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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
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Congrats great score...

please share whats the secret behind ur V49, man !!! that is awesome .....

r u native english speaker?
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
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wow, this is probably unheard of - 41 verbal questions in 45 mins.

We're looking for verbal experts to build new verbal tests. Any interest? :wink:
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
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kaptain wrote:
Thanks Eugeny,
I have to ask this... For RC we get questions like 'what's the writers attitude' or 'what was the response from public to the painting' etc. More often that not, there is a specific word in the passage which is the answer to the question. You miss the word and you miss the whole answer and end up frantically searching the passage for answers wasting precious time. How do you answer such questions because with skimming you can very well miss such words since we are only interested in the passage summary or big picture.

I saw such a RC in OG12 where the keyword 'regulatory mechanism' was all that was required to answer the question. Of course, while reading the passage I did not register this as an important point.

Much appreciate all the advice you have given so far!


I do NOT skim when answering particular questions. On the contrary, I check the passage _very_ carefully for the related content.

Where I do skim is when first reading the passage, before looking at any questions. I do a quick glance at the paragraph (about 30 seconds), then re-read it in slightly more detail (2-3 minutes). The first skim lets me understand the general theme of the argument, the author's main point, and the tone the author uses. The second read gives me a visual structure of the argument, including major subpoints and how they relate to each other.

Thanks to that, when I actually start answering questions, I don't need to read the _entire_ passage with extreme detail, which would take too long and actually be distracting. Instead, I correlate the question with the areas of the passage which I remember to be relevant, and study those in detail. If I'm certain they answer the question, great. Only if not, I start looking elsewhere in the article for the answers.

In my opinion, a human mind can only focus on a small area with ultra precision (e.g. a sentence or a point). You can't simultaneously have perfect focus on the entire passage: your mind will just drift from one sentence to the next.

Here's an analogy: imagine that you need to find a phone number in the phonebook (you know the name to be John Smith). You randomly open the textbook on letter N. You won't bother searching the full names on that page. Instead, you will flip the phonebook only paying attention to the first letter, until you get S. Only then will you start looking at the second letter, until you find M. Then you look at the third, etc. until you find Smith. Finally you repeat the process for the first name from all the Smithes, until you find John. And even then, you'll need to fine tune your search to find the specific John Smith out of probably many John Smithes in the phonebook.

For a phonebook, the structure is alphabetical, and you know "N" is before "S". But you don't know what is the structure of the passage. That's why you do a preliminary read -- don't memorize every single word, but learn the structure and how information is organized. Then, when you need to answer questions, you only need to refer to the area you think the answer lies in, and then zoom in with more and more detail until you find the answer. Without preliminary reading, trying to find the answer to the question in the passage would be like flipping through the phonebook, page after page, looking at EVERY single name starting with any letter, until you find a match.

Do keep in mind that often the answer you find is false or deceptive, so you really need to be positive that the answer you found is indeed the correct one. If you aren't, keep looking in the passage, instead of taking the first thing you find. But I think that the strategy of going from the general to the specific actually helps finding the right answer the first time around. The reason is that you'd come to the answer because you relate the question to the passage's structure and logic flow, instead of relating it to a technical term alone (which on the GMAT is often used as a red herring to distract you from the correct answer).

Ultimately, whether you prefer to "skim" or read in detail the first time around, ALWAYS read the passage and get a general understanding (answer those who-what-why questions) before starting to answer questions on the GMAT. You won't find the right GMAT answer if you don't understand the author's reason and structure for writing the passage.
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Thanks for the feedback, hope you are right!

BTW This also gives me the theory that practice tests (as compared to the real GMAT) overemphasize math scoring and underemphasize verbal scoring. I've seen a lot of people (statistically with much stronger Q than V) complain of getting lower score on official GMAT compared to practice. For me it was other way around - higher V score, and 760 on GMAT whereas I got 700 & 730 on GMATprep and 710 on Manhattan.
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
great score and great advice on the verbal section. i dont think you should have any concern, except maybe if you are applying to a top Masters in Econ/Finance program like princeton, where most people generally agree that a Q50 is advisable. i haven't heard of a Q47 being a problem for any other programs though. maybe you could try posting in the PhD section of the boards to try and get a feel for what Q scores are good in the schools you are targeting.

ph-d-in-business-21/

good luck on all your apps!
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Thanks.

Another note is that many members posted the exact opposite of what I did, and advised to never ever "skim" through questions since it will lead to a wrong answer which is worse than a small delay. Perhaps they are right, I only tried my technique on myself, and then only when I "felt" it was the right thing to do (in many other cases I read very carefully, when I felt it was needed). I think that even if you don't like "skimming" on the actual GMAT, practicing speed-reading before the GMAT will help you learn to read and devour information quicker and more efficiently, which will be a huge help.
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Thanks Eugeny ... that is a good idea.. i will try it.. I always wanted to think in english as I do in my native language.. but so far couldn't reach that point yet...

All the best to you... in ur next steps..
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Too good!!!!

Whole verbal section in 45 minutes - 99 per.

You are really incredible.

Any tips for me!!! - My performance was not ver good in actual GMAT (620 - Q44, V31).
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Spoilt wrote:
Too good!!!!

Whole verbal section in 45 minutes - 99 per.

You are really incredible.

Any tips for me!!! - My performance was not ver good in actual GMAT (620 - Q44, V31).


I posted some tips in the above replies. Perhaps if you specified any particular trouble you are having I could offer more specific help. :-D
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Eugeny wrote:
Spoilt wrote:
Too good!!!!

Whole verbal section in 45 minutes - 99 per.

You are really incredible.

Any tips for me!!! - My performance was not ver good in actual GMAT (620 - Q44, V31).


I posted some tips in the above replies. Perhaps if you specified any particular trouble you are having I could offer more specific help. :-D



Thanks a lot for your kindness - I have a bit trouble with my verbal section specially RC.
(I practiced it a lot, was able to manage good scores in GMATprep at later stage before actual GMAT, but now I am very rusty with this section since I lost touch - My failure was very painful, need some time to get out of it)
I do most of my mistakes in RC during practice test.
I am not a native English speaker - finished my studies in government school at small village :) so verbal is really tough for me.
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Eugeny,

"verbal I finished with 30 mins left on the clock" :shock: and English is not your first language !! Man, you defy logic!!! Awesome... to say the least. you really :m16 the gmat!

I tried the speed reading approach to RC's.. didn't work.. somehow the slow and steady approach (like that of Gin's) works for me.. I am wondering whether I should try the speed read approach once more :).. Just curious.. whats your reading speed in terms of wpm ?

You mentioned about verbal gmatclub tests. Is there an option to just opt for the verbal tests. You get all of it for $79 right ?(unless of course you have those 200 magical posts:)

congrats again on the stupendous score.

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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Congrats..awesome score in verbal and super fast in timing.I haven't heard anyone completing verbal section so fast.

and thanks for the verbal debrief...Best Wishes ..
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
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Spoilt wrote:
Eugeny wrote:
Spoilt wrote:
Too good!!!!

Whole verbal section in 45 minutes - 99 per.

You are really incredible.

Any tips for me!!! - My performance was not ver good in actual GMAT (620 - Q44, V31).


I posted some tips in the above replies. Perhaps if you specified any particular trouble you are having I could offer more specific help. :-D



Thanks a lot for your kindness - I have a bit trouble with my verbal section specially RC.
(I practiced it a lot, was able to manage good scores in GMATprep at later stage before actual GMAT, but now I am very rusty with this section since I lost touch - My failure was very painful, need some time to get out of it)
I do most of my mistakes in RC during practice test.
I am not a native English speaker - finished my studies in government school at small village :) so verbal is really tough for me.


I agree that RC is the toughest of it all.

IMO the easiest is SC as it only tests your basic English on a sentence-level, and thus can be mastered by studying a basic English textbook.

CR is harder, since it measured paragraph-level English, and also your ability to think logically and draw conclusions.

RC is even harder because it measures essay-level English (written in dense academic language), and in addition of measuring your deductive abilities also tests your ability to understand complex academic subjects and the way you analyze and present points in academia.

But RC is also the most useful of the bunch, and in my opinion, from everything there is on the GMAT, RC is be the best representative of how well you'll academically do in an MBA, since you will be doing a lot of academic reading and writing in English.

I think a good way to master RC is to read some academic journals (doesn't have to be business, can be any academic subject you reasonably understand), as well as peer reviews from other academics. That will give you a good background understanding of how academic writing is done, how points are being made, etc.

On the GMAT, if you struggle with multiple answers each of which seem either the same or acceptable (and yes, that happens a lot), try to imagine yourself being the person who wrote the passage. Why are you writing the passage? Who are you writing it for? What is the MAIN point you want to get across? What structure did you shape your argument in? What are your supporting points? Academics don't write passages for the fun of it -- they have very specific reasons to do so, specific objectives to accomplish, and specific structures and arguments to use. Once you can answer these what-who-why questions, it will be easier to see the "best" answer of several "good" ones.

And yes, I know it's tough to do in a few minutes. As far as pacing goes, I'd really recommend pacing OTHER question types to about 1:30 minutes each average (better yet, 1:15 minutes for SC and 1:45 minutes for CR). Since there are only about 10-12 RC questions on the GMAT, that'll give you a good 3 minutes per RC question. Since there are about 4 questions per RC passage, a good pacing strategy is to give yourself 4-5 minutes to read and understand a passage (remember to ask yourself those who-what-why questions!), and still have 1:40-2 minutes per each question. During that time, you should carefully search the passage for relevant content, analyze the question in the context of the who-what-why questions you asked yourself during reading the passage, and compare specific sentences to the answer-choices. I think if you practice it for a while then picking the "best" choice will often become much more obvious.
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
kaptain wrote:
Eugeny,

"verbal I finished with 30 mins left on the clock" :shock: and English is not your first language !! Man, you defy logic!!! Awesome... to say the least. you really :m16 the gmat!

I tried the speed reading approach to RC's.. didn't work.. somehow the slow and steady approach (like that of Gin's) works for me.. I am wondering whether I should try the speed read approach once more :).. Just curious.. whats your reading speed in terms of wpm ?

You mentioned about verbal gmatclub tests. Is there an option to just opt for the verbal tests. You get all of it for $79 right ?(unless of course you have those 200 magical posts:)

congrats again on the stupendous score.

Kaptain


I didn't measure my reading speed, but usually I can consume a page of technical material (new to me) in about 2 minutes. This is "skimming" of course and only gives superficial understanding. That's how I learn the "big picture", and if I need to analyze more detailed facts, I look at specific passages. But even detailed reading speed can be improved if one practices a lot. Unfortunately you cannot practice to be a better reader in 2 weeks if you struggle with English in general. It takes months and years to practice a language.

I only took the 2 free gmatclub tests, plus 2 gmatprep ones and one free manhattan. On all of them I focused on the math since verbal was already easy. For the verbal section, I only paid serious attention to the 2 official gmatprep tests, to master the format and learn the scoring system.

Snowingreen wrote:
Congrats..awesome score in verbal and super fast in timing.I haven't heard anyone completing verbal section so fast.

and thanks for the verbal debrief...Best Wishes ..


Well it was somewhere between 20 and 30 lol, I think high 20s but don't remember exactly. Either way more than enough time. I wish I could switch 20 minutes of it towards math :evil:
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
I'm by no means a "formal" expert, but I'll be glad to help if I can! Let me know the details :)
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
Thanks Eugeny,
I have to ask this... For RC we get questions like 'what's the writers attitude' or 'what was the response from public to the painting' etc. More often that not, there is a specific word in the passage which is the answer to the question. You miss the word and you miss the whole answer and end up frantically searching the passage for answers wasting precious time. How do you answer such questions because with skimming you can very well miss such words since we are only interested in the passage summary or big picture.

I saw such a RC in OG12 where the keyword 'regulatory mechanism' was all that was required to answer the question. Of course, while reading the passage I did not register this as an important point.

Much appreciate all the advice you have given so far!
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Re: GMAT 760, Q47 V49, thoughts? [#permalink]
You are simply awesome dude..

+1 :)

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