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Need help from 600 to 700

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Need help from 600 to 700

by gmatplayer » Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:35 pm
I have taken 4 MGMAT so far and average is 600 (range 580-620). My goal is most common - I am aiming for 700. Even closer is good enough.

I am consistently getting 45 in MGMAT Quant and think with slightly easier Quant section in actual GMAT I can get 48-49 with little or no work (I got 48 in first atempt GMATPREP). So all comes to Verbal now. I have about 7 weeks to go(Test on 12th Oct).

Here are my Verbal details
RC about 60-65%
CR about 40-50%
SC about 50%

Total about 26-29

I am non native english speaker but in US for 6-7 years so I can understand most SC explanations :-)

Also, RC is ok for me. I can read really fast and answer question with moderate time and accuracy.

I can improve SC a little with improvement in verb form which is my weakest area.

I have finished following

Barrons (not good experience for starting study)
Princeton (found little easy)
OG complete
OG verbal
MGMAT SC (Too many rules but good overall)

So, I am seeking advice on verbal strategy. I am doing something wrong or missing something because I think 100 points more in about 50 days is not an impossible task. Any input is appreciated.
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by DanaJ » Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:43 am
You definitely need to focus on verbal for the time being. I'm surprised your scores have not increased, seen as how you've used a lot of good quality material. Actually, I used the OGs, Kaplan Premier for SC and PowerScore CR Bible for CR and RC and managed to take my verbal from a 36 to a 47.

You seem to have used the good stuff in terms of practice questions (OGs) and for SC (I understand MGMAT is fabulous for SC). This is why I'm inclined to believe that you have not reviewed everything properly. Do you solve a question, read the explanation and then move on or do you truly work on it? This is crucial for the GMAT, IMHO.

I suppose I can't recommend much else except the CR Bible and a thorough review of your studying habits. You do have plenty of time on your hands, so the improvement is possible.
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by gmatplayer » Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:05 am
I have been solving problem (all kinds) with timed mode in a set of 10-20 & then read explanation in detail. I am able to understand it 99% for quant and about 80% for verbal. I won't lie, I do get bored to read explantions so for MGMAT test explanations - I do them about 20 per day as I am working full time. So test once a week and read explanation for remaining week plus some weak areas, some forum goodies & leave about 1-2 day blank for resting before test day. I also started to solve 5 problems of each type on the test day & do not check answer. They are from OG and from initial sets (so they are easy)

My SC mistakes are very much because of time constraints.
CR, I have improved a little & therer is scope to do more.
RC, I have improved too, in cases where passage is too long.

As you can see I am looking for some advancement in score so need some advance strategies.

Thankss
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by DanaJ » Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:38 am
gmatplayer wrote:I have been solving problem (all kinds) with timed mode in a set of 10-20 & then read explanation in detail. I am able to understand it 99% for quant and about 80% for verbal. I won't lie, I do get bored to read explantions so for MGMAT test explanations - I do them about 20 per day as I am working full time. So test once a week and read explanation for remaining week plus some weak areas, some forum goodies & leave about 1-2 day blank for resting before test day. I also started to solve 5 problems of each type on the test day & do not check answer. They are from OG and from initial sets (so they are easy)
I'm not sure you should use up your CATs without working on types of problems first. From your post, I understand you place a heavier emphasis on CAT problems than on working other problems. IMHO, that's not the best approach. CATs are there for several reasons:
- build up your stamina
- assess your current level
- maybe even identify a weak area

CATs in my book are not for practice, or at least MAINLY NOT for practice. If you want to practice, you go through a general strategy guide (i.e. Kaplan or the MGMAT series) and then take a stab at official problems or those presented by the guide itself.

Practicing using CATs is not such a good idea since your attention is drawn to a swarm of concepts that might not stick to your head if you practice them disjointedly: you review number properties, geometry, combinatorics, CR weaken, CR assumption, RC main purpose, RC author agrees with, SC parallelism, SC verb-noun... These are all categories that you might get wrong on a CAT, but no more than 2-3 questions per category, so you won't get much targeted practice for weak areas/specific problem types.

I personally used to practice one type at a time, with sets of 10-20-30 questions depending on my time/mood. I think a concept will be more likely to stay with you if you study this way than just 1 or 2 problems per week.
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by crackgmat007 » Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:06 pm
I personally used to practice one type at a time, with sets of 10-20-30 questions depending on my time/mood. I think a concept will be more likely to stay with you if you study this way than just 1 or 2 problems per week.
Hi Dana,

can you explain your strategy more? were the problems that you did in sets from OG or any other source? If it were from OG, how were you able to identify the type of problems? pls explain.

Tx.
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by DanaJ » Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:36 pm
I had the following strategy: I worked for one-two weeks at a time on each verbal section. I worked on CR first, SC second and RC last. I started by reading ALL the tips available (from the OG, Kaplan Premier, Kaplan 800), highlighting the ones that seemed the most useful. Then I'd start practicing: depending on my time, at least 20 questions per day. I'd usually use up all the unofficial questions and then move to those from the OG verbal.

I'd repeat the same for SC for the next 1-2 weeks, but at the same time work on some CR questions, only not as many. The same goes for RC.

In the last two weeks before my exam, I practiced exclusively questions from the OG (which I'd saved until then). Basically that was my strategy.

Knowing the types of questions will come sort of naturally after you read a strategy guide. For instance, for CR, you have all the question types discussed neatly in the PowerScore CR Bible, so if you're having trouble with say weaken questions, you can go straight to that section.

I did not have a strategy for quant. On my very first CAT (GMATprep 1, before I even knew the question types), I scored 50 and that's mainly because I was not used to DS. So for quant I just answered questions on this forum, I guess...
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by gmatplayer » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:40 am
Thanks Dana,
Taking your advice. I going back to study on following specific areas & then solve their problems.

CR: Assumption
Strengthening
Weaking
Boldface argument

SC: Verb form
Logical Structure
Idiom

RC: Inference

Because of doing this, I will probably eliminate one of practice test from my schedule. But, I think it will be worth to focus on weakness. Hope to improve
Thanks again!
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