How I conquered Sentence Correction 31 to 40V

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I'm finally DONE with the GMAT!! I'll go have a beer, but while things are still fresh, I thought I would give you guys a quick debrief. I may write more in the future.

Materials used: (1) MGMAT guides, (2)GMATPrep, (3) GMATFix SC Flash Lessons, (4) GMATFix Solutions Engine
I took the test 1 month ago after preparing with MGMAT guides and the OG11. Prior to the test, my practice verbal scores were around 30-33. I scored a 31 on the actual exam. I was already strong at quant so I knew that to improve my GMAT I needed to improve the verbal.

Because I needed to retake the exam with only a short time to prepare, I decided to focus on my weakest area: Sentence Correction. I asked a couple of friends for advice and one of them referred me to gmatfix.com. I was a bit skeptical because the company is pretty much unknown so I fished around and found my way here. Eventually I decided to try the Solutions Engine and the SC Flash lessons because GMATFix gave me the option to look at a free sample (flash lessons) and a 2-week trial (solutions engine). So I figured I didn't have much to lose by trying the stuff.

It proved to be a good decision. There are 5 flash lessons centered around Idioms, S-V agreements, Verb tense, Parallelism, Modifiers and Pronouns. I went over each lesson repeatedly to really understand each of the concepts tested; the lessons give lots of examples and applications, and talk about the tricks you will see on the GMAT.
Besides the flash lessons, I used the Solutions Engine. This is a pretty amazing tool: basically the SE helped me structure my study by allowing me to create drills in specific subjects and to set the drill difficulty. The SE also provided in depth explanations. Below is how my study was structured:

Week 1: Pronouns, Modifiers
  • -Did a quick review of the MGMAT guides (Mon, Tue)
  • -Went through the GMATFix lessons (Wed)
  • -Created and took drills of 20 SC questions in 15 minutes using the Solutions Engine. I excluded 700+ questions from the drills because I knew I needed to master the other questions. Between tests, I took the time to go through the solutions that the engine provides. (Thu-Fri)
  • -Took a practice test (GMATprep) (Sat) and used the Solutions Engine to study solutions (Sun).
Week 2: Parallelism, S-V Agreement (same schedule as week 1)
Week 3 & 4: Idioms. I spent the bulk of the last 2 weeks trying to master as many SC questions as I could from GMATPrep by taking and reviewing tests and by creating and taking drills (from the Solutions Engine).

I took the test again this week and did much better, going from a verbal score of 31 to a 40V. Hopefully my debrief will help some of you. Don't give up if you don't get what you know you're capable of after the first try!

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by kvcpk » Thu Jun 17, 2010 11:59 am
Congratulations!!

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by shalzz9 » Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:16 pm
Thats a gr8 jump in verbal score
Congratulations

Could you also give us ur total score ans splits ?

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by jonnymba » Sun Jun 27, 2010 12:58 pm
40V 36Q, 620!! I almost couldn't believe my verbal score. maybe there was a glitch in the machine or something :-)

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by KingTmo » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:22 am
Seems as though you and I are in the same exact predicament...i will be taking your approach. My V ranged from 28 - 32

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by shivangaggarwal » Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:15 pm
jonnymba wrote:I'm finally DONE with the GMAT!! I'll go have a beer, but while things are still fresh, I thought I would give you guys a quick debrief. I may write more in the future.

Materials used: (1) MGMAT guides, (2)GMATPrep, (3) GMATFix SC Flash Lessons, (4) GMATFix Solutions Engine
I took the test 1 month ago after preparing with MGMAT guides and the OG11. Prior to the test, my practice verbal scores were around 30-33. I scored a 31 on the actual exam. I was already strong at quant so I knew that to improve my GMAT I needed to improve the verbal.

Because I needed to retake the exam with only a short time to prepare, I decided to focus on my weakest area: Sentence Correction. I asked a couple of friends for advice and one of them referred me to gmatfix.com. I was a bit skeptical because the company is pretty much unknown so I fished around and found my way here. Eventually I decided to try the Solutions Engine and the SC Flash lessons because GMATFix gave me the option to look at a free sample (flash lessons) and a 2-week trial (solutions engine). So I figured I didn't have much to lose by trying the stuff.

It proved to be a good decision. There are 5 flash lessons centered around Idioms, S-V agreements, Verb tense, Parallelism, Modifiers and Pronouns. I went over each lesson repeatedly to really understand each of the concepts tested; the lessons give lots of examples and applications, and talk about the tricks you will see on the GMAT.
Besides the flash lessons, I used the Solutions Engine. This is a pretty amazing tool: basically the SE helped me structure my study by allowing me to create drills in specific subjects and to set the drill difficulty. The SE also provided in depth explanations. Below is how my study was structured:

Week 1: Pronouns, Modifiers
  • -Did a quick review of the MGMAT guides (Mon, Tue)
  • -Went through the GMATFix lessons (Wed)
  • -Created and took drills of 20 SC questions in 15 minutes using the Solutions Engine. I excluded 700+ questions from the drills because I knew I needed to master the other questions. Between tests, I took the time to go through the solutions that the engine provides. (Thu-Fri)
  • -Took a practice test (GMATprep) (Sat) and used the Solutions Engine to study solutions (Sun).
Week 2: Parallelism, S-V Agreement (same schedule as week 1)
Week 3 & 4: Idioms. I spent the bulk of the last 2 weeks trying to master as many SC questions as I could from GMATPrep by taking and reviewing tests and by creating and taking drills (from the Solutions Engine).

I took the test again this week and did much better, going from a verbal score of 31 to a 40V. Hopefully my debrief will help some of you. Don't give up if you don't get what you know you're capable of after the first try!
Hi Jonnymba...

could u plzz explain more on Gmatfix lessons and Solutions Engine..
If i go for the 14 day Trial how would i get gmatfix lessons ? is it the same as 25 flash lessons of SC or sth different ?

What is covered in Solutions Engine ? Does it include Qs from GmatPrep only as i ve yet to give Gmatprep and if i see the solutions before hand then i wont be able to analyze my current Score ?

Was Solutions Engine helpful for complete verbal or specifically SC only..?

Thanks..

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by jonnymba » Sat Jul 17, 2010 1:34 pm
Hi shivangaggarwal,

I liked the Solutions Engine. It pretty much helped me be more effective in my practice, and I really liked the video solutions to all quant questions. I wish the same were available for verbal questions as well. The automatic drill generator was most helpful because I could choose exactly which types of questions and which topics I wanted on my drill and select the difficulty level and the length of the drill. Then the site would generate a drill that I would take and review.

The 14 day trial includes everything that is part of the Solutions Engine. This is separate from the SC Flash Lessons however.

I think the tool would be helpful for all areas of the test. It's just that I needed a lot of help in SC, so that's what I focused on. There is a tour of the engine on the gmatfix site so you can see what it does.