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Study Materials - which is best for RC?

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by Diamong » Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:12 am
My biggest weakness on the verbal section seems to be RC, and I'm trying to figure out what resources to use to best improve it. I've looked at the links to GMAT Reading Comprehension, but I'm wondering which book is the best for this. Is Kaplan's RC the best? What about trying to use the PowerScore LSAT Reading Comprehension Bible?

Any thoughts or experiences anyone may have would be greatly appreciated!
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by eternal_optimist » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:19 am
I'd not recommend you to go for Kaplan RCs. They don't mimic the GMAT RCs .
After you are done with the OG passages, you can either try RC99 or Veritas RC book. I personally used RC99 and found it to be very useful. The passages mimic those tested on the GMAT and are arranged in increasing order of difficulty level which lets you see the progress you're making.

Powerscore LSAT RC Bible is 1) Quite expensive at $48 2) Has sections such as comparative passages etc which are not tested on the GMAT. 3) The questions and the passages don't really mimic the GMAT passages. So I'd recommend that you stick to the RC material for the GMAT only.
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by Adam@Knewton » Mon Jan 17, 2011 1:52 pm
Be very careful with LSAT passages and questions: they are harder and longer than GMAT questions. Some of them are really good practice, but avoid the following:

Law passages -- this subject is not covered on the GMAT. Stick to the Humanities, Science, and Social Science subjects.
Questions that focus on a detailed understanding of one of the passage's key argument -- these questions are rarer on the GMAT and require a lot more careful reading on the LSAT, which can be the wrong habit on the GMAT.
Any question about a "principle" -- this is a common LSAT question type which you should avoid studying or worrying about because it does not appear on the GMAT.

Also be aware that LSAT passages are on average slightly longer than the long GMAT passages and that they have about 7 questions per passage as opposed to 3-4, so the timing is an entirely different animal.

The other test with similar style passages and questions, although mostly shorter passage lenghts, to the GMAT is actually the GRE; however, there are few good study materials for the GRE out there as it is. Nevertheless, that would be the first additional test resource that I'd look up after I'd exhausted the GMAT options.
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by hja379 » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:55 pm
I found these useful for my prep.

Study:
MGMAT RC Guide.

Practice:
Beat the GMAT Practice Questions
Grockit
Aristotle RC 99

All the above come with good explanations.
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by Paulrichards » Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:14 pm
Be very careful with LSAT passages and questions: they are harder and longer than GMAT questions.
I Agree :evil:

Though of late I've been hearing of people getting really long and convoluted RC passages in the actual test which are much more complicated than the ones in the OGs.
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by Black Knight » Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:48 pm
This keeps getting more and more confusing. I still haven't been able to figure out whether to stick to the OGs or refer to more material for RCs :roll:
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by Target2009 » Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:04 pm
Black Knight wrote:This keeps getting more and more confusing. I still haven't been able to figure out whether to stick to the OGs or refer to more material for RCs :roll:
You have to refer other material. OG is not sufficient any more. Try Varitas RC. looks good to me. You can also try RC99 but specifically for detail question. For LSAT RC be careful in selecting passages and question.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Feb 27, 2011 3:08 pm
I agree with Adam that LSAT passages are longer and tougher than what you see in the OG. However, this seems like a plus to me - at least for those people that are going to score well on the verbal and therefore see the toughest GMAT Reading Comp passages. (Just don't be too upset to miss some questions on these). I also agree with the fact that law passages are not going to be on the GMAT - however, they are boring an quite technical so that could be good to study as well. It depends on what you are looking for - the Official Guides have former GMAT passages and questions that are, on the average, not at the upper levels of difficulty, but they are official.

I am glad to hear the Veritas Reading Comp book recommended (and of course that is written specifically for the GMAT so that can be even more helpful than the LSAT or other nonspecific material).

As to the OG - yes that should be in everyone's study plan. However, there are only so many passages available from GMAC and they seem to hold back some of the tougher ones. So if additional material is needed there are places to go for that...

by the way, here is a link to a discussion that I wrote about using the LSAT to studying for GMAT reading comp.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsat-to-stud ... tml#322872
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by Diamong » Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:14 pm
So, I've come full circle with this.

I took the GMAT in February and ended up with a 740 and a 44 on the verbal. Answering my own question now, I would say studying the LSAT RC problems is probably not needed, but the problems in the GMAT OG are definitely easier than ones you will see on the actual test if you're aiming for a high score. I read both the Manhattan GMAT and the Power Bible books on RC. Both have pros and cons, but neither is especially spectacular.

The study guide that probably best prepared me for the RC was the Power Bible Critical Reasoning study guide. Many of the principles in that book (which is very very good) can be applied to RC problems.
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by archimittal » Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:29 am
Diamong wrote:So, I've come full circle with this.

I took the GMAT in February and ended up with a 740 and a 44 on the verbal. Answering my own question now, I would say studying the LSAT RC problems is probably not needed, but the problems in the GMAT OG are definitely easier than ones you will see on the actual test if you're aiming for a high score. I read both the Manhattan GMAT and the Power Bible books on RC. Both have pros and cons, but neither is especially spectacular.

The study guide that probably best prepared me for the RC was the Power Bible Critical Reasoning study guide. Many of the principles in that book (which is very very good) can be applied to RC problems.
Hi

Congrats on your great score!

Can you pls elaborate on what are these principles of CR that can be applied to RC as well?

Thanks
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by Diamong » Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:14 am
I found that most of the principles from CR translate over to RC. The "primary objectives", the classification of the question types, and the strategies for answering the different question types are applicable for the most part for RC questions.

I know thats still a little vague, but I'd have to go through the book again to pick out all the specific areas. I would say that in general you can take the approach and strategies in CR and apply them to RC.

Again, I found the CR PowerBible to be the best.
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by baladon99 » Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:44 pm
Can anyone tell me , from where else can I get the Veritas RC book ? I'm from India and they charge $84 for shipping :( Is it available online anywhere ?
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by David@VeritasPrep » Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:28 pm
That sounds like a pretty high quote for shipping...

What about from Amazon.com? Is shipping cheaper there?

Veritas books are not available as a soft copy. You can imagine how quickly a soft copy might get out of hand...
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by David@VeritasPrep » Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:55 pm
I would agree with Diamong that critical reasoning can make you better at reading comp., however I think that it is important to recognize the main difference and that is that about 1/2 of the questions in a reading comp section can be answered by looking back at the text and answering the question by providing the detail that is in the passage. This is unlike any question type in critical reasoning. There is no critical reasoning question that says, "according to the stimulus, which type of ancient tree grows to a height of no more than 20 centimeters tall?"

Remember that critical reasoning is all about reasoning whereas reading comp is more about short-term memory, and recognition of information, etc. With SOME logic thrown in...for example the OG 12th edition has a total of 8 critical reasoning type questions (strengthen, weaken, etc.) out of 139 questions total.
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by blue.vikasbhardwaj@gmail. » Wed Mar 16, 2011 6:57 am
baladon99 wrote:Can anyone tell me , from where else can I get the Veritas RC book ? I'm from India and they charge $84 for shipping :( Is it available online anywhere ?
You can check that on Flipkart.com . They ship all the books within 3 days normally . But since they import Veritas books , it will takes 3 weeks to reach you . To add to that the Shipping is free through this website .

Do check it out
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