GMAT Prep 2...690 (Q49, V34)

It's quite difficult to give you advice on how to improve at this stage without an understanding of your study approach and preparation. It sounds like you are pretty far along in your studies so we'll need more information to give you good suggestions. This is in contrast to someone who is brand new to GMAT prep and has very little idea of where to start.

One thing I noticed that really opened my eyes was the fact that you missed every primary purpose question in RC. That to me is a huge problem because it indicates that your fundamental understanding of the passage is wrong, which starts you off on the wrong foot for the remainder of the questions. The primary purpose helps to frame the question and the answers for each question so in my opinion that is something you really need to improve on. I'd prefer to get all the weaken questions (or any other RC question type) wrong and get all the primary purpose questions correct.

Hi,

My biggest weakness currently is RC and CR. I think a verbal score has higher weigthage to the overall GMAT score. I am trying hard but I am not able to improve my RC and CR. Somehow, I do miss the main points and assumptions of the passages and often end-up selecting the wrong answer choices.

Any help on how to improve RC and CR.

Regards
Amit

For CR and RC, the main task you must master is learning how to identify the premises and the conclusion. And you need to learn to do this quickly - as you read each sentence you should be able to mentally say to yourself that that sentence was a premise or the conclusion. Being able to do this is crucial to understanding the topic at hand and how to approach the problem.

For example, for weaken questions, there are several ways you can weaken the argument including finding an alternative explanation (but first you have to be able to state what the author's supporting claims are so you can find alternative support and of course you need to know the conclusion). If you can systematically determine which statements are premises and which is the conclusion then you can learn how to systematically attack each question type.

Please read my blog and look at my RC and CR notes if you want to gain more insight into what I am talking about as I frequently made lessons learned on CR and RC.

Thanx mayonnai5e.

I am feeling bit more comfortable with GMATPrep questions. However, I have realised that GMAT is not only about concepts but also about how one can handle one's nerves under pressure.

I think my biggest weakness now is silly mistakes such as mis-reading the question, not understanding properly what is being asked, hurrying up to solve the question, calculation mistakes, selecting a wrong choice (it has happened to me twice)..etc.

RC and CR seem bit manageable but DS is still a BIG concern. My hit rate is in the range 50-75%.

I have to control my nerves during the exam else I won't succeed. I have to CONFIDENT of my abilities, GMAT is all about time-management, handling pressure and confidence.

Thanks
Amit

"GMAT is all about time-management, handling pressure and confidence"...

I agree completely!