GMAT Strategy

Hi,
I have been preparing for GMAT for 2 months.

When I do the reading in OG13 and Verbal 2nd review, I almost always get 1 or 2 wrong or all correct per passage. However, in the Manhattan GMAT CATs, I barely get 2 correct in one passage, sometimes even get all of it wrong.

I really don't know the reason why. I have a plan to take the GMAT at the end of December, hope some advice could help me with this.

Thanks.

I have two items for you and then a very important question:

1) A reassurance - The Reading Comp is a really difficult question type to create. Unofficial reading comp passages are usually not edited and tested as carefully as the Official Questions. Think about it, but the time a question makes it to the Verbal Review or Official Guide it has been attempted by thousands of people (mostly on the actual GMAT) and edited dozens of times. A single word change can make a question much more difficult, or even make a question unfair. On of the benefits of the new Veritas Question Bank and practice tests is that students are able to leave comments and suggestions on particular questions and have helped us to edit many of questions and passages so that they get better and better over time, just like the Official Questions.

So my reassurance is that the Official questions are a better gauge of your ability.

2) A caution - before we write this all off to a difference between official and unofficial questions, there is another difference you need to think about. The difference between paper and computer!! For many people, the reading comp is easier to do on paper. The text can lay flat, you can trace it with your finger - you might even be marking on it! You cannot do these things with the computer screen. Here is an article I wrote about practicing with paper materials in a realistic way https://poetsandquants.com/2012/06/28/wh ... -on-ipads/


So how do you know which of these is the problem for you? The question is how do you do on official material that is delivered on the computer screen? How are you on the GMATPrep practice tests? Or the 15 free RC questions on GMAT Prep? Or the GMATPrep Pack 1 add-on that you can purchase to add 400+ total questions (include several more reading comp passages)?

If you are doing well on the official questions on the computer then be reassured. If not, then you need to work on translating your excellent performance on paper over to the computer delivered questions. After all, as I mention in the article that I linked above, until the GMAT is given on the IPad, there is no writing on the computer screen!

Beyond that, here are a couple of resources for you to look at in terms of strengthening your overall approach to reading comprehension.

This article helps to explain the importance of pausing throughout the reading comp passages in order to understand and all delineate the parts of the passage.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/08/ ... prehension


Reading Comprehension Tips:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/rc-tips-t96332.html#429195

Reading Comp: Main Idea vs Detail
https://www.beatthegmat.com/rc-main-idea ... tml#398662

Discussion of Reading Comp strategy
https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-rc-t86523.html#384171

Hi David !
Thanks so much for your advice.

Actually, I have not done the 2 GMAT Prep Cats. I want to leave it till the end so that I can assure myself before the official GMAT.
I will take your advice seriously, practice more on the computer. I will try the 15 free questions in Gmat prep tomorrow to check.
I consistently score between 650-700 in Manhattan cats because of verbal (around 34,35), especially the bad RC. Hope i can break 700 soon

Thanks again David !!

Sounds good...just remember that you can take each of those GMATPrep tests twice (in other words test 1 and then reset and take it again and test 2 and reset and take it again). Also, you can purchase the other two GMATPrep tests with the Exam Pack 1 - it is $39.95 US dollars. I mention this so that you do not feel that you have to wait until the last minute to take any official GMAT tests.

And do not forget about the Veritas Prep Question Bank - this is another opportunity to practice questions on the computer (as opposed to from a book) - although, of course these are not official questions.

Hi Rich

I did all the CATS under the exam condition all the time( IR + AWA , timing)
My 2 recent Manhattan CATs
690 ( Q 49, V 35)
670 ( Q 48, V 33) ( I was very tired this day, i think i made some silly mistakes with SC, but RC is still bad TT)

My time management is always good. Quant is never a problem with me, even Manhattan math, I feel very smooth going through it, so when i reach Verbal,I think I was in good stamina.

Thanks,

Thanks Rich, I will consider it carefully.

Hi David,

I tried 2 passages in the GMAT Prep today.
1 passage with 5 questions ( 3 wrong)
1 passage with 3 questions (1 wrong)
I think I knew the problem now. I can't see the whole passage so need to scroll up and down. I think it prevents me from looking through the organization of the passage overall.

I want to ask: Do I also have to scroll like that in the official GMAT?

Another question: why in OG and Verbal review, the passage often goes with 5 6 questions when in fact, the passage in GMAT often has 3 or 4 questions along .

Thanks