Analyze GMAT800 score for SC

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kssshah: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:02 pm

by kssshah » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:03 pm

I am studying for my 2nd run at GMAT. I scored 680 in my first attempt, split 47 (Quant) and 38 (verbal).

I am trying for ~750.

That being said, I did some practice in various sections. Then I picked up GMAT800 by Kaplan. In their "Put it all together" section for SC, i got 22/40 correct

I did it with the timer. It took me 68 minutes for the 40 questions. Considering RC will take a little more time in the real deal, I think I need to finish SC faster. So I need to improve the accuracy and the timing for my SC.

What do others feel about GMAT800's SC section? I evaluated my score and I usually keep track of my 2nd choice for most of my answers. For this particular section where I got 18 incorrect, I had 10 of them with correct 2nd choice.

My specific questions are-

What is the level of GMAT800's SC questions?
Does anyone have any suggestions to get my 2nd choice to be my first choice

i.e. how can I analyze this data further to get more accuracy on my SC. I feel like I am close but not there with 10 second choices being accurate. Please correct me if I am smoking ...

thx

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:03 pm

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Whitney Garner: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 273; Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:37 amFollowed by: 74 members; Location: Durham, NC; Thanked: 154 times; GMAT Score:770

by Whitney Garner » Mon Nov 01, 2010 11:41 am

kssshah wrote:I am studying for my 2nd run at GMAT. I scored 680 in my first attempt, split 47 (Quant) and 38 (verbal).

I am trying for ~750.

That being said, I did some practice in various sections. Then I picked up GMAT800 by Kaplan. In their "Put it all together" section for SC, i got 22/40 correct

I did it with the timer. It took me 68 minutes for the 40 questions. Considering RC will take a little more time in the real deal, I think I need to finish SC faster. So I need to improve the accuracy and the timing for my SC.

What do others feel about GMAT800's SC section? I evaluated my score and I usually keep track of my 2nd choice for most of my answers. For this particular section where I got 18 incorrect, I had 10 of them with correct 2nd choice.

My specific questions are-

What is the level of GMAT800's SC questions?
Does anyone have any suggestions to get my 2nd choice to be my first choice i.e. how can I analyze this data further to get more accuracy on my SC. I feel like I am close but not there with 10 second choices being accurate. Please correct me if I am smoking ...

thx

Hi ksshah!

Thank you for your interest in my feedback on this post. Sentence Correction is a HUGE aspect to the top scores on the GMAT so I'm glad to see you taking the time to focus your energy there. You are correct that SC problems should take less time on average than the other verbal question types (roughly 1 min each is a goal time). Although the English language has a TON of rules, thankfully the GMAT only tests a few so understanding the basic rules of grammar is essential. It is amazing how the GMAT can disguise Subject-Verb agreement! There are a lot of great content based SC guides out there so I would highly encourage you to look into something like that. Unfortunately I have not used the Kaplan SC books so I cannot comment on their difficultly level/quality etc but I am sure that there are other readers out there who can provide more info!

Good luck with your study!
Whit

Whitney Garner
GMAT/GRE/EA Instructor & Anxiety/Accommodations Coach
www.whitneygarner.com

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