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VERBAL-unanimous view?

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VERBAL-unanimous view?

by uptowngirl92 » Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:55 pm
So Ive been searching this site and am glad to see that other people are also having the same problem.What additional material is to be used for raising verbal score?ESPECIALLY RC's
OG11:First preference definetly and then maybe OG verbal(which overlaps a bit)
3000 RC's I recall is NOT to be used as suggested by various people.
LSAT material:Now this is something which everyone has an opinion upon.Some say to saty away as the exam formats are diffrent while some say that it's great practise material.Can somebody please clarify?And if you have a positive opinion please be kind enough to name the book so we can go hunt for it.

Anybody has a last word on this?The problem remains:(

p.s:I am from India and for the CAT exam various RC's books(nice ones) are available.Highly recommended.But I somehow have this view that doing it from a book is different than reading RC's from a computer screen.Is this true?
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by Z_I » Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:33 am
The biggest challenge in RC is your ability to read the passage and understand exactly what you just read. This in normal circumstances is doable. However, when you have been staring at the computer screen for the last 2.5 hours trying to write essays, solving some crazy quant questions and attempting some confusing CR's and SC then the task becomes extremely difficult.

Material that i used: OG11 and Verbal supplement, online version of the retired paper tests, 6 MGMAT CATs.

I agree with you that practicing from a paper book is not the same as practicing reading online. I recommend that apart from OG you should stick to the online sources that have explanations for each question. Reading the explanation for each wrong answer helps you get used to thinking like the test writers.

Also, remember quality of questions is better than quantity. Too much practice will also not help.

Make every effort to get used to reading on the computer and understanding what you are reading even when your mind is slightly tired. Whenever you are reading something, stop periodically and ask yourself if you know what you read in the last 5 paragraphs, if not then it means you are reading passively. You have to be an active reader.

As far as the strategy is concerned I changed things a little bit and that helped me tremendously even though I didnt practice extra. This is what you could try to do:

- Give yourself 3 or even 4 minutes to read the passage slowly and clearly. Do not get stressed about the 2 minutes deadline that a lot of books talk about. IF you can get through in 2 minutes then its great but if not then give yourself the extra 1-2 minutes. After practicing i realized that apart from the mental fatigue of reading a passage on the screen, the additional pressure of finishing reading the passage in 2 minutes was making me skim the passage and miss out on critical details.

- Understand each line, do not give up when you hit technical jargon or skim over details.

- At the end quickly try to get a sense of the passage by prephasing in your mind answers to two questions:

Overall what was the author trying to say?
What was his tone?

IF you have clarity about these 2 questions and the overall understanding then you can easily answer the questions attached to the passage in less than a minute each.

However, if you skim over the passage and assume that you can come back to it and in the process don’t get a sense of what the passage is all about then you will not be able to answer the questions correctly and you would have only wasted 2 precious minutes of your time.

All the best!
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by uptowngirl92 » Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:07 pm
THANK YOU Z_I!!So true i completly agree that skimming does'nt help me either.I'll turn to the paper tests thank you:)
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