Study Strategy- Balance

[sgraves]

In response to a low overall score and particularly quant on my last cat (490 Q28, V29), I had shifted my study focus to more quant based studying. Well on a recent CAT my Verbal score plummeted V29- V23.

If my quant score needs help whats a effective way to keep and increase slightly my verbal skills?

It could of just been a bad day since it has been a while since I have tested that low in verbal.

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Hi sgraves,

As with any CAT you review, it's important to define WHY you got questions wrong.

How many questions did you get wrong because...
1) of a silly/little mistake?
2) the question was too hard?
3) you narrowed the answers down to 2 choices and 'guessed wrong'?
4) you were low on time and had to guess?

All of these issues are 'fixable', but you have to clearly define the real 'problems' so that you can properly address them. As an example, if you're getting lots of questions wrong because of little mistakes, then your focus should not be on content - it should be on organization.

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

[sgraves]

Thanks Rich,

Currently reviewing my CAT right now and so far its a lot of silly mistakes, using Test IT on DS number properties questions but not testing weird cases, or not recognizing 2V2E I can solve it on DS word problems, etc. Can you clarify what you mean by organization?

[DavidG@VeritasPrep]

In response to a low overall score and particularly quant on my last cat (490 Q28, V29), I had shifted my study focus to more quant based studying. Well on a recent CAT my Verbal score plummeted V29- V23.

If my quant score needs help whats a effective way to keep and increase slightly my verbal skills?

It could of just been a bad day since it has been a while since I have tested that low in verbal.

A few easy tweaks you can make to boost your verbal score:

- Read voraciously everyday for two weeks. (Anything challenging will do.) There's research suggesting that the physiology of our brains changes when we read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/ar ... in/282952/

- Consider incorporating some mindfulness meditation. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/

Afterwards, review the official material you've worked through and see if there are patterns to the questions you've missed. Anything unclear, post here. Jot a few notes to yourself about simple adjustments you can make. Remember that for all the strategies/grammar rules we teach, the verbal section is primarily about logic and focus. Practice boiling everything down to its essence. Always ask yourself, before you select an answer in sentence correction, if the sentence, when read literally, is clear and logical. Before you select an answer in Critical Reasoning always take another moment and ask if your answer really does impact the conclusion. Before you select an answer in Reading Comp ask yourself if there's textual support for that answer. Be relentless. Then hit some fresh official tests: https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ack-1.aspx

[[email protected]]

Hi sgraves,

How you go about organizing your work (taking notes, how you summarize important information, doing math, etc.) is a rather important aspect of how you'll perform on the GMAT. Arguably most little mistakes that you make can be eliminated by taking slightly more/better notes and staying organized.

If you're interested in dealing with a specific example, then you should post a pic of one of the questions that you got wrong because of a little mistake AND the notes that YOU took while working through the question. We can then talk about how you might better deal with that questions (and other questions in general), so that you can train to take better organized notes as you continue to study.

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

[ceilidh.erickson]

This is a very common issue: I find that when students stop studying verbal entirely to focus on quant, their verbal scores plummet, and vice versa. Even if one subject needs more attention, you can't completely ignore the other.

My recommendation: do a 10 or 15-min set of verbal every day. Use the OG, and do a random 5-question set in a particular question type, reviewing briefly. Alternate between CR, SC, and RC, so that you do at least one set of each every week. Once a week, spend 1 hr reviewing the verbal work you've done in more depth.

That way, you can focus the bulk of your attention (hopefully 1-2 hrs per day on average) on quant, but you verbal pattern recognition skills stay sharp.