Veritas Prep Study Material

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Ashish321: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 36; Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 3:48 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 3 times

by Ashish321 » Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:05 am

Hi ,

Could one throw some light on the Veritas Prep Study Material . I have over the last few weeks researched the BTG Forum intensively , but couldn't find many people recommending Veritas material .

I am an Indian GMAT Candidate and have scored 710 in my first attempt . I plan to retake GMAT and looking for Verbal Centric Course that could help me with a 40+ points increase in my Score.

I studied MGMAT extensively , and found their Verbal Books barely average ( Though Quant Books were excellent ) . I have also analysed MGMAT Practise Exams extensively.

I intend to study a new material henceforth and looking for some insights from you guys @ BTG. I don't intend to re-study the material that i practised for my first take , since i feel that i could answer them without even compeletely reading the questions . I have done them a couple of times , infact.

I studied the following for my First take
1)MGMAT (All Quant Books and MGMAT SC & RC)
2)OG 11
3)OG 12
4)The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2nd Ed
5)The Official Guide for GMAT Quant Review 2nd Ed
6)Kaplan GMAT 2011 Premier
7)Kaplan GMAT Advanced
8)Kaplan GMAT Verbal WorkBook

I still feel i need a lots and lots of improvement in Verbal.

Please help me out with a proper course that could help me in my endeavor to get a great score.

Thanks!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:05 am

Brian@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1031; Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:23 pmFollowed by: 255 members; Location: Malibu, CA; Thanked: 716 times; GMAT Score:750

by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:56 am

Hey Ashish,

I didn't want to jump in as the corporate shill here, but at the same time didn't want to let your question go unanswered. As a quick explanation of the forum reputation of our books...we just started selling them as individual volumes (via Amazon and other retailers) maybe 6 months or so ago in the summer of 2010, so there may just not be as many of our books out in circulation for people to have commented on. I know there are some reviews on Amazon and some other sites...

I'm obviously biased as a Veritas representative and a co-author of a few of those books, but I will say this as someone who took the GMAT without a real verbal strategy and somehow did okay: since I picked up the Veritas verbal strategies in 2003 I haven't been able to think about a verbal question any other way, and those strategies have made verbal questions a whole lot easier.

Best of luck as you continue your GMAT preparation!

Cheers,
Brian

Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

Looking for GMAT practice questions? Try out the Veritas Prep Question Bank. Learn More.

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Ashish321: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 36; Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 3:48 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 3 times

by Ashish321 » Fri Feb 25, 2011 11:15 am

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey Ashish,

I didn't want to jump in as the corporate shill here, but at the same time didn't want to let your question go unanswered. As a quick explanation of the forum reputation of our books...we just started selling them as individual volumes (via Amazon and other retailers) maybe 6 months or so ago in the summer of 2010, so there may just not be as many of our books out in circulation for people to have commented on. I know there are some reviews on Amazon and some other sites...

I'm obviously biased as a Veritas representative and a co-author of a few of those books, but I will say this as someone who took the GMAT without a real verbal strategy and somehow did okay: since I picked up the Veritas verbal strategies in 2003 I haven't been able to think about a verbal question any other way, and those strategies have made verbal questions a whole lot easier.

Best of luck as you continue your GMAT preparation!

Cheers,
Brian

Thanks Brian for your reply.

I had a couple of queries and it would be great if you could comment on those

Firstly , i was browsing through the VeritasPrep Website and was getting some insights on the Prep Books . I came across the strategies like STOP , VAMPIRES etc that seems mechanical in the sense that you follow a step by step sequence with each question that you come across and consequently may take more time . I maybe wrong , since i havent seen the books at all , but just got the feeling that these strategies maybe Tough to get hold of and that i might take a long time before i can succefully start applying into questions , in comparison to something that is logically oriented . Request you to please comment on that.( Frankly , these kinds of words are terrifying and makes Verbal look like rocket Science

...Just Kidding

)

Moreover , having crossed the 700 mark , i am looking for high quality practise rather than learning strategies . Could you throw some light as to what extent the Practise material can help me in my endevor to get a great score . If i could put in other words , what %age of the questions in the Prep Package would you put in the 700+ range . I am asking this since i feel more confident when i have thoroughly practised stuff rather than getting into Strategy.

Awaiting your Reply on that.

Thanks & Regards,
Ashish

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Brian@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1031; Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:23 pmFollowed by: 255 members; Location: Malibu, CA; Thanked: 716 times; GMAT Score:750

by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Feb 25, 2011 12:20 pm

No problem, Ashish! Honestly, I've always found that the strategies we teach make the questions quicker...I'd call them much more "guiding principles" than mechanical techniques if that makes sense. Their goal is to have you reading verbal questions proactively so that you're focusing on what you know will be important (the question stem, the conclusion, comma-separated modifiers at the start of a sentence, etc.) and not letting yourself get lost in details.

So I wouldn't consider the strategies to be time-consuming or mechanical, and certainly not rocket-science (if I can use them and even write a few of them, it can't be that hard!). Tell you what - if you want to take a look at a demo of our strategies, this video link here - https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid= ... r&sid=1295 - includes a demo of our Critical Reasoning strategy, maybe about halfway through (about an hour or so into the presentation...you can scroll your way through it). That may be more effective than my trying to explain just in this paragraph.

As for practice problems, I'll defer to my colleague David@VeritasPrep who, en route to a perfect verbal score last year, noted that he actually found a lot of the verbal questions, and in particular CR questions, to fall more toward the middle level of difficulty in our books, and he didn't see any real surprises. He also mentioned that the GMAT included a lot more "special case" type CR problems (those that try to obscure the question stem away from the classic "Strengthen"/"Weaken" types), which we cover thoroughly in our Critical Reasoning 2 book. So I certainly do think that we include quite a bit of what you're looking for.

Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

Looking for GMAT practice questions? Try out the Veritas Prep Question Bank. Learn More.

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Ashish321: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 36; Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 3:48 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 3 times

by Ashish321 » Sat Feb 26, 2011 5:23 am

Thanks a lot Brian for your detailed reply.

The Video has really helped me in getting a detailed insight into the Strategies Used .

Thanks a lot!

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