GMAT Strategy

Dear Experts and Friends,
First of all, thanks a lot posting wonderful and detailed replies to questions in the BTG forum. All of them have been very helpful while I was preparing for my GMAT.
Recently, I appeared for GMAT and scored 540 (Q-42/V-22). Nevertheless, I scored 5.5 in AWA.

I plan to re-appear in early Oct and want to start everything from scratch, especially Verbal. My scores in the verbal section were much better in my last three full mock tests in Manhattan/GMAT Prep (in 34-37 range). But after the test I realized I am equally weak in SC, CR, and RC.

So, it would be really helpful if you guys can advice me regarding:
1) how to begin preparing for the test again; and
2) which books/preparation material (other than OG) I should follow to boost up my fundamentals.
Also, would be great if you can also recommend names of full length shall I take to ensure comprehensive preparation.

Really appreciate your help.
Please let me know in case you need to know something more to help me out.
Thanks,

Guys, appreciate your help. Thx

rishijhawar wrote:Dear Experts and Friends,
First of all, thanks a lot posting wonderful and detailed replies to questions in the BTG forum. All of them have been very helpful while I was preparing for my GMAT.
Recently, I appeared for GMAT and scored 540 (Q-42/V-22). Nevertheless, I scored 5.5 in AWA.

I plan to re-appear in early Oct and want to start everything from scratch, especially Verbal. My scores in the verbal section were much better in my last three full mock tests in Manhattan/GMAT Prep (in 34-37 range). But after the test I realized I am equally weak in SC, CR, and RC.

So, it would be really helpful if you guys can advice me regarding:
1) how to begin preparing for the test again; and
2) which books/preparation material (other than OG) I should follow to boost up my fundamentals.
Also, would be great if you can also recommend names of full length shall I take to ensure comprehensive preparation.

Really appreciate your help.
Please let me know in case you need to know something more to help me out.
Thanks,

Hi,

It is quite a task to prepare for the Verbal if you are a non-native speaker. Please use the following resources for best results.

1) CR - PowerScore CR Bible - one of the best books for CR
2) SC - MGMAT SC Guide - This explains the basics and then moves on to advanced topics slowly.
3) RC - Nova GMAT/Veritas Prep RC Guide - Very well organized strategies.

Most importantly, it is the quality time you spend to analyse the questions after solving them. Try building your own logic around the question types.

After solving a set ofquestions, it is equally important to analyse why an answer is right and also why an answer is wrong. This way we cover all possibilities and understand the questions better. We can build confidence once we start practising more questions in this strategy.

Hi Ron,
Thanks for posting the useful links.

Just a word on RC...don't put it off!

When you work on passages, I think it's better to do too much at first. Go really slowly to break down the passages and learn the ins and out of rhetoric. I'm also a big believer in note-taking. Even if that's not ultimately the strategy you may choose to use on test day, you should try it! Get inspired by thoroughness!

These links might help:

https://grockit.com/blog/gre/2010/12/16/ ... -passages/

https://grockit.com/blog/gmat/2011/03/21 ... te-taking/

You can see how I take notes and broke down a passage here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/rc-99-passage-39-t81093.html

Good luck!

You guys are awesome - Ron, Vivian.