On the sentence correction questions, when in doubt GO SHORT. In a study of the past Editions of the Official Guide to the GMAT, there is strong evidence that the shorter answers tend to be right much more often than the longer answers.
| Times Correct/Possibilities | % Correct | |
| Shortest answer | 101/365 | 27.7% |
| 2nd Shortest answer | 95/365 | 26.0% |
| 3rd Shortest answer | 87/365 | 23.8% |
| 4th Shortest answer | 44/365 | 12.1% |
| 5th Shortest answer (Longest) | 38/365 | 10.4% |
As you can see by the chart, the shortest answers are not always correct, but have a much greater probability of being right than the longest answers. In fact, the shortest answer is almost three times as likely to be correct as the longest answer! If you're debating between two possibilities on the test, go with the shorter one and the odds will be in your favor. (Note: The study was conducted using a visual appraisal to figure out the shortest answers rather than word or letter count. Visual "ties" were split up among each tied answer choice. For example, if the correct answer and another answer were tied for 2nd shortest, both the 2nd shortest and 3rd shortest were given credit and two possibilities were counted.)
