I gave my GMAT on Tuesday (25th Aug) and scored 710(Q49, V38). I was in a dilemma whether I should be happy about my score or should I retake? The question of retake came to my mind because I am a college senior and applying in these tough times (especially when the applications are up
), 710 is competitively not so good.However, just skipping the implications of my 710 score, I thought I could share some strategies with everyone in this community (may be a modifier problem with this sentence
) There are certainly some great debriefs and I learned a lot from them. This is one might not be of the same standard but I feel would definitely help other aspirants.( And would be quiet long too!)Before, I begin, I would like to let you people know that this one is my second attempt, my previous attempt was 2 months back. I scored 660(Q50, V29).
RC:
I started my preparation from OG-10 and then moved to OG-11. During the same time, one of my friend gave me Kaplan LSAT sets. I found those RC's pretty tough and time consuming. So I dropped the idea of solving them and continued with OG's and that was my biggest mistake.
In my first GMAT exam, I faced 2 big RC's and they looked even bigger because I was not used to solve big RC's (like LSAT types). By the time I reached Q30, I saw only 10 mints left. That was enough to throw my consistency out of gear. I rushed through the rest of the questions and ended-up with V29.
What I learned from my mistake?
Time is a crucial factor. You cannot simply read a RC just as you read your newspaper. Your mind has to be alert (especially, when you have already given a good amount of energy to your AWA and Quant)
My strategy and Success:
I took the LSAT sets again. In the beginning I was hardly able to get even 50% correct. I focused on improving my Accuracy first. Followed Kaplan Explanations and spend lot of time to check where exactly my answers went wrong. Initially, this method was really very cumbersome and tiring, but soon after 10-12 sets, accuracy improved. By the time I finished with my 15th set, I was getting a good accuracy. In big LSAT passage with 8 questions, I used to get 7 correct, (at times, even all correct:D). A very important thing to note for the this strategy was that, although I did not emphasized on time, but I definitely used to timed my passages to have an idea about how much time I take for a passage.
Timing Improvement: As I said above, I kept an account of my timings, now once my accuracy improved to its peak; I started working on my timings. Initially, I used to take 15-18 minutes (read+ answer) in a passage of 6 questions, i.e. 2.5 to 3 minutes per question.( You can take this as standard unit for defining timings in RC's). I figured out that I was writing too much! So I started chopping off the unnecessary ones, made some short-cuts, like for conclusion (*), for additionally, furthermore etc (++)
Whenever there were two views, I would take one side,(usually the view I encounter first) anything (evidence, principle etc) which strengthens my view => ++
Undermines my view => --
This approach helps to identify the tone of the author, and thus saves time.
The resulting working would be abstract in construction consisting of some symbols. (I would try to upload a passage and its corresponding working later).
Now once I finished jotting down the points, instead of jumping directly to the questions, I would review my working. This would let me know the structure of the passage.
Result:
GMAT Prep 1: 2 RC questions incorrect.
GMAT Prep 2: 1 RC question incorrect.
I hope something on the same lines was true for my GMAT real exam!
Few points:
There are numerous strategies, some say skim the passage, some say look for transition words etc etc. I would say, develop your own strategy.
Skimming the passage details didn't work for me because; I believe we are given a passage to understand a detail and not to skip it.
As far as transition words are concerned, when you are facing 700+ question types, simply observing transition words may not help you.
Don't TRUST your ears. GMAC knows that while you were reading, your ears picked up some words. The incorrect options will have some words from the passage. You have the passage right in front of you,all you need to do is to verify.
How to develop your own strategy
I am not an instructor, but since I started from 0, and achieved a very good accuracy. I have good idea about this. You must identify what exactly is turning you off from the passage. For example, I am from an engineering background and I love equations, numbers etc, so I realized that because of too much detail I used to get lost in those details. So, I started treating each paragraph of the passage as a word problem and paraphrase the passage mathematically. This is what fits best to me. But it does not mean this strategy would work for you as well.
Critical reasoning:
I would advice the following :
1. To Begin with, Study Powerscore Reasoning Bible. Since I am from Engineering background, I was never exposed to reasoning concepts before. This book helped me to build fundamentals of reasoning.
2. Nothing can be better than to apply the fundamentals learned above. Go for LSATS questions. Get back to OG, you will be able to solve OG questions in less than a minute!
Identify the scope of the argument. This is the key for all CR's. Most of the time, 3 out of 5 answers are out of scope in some way or the other. Once you are able to kick three options out, now a very complex CR argument gets converted into SC question. Examine in detail the both the contenders word-by-word just as you do SC's and you would be definitely be able to eliminate the wrong one. For example, an argument may talk about the percentage values, and have a couple of options with absolute value, just cross them off. You don't even need to understand their meaning. (Saves time!)
SC: I am definitely not the right person to comment about SC's. This is my weakest part in Verbal section. I blame this section for my 710(otherwise, I was expecting 750+). However, I can only share my resources.
Manhattan SC Guide
Manhattan Review
Notes : Amature's notes, P.Sahil, Anand , Adam John.
Quant: It comes naturally to me, thanks to my engineering background. However, my overconfidence reduced my score from Q50 in my first attempt to Q49 this time. I am not the right person to guide anybody on this because; I never worked on my Quant. My Quant was Q50 the first time I gave GMAT prep and it is still the same (in fact reduced by one).
The first time when I landed up on this site, I didn't understood what does OG stands for!( that was the day when I made up my mind to pursue MBA). I was not lucky enough to get access to best coaching classes for GMAT. I only had an internet connection. The journey has been difficult but not impossible.( I am using continuous present tense because, I am not yet DONE!:evil:)
I felt that it was my moral obligation to give back to my community, and this is just my 2 cents.
So when you join this community, and feel weird about the lingo(OG,0A etc...). Don't get bogged down. Just have patience. You will definitely find amazing people out here to help you.
