GMAT Strategy

lunarpower wrote:

mehravikas wrote:Can you give some important tips or suggestions how to reach 40 in the verbal section?

this is a difficult thing to answer, since you haven't really given any specifics as to your strengths and weaknesses.
i.e., you've stated a couple of things that you've done in preparation, but you haven't given any indication of the areas in which you're currently performing well, vs. the areas in which you're not.

also, you've stated that you're reading the opinion section of the newspaper. i don't know if indian newspapers are structured like western newspapers, but, if they are, that may be the least useful section of the newspaper to read, since the passages are rarely, if ever, structured like opinion pieces / editorials.

instead, you may want to look for online JOURNALS, particularly online business and scientific journals, since those articles are most similar to what you're going to see on the exam.
i googled "online business journal articles" and got results such as the following:
https://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/search/
that's not bad. the articles are obviously much, much longer than what you're going to get on the test, but the style is the same.

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finally:
the GMATPREP scores may not really represent improvements, since they are resets of exams you've already taken (and are thus packed with questions you've already seen).
why don't you take some new tests, rather than repeating the gmatprep tests over and over again?
you've only cited one mgmat test score, meaning that you have at least six more of those that you can take (the set of 6 tests + the "free online practice test" from the online store).

i'm not saying that you shouldn't repeat gmatprep - in fact, that's probably the single best way to be exposed to official problems - but you shouldn't put a lot of stock in the meaning of the SCORES that you get from a repeated administration.

lunarpower wrote:hi -

the good news is that, of the three sections of the verbal portion, SC is the most possible to improve.
(with the other two sections, CR and RC, it is extremely difficult to have any sort of improvement, beyond an initial jump that results from improving your understanding of the way the questions actually work.)

the bad news is that your improvement in SC will be EXTREMELY incremental, and will be based on studying LARGE numbers of questions, in extremely minute detail.
being on this forum is a good start.
make sure that you are studying OFFICIAL problems (gmatprep and OG) whenever possible. that applies especially to this forum, on which many (though not necessarily most) of the problems are from questionable sources.

that's a really, really good performance in CR. congratulations there.

lunarpower wrote:good luck.

you also may want to consider setting a goal score of 690 instead of 700.

this may sound stupid, but it could make a huge difference psychologically, because the unholy obsession with "round numbers" like 700 can lead to dissatisfaction.

here's what i mean:
if your goal is 700 and you score 680, or even 690, you'll probably be extremely disappointed.
if your goal is 690 and you score 670 or 680, you will most probably be fairly satisfied with your result.

(the same phenomenon is observed in marketing. consumers will universally perceive a discount from $2.00 to $1.75 as significant, but, perversely, will perceive a discount from $1.75 to $1.50 - which is actually a bigger discount, viewed as a percentage - as less significant.)

try it.

(i'm currently trying to get to the point where i can do 9 pull-ups, not 10, in the gym ... same thing. it really does make a difference, even though i'm fully aware of the psychological mechanism at work)

lunarpower wrote:

mehravikas wrote:You are 200% correct, when you say that SC improves with preparation and CR & RC improve with having a proper mindset of the structure of the passage / argument.

200%! awesome.
i've never been more than 110% correct before.


it's excellent that you've made this realization. many students study verbal for months and months and don't realize this at all.

it's also excellent that your "weakest link" happens to be the area most subject to possible improvement (i.e., SC). if you have the drive and the tenacity to study LOTS of problems in minute detail, then you should be able to make it happen.

i'm serious about the 690 vs. 700 thing. in fact, you should do this with any sort of life goal that's expressed as a number.

Ogman05 wrote:I have an off topic question here but may appoly as I see talk about the gmat preptest. I took my test and accidentally closed the program after seeing my scores. Is is possible to see the results again somehow so I can analyze what question types I got wrong. So angry baout this. Just took my first diag this past saturday and cant even use it to help with improvement. I know I need to tackle quant however. Any tips.

Josh