GMAT Ninja SC Ep 7: Modifiers: That, Which & Friends

Modifiers are one of the most frequent sources of confusion on Executive Assessment Sentence Correction questions. Many test-takers struggle to notice the "trigger words" -- such as that, which, who, or where -- that indicate the presence of a noun modifier, while others notice those words, but aren't sure what to do with them.

In this video, Bransen -- a GMAT Ninja tutor -- examines the use of "that", "which", and other noun modifiers that frequently appear on the EA. He'll show you how to efficiently identify what is being modified in a sentence and how you can use this knowledge to quickly make eliminations. He'll also address the myth of the so-called "touch rule", and discuss how to wisely blend grammar and meaning on these questions.

This is video #7 in our full-coverage series of Executive Assessment Sentence Correction lessons. For updates on upcoming videos, please subscribe!

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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
04:10 Process Explanation
08:33 Basic Example 1 - In 1969, Apollo 11...
13:43 Basic Example 2 - Many college aged students...
19:52 Question 1 - Although a number of...
30:10 Question 2 - The use of lie detectors is...

[mounjayansaha]

Someone nominate team ninja for the Nobel peace prize for all the amazing work that they do.

[aaryayadav]

This is amazing! Thank you team Ninja :) An honest request from my end, although I know that new episodes premiere every Friday, it would be awesome to view those a little earlier, I believe there are 18. When I say that, I talk on behalf of not just me but many GMAT takers who are scheduled to take it this and next month, it's the peak season! perhaps, 2 episodes per week will save us! I hope my request is taken into consideration :)

Best,
Aarya

[ianmutch]

I 100% would've gotten the last one wrong if I did not see this video. Great work guys!

[sim]

Hi Bransen, thanks very much for the wonderful explanation! This was super helpful :) Couldn't expect any less from GMAT Ninja!

[vaibhav.nagvan]

Hi Bransen,
I have a doubt in Basic Example 2:
As you mentioned, the Steve jobs personified hope, but what kind of hope. But I think as Hope & possibility are parallel, can't we say that
Steve Jobs personifies the hope for sucess and Steve jobs personified the possibility for success, then "comes" would make sense as it is now referring to success?

[ArjunKumar-ltjd]

"Malayan Tapir" Love your effort to look up for the right pronunciation

[md.ahadjahinsarker]

Hello
19:29, I have a confusion there. As hope and possibility is adjoined with conjunction, they both can modify the word success. Like if we say, hope for success and possibility for success, then that can refer only success. Thus making option B more viable. Why this is wrong?

[ashishsinha]

Thanks GMAT Ninja and Branson! My stat 3 correct, 1 wrong.

[UtkarshSingh-qcdy]

Hi GMAT Ninja, firstly thanks a lot for creating such structured valuable content on Sentence correction.
I had a doubt in Ques 2: I am not clear why are we eliminating option B? The whole sentence is written in singular form (is based, produces) then the word create should also be in it's singular form creates, right?

[SAUPAYANMAZUMDAR]

Hi GMATNinja,
If I heard that correctly, in example question 4, if the sentence didn't contain "unconscious", options B and E could be correct?? I eliminated them on the basis "the original sentence is saying emotional responses is responsible for creating, not individuals. these sentences change the meaning, irrespective of unconscious or not". Is that fallacious reasoning?

[avinashmehrotra]

I know it's an advice early on in the first video to not form rules. However, clearly in case of modifiers, the modifier modifies the thing closest to it and not the things previously mentioned in the sentence, perhaps it's better to accept the rule rather than just saying 'I don't like the idea' or 'I don't love it' or 'looking for the best version of the sentence'. . .ideally there should be no gut, only logic. . .

[sahilbisht]

I have a query!! how are we going to identify when which and that are modifying?
And thank you so much for making my life easy with Verbal section

[SPARSHGANJOO]

Can you pls explain the difference between who and whom, that and those? I thought that is used to refer to a singular noun and those is used to refer to plural nouns, which doesn't seem to be the case in Basic example 2. Kindly clarify.

[abhishekgihar-dino]

Hi Gmat Ninja! Thanks for the resourceful videos. Aligning with @Prishta's doubt. Why are we considering "that create" rather than just "that" which can only refer to singular noun?
since we already know "emotional reactions" being plural is the only logical choice to fit the position of "that" aligning with "create" being plural in the sentence.
Henceforth, shounldn't the "that" be replaced by "those" being plural and correctly aliging with"emotional reactions"? AND since we do not have "those as an option".
Option C should be a better choice over option A.

Thanks! Do take some time to evaluate my doubt😄.

[aryamansingh]

Hey, thanks for the video. Had a doubt - how do I know when is that acting as a modifier?

[maxsparrowX]

Hi Brenson, I just want to confirm 1 thing: does the modifier modifies the closest word or not? I think I heard you said it is not but most of the explanations from the examples do use this reasoning

[MeenalDudani]

HI Thanks for the video. I had a doubt in the last question, why did we not consider "that" in option B to modify lying. in turn, creates unconscious physiological response?

[chaus]

Thank you for the content.

I have a doubt in Que 1: Isn't there a problem around conjunction "and"? Like product demonstrators and publicists doesn't mean the same as product demonstrators and product publicists (or as in sentence demonstrators and publicists of their products), right? So based on this we can say option A, B, C are wrong, since they are not clearly mentioning what the women were? Why is this issue not considered?

[PhenomXHD]

Hi, I have a query in basic example 2, why cant we break this into 2 parallel parts given hope an success are parallel nouns here and our stem ends at the making sentennce "Many college students....the hope for success that comes with dropping out of college and the possibility of success that comes with dropping out of college" and why cant "success" be modified w that, both these logics direct me towards option B

[sachindrabb]

Hi.. Thank you for the amazing video. One doubt in Option A since both "the hope " and "possibility of success" are being represented by a pronoun, why was "Those" not used instead of "that" to make it plural?