Dear Gmatclub, I have been preparing the verbal part from

This is from one of my posts about 3 weeks ago


My best advice to you would be regarding improvement of CR. And the only way to do this is to PRACTICE... the MORE the BETTER... no other way unless you are a genius or a native speaker with good verbal skills and logic.

Try CR 1000.. that document is a sticky here in the Verbal forum... it has LSAT questions that are more difficult.
I used to HATE CR so much that I was scared to see one when it appeared on the screen, but now I LOVE to tear those apart... that is FUN! in the end the logic becomes clear....

so here is u2lover's plan to improve CR:
1) understand the parts of the argument and be able to differentiate premises and conclusions
2) create a frame in your mind, which argument exists in... that frame is the boundary
3) identify OUT OF BOUNDARY answers
4) pick the most obvious answer when it comes to INFERENCE or ASSUMPTION
5) read the explanation to EVERY answer choice and understand why EACH is correct or wrong
6) beware of traps... EXCEPT, STRENGTHEN vs. WEAKEN, etc.

Trust me... practice is the key in CR... I can in no way help you except by telling you what I did to not be afraid of CR and be comfortable with it.

to add to this, regarding the MGMAT strategy on CR:
I agree it isn't realistic to write out the premises, conclusions, etc... in fact I AM 100% SURE that it will eat up the time and you will lose your mind!!! However, one thing I agree with them is that you MUST understand and QUICKLY IDENTIFY the parts of the argument!!! So, as you are reading the CR you must know what part of argument the current sentence is... this way you create a frame in your mind and can quickly reason OUT OF SCOPE answers.

hope this helps,
u2lovergirl

I am hopelessly disillusioned by CR's. Please don't get me wrong but you guys are like a family to me and if i don't vent it out with you all there's no one on earth who can understand my plight.

I have difficulty with moderate CR's (though I seem to have improved marginally on them). I am going to post a few very difficult ones (according to me very soon).

There are three kinds of errors that I have found myself committing

Careless errors - Would know the answer but would pick up a wrong choice -- easily correctable (though again exam conditions are known to cause fatigue leading to careless errors).

There's another case where I am able to narrow down to TWO choices and then fall for the incorrect one. I am not sure why, but these are the ones where i see scope for improvement. I usually pick up choices that have some sort of camouflaged inconsistency with the passage that I would be unable to spot at first reading.

Third category is downright difficult CR's where I completely miss the point.

U2 - I completely agree with you if practice makes one perfect this is the perfect playing ground to test this time ever-green concept..

United in anticipation for a big score..

I found the way OG looks at the problems very helpful.

In fact, what MGMAT recommends is what I've been doing, except that I haven't really been writing them down. If you were able to find some old CR posts of mine, you would see that I normally write from 2-4 sentences, each labled as premise, fact, argument, conclusion, etc. I suggest you do this too when you start, and then when you get better on it you will think in this manner, but you don't need to write them down. This is when you should start timed practise. There's still one exception I will write things down even under timed conditions. For the logic questions, for example, if X then Y type, or the "find similar logic" questions, I will symbolize the question and write down the symbols. For reference please refer to the sticky thread for logic CR questions.

thanks a bunch everyone...I will work on all the above and lets c how it goes.

I think practice is the key...timing will surely get better with practice...

My recommendation would be to read and understand the explanation of every CR in the OG. Even if you get every CR correct, you must look at the explanations and try to see how the test write came up with the question. You must see how arguments are constructed and how you can see through the passage to eliminate answer choices.

For super difficult problems, take a look at the LSAT series of paper tests. Also, try the LSAT Superprep also if you can. It has three tests will full explanations.