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Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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Need help badly :(

by rajeshbhati » Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:22 am
Hello Experts,
Kindly take a look at my GMAT preparation so far and guide me what should I do now?

Abbreviation- (SC - Sentence Correction, CR - Critical Reasoning, RC - Reading Comprehension, OG - Official Guide, MH - Manhattan)

TestName/StudySource Date(DD/MM/YYYY) Score(QA/VA)
ThePrincetonReview 2/6/2013 550(44/21)
Analysis: "VA - 19 wrong (6 out of 17 in SC, 6 out of 13 in RC, 7 out of 11 in CR). - wrong in all sections. IDIOM and parallelism were major. After this.
QA - 9 wrong (8DS, 1PS)"

StudyInBetween(June) "MH Review SC Guide/ OG13 SC Questions
MH CR"
July: Wasted and lost momentum so again started and completed above sources

Test KaplanDiagnosticTest 18/8/2013 640 VA- 23 Incorrect: 80% in SC, 60% in RC and 40% in CR

StudyInBetween(Aug-Sep) "SC: Thursday with Ron videos from MH GMAT website - great stuff
CR: Powerscore bible - too many rules so just read to get an idea about what possible areas we can think for evaluating an option. But mainly relied on Ron's classes videos
OG 13 for practice - this time I knew why something is correct or incorrect
OG review 2 for additional practice - didn't finish"

Test ManhattanTest1 7/9/2013 610(47/28) "VA - 22 Incorrect: SC - 7 out of 15, CR - 8 out of 14, RC-7 out of 12
QA - 12 Incorrect: 4 in DS and 8 in PS"

StudyInBetween(Sep) "Ron's videos and OG review and guide for practice. Started OG 12 also.
Tried handling timing issue as per Stacey's blog on MH website."

Test ManhattanTest2 23/9/2013 660(45/35) "VA - 17 incorrect: SC - 5, CR-5, RC-7
QA - 17 incorrect: PS-10, DS-7"

StudyInBetween: little practice

Test ManhattanTest3 26/9/2013 640(44/33) "VA - 18 incorrect: SC-5, CR-5, RC-8
QA: 17 incorrect: PS-10, DS-7"

StudyInBetween(Sep-oct) "pracice from gmat club for QA. This was basically to resolve timing issues.
RC: OG13"

Test GMATPrepTest1 10/10/2013 560(49/19) "VA - 19 incorrect
QA - 14 incorrect"

StudyInBetween(Oct) "Practice from OG12, OG11 for new questions.
CR-OG10 also
RC-OG13 only
Specific theory from various sources as per need"

Test ManhattanTest4 10/11/2013 580(42/28) "SC - 20 incorrect: SC-3, CR-9, RC-8
QA - 20 incorrect: PS-11, DS-9"

StudyInBetween Now didn't know what to do so just did practice from OG remaining part. Gave time to prepare application for ISB(last date was 30 Nov) by hoping for improvement due to practice, though I didn't do much practice in between

Test MH test5 28/11/2013 620(45/31) "VA - 19 incorrect: SC-6, CR-8, RC-5
QA - major timing issue"

Test GMATPrepTest2 29/11/2013 640(49/28) "VA - 18 incorrect
QA - 11 incorrect"

What all things have I completed
Manhattan SC Review
CR Bible and MH CR
OG13
OG12(RC left)
OG11(CR and half SC complete), OG10(CR)
OG Review Verbal and Quant (half done)
Thursday with Ron Videos for Verbal(Improved a lot after this)
Practiced from Web and Score800 sectional tests

So, as clear from my score I am not applying ISB this year. But I want to give GMAT in Dec itself so that I may have a chance to apply in NUS(deadline Jan'14).
My aim - score of 750.

Could you please guide me how can achieve my goal? What and how should I proceed further?
One major issue is timing that I know and I will practice for it.
Other issue is with CR - here problem is in every area. I am getting questions wrong in all CR areas.
RC and QA - speed is issue.
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by [email protected] » Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:23 pm
Hi rajeshbhati,

Your practice CAT scores have fluctuated, so it's tough to truly measure the areas that you're consistently great at. I do have a few questions though, that can help to clarify your situation:

1) Did you take the entire CAT every time (including Essay and IR)?
2) Do you ever run into pacing problems? How often does it happen and on what sections?
3) After reviewing each CAT, how many questions did you get wrong for what you would consider "silly mistakes?"

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
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by rajeshbhati » Sat Nov 30, 2013 4:25 am
Thanks Rich.C for looking into my post.
1. Yes I took entire CAT every time except last three test where I didn't write essays. I always took IR except MH test no 4.
2. Yes pacing is an issue but it is also fluctuating in all CATs, depending upon whether I worked on it before the test or not. It is always present in RC and I hardly able to complete 2 RCs and guess other two. Basically this happens because of small pacing issues in SC,CR and RC. Major pacing issue is coming in QA(both PS and DS - areas vary but majorly equations, time and rate, functions, word problems etc). So, in a nutshell with VA it is consistently same - I am quitting 2 RCs because of time lag build due to pacing issue in all VA sections. With QA it is fluctuating in every test but yes it is there in all and worst in MHtest4.
3. MHTest2: 3 out of 17 wrong in VA as well as in QA then silly mistakes decreased in each test but pacing issue increased. So, I guessed 6, 8 and 9 questions in VA in MHtest 2, 3, and 4 respectively. In QA stats are 10 , 4 and 13 for same. I haven't analysed MHtest5 and GMAT prep2 yet. In GMAT prep 1 silly mistakes were not there but I guessed 3 questions in QA and 5 in VA(all RC).

As per my opinion problems with me:
1. Speeding issue and i think it is the result of less concentration.
2. I work on one area and other area goes down then I work on that area and first area goes down.
3. Area wise - I am not sure how to improve in CR in both area technique and pace - I need a tip here badly.
RC - I am very lazy to practice them so I do less practice for RC because I know unless I improve my pace of SC and CR I won't be able to find much time to solve RC in exam. Should I think differently? If yes then how can I make RC interesting to practice?
SC: Now I have improved a lot in SC and only consistent mistake I am doing is in comparison questions. Further, Modifier questions took a lot of time ranging from 2-3 minutes and other SC questions average lies between 1.5-2 minute.
QA: I found MH tests QA a little tough not concept-wise but pace-wise. GMAT prep QA was more in my reach but if some one can give some tip to touch 50 or 5 then it would be great.

Thanks,
Rajesh
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by lunarpower » Sat Nov 30, 2013 5:45 am
I received a private message about this thread.

First, you're using way too many materials. You shouldn't really need anything except the OG, GMAT Prep, and perhaps a few of our practice tests.
This is true especially for the verbal section, since most third-party verbal materials are of poor quality and/or written in a style substantially different from that of the official test.

For CR and RC, you shouldn't need anything beyond the OG.
CR - here problem is in every area. I am getting questions wrong in all CR areas.
It's important to understand what CR is and what it isn't. If you study the wrong way for CR (i.e., try to memorize "rules" for it), you'll get worse and worse the more you study.

Read these:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mgmat-hard-i ... tml#661658

https://www.beatthegmat.com/4th-hopefull ... tml#591658
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by lunarpower » Sat Nov 30, 2013 5:47 am
rajeshbhati wrote:One major issue is timing that I know and I will practice for it.
Time management is hard for some people, but it's not complicated. Everything you need to know about time management is in this post:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-660-q51 ... tml#696548
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by rajeshbhati » Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:46 pm
Ron thank you very much.

You have listened it so many times but still once more. You are really GREAT.

BTW, in mean time I watched your video on CR and found where I was doing mistake in CR. I am going to follow your advice from here and from your videos(thursday with ron) and practice OG only. Hopefully I will see improvement in my next test.

one more thing, now as I have used all of my tests( 5 from MH and 2 from GMAT prep) what should I do ? Purchase from some other source(as per my knowledge only MH tests are near to official tests) if yes then which one? or should I reset MH and GMAT prep tests. Is there any harm in doing that?
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