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GMAT Prep 1 strange experience

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GMAT Prep 1 strange experience

by AndyMann » Sun Jul 14, 2013 6:04 pm
Hi all,

I had a strange experience with verbal section during my retake of GMAT prep 1. In my first attempt I scored 650(Q49,V29). I did really bad in sentence correction (8/14 wrong :(). One thing I learnt is no matter how many grammar rules you know, you cannot skip the meaning analysis of a sentence (most of the questions had choices that were grammatically correct, but differed in meaning). Also, I think official GMAT's SC questions are harder than non-official sources.

So, today I gave my GMAT prep 1 again after resetting it. To my surprise, I got 3 reading comprehensions within the first 13 questions. It gave me a feeling that the GMAT algorithm was trying to slow me down as RC questions in general take more time as compared to CR and SC's.

Has anybody had similar experience? Also,do the RC questions carry more weight as compared to CR and SC questions?

Thanks a lot,
Andy
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by [email protected] » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:34 pm
Hi Andy,

Based on what you're describing with your retake of that Prep CAT, could you clarify something? Did you see 3 DIFFERENT RC passages in your first 13 questions or did you see 1 RC passage with 3 questions? Most passages will come with 2-5 questions, so THAT wouldn't be strange. The GMAT verbal section will always have 4 passages (the length, content, difficulty, etc. will vary based on the Randomizer and how well you're performing) with about 14 questions or so (again, the Randomizer plays a bit of a role here). The passages themselves tend to be fairly evenly spaced throughout the section, so you'll probably see 1 passage (with it's corresponding questions) per 10 question "block."

Since each type of verbal question (SC, RC and CR) shows up a significant number of times, each category is worth some serious points. From a volume standpoint, SC tends to show up a bit more often than RC or CR, but it takes less time to answer a typical SC than CR or RC (which requires you to read a big prompt and answer questions). You have to be comfortable with all 3 categories if you want to lock in a 700+ on Test Day. Keep practicing, learn to take notes and focus on the ideas that matter (and which ones don't) and you'll find that RC can be a really easy category to master.

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Rich
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by AndyMann » Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:45 pm
Dear Rich,

I appreciate and thank you for your reply. To clarify, I got 3 RC passages in the first 13 questions. Got my first RC (4 questions) at Question#4, next RC(3 questions) right after that at Q#8 and the third RC(3 questions) at Question#11. I was confused why would GMAT throw me 3 RC's right at the beginning.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions and guidance!

Andy
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by [email protected] » Mon Jul 15, 2013 4:05 pm
Hi Andy,

Your experience with the software is clearly NOT typical and I wouldn't expect it to repeat (either in practice or on Test Day). From a probability standpoint, it's clearly mathematically possible; I once had a client tell me that on a live GMAT his first 10 Quant questions were DS questions. While he said it was a bit unnerving, he stayed calm, remembered his training and scored 730. My advice is to roll with whatever the GMAT throws at you. The order of the questions will vary, but the content, rules, format, etc. won't.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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