This series of emails and PMs focuses on situations that many Test Takers face during their studies. The names of the original posters have been changed to protect their identities.<\/p>\n
Dealing With Really Tough RC Passages<\/strong> I am practicing RC and have dealt with some science passages where I just did not understood what the passage was about and even with note taking nothing made sense. Are there any articles or sources I could read to be more familiar with difficult areas of science that can appear on GMAT?<\/p>\n Che<\/p>\n Hi Che,<\/p>\n Unfortunately, there\u2019s no practical way to learn about the topics of RC passages before you take your GMAT.<\/p>\n As far as dealing with a tough passage is concerned, do you honestly believe that \"nothing\" made sense? None of the words? The GMAT can throw you a crazy passage or two on Test Day (maybe it's the content, the style or the length), but if you think that nothing makes sense, then you're not trying very hard. In those situations, you're rarely required to understand the technical details, so put your energy into figuring out the purpose behind each paragraph and the purpose of the prompt as a whole.<\/p>\n Try this: Take a \"tough\" passage and draw a line through every word that you don't understand. Next, read the words that are left. I'll bet that you can still understand a big chunk of the passage and you'll be able to get at least half of the questions correct.<\/p>\n Note-taking IS Worth It On Many Levels<\/strong> My issue is that I think I am taking too long to answer questions due to writing notes. I think I may just start highligting my books in an effort to save time, so that I can keep up with my study schedule. Do you think I should continue to take notes?<\/p>\n De<\/p>\n Hi De,<\/p>\n Note-taking serves several purposes:<\/p>\n 1) It helps you to emphasize things that matter (or things that you need to spend more time reviewing)<\/p>\n 2) It engages your brain\/learning on another level (as opposed to just running a high-lighter over some text. Since taking notes requires you to process what you're reading on a higher level, you're far more likely to remember something you wrote down than something you high-lighted (or just read).<\/p>\n Beyond that, to score at a high level on Test Day, you\u2019re going to need to take consistent, organized notes. If you\u2019re not training to do that now, then you won\u2019t be able to improve your speed and you won\u2019t be prepared to do it when it matters the most (on Test Day, when the clock is ticking).<\/p>\n To Retest or Not To Retest<\/strong> I find myself in a peculiar situation. I gave my gmat today and got a disappointing 640 Q 48 V29. I scored in the high 600s on every CAT, with the lowest being 670. I took all CATs with essay and ir too.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not applying to top 10 schools, and I think that my score is competitive for the schools that I\u2019m planning to apply to, but I\u2019m sure that I can score higher and I\u2019m thinking about retesting. What would you advise?<\/p>\n EH<\/p>\n Hi EH,<\/p>\n A 640\/Q48 is a solid combo and one that would give you a shot at every US Business School. You're just about at the 80th percentile overall, so you should take some measure of satisfaction in that. While you were aiming at a higher score, you don't necessarily need one. The application process is 6 or 7 pieces (sometimes there's an interview, sometimes there's not), so you have to make sure that the rest of your application is solid.<\/p>\n You could absolutely pick up those missing points in a month's time; it's more a measure of whether you really need to retest or not. If there\u2019s a specific, definable reason to retest (such as a Scholarship requirement), then the decision is simple. If you just want to retest for personal \u2018pride\u2019, then that\u2019s fine too. As it stands, it sounds like you have the score that you need, so you should now focus on your applications.<\/p>\n GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made, This series of emails and PMs focuses on situations that many Test Takers face during their studies. The names of the original posters have been changed to protect their identities.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1,243,940],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-uncategorized","category-blog","category-gmat-prep-gmat","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30768,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30746\/revisions\/30768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDear Rich,<\/p>\n
\nRich,<\/p>\n
\nDear Rich,<\/p>\n
\nRich<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"