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Frustated and low with my Verbal

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Frustated and low with my Verbal

by rishi4you » Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:29 pm
I took the GMAT Prep practice tests today and to my utter dismay my overall score was just too bad.. I scored a 570 with 46Q and 24V. I have done all the SC questions from OG11 and the Verbal supplement book.
Not sure how to improve my score in SC and CR questions.

Please advise.?
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by beatthegmat » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:04 am
I have two items of advice for you. Without knowing the specifics of your prep, it's not enough to simply go through practice problems and gauge your performance after the fact. To improve on the GMAT, you really need to spend lots of time analyzing your errors and understanding patterns of your weaknesses. Take a look at the GMAT Practice Grid post and this particular 790 GMAT debriefing. You'll get a sense of the methodology needed in your practice from these two posts.

Second, specific to Sentence Correction, I recommend you purchase the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Guide. It's a best-in-class guide for preparing for the SC section of the GMAT and worth it's weight in gold!

Good luck!
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by VP_Jim » Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:41 pm
I entirely agree with the above. For me and many of my students, the best verbal improvement comes from actually looking at WRONG answers, not right answers. You'll frequently learn more by examining why certain answer choices were wrong rather than why the right answer was right.

Simply "doing" problems isn't going to help you. You need to study them, analyze them, and learn from them. You should obtain some sort of "takeaway" for every problem you do.

Good luck!
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by rishi4you » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:09 am
Eric, Jim,

Thanks for the reponse. But i already have the Manahattan SC guide. I have gone through them once and tried to make my own notes . I am just going over them again . Offcourse i did spend a lot of time in analyzing the problem, understanding the mistakes i am making and making a note of it, so that i do not make the same mistakes.

I did see a raise in my overall score .. I have progressed from 23-24 to 33-34 . Now i need the next round of push to make it in the 40's . I know is hard and cant be done in a short span of time. But in order of difficulty which is the hardest in verbal to improve upon.

I would rate ... RC >(harder) than CR > then SC. What else should i do to raise my scores in RC and CR.

Does the LSAT guides as suggested by a lot many test takers helps. Which is the LSAT book i should refer for improving my RC. I do have the CR bible from PowerScore and found it too overwhelming for GMAT. Its a overkill and did little to boost my score. With this at the back of my mind, whether it is advisable to go for another book at this point of time. or i should just concentrate more or practicing RC problems.

would appreciate your response...!!!
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by VP_Jim » Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:17 pm
I can't comment on any LSAT materials since I've never used them. I think the best way to study CR and RC is to analyze the wrong answers in each problem. For me, it's usually easier (on CR especially) to find the four wrong answers than the one right one. Also, it's good practice to just read more, whether it's GMAT related or not. Pick up some dense magazines (e.g., the Economist, Scientific American) and practice your reading comprehension skills.
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by siownschu » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:03 pm
do you take "notes" during the RC? i've found that to help me.. MGMAT calls this the active reading method.
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by rishi4you » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:30 am
Yes i do make notes , jotting down the main idea, and the main intent of the paragraph for long comphrehension question. For shorter ones i normally abstain from making notes..
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