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First take:640 - Had a very bad verbal section

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First take:640 - Had a very bad verbal section

by HSPA » Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:18 am
Hi All,

I took GMAT on December 1st. In verbal section I made a guess on 9 RC questions.
I scored almost half the test score in verbal.
RCs were short and tough with lengthy answer options. I screwed it up nice.
BTG is bad at RC division.. So

Please post the best links you know for RC practice/ classes related to short passages. No greater than 2 para's. In exam, there were verbs for which I do not know the meaning so I failed to answer the 'author's aim' questions as I do not know whether he has done good or bad :) I also need Barrons.

A good example of RC's I faced are near or a little worse than the below link.. A good example
https://www.beatthegmat.com/two-new-comm ... 98641.html

I am planning to take the exam again in Feb. will come back next time with a 700 story.

Prep 1: 50, 33 (690)
Prep 2: 51, 33 (700)
First take: 640 (50M, 27V) - RC needs 300% improvement
Second take: coming soon..
Regards,
HSPA.
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by yogenderarora » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:10 pm
It's Bad News HSPA and it seems that RC is getting tougher and tougher in GMAT as I got the similar news from other friends as well.

Please elaborate your experience and strategy to Tackle RC more effectively.

RC is tough due to its length or Vocabulary or toughness of questions ?

Waiting for your reply !I am too scared of RC due to my reading habits.
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by AbhiJ » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:52 pm
HSPA,

There are two ways to improve score in RC

a.) Improve CR/SC to an extent where you can give 10 mins to 1 RC passage.
b.) Reading a lot of books in 2-3 months time and then getting back to RC.
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by bblast » Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:48 am
HSPA- Sad to know that u just fell short of ur desired score. I think a v34 would have taken u across 700.

If you find time read through the RC link in my signature. Read it more than once. Should be useful.

Good Luck.
Cheers !!

Quant 47-Striving for 50
Verbal 34-Striving for 40

My gmat journey :
https://www.beatthegmat.com/710-bblast-s ... 90735.html
My take on the GMAT RC :
https://www.beatthegmat.com/ways-to-bbla ... 90808.html
How to prepare before your MBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upz46D7 ... TWBZF14TKW_
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by pemdas » Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:25 pm
AbhiJ wrote:HSPA,

There are two ways to improve score in RC

a.) Improve CR/SC to an extent where you can give 10 mins to 1 RC passage.
b.) Reading a lot of books in 2-3 months time and then getting back to RC.
i'm afraid none has taken effect in my case
i tried both reading articles and speeding up CR ...
however, i was successful in my last attempt with RC passages from kaplan' verbal work book. The way my success turned around is i read for structure, meaning i try to notice the transitive words and meaning changers (these are road signs to let me know direction), i read to predict what will be written next through the passage and i don't read for reading by staring with my red eyes on computer screen trying to understand the text meaning and remember it, again i read to predict what will be written next - how i do, i keep notice of transitive words (road signs), i read for structure - which para says what, i read for idea and conclusion which subject does what, which subject is main subject, and which subjects are not really subjects but objects standing in-between and stopping me from walking through the passage, i read for tone and attitude of writer of the passage - what he/she feels writing the passage, i read for the content of passage only ... these and many other nuances changed the way i read and allowed for my increasing an accuracy in RC

sorry for bold font, didn't mean to distract or pall, needed to emphasize
Success doesn't come overnight!
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by HSPA » Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:29 am
Thanks I will use your point B..
AbhiJ wrote:HSPA,

There are two ways to improve score in RC

a.) Improve CR/SC to an extent where you can give 10 mins to 1 RC passage.
b.) Reading a lot of books in 2-3 months time and then getting back to RC.
First take: 640 (50M, 27V) - RC needs 300% improvement
Second take: coming soon..
Regards,
HSPA.
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by gunjan1208 » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:11 am
Hi HSPA,

I have been seeing your posts and was sure that you will make it. Sorry to hear about actual scores.

I have a little piece of advise for you. I have jumped up a good score in RC practice (Actual test is 10th Jan)

_ Read bblast post....I read it many times.....It brought intrest in me for RC....I loathe it before
_Buy GMAT roadmap book by Manhattan...I loved the way they simply have explained the way we can blast RC.....
My take ways are:-->
1. Pen Down what you can (Very short summary)
2. Look for main point always
3.Always make sure that you understand about the structure of the PSG (Like: Intro, support, twist, Conclusion
4. Never rely on your memory...Refer back always in case of "According to the passage/passage refers/Passage says]

Find out what kind of mistakes you do.....It took me 80 paragraphs to find out that I am bombing on Physics and law related paragraphs....Thus iI am reading following also:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/
https://harvardmagazine.com/

let me know if I can help you with the material (I assume you must have plenty since you went to GMAT already once)

I don't want to apply anything other than these things yet...Once they are in blood, I shall try other advise to imbibe into.....

best of Luck and congrates for your 50 in Maths (You are sure to get 51 next time and this makes you confident where you need improvement...Nothing to loose except little time)......If you can leave me a advise on Maths, please do that...I am struggling with Maths a lot.
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by thunderdan » Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:02 pm
Just to clarify, I am not great at Verbal but felt the RC I got on the test to be reasonable and not very complex at all. Got a 39 in verbal, the highest I got compared to practice tests.
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