ratinarace wrote:
Hi All
Its exactly 1 more month and i will be retaking the GMAT. I Took GMAT last year and scored miserably 560 (Q39, V25) I took a gap of 6 months and
restarted my study from June and my current scores is something like this.
Quant - 45 to 47 (I have not worked on DS till yet, except for doing some random questions here and there)
Verbal - 25 on GMAT Prep and 34 on Manhattan tests (I analysed the results and found that I do fairly well on CR and RC on below 700 level questions and usually get all questions wrong at 700+ level \. My SC is a total blunder and might have to work a lot on it as I only get 40% answers correct in this)
So my plan for next one month is
1) Work on DS besides practicing with PS
2) Work religiously on SC besides regularly practicing for CR and RC
I need to score a 700 + this time and I am ready to put 3 to 4 hours during weekdays and 10 to 12 hours on weekends for this one month. I have a serious question Would I be able to reach 700 level by doing this?? Guys need your advice and experts opinion regarding study plan.
PS. I have not really worked at all on verbal. Have not even completed the OGs religiously
I cannot comment on Quant but as far as verbal goes here are my two cents.
1. To improve accuracy in difficult CR Questions :
For accuracy in higher order CR & RC, have you gone through
Power score CR bible ? Some of the topics such as main-point & parallel reasoning question types covered in power score book actually help you in RC.
Depending on the amount of time you can dedicate to this section choose either of the options below
Option 1 - helpful-notes-for-the-verbal-section-139187.html (The CR notes here is awesome) and captures almost all the power score CR book. Once done, go to Gmat club verbal attack post by Souvik & do the exercises for each question type there !. After this practice OG 12 or 13 questions.
Option 2 - Read the whole power score CR book if you have got enough time and do the problems at the end of each chapter. These problems are a good mix of 650 and 700 level and though few in number, they inject the concepts very well. I am naive at critical reasoning but this book greatly boosted my confidence and gave me the strategies to attack almost every CR question type irrespective of difficulty level ! If you are short on time go for option 1, since a thorough reading of this book takes at least 2 weeks but yes it is such an easy and enjoyable book to read. Practice OG next
2. What for SC ?
SC is something where you need to capture the basics first. Also learn that SC actually tests your logical skills and not mere grammatical knowledge !
The following sheds some light on how you should approach SC :
a. You need to understand the structure of a sentence and thereby understand its intended meaning.
b. Have a knowledge of basic error types GMAT emphasizes on !
c. See if any of the grammatical nuances of a answer choice like modifiers ,SV agreement or illogical comparison actually changes the intended meaning of the given sentence and eliminate it.
Option 1 - For a, Go to e-gmat website and sign up for a free account. Their preview section for SC has some good lessons . Complete Sentence structure 1 & 2 . For b, read through Aristotle SC Grail first ( crisp and less number of pages ). it helps you to quickly grasp the lessons in Mgmat SC and yes then start practicing OG. For c, search for an article " 5 ways meaning can be changed " by e-gmat in this forum. Its such an wonderful and eye opening article.
Option 2 - Sign up for e-gmat SC course and do it religiously. (just awesome and specially made for non natives). Its takes around 25 hours or more to complete the course and then start practicing OG.
Choose either of the options for SC as both approaches demand some investment of your time to master SC.
3. How to practice OG ?
And lastly, you might have heard of an
OG error Log and its importance.
OG has problems arranged in order of difficulty in ascending order. So for suppose if you have done first 20 CR questions from
OG and managed to get an accuracy of 80 % do not be under a false notion, as all those 20 questions come under easy or 500 - 600 level. Instead make a set of around 15 problems or so per day in this fashion :
1,11,21,31,41,51,61,71,81,91,101,111,121,131,141,151 and practice it. This set compasses problems from all difficulty levels. Do learn why every correct answer is correct and why every wrong answer is wrong ! Spend enough time on reviewing in this way ! It surely helps.