DmitryFarber wrote:
For SC, you may need to work through the dip to see progress applying the rules. Rather than working laboriously through the strategy guide again, you may want to work directly on SC problems. Make sure you can identify why each choice is right or wrong. You don't need to cite an official grammar rule--you just need a good reason.
For RC, there are two big things to work on. First, how is your overall read? Are you able to get the main point and see the structure of the passage in a reasonable amount of time? Do you struggle with any content areas? Second, are you managing the specific questions (inference and detail) well? Are you going back to the passage for support? As with SC, can you eliminate wrong answers for good reasons?
For CR, the two biggest skills are Conclusion (same as RC inference) and Assumption (for that whole family of CR q's). They're actually quite closely related, because assumptions are what's missing between the premises and a correct inference. If you push those skills in your practice, and again if you review and determine what makes each choice right or wrong, you should start to see more consistency in your performance.
I should also mention that in RC and CR (but not SC), you should often be able to predict the answer. Make sure you're trying to do so whenever possible. This makes you less likely to be trapped by tempting but irrelevant answer choices.
DmitryFarber: Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I will be using the strategies outlined above and see if it helps me improve my score and be more consistent while at it. For SC, I've decided to solve problems directly and note where, why and what mistakes I'm making.
For RC, I believe my overall read is fine. I can eliminate 2-3 wrong answers choices fairly quickly and then work on the remaining choices. However, I've realized that I do at times stumble on inference questions and have to go back to the passage and read certain parts for support. I believe it's not a very efficient process for solving under time constraints. Same with CR, I at times stumble with inference and structure of an argument questions (ones with boldfaced parts). I usually narrow it down to two choices fairly quickly but then at times I just guess and choose one which turns out to be the wrong choice.
sarahrs: You bring up an interesting point. I believe tiredness could be a factor as I might not have built the stamina and with verbal being after quant and quant one area that I find especially difficult and draining, it might be affecting my verbal performance. Thanks for the suggestions too. I'll give them a shot and see if they help.
Rich: Those are great suggestions. I believe I should have an
error log for verbal as it'll help me determine what questions I frequently get wrong and see if I can find a pattern.
As for my quant, it's still a work in progress. Quant is something I struggle with and my primary efforts have been working on quant only and verbal has been on the backburner till now. On my quant, I'm presently between 35-40 which is my primary cause for consternation towards the GMAT.
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24 Feb 2015, 12:50
