other choices will re-write the
text in different ways.
An example of SC question:-
I was taken aback to see a policeman marching my grocer down the street this afternoon
A) I was taken aback to see a policeman marching my grocer
B) I was taken back to see a policeman marching my grocer
C) I was taken aback to see a policeman marched my
D) I was taken a back to see a policeman marching my grocer
Options B and D are not correct as the word 'aback' means to get startled by something and does not means the same as the word 'back' which is used in the answer choices B and D .
Option C is also not the correct answer here as the tense of the sentence is changing here. Instead of marching it is written marched thereby changing the very tense of the sentence
Therefore the correct option is A. Usually A is the choice in which the answer choice is written exactly the same as the underlined part of the sentence thereby implying that the underlined part of the question is correct in itself.
The correct answer choice will usually be the one having
- No grammatical mistakes
- Structure of the sentence will be in order and synchronized
- No diction errors
- The meaning of the sentence will have no change
There are several grammatical areas that come up frequently on Sentence Correction items and you must be fluent with each one of them in order to tackle the Sc part effectively.
- verb tenses
- subject/verb agreement
- modifiers
- comparisons and parallelism
- pronoun usage
- idioms
- clarity
Strategies to tackle the SC questions
Multiple Errors
It has been seen that in CAT a number o times a sentence might contain more than one error. A common trap that test-takers fall into is to find one error and then quickly choose the answer that corrects that mistake, without considering whether there are other errors in the sentence that an alternative answer choice might also address. The correct answer must correct every error in the underlined text.
Elimination Strategy
The elimination strategy is one of the most used and effective strategies for tackling SC question. To use the process of elimination in sentence correction questions you need to simply eliminate any answer choices that are grammatically incorrect. You can also eliminate any choices that alter the intended meaning of the sentence
Subtle differences among the different answer choices.
Some relatively tough SC question can be real mind bogglers. In such questions acute Examining of answer choices and how they differ from one another can also be a good way to determine what errors might be present in the underlined text. As in these questions the difference between the answer choices is minute and you need to catch it for which careful examination of the choices is to be done
Read the sentence a second time, then insert your answer choice.
This is a very effective strategy for dealing with sentence correction questions. What helps is in is basically it keeps you away from making silly and careless mistakes that would harm your CAT score.
'Listen' to the sentence
If you are stuck somewhere and cannot find the correct answer choice the try this, 'say' the choices in your head and then select the passage that sounds best to your ears. It has been found that most test takers, particularly native English speakers, have internalized many more grammar rules than they can explicitly identify.
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