Hi vgmat2,
Just wrote a very very long email to you, and my browser crashed on me - I guess god wants me to put in extra effort here, so that when I tell you that you need to be persistent, have the faith, and keep putting in the required effort - I am not just talking, but actually mean it .....
So here we go again
1. You mentioned that you were having a very hard time with RC, SC. When I started out with GMAT, what killed me was RC, CR. For some reason my retention was very very bad. I couldnt seem to remember anything I read, and spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the passages. I would get crazy bad scores in verbal. What I started trying to do is focusing on figuring out what my problem was? What was causing me trouble when reading the passage? Was it because I didnt understand the english in the passage? Or the overall meaning of the passage? Or was it just that I couldnt remember the details once the passage was read.....
After a lot of practise, and analysing what I was doing wrong, I nailed it down to the fact, that I had retention issues. I found it hard to remember what was being said in the passage. I then fixed my problem by focusing on the introduction and the summary, understanding the overall flow of the passage, going thru the remaining paragraphs line by line (but not spending too much time), and then when detailed questions came, re-reading portions of the paragraph.
I read a lot of blogs/techniques, tried everything, but at the end what worked for me is just practising trying, trying, until I found a way that worked for me. Suddenly one day after 5 months of limping thru, I was able to actually do an RC passage without that much agony. I wasnt sure how it happened or why - all I knew is my constant struggle to fix my weakness, to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong, had reaped its rewards ......
Having read your email I would suggest that you take all the time to read the RC passage (dont time yourself), and then answer all the questions (again taking all the time you need), and then see how you do. In case you do get everything right, that means, that you just have trouble reading the passage, and grasping the meaning fast. And that would mean doing what I did, which is read a article every day from any where (be it cnn, nbc, wall street journal) anything you can lay your hands on, and then after reading the passage, summarize the gist of it and write it. It was hard for me at first, but a little later, reading passages and summarizing them became easier for me.
In case you dont get every thing right even after spending a lot of time on the passage, that means that you are having fundamental issues understanding the passage itself. At this point, you will have to continue practising, identify what is making th epassage difficult for you? Is it hard words being used? Are you having retention issues too? Bottom line you first have to figure out WHAT IS giving your problems when you do your RC. Once you identify that, we can work on fixing the issue ....
For the sentence correction - flash cards are the key. For every SC you do wrong, please please make sure you make flash cards, clearly writing the questions, giving a hint on what kind of question it is (Apple/oranges, parallelism, idioms) etc, and then finally writing the correct portion of the underlined sentence. By constantly revising the flash cards, I grew accustomed to all the usages that are there. Because I got so many of the SC's wrong, I had 3 whole boxes of flash cards. Yo uhave to revise them as much as you can, at least once a week, or once in two weeks, to make sure you keep it refreshed in your mind.... The SC Manhattan gmat book also gives some very very good pointers, but I do know what helped me the most is the tedious writing of flash cards, and the weekly revising of the same .....
Having said all this, at the end it boils down to this for me ... god is miraculous. He will always be there for us, to guide us thru, but for some reason he waits until we have given our heart and soul into what we are striving for ... He waits until every part of you is feeling hopeless frustrated, adn down, until every part of you wants to give up, and let go .... and at this point when you are feeling so down and low, when you gather the faith in some part of you to take that one final small step forward .... ....Its then when he sweeps you in his arms, and carries you across the finish line. I really dont know why he waits so long, and why the road to success/fullfillment has to be so hard, but I do know that he has never ever let me down even once in my life when I have put everything I am into something I want to do - he has always helped me thru.
I do believe that if you continue practising, and trying your best, and contstantly searching for your weakness, and fixing it - at some point you will feel the change for the better... you will feel a remarkable breakthru .....
Its just a matter of time ....
I truly believe you can do it - dont please loose hope...
Take care,
-ngufo
Just wrote a very very long email to you, and my browser crashed on me - I guess god wants me to put in extra effort here, so that when I tell you that you need to be persistent, have the faith, and keep putting in the required effort - I am not just talking, but actually mean it .....
So here we go again
1. You mentioned that you were having a very hard time with RC, SC. When I started out with GMAT, what killed me was RC, CR. For some reason my retention was very very bad. I couldnt seem to remember anything I read, and spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the passages. I would get crazy bad scores in verbal. What I started trying to do is focusing on figuring out what my problem was? What was causing me trouble when reading the passage? Was it because I didnt understand the english in the passage? Or the overall meaning of the passage? Or was it just that I couldnt remember the details once the passage was read.....
After a lot of practise, and analysing what I was doing wrong, I nailed it down to the fact, that I had retention issues. I found it hard to remember what was being said in the passage. I then fixed my problem by focusing on the introduction and the summary, understanding the overall flow of the passage, going thru the remaining paragraphs line by line (but not spending too much time), and then when detailed questions came, re-reading portions of the paragraph.
I read a lot of blogs/techniques, tried everything, but at the end what worked for me is just practising trying, trying, until I found a way that worked for me. Suddenly one day after 5 months of limping thru, I was able to actually do an RC passage without that much agony. I wasnt sure how it happened or why - all I knew is my constant struggle to fix my weakness, to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong, had reaped its rewards ......
Having read your email I would suggest that you take all the time to read the RC passage (dont time yourself), and then answer all the questions (again taking all the time you need), and then see how you do. In case you do get everything right, that means, that you just have trouble reading the passage, and grasping the meaning fast. And that would mean doing what I did, which is read a article every day from any where (be it cnn, nbc, wall street journal) anything you can lay your hands on, and then after reading the passage, summarize the gist of it and write it. It was hard for me at first, but a little later, reading passages and summarizing them became easier for me.
In case you dont get every thing right even after spending a lot of time on the passage, that means that you are having fundamental issues understanding the passage itself. At this point, you will have to continue practising, identify what is making th epassage difficult for you? Is it hard words being used? Are you having retention issues too? Bottom line you first have to figure out WHAT IS giving your problems when you do your RC. Once you identify that, we can work on fixing the issue ....
For the sentence correction - flash cards are the key. For every SC you do wrong, please please make sure you make flash cards, clearly writing the questions, giving a hint on what kind of question it is (Apple/oranges, parallelism, idioms) etc, and then finally writing the correct portion of the underlined sentence. By constantly revising the flash cards, I grew accustomed to all the usages that are there. Because I got so many of the SC's wrong, I had 3 whole boxes of flash cards. Yo uhave to revise them as much as you can, at least once a week, or once in two weeks, to make sure you keep it refreshed in your mind.... The SC Manhattan gmat book also gives some very very good pointers, but I do know what helped me the most is the tedious writing of flash cards, and the weekly revising of the same .....
Having said all this, at the end it boils down to this for me ... god is miraculous. He will always be there for us, to guide us thru, but for some reason he waits until we have given our heart and soul into what we are striving for ... He waits until every part of you is feeling hopeless frustrated, adn down, until every part of you wants to give up, and let go .... and at this point when you are feeling so down and low, when you gather the faith in some part of you to take that one final small step forward .... ....Its then when he sweeps you in his arms, and carries you across the finish line. I really dont know why he waits so long, and why the road to success/fullfillment has to be so hard, but I do know that he has never ever let me down even once in my life when I have put everything I am into something I want to do - he has always helped me thru.
I do believe that if you continue practising, and trying your best, and contstantly searching for your weakness, and fixing it - at some point you will feel the change for the better... you will feel a remarkable breakthru .....
Its just a matter of time ....
I truly believe you can do it - dont please loose hope...
Take care,
-ngufo
People Never Fail ... They just Give Up
. Thats why I had to go on an intensive 6 month plan...
.Yes,I also have the same retention issue in case of RC which you had and I'm on my way to fix in everyday4-5 RC passages....Sometimes I feel demotivated as I get so many questions wrong but,I'm sure one day RC is going to be my strong section.
