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Lost to GMAT 530 44Q 20V---Seriously need advice

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Lost to GMAT 530 44Q 20V---Seriously need advice

by osamakhan » Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:04 pm
Just took the test on monday and was really disappointed with my verbal score. During practice, my highest score was 27. It is not a good score but i was hitting 600+ with quant.

There are two reasons that i can think of right now:

I took all the practice tests early in the morning around 8 am but my actual exam was at 4:30 pm.

I decided not to take the optional 10 min break between quant and verbal sections.

My goal was to break into 600, which would have been sufficient to get into a part time MBA at Georgetown or Univ. of Maryland.

Please advice on how to improve, i'll retake in 2 months. My biggest problem is RC.
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by VP_Jim » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:06 am
Here is my three step approach for studying verbal:

1. Read more! Sometimes the best way to study for the GMAT is to pretend that you aren't studying for the GMAT. Spend 30-60 minutes every day reading tough material - Wall Street Journal, Economist, Scientific American, or whatever - just to get used to using your verbal skills. Reading more will improve all three of the verbal areas, as it will improve your comprehension and stamina for RC, your ability to put together arguments for CR, and your "ear" for good grammar for SC.

2. Get yourself a prep book for SC. Most GMAT sentences boil down to one of a handful of grammatical errors. You might need someone to point them out to you the first time, but once you drill them for a few weeks they will pop out at you when you're reading a sentence. For example, I can't see the word "it" without automatically looking for a pronoun error in the sentence.

3. Do lots of CR and RC practice problems to get a feel for how the GMAT is written. CR and RC are much more subtle than the other sections, and you really need to develop an intuition for how the problems work. Analyze every right and wrong answer choice in every problem to truly deepen your understanding.

Good luck!
Jim S. | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep
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Re: Lost to GMAT 530 44Q 20V---Seriously need advice

by 4seasoncentre » Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:26 pm
osamakhan wrote:
I decided not to take the optional 10 min break between quant and verbal sections.
I really do encourage people to take the optional breaks. I took the first one, but not the second. I felt a little silly taking the first break after only one hour. You need to raise your hand, be escorted out, have your palm scanned. Then all I did was step few feet away to have a few sips of water from the water cooler. Literally 2 minutes later I asked the administrator to let me back in and we had to reverse the whole process.

After the relatively gruelling math section, I just wanted to get it over with and proceeded to the verbal. However, part way through I got thirsty (water cooler cups are soo small!) and a little agitated. So my advice is to take the breaks, even if it is only to stretch for 2 minutes.

Also, I know that I have a small bladder and make it a point to drink very little before any test.
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by osamakhan » Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:13 pm
Thanks Jim, i really appreciate your time. Dilemma here is that i work for a Magazine and am a avid reader. In my GMATPREP, i got all my sentence corrections right but i was missing RC and CR questions. I believe that i just made careless mistakes. I have decided to subscribe WSJ and The Economist.

I will give myself 2 weeks and start again. I hope this time i will beat this monster. I also want to know besides Critical Reasoning Bible, what other material is good.

4Season: I think you are right-breaks are there for reason. Even if it is just for 2-3 minutes, take it.
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