SarahMoxon wrote:I don't mind having to spend some money on this - I just want to make an informed decision based on what is going to work for me as opposed to buying everything under the sun and finding I have wasted my money as the solution is hard work and focus! - if that makes sense!
That makes sense!
I think a few more points on verbal should be possible - I got the 38 v. easily (or so it seemed - I did practise but found I picked up many of the principles really quickly and found it easy to apply them - my 38 doesn't seem like a fluke - in the Princeton books I have being doing verbal drills and was achieving 80% across the board), I felt I was getting questions towards the more difficult end of the scale and at the end of the test I had 8 mins left on Verbal. The issue was simply that with the questions I felt were probably from the medium-hard category I have not learnt the rules and could not get my head around what GMAC were looking for from me. One observation was that I felt Princeton didn't cover some of the questions I was seeing on the exam - this could be my perception though and might be more to do with my revision.
I am not really familiar with the Princeton books, but generally speaking harder exam questions tend to be harder than many of the questions that one sees in guide books.
Going forward, when you practice verbal questions, seek to get 90%+ right. Especially toward the beginning of the next six weeks, don't worry to much about how much time you take per question. Make a point of learning to see what you need to see in order to get them right.
When you take the actual test, use pretty much all of the time allotted for verbal.
Check this out. You had about eight minutes left. Let's say you had used those eight minutes to spend a little more time on each of eight verbal questions, and as a result you had gotten all of those eight right. In that case, likely we would not be having this conversation, as probably you would have scored 600+ on the test. While that scenario is maybe not entirely realistic, you get my point. A little extra energy put into verbal, and quant, questions, can make a big difference, and sheer determination to get right answers can put you over the top.
I agree that this needs to be a process I commit too - I haven't done this yet - apart from in the 6 days before my test. But I am determined and can definitely put in 6 weeks of hard work and serious focus!
Exxxcellent. One investment you probably should make, for about 25 USD, is in the e book version, not the more environmentally destructive paper version, of the 2016 Official Guide. You can use the Kindle version without actually having a Kindle, and really all you need is the code for the online question bank.
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Review- ... guide+2016
I bet that if you do every verbal question in that online question bank, carefully, really seeking to see what you have to see and shooting for right answers, close to 100%, you will destroy verbal.
To get some great ideas for getting the right answers to verbal questions, browse these Forums.
Here's some more detail on how to get the right answers to SC questions.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/how-do-i-mas ... tml#762120
Also, learn to hack those quant questions. The key question is not really "How am I supposed to do this?" but more "What's an efficient way to get the answer to this?"
As with verbal, you can get a lot of quant ideas on these Forums. I bet that even if you were just to get better at figuring out the right answers to data sufficiency questions you would score close to or at your goal level. So check out how the pros on the Forums get answers to data sufficiency questions and do a bunch yourself, getting wicked comfortable with the DS question format.
I can't tell how helpful it is to have your views on this - I really do appreciate it as I was feeling pretty lost after my result yesterday.
Many thanks!
Sarah
Sure thing Sarah. Enjoy the game!
