The Newest GMAT Strategy Guides Have Arrived! – Part 2
The newest GMAT Strategy Guides have hit the shelves! Were really excited about these new books, the perfect stocking stuffers to make all of your dreams come true. (Wellyour GMAT-related dreams, anyway.)
Yesterday, we talked about the Quant Guides and today Ive got the Verbal scoop for you. Lets start with Sentence Correction.
The SC Guide begins with a new strategy chapter that discusses our 4-Step SC Process and lays out drills that you can do to get better at such skills as the First Glance and Finding a Starting Point. Weve also significantly expanded the Subject-Verb Agreement chapter to include a full treatment of Sentence Structure, an area that has been becoming much more commonly tested on the GMAT.
Weve added important segments to Modifiers, Parallelism, and Verbs and weve woven relevant Meaning topics into every chapter in the book.
Finally, weve streamlined the Idioms material. The main chapter contains a strategy for tackling idioms as well as the most commonly tested idioms found on the GMAT. A separate appendix contains the less-commonly-tested idioms. We recommend taking the time to memorize the ones listed in the main chapter, but to use the appendix more as a resource to look up the correct idiom when you struggle with a particular problem. (Its impossible to memorize every idiom in a language; there are thousands, if not tens of thousands!)
What about RC and CR?
Glad you asked! Our Reading Comprehension Guide was re-written from scratch. Weve streamlined the process for reading passages and added lessons designed to help you wade through these dense passages and extract the kernels you need to answer questions. Weve also expanded our lessons for each question type and provided you with end-of-chapter cheat sheets that summarize what to do for each question type and what common traps to avoid. (Im most excited about this book; students often complain that RC is hard to study, and Im hoping that this book will change your minds!)
Of all of the books, Critical Reasoning has changed the least, although we did add more information about Fill-In-The-Blank question types. This Guide also provides you with end-of-chapter cheat sheets that summarize how to recognize each type of question, what to look for in the argument, what kind of characteristics the right answer needs to possess, and how to spot the most common trap answers.
What is the best way to use the books?
Heres how we typically study each topic in class:
Sentence Correction
First, we learn how to use the SC Process and we discuss the main topics being tested (grammar and meaning); these correspond to chapters 1 and 2 of the book. Then, we work through one new chapter a week, starting with Chapter 3 (Sentence Structure). The order of chapters in the book is the same order we use in class.
You can use the same approach mentioned for quant (in the first half of this article): do some end-of-chapter problems first to see what your skills are. If you know that you dont really know this material, then you can also skip this step. After youve finished a chapter, try some of those end-of-chapter problems to ensure that you did actually internalize the concepts that you just learned. Then, if you have the OG books, follow up with some questions from the OG Problem Sets, located in your Manhattan Prep Student Center.
Reading Comprehension
The class contains three RC lessons. First, we learn how to read. Bet you thought you already knew how, didnt you?
Of course you do know how to read, but the way you read in the real world may not work very well on the GMAT. Youll learn a new way to deal with the short timeframe were given on the test. After that, youll learn how to handle General questions, the ones for which you need to wrap your brain around the main ideas of the passage.
Then, youll move on to Specific Questions, including Detail, Inference, and Purpose questions. The test writers are asking us to do something a bit different for each one, so youll need to learn how to recognize each type in the first place and then how to handle it.
In class, we finish off with a Challenging RC lesson. You can create something similar for yourself by tackling harder and harder OG passages.
Critical Reasoning
Critical Reasoning begins with a thorough treatment of argument building blocks and the 4-Step CR Process. After that, youll learn about each question type (do actually use the order presented in the book). Pay attention to what the book says about frequency of each type; some types are much more common than others (and those types should obviously get more of your attention).
For both CR and RC, tear out or photo-copy the cheat sheets and use them to quiz yourself. Alternatively, put the material onto flash cards yourself (the act of rewriting the material will help you to remember it better!) and drill while youre sitting on the subway or waiting for that meeting to start.
Is that all I need to do?
That will certainly keep you busy for a while. As you get further into your studies, note that you also need to lift yourself to the 2nd Level of GMAT Study. Yes, of course, there are lots of facts, formulas, and rules to memorize, and your brain will be focused on those areas at first. Its crucial, however, for you to learn the various strategies presented in our Guides, as well as your own decision-making strategies based on your own strengths and weaknesses, and timing strategies.
In short, get ready to make a commitment. Think of studying for the GMAT as a university-level course: youre going to spend hours every week for about 3 to 4 months to get ready for this test. With a solid plan, youll achieve your goals.
Happy studying!