Hello Adham
I recently got hold of Kaplan GMAT 2006 version . Is it worth doing RC /CR from this book?Are the passages / questions closer to the real ones.Do they atleast serve as good prep material?
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770(Q50,V45) from UZBEKISTAN
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adham
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visa1416,
I recommend only Kaplan LSAT explanations among Kaplan's products. It is well known that Kaplan tests are not representative of Real GMAT. IMO, it is not worth doing some RC or CR from Kaplan books. I recommend you to stick to official materials(OGs). For RC and CR( if you have done all those in OG, 1000SC,CR,RC), LSAT tests are the best. They are very professionally made and of high standard questions.
Good luck
I recommend only Kaplan LSAT explanations among Kaplan's products. It is well known that Kaplan tests are not representative of Real GMAT. IMO, it is not worth doing some RC or CR from Kaplan books. I recommend you to stick to official materials(OGs). For RC and CR( if you have done all those in OG, 1000SC,CR,RC), LSAT tests are the best. They are very professionally made and of high standard questions.
Good luck
ADAM
Hi, Adham aka!
Congrats on the score! best score ever in our country so far...
I just got started preps with verbal part...Could you please inform me where I can get 1000RC, SC, CR and LSAT books in Tashkent?
Thanks, good luck with studies...
Congrats on the score! best score ever in our country so far...
I just got started preps with verbal part...Could you please inform me where I can get 1000RC, SC, CR and LSAT books in Tashkent?
Thanks, good luck with studies...
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gmatmarch2010
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gmatmarch2010
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Spent 2 hours looking for Soft Copy of LSAT RC 30 questions set and their explanations by Kaplan but there was no success 
Hi, could you please share that material if you find it! I'm also searching for that book...gmatmarch2010 wrote:Spent 2 hours looking for Soft Copy of LSAT RC 30 questions set and their explanations by Kaplan but there was no success
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mundasingh123
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Hi Thanks for all the info .This is very helpful.However i am having problems finding all the stuff that you have recommended
I havnt found any 800 Bobs explanations .I think you recommended that for SC.Can you help?
I havnt found any 800 Bobs explanations .I think you recommended that for SC.Can you help?
Last edited by mundasingh123 on Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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hrishi19884
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AMAZING debrief........how much time did you take to get to the score of 770 ....
.
if you read my story on this forum ......I went 40 points less yesterday(440- Q39, V13) with 2 months of study than my previous score(480 - Q39, V19) without studying anything......
I have scheduled my last GMAT appointment on this 11th March......I need atleast 550 to get to my desired universities.....and I have just a month to do that Can you please let me know the shortcuts/tricks through which I can reach atleast 25-30 in Verbal......I am also a non native English speaker ....now I have much less time left to improve my English(verbal).....I am worst equally in all three RC, SC and CR
.Actually I scored between 25-35 in 6 Manhatten tests that I gave before GMAT but in real one I dropped directly to 13 ....I cried a lot in test center yesterday.....can't forget that day ever ...please help.
.
if you read my story on this forum ......I went 40 points less yesterday(440- Q39, V13) with 2 months of study than my previous score(480 - Q39, V19) without studying anything......
I have scheduled my last GMAT appointment on this 11th March......I need atleast 550 to get to my desired universities.....and I have just a month to do that
Can you please let me know the shortcuts/tricks through which I can reach atleast 25-30 in Verbal......I am also a non native English speaker ....now I have much less time left to improve my English(verbal).....I am worst equally in all three RC, SC and CR.Actually I scored between 25-35 in 6 Manhatten tests that I gave before GMAT but in real one I dropped directly to 13
....I cried a lot in test center yesterday.....can't forget that day ever ...please help.Hrishi
"As you sow, so shall you reap"
"As you sow, so shall you reap"
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Eldorjon
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Hi everybody on this forum!
This is my first post here and here I come up with great debrief that I have already read and been following thoroughly. I am also from Uzbekistan and took materials that Adham aka mentioned here. The strategy is great, especially if you are non-native speaker! I am sticking to his strategy with little modifications and my results are soaring. The proof: I recently took PowerPrep and got 770 (50, 45)! Although there was several repetitions in the verbal part, this is a huge increase from my initial 20's and 30's on verbal section taking into account that I have not begun my SC prep yet.
For RC I did every LSAT set (except for a few new sets for I have no explanations) and was frustrated with my timing and accuracy: timing was within 2-2.5 minutes average, accuracy about 85-90%. Here is another example of efficiency of the strategy: Initially I spent about 15 minutes to read one passage from LSAT. I did some some exercises that Adham aka didn't mentioned. These are speed reading exercises that Adham aka used. I will discuss them later. Now my RC speed is about 4 min for LSAT passage (They are commonly 60-75 lines long). When I took PowerPrep, I finished verbal section in 60-65 minutes and was amazed by this. I always feared that my great problem in verbal was timing. But GMAT passages seemed to be much more easier and lighter than LSAT passages. I left 1000RC for final prep.
CR was much more easier. As soon as I finished PowerScore LSAT LR Bible, I started LSAT sets and my accuracy was about 90% and average time about 2min. I think that this book was great and explained every concept in detail. I did half of LSAT sets and left 1000CR for final prep.
As for speed reading I think those materials are available on this or other forums. Main thing that I did is I got rid of subvocalisation (speaking what you are reading by yourself) and read the Economist (though not quite regularly). I at first read as fast as I can, and then read the material slow enough to fully comprehend. Looked out every unfamiliar word in dictionary (There is about 2 thousand words in Lingvo Tutor dictionaries that I created during prep with separate file for each day of prep)
Hope this information will help you! Encouragement is very important in prep, and the amazing score of Adham aka encourages us, all non-native English speakers struggling with GMAT, to target at higher scores and put more and intense effort to prep. After all, this effort can and will yield results.
Sorry for long post. I have one month more to prep, and will appreciate any suggestions about my prep strategy!
This is my first post here and here I come up with great debrief that I have already read and been following thoroughly. I am also from Uzbekistan and took materials that Adham aka mentioned here. The strategy is great, especially if you are non-native speaker! I am sticking to his strategy with little modifications and my results are soaring. The proof: I recently took PowerPrep and got 770 (50, 45)! Although there was several repetitions in the verbal part, this is a huge increase from my initial 20's and 30's on verbal section taking into account that I have not begun my SC prep yet.
For RC I did every LSAT set (except for a few new sets for I have no explanations) and was frustrated with my timing and accuracy: timing was within 2-2.5 minutes average, accuracy about 85-90%. Here is another example of efficiency of the strategy: Initially I spent about 15 minutes to read one passage from LSAT. I did some some exercises that Adham aka didn't mentioned. These are speed reading exercises that Adham aka used. I will discuss them later. Now my RC speed is about 4 min for LSAT passage (They are commonly 60-75 lines long). When I took PowerPrep, I finished verbal section in 60-65 minutes and was amazed by this. I always feared that my great problem in verbal was timing. But GMAT passages seemed to be much more easier and lighter than LSAT passages. I left 1000RC for final prep.
CR was much more easier. As soon as I finished PowerScore LSAT LR Bible, I started LSAT sets and my accuracy was about 90% and average time about 2min. I think that this book was great and explained every concept in detail. I did half of LSAT sets and left 1000CR for final prep.
As for speed reading I think those materials are available on this or other forums. Main thing that I did is I got rid of subvocalisation (speaking what you are reading by yourself) and read the Economist (though not quite regularly). I at first read as fast as I can, and then read the material slow enough to fully comprehend. Looked out every unfamiliar word in dictionary (There is about 2 thousand words in Lingvo Tutor dictionaries that I created during prep with separate file for each day of prep)
Hope this information will help you! Encouragement is very important in prep, and the amazing score of Adham aka encourages us, all non-native English speakers struggling with GMAT, to target at higher scores and put more and intense effort to prep. After all, this effort can and will yield results.
Sorry for long post. I have one month more to prep, and will appreciate any suggestions about my prep strategy!
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hrishi19884
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That is a great study plan Eldorjon..even I have my GMAT within a month and I got F**Ked in Verbal in my last encounter with GMAT, getting a very low score on 13. I have seen many people suggesting LSAT for RC so far.....I think I need to start with that too.Eldorjon wrote:Hi everybody on this forum!
This is my first post here and here I come up with great debrief that I have already read and been following thoroughly. I am also from Uzbekistan and took materials that Adham aka mentioned here. The strategy is great, especially if you are non-native speaker! I am sticking to his strategy with little modifications and my results are soaring. The proof: I recently took PowerPrep and got 770 (50, 45)! Although there was several repetitions in the verbal part, this is a huge increase from my initial 20's and 30's on verbal section taking into account that I have not begun my SC prep yet.
For RC I did every LSAT set (except for a few new sets for I have no explanations) and was frustrated with my timing and accuracy: timing was within 2-2.5 minutes average, accuracy about 85-90%. Here is another example of efficiency of the strategy: Initially I spent about 15 minutes to read one passage from LSAT. I did some some exercises that Adham aka didn't mentioned. These are speed reading exercises that Adham aka used. I will discuss them later. Now my RC speed is about 4 min for LSAT passage (They are commonly 60-75 lines long). When I took PowerPrep, I finished verbal section in 60-65 minutes and was amazed by this. I always feared that my great problem in verbal was timing. But GMAT passages seemed to be much more easier and lighter than LSAT passages. I left 1000RC for final prep.
CR was much more easier. As soon as I finished PowerScore LSAT LR Bible, I started LSAT sets and my accuracy was about 90% and average time about 2min. I think that this book was great and explained every concept in detail. I did half of LSAT sets and left 1000CR for final prep.
As for speed reading I think those materials are available on this or other forums. Main thing that I did is I got rid of subvocalisation (speaking what you are reading by yourself) and read the Economist (though not quite regularly). I at first read as fast as I can, and then read the material slow enough to fully comprehend. Looked out every unfamiliar word in dictionary (There is about 2 thousand words in Lingvo Tutor dictionaries that I created during prep with separate file for each day of prep)
Hope this information will help you! Encouragement is very important in prep, and the amazing score of Adham aka encourages us, all non-native English speakers struggling with GMAT, to target at higher scores and put more and intense effort to prep. After all, this effort can and will yield results.
Sorry for long post. I have one month more to prep, and will appreciate any suggestions about my prep strategy!
I just want to ask you that in your Powerprep test did you complete all 41 questions in Verbal without any guesswork?
I am never able to go beyond 30th question whenever in I gave practice test. I am a non native speaker too and not a avid reader.....I take long time to read passage and I waste much time there.....
In my 1st GMAT in June ....I skipped 2 of the 3 passages that I got and I was able to complete whole paper in time and received 19 in verbal. In my second attempt last week, I tried solving all RC's and lost much time there leading to 10-15 questions in the end doing guesswork, I got worst score than before 13
.....I want to get rid of these RC's which always pull me down.Also, its just a month to go for GMAT, I can't start reading things and improve vocab at this last point of time. I am again planning to skip RC this time and get other questions correct. Atleast that would allow me to complete the whole paper in time. please assist.
Hrishi
"As you sow, so shall you reap"
"As you sow, so shall you reap"
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Eldorjon
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Hello Hrishi
- As I said before on PowerPrep there were several repetitions, but did every question. In my previous tests was short of time on verbal part so this time I made PowerPrep a bit hastily.
- Don't think that my RC speed improvement was achieved with a lot of prep. Big part of improvement was achieved in a short time. I improved my speed from about 15 minutes for a passage to below 10 minutes (7-8 minutes average in 2 or 3 days. During these days I read two books on speed reading, though did not follow every exercise in them. One of these books is available on this forum, the second is of no use, so you don't need it. If your reading speed is very low you can increase it hugely in very short time, but as you got faster increase will become more difficult. I should also mention that I did not read a lot and reguarly. Every bit of text you read in English contributes to your reading skill. You have one month and possibly have time to read an article a day looking out the most unfamiliar words (the meaning of which you cannot guess) on dictionary. Devote 10 min a day for reading, you have nothing to lose.
If you read one passage in more than 10 min, then you should consider speed reading exercises. The main point here is getting rid of your subvocalization and some exercise. You don't need to read the book, because 90% of it is about convincing you that you can improve. The files on the following link will be enough:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/tips-for-imp ... d-t77.html
Also, I am realizing that the concentration has the huge effect on reading speed and comprehension. I have not developed any approach to this problem yet, but try to improve your concentration. RC strategy from GIN may help in this. Here is some of them:
- As I said before on PowerPrep there were several repetitions, but did every question. In my previous tests was short of time on verbal part so this time I made PowerPrep a bit hastily.
- Don't think that my RC speed improvement was achieved with a lot of prep. Big part of improvement was achieved in a short time. I improved my speed from about 15 minutes for a passage to below 10 minutes (7-8 minutes average in 2 or 3 days. During these days I read two books on speed reading, though did not follow every exercise in them. One of these books is available on this forum, the second is of no use, so you don't need it. If your reading speed is very low you can increase it hugely in very short time, but as you got faster increase will become more difficult. I should also mention that I did not read a lot and reguarly. Every bit of text you read in English contributes to your reading skill. You have one month and possibly have time to read an article a day looking out the most unfamiliar words (the meaning of which you cannot guess) on dictionary. Devote 10 min a day for reading, you have nothing to lose.
If you read one passage in more than 10 min, then you should consider speed reading exercises. The main point here is getting rid of your subvocalization and some exercise. You don't need to read the book, because 90% of it is about convincing you that you can improve. The files on the following link will be enough:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/tips-for-imp ... d-t77.html
Also, I am realizing that the concentration has the huge effect on reading speed and comprehension. I have not developed any approach to this problem yet, but try to improve your concentration. RC strategy from GIN may help in this. Here is some of them:
Hope this will helpParaphrase with exaggeration! You should think for 1-2 seconds in every 2-3 sentences and repeat your understanding in your own language. But when you paraphrase add something to it. When you repeat your understanding in your own language, say something in your mind that will make you remember that. For example, if author says scientist A was wrong. I paraphrase this in my own language: Wow look at this author , he says this stupid scientist made wrong assumptions.Lets see why?.... It may sound silly but it is very effective. This exaggeration also keeps your attention at high levels.
3)Related to the previous item: Reading with the desire to learn and at least agree or disagree with the author! In almost all passages, either the author or the people mentioned argue for X and some other people argue for Y OR there are two things described and author gives evidences etc.
It is not easy to stay focused in a long RC passage, to achieve this,I always tried to take sides,when possible, and criticize either the author or the other parties... Since I like arguments and discussions, this technique helped me follow turns in the passage, evaluate evidences and claims, expect what might come next. So, simply, take sides.(even in a neutral passage that just describes a phenomenon,you can find a way to stay focused by using number 2 and 3 above). Never ever read a gmat passage as if you are reading newsweek. What all gmat books tell you is => Read to learn?! But how??? Once again,I am repeating, the only way to read to learn is to TAKE SIDES and CRITICIZE,QUESTION,MAKE FUN OF THE AUTHOR or OTHER PARTIES. BE AGRESSIVE,ACT LIKE THEIR WORST ENEMY OR BEST FRIENDS.
