First attempt on GMAT....Not Happy

[mahadevan.swamy]

I recently took the GMAT and I am very surprised to find out that I scored a 460 Q38 V15.

Previously, I took the KAPLAN online instructor course and I have developed some good skills on identifying question types and answering some questions. I have been studying for the past 6 months doing different verbal and quantitative questions and understanding the concepts. Ok I admit that I dedicated too much attention on quantitative questions rather than Verbal. But in Verbal, I got my concepts straight but for some questions, I had a hard time to understand the answer of the argument that I missed.

My main trouble is with the Verbal section especially RC and CR. Can anybody recommend some good books that I can use in order to master myself in RC and CR?

Thanks,
Swamy

[faraz_jeddah]

I recently took the GMAT and I am very surprised to find out that I scored a 460 Q38 V15.

Previously, I took the KAPLAN online instructor course and I have developed some good skills on identifying question types and answering some questions. I have been studying for the past 6 months doing different verbal and quantitative questions and understanding the concepts. Ok I admit that I dedicated too much attention on quantitative questions rather than Verbal. But in Verbal, I got my concepts straight but for some questions, I had a hard time to understand the answer of the argument that I missed.

My main trouble is with the Verbal section especially RC and CR. Can anybody recommend some good books that I can use in order to master myself in RC and CR?

Thanks,
Swamy

From the limited time I have spent on the forums the most popular CR source is Power score bible for CR.

But with a score of V15, I would recommend getting MGMAT for SC.

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

Improvements in RC and CR may take a long time, especially for non-native English speakers.

I know it may sound silly to say this, but concentration is an important factor in tackling CR and RC questions. A lack of concentration can cause students to "zone out" while reading lengthy passages, and these students end up missing key information and they waste time rereading the same passage.

If you're interested, we have a free video on the topic of engaging in Verbal passages: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... on?id=1123

In fact, we have a free set of videos that cover all sorts of Reading Comprehension strategies: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... prehension

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brent

[Matt@VeritasPrep]

If you really need a lot of work in CR and RC, I'd recommend buying a few LSAT books. The LSAT is 50% CR and 25% RC -- compare that to the GMAT, which is 16% RC and 16% CR -- so LSAT books devote a lot more time to those subjects, with tons of detailed info and specific strategies. LSAT CR is more or less the same as GMAT CR, so you aren't wasting any time, though you can (mostly) ignore questions that involve conditional statements and argument diagramming, neither of which are tested much on the GMAT. (Also be sure to ignore Logic Games, which aren't tested on the GMAT.)

I'd go with Nathan Fox's books, especially his Logical Reasoning primer, which sounds like exactly what you're after. It's much wittier, much sharper, and much more current than the (frequently recommended) alternatives.