From 630 -> 730 - Mission Accomplished....Detailed Debrief

woow...congrats... great score!!

Congratulations

Firstly, well done! Awesome result.

Secondly, with regards to how you actually approached individual RC questions - what was your method?

For instance, did you
- Just read through once and go for the questions referring back when necessary?
- Read the question then search for answers?
- Use short hand to summarise each paragraph then go to the questions?
- Use a 'MAPS' method where you would jot down the: Main Idea, Attitude of author, Purpose of the passage, and Structure - then go to the questions?

I bough the 99RC a few minutes ago after reading your post. However at first glance there's no mention of how to approach the questions. Doing 99 questions and cementing bad/inefficient habits throughout could prove to be a big hindrance to a novice candidate's prep. If I go to the driving range and hit 1,000 golf balls without proper instruction, I might get a bit better. But after those 1,000 balls i'm going to have the same inefficient/incorrect swing and perhaps only marginally better results.

Obviously this isn't your problem and i'm happy to have those 99 questions because i'm doing a prep course that helps me with RC strategy. It just may not be the best idea for beginners to get stuck into this document without researching and adopting a decent RC strategy beforehand. Then again, I had a really bad 1st GMAT attempt so maybe I should shut up! haha

Great debrief by the way. Thanks.

Rux10

Great story and inspiring... My initial is around your base. Well done!!

Congratulations on your score. Awesome Quants. I saw that you posted extensively about your Verbal prep. What about Quants?
- How much effort did you have to put in for the near perfect score?
- Also how did you pace yourself in actual test? Did you have a lot of time to spare when you were done with Q?

Thanks guys for your good wishes

@ Rux 10 - I had replied to this question earlier. Check out the first page of this thread

@ mbadilemma - I was always good in Quant and even in my first attempt I had got a 50. I primarily used the Manhattan Quant guides and the Kaplan Advanced book, apart from the OGs.

@Shovit
I've hit the wall in Critical Reasoning. In most of the tests, I am getting an accuracy of 70% but am unable to move beyond that. I have become pretty good at sentence correction after going through the SC Grail and Manhattan SC book,but CR is still giving me problems. I have registered for the GMAT on 16th March and am a little scared that CR may bring me down. Any suggestions ?

Thanks Shovit.

Did you use PowerScore CR Bible ? Secondly, did you practise enough number of questions from one question type. For example, if you were doing Assumptions, did you practice 15-20 assumption questions before moving on to other type of questions. Practising questions in blocks will really help you master that particular concept. If you're looking for additional practice questions, you may wanna use Aristotle LSAT Questionbank. However, at this point of time ,as you don't have much time left, you should focus more on test taking rather on doing new stuff. All the best.

No, I didn't use Powerscore CR Bible. I rather used Mahattan CR Guide. It was good but not all that great. Now after reading the reviews of Powerscore CR Bible ,I think I should have rather referred that book. While practising questions, I did use the strategy you have talked about. Have downloaded the Aristotle LSAT CR questionbank and started the practice.

Awesome improvement,
This is my mark for this thread! will read through this again.

Congrats shovitdhar,
Prior to GMAT, I took MGMAT un-timed tests(major mistake i made, i guess).
MGMAT CAT 1 - 660(Q42, V38)
MGMAT CAT 2 - 690(Q47, V37),
MGMAT CAT 3 - 680(Q47, 35) and
MGMAT CAT 4 - 680(Q47, Q36).

I took GMAT for the first time in November 2010 and then December 2010.
I scored 620(Q46, V29) in Nov but my score came down on second attempt to 570(Q46, V22).

During first test I realised that i was slow at solving verbal. I had only eight minutes left for last eight questions. I guessed some of them and scored 29.

So during second test I hurried during verbal. I paid more attention to time and scored even less, 22.
SC took more time than usual and i could not concentrate on RC.

Please advice how i should go about improving speed while getting more correct answers.
Thanks

@deepak123gmat
If you are facing timing issues on the Verbal section,then it indicates that you SHOULD NOT be working on timing . Rather you should be working on the concepts. If your concepts are good and you have mastered the art of applying those concepts in questions, then timing would no longer remain an issue.
Think of it this way: If you ask a 1 year old kid to start running ,would he be able to do that. No. Why not ? Because he has not become strong enough ,capable enough to walk properly, let alone run.
Drawing a similar analogy here, even though you might feel that you prepared for Verbal well, ask yourself was it really the best way to prepare ? Did you prepare for each of the three areas equally well and know all the requisite strategies inside out to tackle the different time of problems ?

Thanks for helping out the folks here. Can you tell me what is the right way to do OG12 ? Should I just start with the questions sequentially or should I do them topic wise especially CR questions ?

Thanks shovitdhar.
All the best.

@Shovitdhar
I have two questions
1. How do you decide when you're ready to take the GMAT ? I have been preparing for the last 2 months and am thinking of booking an appointment .
2. Most of the quant questions in OG are quite easy, what additional material can I use for practising quant (I'm already done with the concepts) ?

1. When you start getting scores in your practice tests close to the actual ones, then it is an indication that you're probably on the right way.
2. You can try the gmatclub Maths tests. I have heard that they have good difficulty level.