GMAT Strategy

Friends,

I am looking for some concrete suggestions on improving my performance in RC. I have given 3 Kaplan CATS, 1 Veritas Prep and the 2 GmatPrep exams. My verbal scores are always below 35 and my accuracy in RC is hardly 40- 45%. I thought that if I improve in sentence correction and CR, I might do well in verbal section. However, this doesnt seem to be the case. My accuracy level is between 75 - 80% in both CR & SC. But because I am doing poor in RC, my scores are coming less.

So far I have scored the below:

Kaplan CAT 1 - 570
Kaplan Cat 2 - 640
Kaplan CAT 3 - 630
GmatPrep 1 - 670
GmatPrep 2 - 710
Veritas Prep - 680

I have done poor in all 3 Kaplan CAT verbal section with my highest score being 33.
My maths score in all exams has been in the range of 42 - 50. But verbal is causing a lot of problem.
I just have 1 more month left before I appear for the GMAT and RC is really making me nervous. I am not looking for a 700+ kind of score. Just a decent score between 620 - 670 is fine with me. But I think RC performance will hamper my goal.

I have already started solving the collection of RCs from GMAT, GRE and LSAT and I am taking notes. But I am not seeing drastic improvement in my test performance.
Can someone please help me with suggestions to improve RC? Your insights might really help me improve and achieve a good score.


Thanks & Regards
MSD

Honestly, a good strategy for improving on RC is practice, practice, and more practice. You basically need to learn how to read through passages quickly and efficiently, and to pick out the main points easily.

I know this sounds obvious, but my recommendation is to practice reading more (don't limit yourself to just GMAT and LSAT passages, read the newspaper, works of literature, etc), and timing yourself when you do so. Also, when you're reading through passages, focus more on the main points, rather than specific details - if you know the main purpose of the passage, you'll be able to more easily go back and pick out the specific things that the questions may ask for. Lastly, taking notes is a good idea - if nothing else, I find that for my students, it helps to increase their concentration.

Good luck!

I had a lot of problems with reading comprehension as well. There are two major parts to reading well speed and comprehension. The trick to improving speed is to try not to say the words silently in your head. If you're having a lot of problems try using your finger to help guide your eyes. Also the first and last sentences of each paragraph help you get a general idea of the paragraph. Focus carefully on them and move quickly through the details in between.