Question about your classes

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

I'm participating in MLT and you guys are offering MLT participants a discount, so I'm researching your company's course. I received a 680 on my test this past Friday and I'm really interested in scoring above a 720. What are the chances of me achieving that goal through your class? My score breakdown was Q47 V38, so I really need help with verbal. What types of gains do your students typically make? What type of gains have students that have already taken the GMAT before enrolling in your class typically make?

[Brian@VeritasPrep]

Hi, osirius:

Congratulations on your 680 the other day! I've seen your name on these forums quite a bit, and it's typically been attached to some quality posts, so I'm happy for you that you notched a high score on your first time out.

Naturally, you and I both know that you can improve upon that score, and based on your breakdown it looks like some verbal emphasis will do the trick - not only would a higher verbal score raise your overall to the 720+ range, but you'd also hit that "Golden Ratio" that b-schools love of greater than 80th percentile on both sections, and 700+ overall.

In terms of how we can help, I've found that a direct, proactive approach to the verbal section is invaluable, and our strategies are designed to give you exactly that. We teach you to know what you're being asked to do before you read the prompt itself, so that when you do read you're looking for the important items and can focus efficiently. To that end, I've found that the vast majority of our students do not have any pacing difficulty on the verbal section, and students tend to have time left over at the end. Students also typically realize that the verbal section is as mechanical and objective as is the quant section - it's a standardized test, so the questions are all written in similar fashion, and once you know how they're written, you know how to break them apart.

A few questions for you:

-How was your pacing overall on the verbal section? Did you feel like you were rushing through any passages, or did you have plenty of time?

-Which questions tend to give you the most trouble? Were there any verbal topics for which you knew you were a bit unprepared going in to the exam?

We'd certainly look forward to the opportunity to work with you. On average, our students improve their scores by 110 points and about a third of our students score 700+ (you can see more such statistics at https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-scores/). More importantly, in your case, I think that we can pinpoint a few strategies that will help you to master the verbal section like you've done with the quant, and you can certainly reach that mid-700s goal.

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate you taking the time to outline that detailed response. I knew going into the verbal that I did not have a good handle on the Sentence Correction. With MLT, they require a score by Feb 1, so I did not have time to memorize the idioms like I wanted to. Also, I struggle with long RC passages. I feel like I was doing well on the RC until the third passage which was a long dreaded science passage. It kind of beat me before I even started answering the qeustions. As soon as I saw it, I said "oh no". After regaining my composure, I'm sure I got most of the four questions wrong because my next passage was a short passage. I really need help in learning how to approach the RC passages. For instance, when I'm given an inference question, I know that it has a strong must be true element, but I don't know how to identify the part of the passage that I am supposed to base my answer on. I often re read the majority of the passage to answer those questions, and that is fine with the shorter passages, but it kills me with the longer passages.

Also, I'm located in Chicago, do you have any info on good teachers that you recommend in Chicago?

[Brian@VeritasPrep]

Thanks for the reply, osirus -- and, actually, I'm encouraged by what you wrote.

1) If you didn't have time to memorize the idioms, that may be a blessing in disguise -- the GMAT Sentence Correction questions are NOT dependent on idioms, and actually the authors of the test are lucky that people spend (waste) so much time trying to memorize them, because in doing so they invariably overlook the more important topics (Subject-Verb Agreement, Verb Tense, etc.) that the question writers need to hide in order to make the test more difficult.

Don't let me go off on too long a tangent, but think about the value of idioms for business schools -- say that you had enough time/energy to accurately memorize about 75% of the idioms on one of those Idiom Lists floating around, but you saw by happenstance two idioms that were in the other quarter; does that make you an inherently lesser-qualified candidate than someone who memorized 60% of their idioms, but saw one that they knew cold and guessed correctly on the other? The GMAT needs to be able to, in a grand total of 78 multiple choice questions, several of which are unscored, provide business schools with quality information on candidate's ability levels for business. Idioms are a bit too random to serve that purpose well, and the skill that they test -- "memorization" -- is pretty low on the list of skills (behind problem solving, logic, etc.) that will serve people well in the business world.

So, instead of spending time memorizing idioms, I'd go back to your old practice problems and try to identify more robust grammatical categories that were the difference between right-and-wrong on the SC problems that you missed based on "idiomatic errors". I think you'll find that you can come up with a better explanation for each of them. (Full disclosure -- I did this while working through a huge set of Official Guide SC problems with a student who was obsessed with idioms, mainly because I didn't know the idioms as well as he did and didn't really think I needed to. We went back through the problems, focused on the major elements he was missing, and were able to determine that, with very few exceptions, the questions didn't really require knowledge of idioms. He's now in his last semester at Wharton, and I was able to avoid having to study a bunch of idioms for our next tutoring session!)

2) For Reading Comprehension, we have a system that I've found really helpful in its ability to minimize the amount of re-reading that you need to do and to help you organize your thoughts on the passage so that you're able to find the relevant portions for specific questions pretty quickly. It's tough to teach just in a forum post, but in its most basic form it involves reading at the paragraph level, and asking yourself "why was this paragraph written?" before you move on from each paragraph. That helps you stay focused in smaller doses, and also gives you a blueprint for the passage so that you can go back to specific paragraphs as necessary. There's more to it...but hopefully that gives you a preview. Again, in full disclosure -- I used to hate teaching Reading Comp, because how do you teach someone to be a better reader in a few hours, but over time we've made that lesson one of my favorites to teach.

One other note on the "dreaded, long science passage" -- one of the best things about science passages is that they betray the underlying intentions of the authors of the test: They really don't care whether you know too much about the subject matter when you're done, as long as you can answer the questions. If you read the passages effectively at the "correct level", looking more for author intent and organization than for deep understanding of the topic, you set yourself up well to answer the questions, and a lot of the content itself is irrelevant.

3) I love our Chicago team, so I'm glad you asked about that. I'm always pretty impressed when our students go above and beyond in the "comments" section of their course evaluations to highlight just how happy they were with their instructor. Frankie Beecroft, who is teaching a few of our immediately-upcoming courses in Chicago (including the weekend course this month) probably led the company in such evaluation comments this past round of classes, and Kevin Richardson, who took a little time off from Chicago to teach in warmer locations for us but is now back and teaching some winter/spring classes, historically performs at the top of the list on those, too. Feel free to email me if you want to discuss specific classes, but regardless I'm incredibly confident that you'd be in good hands with either instructor.

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

Thanks so much for the info. The classes are taught at the Gleacher Center, which I should be able to walk to after work, so it will work out. You are the first test prep company rep that actually has me intrigued in taking a course. Thanks so much for your responses.

[Brian@VeritasPrep]

Glad that helped! We love that Gleacher Center location, so I'm happy to hear that it's so convenient for you, as well. We're looking forward to the opportunity to work with you toward some well-deserved success on the GMAT. Based on your participation on these boards, it definitely seems as though you'll be able to put in enough work with our lessons to do extremely well, and I hope that you'll keep me posted.

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

The veritas guys will be happy to know that I've recommended your course to 3 people looking to take a class. I even went to bat for you guys over a Manhattan course. I never would have done that before this thread...lol

[Scott@VeritasPrep]

Wow, thanks! This is my new favorite thread.

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

Will write the full review soon, but you guys are the best in the business for verbal. Its really not even that close.

[prinit]

Will write the full review soon, but you guys are the best in the business for verbal. Its really not even that close.

I just went through the entire thread. It is amazing. I really appreciate the way you are sharing your experience and extending support to the community. Keep writing. We are not only reading it but also following it ..Great job!!!!