GMAT Strategy

Dear All,

I took the GMAT 2 times; The first time was on mid- September- got 50Q and 15V; the second time was yesterday - 49Q and 20V.
I must admit that when I took the test for the first time I was not prepared for the verbal part, I didn't finish the test on time (guessed from question 31 till the end).
During the last tow months, I worked really hard on the timing problem and on the second time I had to guess 6 questions. Because I don't read fast enough I always skip the last RC and In addition I had to guess 3 more questions.
I used OG-11 and 10, did the Kaplan 800, 6 MGMAT tests and the Kaplan 2009 guide.
Before the first test my GMATPREP was always around 27 (27, 28,30,27).
Before the second test my GMATPREP was around 32 (31,32,35,30)
You should also notice that GMATPREP bank of questions has changed during the last month and I think that the current bank reflects the real test much more than the version I used before my fisrt test.
During the second test I felt that I was actually doing well: the CR was not to hard, as well as the SC. I had 3 REALLY LONG RCs: 2 scientific (the first 2) and a social one, the last was shorter and social too.
I really felt that that I was ready the second time and I still don't know what happen. I really suspect that because I had to guess the last paragraph (33-35) and 3 more questions (36, 40,41) I had again a sequence of wrong questions.
I really think that I am around 30-32 and I really don't need more than that.
Really need a new strategy here....
Thanks in advance............

Hello Vermont79,

My first impression is that you must be a native speaker as I did not see any of the usual faults that a non-native member would make. That's a good thing since it is easier for a native speaker to improve his/her verbal. Second, you have not provided your current/old strategy for studying verbal - without that we cannot provide you with a "new" plan. Please describe your study methods and strategy so we can critique and help you.

Mayo

How do you do on the SCs? If you're running out of time before the end, you want to get fast at solving SCs that break the major rules, so that you'll have more time left for doing reading. Some problems with dangling modifiers or idioms like "not only...but also" can be solved in as little as 13 seconds (I time my own students and that's the fastest I've seen them do; the average on this type seems to be about 20-25 seconds). Of course, some SCs require more thought and care, but if you can reach maximal efficiency with the ones that can be done more mechanically, you have more time left for other things.

First of all, thanks for the feedback,
More about my strategy

Before my first test (9/15, started studying on August)
1. SC: started with the Kaplan gmat 2009 SC part. Followed by Kaplan 800 sc part.
2. I chose to focus more on quality rather than on timing (my biggest mistake), therefore while practicing I didn’t give myself any time limits.
3. RC: I read the whole passage using a key words / structure table for every passage; limiting myself to 8 minutes per passage. Usually getting 2/4 questions.
4. CR: used Kaplan 2009 and Kaplan 800 .
5. started with the OG -11 with an average of 60% success on the SC and the CR.

Before the second test: (11/12)

1. Timing – ALL the practice I did was with a timer. Solved all the OG-11,Kaplan 800 and Kaplan 2009.
2. RC: stopped using the keyword/structure table and read the whole passage while summarizing and taking notes during the reading. A short passage (25-35) I can finish reading within 3-3.5 minutes and then I allow another 1-1.5 minutes per question.
Long passages I read within 4 minutes and then allow 1-1.5 minutes per question.
Usually what I solved 3/4 correctly with a tendency to 2/4 if the passage is really long and complicated (got three passages like this on the test).
3. CR- 2 minutes per question with around 80% success. No problem here.
4. SC- I do have a problem with this part and this is the part where I get most of my mistakes, even though I know most of the rules.
I divide SC to 3 types of questions:
A. The short sentences –they can be really tricky and it takes around 1.5 or they can be really quick (less than a minute).
B. Questions that can be solved quickly by comparing the answers (5 answers with the same structure and you look for differences addressing grammar and style), usually takes around 1.5 minutes.
C. Long sentences- when the structure of each answer is different from the others (modifiers change location , clauses with reverse order.. etc), under this category I put the bizarre long wordy sentences with the bizarre grammar that usually don’t fit any rule and are more related to the logic of the sentence- they usually take me up to 2 minutes.
Overall I get around 70% of the sentences correct.
5. Solved series of questions with a timer ( e.g 8 CR in 16 minutes; 10 SC in 15 minutes , 3 passages with 4 questions each in 24 minutes)
6. During my test simulations- put a strong emphasis on time – 1.5-2 for SC ; 2 for CR and 4+ 1 minute per question per passage.
As I wrote above, this time I felt that during most of the test, time was not a problem only after my third passage which was really long also I reached question 28 and had 18 minutes left while during the simulations I usually reached question 30 with 20 minutes left.
2 days have passed since the test and I do realize that I need to beat long passages more quickly; I think that also the strategy towards sentence correction need to be changed a bit as well;

Thanks again for the help; Have a great weekend;

My quick reactions are -- don't take notes on reading passages unless you're one of the few people who truly can't concentrate without taking notes; if the fastest that you solve SCs is 90 seconds and you only get 70% right, you really need some focused work on SCs, for both quality and timing. There are probably several ways that you're poking along on them too slowly, and you're overlooking things. You probably would benefit from getting a tutor -- and I'm not saying that just because I'm a tutor, but because I've seen this before -- people get a certain amount of the distance from large group classes and studying on their own, but at a certain level, it's better to have an individual who can point things out, make things stand out more vividly in your mind, and notice what you're doing wrong at a level of detail that doesn't happen in group classes.

Also, if you're taking up to 2 minutes per SC and CR, in general and not just on a few killer SCs or CRs, you're doing them too slowly, period. If you divide the amount of time you have by the number of questions, you have 1 minute and 50 seconds (well, 1 minute, 49.7 seconds to be precise) per question. You want your SC average to come in well below that number, so you have more time for RCs. Only the really brain-bending SCs should take anything like 2 minutes. CRs should be right around 110 seconds or a little faster, not a full 2 minutes except for the truly awful ones. Then you have more time for the RC questions, which you need. To solve most RC questions, you need to be looking back and forth between the question and the passage quite a bit -- if you're one of those "I never look back" people, that's another strategy error -- and to do that, you need time. You pick up the time you need by being super-fast on SCs and pretty efficient on CRs.