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Conflicting CR Strategies from MGMAT and Powerscore

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Conflicting CR Strategies from MGMAT and Powerscore

by Subhadeep2010 » Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:28 pm
Hi ,

I am facing an unusual dilemma in attacking the CR problems. I have been following the Manhattan GMAT tips ( especially Stacey's tips ) of reading the question first , then reading the stimulus. So far in 1 MGMAT and 1 Knewton test , I haven't committed too many CR mistakes ( 2-3 ) , but I am taking a lot of time to solve them ( 2min30 secs + ) . Recently I took the GMAT Prep-1 test and had a staggering incorrect answer ratio of 9/13 questions. I am really worried now ( I am under the impression that GMAT Prep CR questions are tougher than MGMAT/Knewton questions ) . More importantly I am having to read the stimulus atleast twice to understand the meaning of the passage. This could be due to my lack of reading habit , but recently I was going through Powerscore CR Bible (Page 15) , and they strongly advocate NOT to read the question first. In fact they stress that reading the question first distracts the test-taker in understanding the essence of the passage , specially for the hard CR questions.

Two very contrasting advices from two very reputed CR guides.I wanted to know from all you Verbal Gods , which do you think is the best strategy to adopt , or is there a way to combine these two strategies ?

Thanks in advance for your advice.
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by AIM GMAT » Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:49 pm
Well i am not an expert or gr8 in verbal , but i had faced the same issue as that of yours . There are ample of strategies available to attack a particular type of question i.e. many weapons available to attack the opponenet, you yourself have to decide which strategy works for you , with which weapon you are comfortable .

I personally read the argument then go through the question , very sequentially . As with practice you will come to know which suits best . Or just solve a set of questions with both strategies and see the accuracy , although this approach cannot let u know the precise result .
Thanks & Regards,
AIM GMAT
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by Subhadeep2010 » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:25 am
I agree to your point.

However , the reason I am in a doubt is because from my experience , the Manhattan method ( reading question first , then stimulus ) works nicely with lower level questions , while it fails for higher level ( 700+) questions. I am trying a couple of hard questions using the Powerscore strategy. The issue is if that works out , how do I differentiate among the levels of the questions in an actual test and apply the relevant strategy !!

I just want to grasp the meaning of the CR in the first read itself , and that is where I am failing.Nevertheless , thanks for your insight.
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by DanaJ » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:43 am
I agree with what AIM GMAT said: different strategies work for different people. For me in particular, the PowerScore strategy worked best. This is because, after lots of practice, I ended up trying to anticipate the question and the answer. For me at least, this was very effective. I would read a stimulus and get a very good sense of its structure (most of the time identifying a potential weakness in the argument or an assumption - these were easiest to spot in my case). Then I would anticipate the question. Sometimes I would get it wrong, i.e. they'd be asking for a strengthening point and I would have identified a weakness, but sometimes I would get it right. The thing is, this exercise made me pay a lot more attention to the stimulus than if I applied the MGMAT strategy.
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by HSPA » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:48 am
Hi,

You are in a same state as I am but 4 days behind. I am bad at CR but I was excellently bad 4 days back. ( dont infer any thing here... this is totally with repect to me)

1) It is very nice to read the question before reading passage but also read the question after reading passage.
---This will help you frame your own answer
2) Key to CR lies 'most' in OPTIONS.. this is the deciding factor.
--- 'Most' of the options will be out of scope and only 2/5 options will trouble you and will take 40seconds.
3) 2min 10sec is a good time for CR.. It is very tough to complete a CR in 1.40sec... only 1% freaks can do it with extreme pracitce. If you practice your SR very well you can compensate time.. SRs can be done in a min.

Best regards,
HSPA.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:26 pm
Powerscore is written from an LSAT perspective. This does not mean that it is wrong or not useful but the LSAT has so many different types of questions and such long and confusing stuimuli that it is really is important that you read the stimulus first and then the question.

For the GMAT it is okay to go in either direction. Frankly I do a little hybrid on the GMAT. On the GMAT the crucial thing really is for you to know whether the stimulus has a conclusion in it or not. Strengthen, Weaken, Assumption, Method and other question types do have a conclusion in the stimulus. Two question types that do not are Inference questions and paradox questions. It is nice to know before you read the stimulus if you are working with one of those types (that do not have a conclusion in the stimulus).

There are two other types of questions where reading the question stem first is very helpful. One is a question where the conclusion is actually in the question stem. This is not too common but it does happen. It is nice to know that going into the stimulus, it keeps students from identifying the wrong things as the conclusion.

The other thing that is great to know before you read the stimulus is if you have a plan question. Plan questions are around 1 out of 5 of all questions on the GMAT. (Check the OG 12th ed and Verbal Review). When you have a plan question you will not have a normal conclusion. You will have a goal and and a plan.

So those are the things that I am looking for in the question stem. I am not getting caught up in what type of question it is but rather is it a "normal" question that has a conclusion in the stimulus or is it one of the four things I mentioned: Inference, Paradox, conclusion in the question stem, or plan question.

Lots of ways to approach things and that is mine. Good luck!
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by Subhadeep2010 » Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:56 pm
Thanks all for your valuable insights.. I guess there is no universal approach to tackle GMAT level CRs.

One other question. I am going through the OG CRs , and I have observed that the CRs from Q59 onwards are really tough and tricky. That is why I want to keep them for the last 2 weeks of my preparation.

Can you suggest me some resources from where I can practice these very same level questions ? Are 1000CR or www.litesee.com/gmat.htm any good ?

Thanks in advance.
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by gmatmachoman » Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:12 pm
Subhadeep2010 wrote:Thanks all for your valuable insights.. I guess there is no universal approach to tackle GMAT level CRs.

One other question. I am going through the OG CRs , and I have observed that the CRs from Q59 onwards are really tough and tricky. That is why I want to keep them for the last 2 weeks of my preparation.

Can you suggest me some resources from where I can practice these very same level questions ? Are 1000CR or www.litesee.com/gmat.htm any good ?

Thanks in advance.
Hey ,

Y do u want to keep tough things at the end??

Plz go thru this link. Now that u may figure out u r missing a key point in ur CR prep.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/few-words-of ... 77682.html
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by rahul_tgsp » Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:11 am
David@VeritasPrep wrote:Powerscore is written from an LSAT perspective. This does not mean that it is wrong or not useful but the LSAT has so many different types of questions and such long and confusing stuimuli that it is really is important that you read the stimulus first and then the question.

For the GMAT it is okay to go in either direction. Frankly I do a little hybrid on the GMAT. On the GMAT the crucial thing really is for you to know whether the stimulus has a conclusion in it or not. Strengthen, Weaken, Assumption, Method and other question types do have a conclusion in the stimulus. Two question types that do not are Inference questions and paradox questions. It is nice to know before you read the stimulus if you are working with one of those types (that do not have a conclusion in the stimulus).

There are two other types of questions where reading the question stem first is very helpful. One is a question where the conclusion is actually in the question stem. This is not too common but it does happen. It is nice to know that going into the stimulus, it keeps students from identifying the wrong things as the conclusion.

The other thing that is great to know before you read the stimulus is if you have a plan question. Plan questions are around 1 out of 5 of all questions on the GMAT. (Check the OG 12th ed and Verbal Review). When you have a plan question you will not have a normal conclusion. You will have a goal and and a plan.

So those are the things that I am looking for in the question stem. I am not getting caught up in what type of question it is but rather is it a "normal" question that has a conclusion in the stimulus or is it one of the four things I mentioned: Inference, Paradox, conclusion in the question stem, or plan question.

Lots of ways to approach things and that is mine. Good luck!

david is it true that all Inference questions come without a conclusion? cause i've worked on some (esp from Lsat which did have a conclusion but the conc didn't impact the question in any manner... i mean i simply worked with the premises .....in some cases a simple paraphrase worked while in others i'd to look for combination ans....had a high success rate as well when i neglected conclusions......so plz clarify this issue
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by David@VeritasPrep » Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:16 am
Good point!!

You are correct, I stated it too simply, the inference type of question may have a conclusion in the stimulus but unlike the strengthen, weaken and other types of questions it is not the focus of the strategy for attaching these.

So you are correct, especially LSAT questions may have a conclusion in the stimulus for an inference question - can happen on GMAT, too. But you are also correct that as you say the conclusion does not especially have an impact on the correct answer since with an inference question we are looking for what must be true and that is based on the entire stimulus and not only the conclusion.

Thanks for keeping me honest!
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