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navderm
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ESR Review Request 29 Jan 2021, 23:35
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Hey everyone!
I finished my 2nd attempt at GMAT. I was looking at the ESR. A few things stand out.

1. My performance in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" portion of CR isn't as good.
2. My performance in "COMMUNICATION" is abysmal.

I scored 700 but I think I could easily have done worse if I didn't get RC passages that were super easy for my background.
I am planning to take the test again on 17th Feb and I want to get to 730.

Question,
1. How do I improve SC? I have done way too many questions and from multiple resources at this point to improve only with questions.
2. What does "COMMUNICATION" part of SC entail? How do I improve specifically in "COMMUNICATIONS" part of SC? Looks like out of everything in GMAT, this is where I lost the most points.
3. What does "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR entail? How do I improve specifically in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR?
4. Is there anything else any one can see that is glaring and can be improved upon?

I know I had to rush through last 5 questions of Quant; I spent way too much time on some of the questions in the middle there. I am not worried about quant. Verbal has been stuck for a long time.

Any input on this would be super helpful!
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navderm - I have two major observations: first, there is a lot of room for improvement in the sentence correction section, and, second, you spent way too much time on a few quant questions and therefore had to rush at the end, resulting in a massive string of incorrect questions; with a good timing strategy in the quant section, you could have achieved a score of Q50-51. Frankly, performance on sentence correction can be improved more quickly than on reading comprehension and critical reasoning, for the latter two sections require improving basic reading skills, something that requires time and practice. It's good you've performed well on reading comprehension and critical reasoning. For sentence correction, you must follow only official questions, meaning questions available on official guides, GMAT Prep question banks, and GMAT Prep practice tests; please make sure you understand each concept tested on the official questions. Trust me when I say that the GMAT sentence correction section has a pattern and internalizing the official questions will help you master that pattern. By the way, studying from "multiple resources" can be counterproductive.
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navderm - I have two major observations: first, there is a lot of room for improvement in the sentence correction section, and, second, you spent way too much time on a few quant questions and therefore had to rush at the end, resulting in a massive string of incorrect questions; with a good timing strategy in the quant section, you could have achieved a score of Q50-51. Frankly, performance on sentence correction can be improved more quickly than on reading comprehension and critical reasoning, for the latter two sections require improving basic reading skills, something that requires time and practice. It's good you've performed well on reading comprehension and critical reasoning. For sentence correction, you must follow only official questions, meaning questions available on official guides, GMAT Prep question banks, and GMAT Prep practice tests; please make sure you understand each concept tested on the official questions. Trust me when I say that the GMAT sentence correction section has a pattern and internalizing the official questions will help you master that pattern. By the way, studying from "multiple resources" can be counterproductive.
Show more

Thanks for responding.

1. Regarding quant, I totally understand. I was doing really well and I got cocky and started solving questions I knew were beyond my capability. I need to check the ego and follow time formatting well.
2. When you say, " GMAT sentence correction section has a pattern", do you have a list of or any place I could get that ? I feel like my understanding of complicated sentences is where things are getting messed up and I don't know what patterns exist or to apply.

Thanks!
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Hi navederm.

What resources have you used to prepare for SC and what have you done to prepare for SC?

The reason I'm asking is that, since you are having trouble with Communication, i.e., meaning, and with "complicated" sentences, I'm wondering what you have done to learn about the construction of sentences and in particular about how the various types of modifiers function in sentences.
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MartyTargetTestPrep
Hi navederm.

What resources have you used to prepare for SC and what have you done to prepare for SC?

The reason I'm asking is that, since you are having trouble with Communication, i.e., meaning, and with "complicated" sentences, I'm wondering what you have done to learn about the construction of sentences and in particular about how the various types of modifiers function in sentences.
Show more

Well, I have used a bunch of them, e-gmat, veritas, ttp, and then bunch of questions from gmatclub 600-800 range. Looking at the lectures again doesn't help, i feel i know everything. Doing questions is good but I think when I am at the stress of test, it doesn't go as planned.

Also, I personally find SC a drag. It's, to me, useless and a waste of time. I feel I just have to do it because of GMAT. Otherwise, unlike CR, Quant, RC, it's just not applicable. May be that is why I am not doing well.

However, I am stuck because of it and I need to concentrate on it for next 2 weeks and get better, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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MartyTargetTestPrep
Hi navederm.

What resources have you used to prepare for SC and what have you done to prepare for SC?

The reason I'm asking is that, since you are having trouble with Communication, i.e., meaning, and with "complicated" sentences, I'm wondering what you have done to learn about the construction of sentences and in particular about how the various types of modifiers function in sentences.

Well, I have used a bunch of them, e-gmat, veritas, ttp, and then bunch of questions from gmatclub 600-800 range. Looking at the lectures again doesn't help, i feel i know everything. Doing questions is good but I think when I am at the stress of test, it doesn't go as planned.

Also, I personally find SC a drag. It's, to me, useless and a waste of time. I feel I just have to do it because of GMAT. Otherwise, unlike CR, Quant, RC, it's just not applicable. May be that is why I am not doing well.

However, I am stuck because of it and I need to concentrate on it for next 2 weeks and get better, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Show more
Regarding SC being "useless," actually many people find that their writing gets tuned up through their preparation for SC. I know mine has. So, that might be something to keep in mind if it helps.

Regarding how to proceed, if you still have a TTP subscription, you might want to review the Introduction to SC, for some tips on how to approach the questions; the Sentence Structure Chapter, for some insights regarding complex sentence structures; and the Modifiers chapter, which is the chapter that is most related to meaning conveyed by sentences.

I realize that you feel that you have the concepts down, but if you're having trouble analyzing complex sentences under pressure, then I have to wonder how clear you are about sentence structure and modifiers.

On another note, something that could be tripping you up is things that you "learned." In other words, some ideas or strategies that you picked up from some of the resources you used may not actually work.

For instance, the concept of "intended meaning" is basically a myth. So, if you are applying that concept when answering SC questions, you are sabotaging your performance by doing what someone who supposedly knows what to do told you to do.

Overall, any gimmicky strategies that you have learned will not work, and I have seen people's scores decrease precipitously as they have "learned" strategies for SC.

With that in mind, I think you likely have to review modifiers and then approach SC sentence versions more holistically. Probably, to improve your skill in the communication aspect of SC, you need to work on reading the sentence versions from beginning to end to determine what they convey and how effectively they convey it.

You have to ask question such as the following:

    Is the meaning conveyed logical?

    Is is clear?

    What does this sentence convey if I read it literally?

Also, you need to do your practice untimed, spending easily 15 minutes or more on each SC question you see and carefully analyzing each choice to develop (1) skill in seeing what the issues are and (2) skill in clearly articulating what they are.

In other words, in analyzing SC questions, you need to be able to come up with explanations as clear and thorough as the SC explanations in the TTP course.

If you practice in that way, your SC skills and your writing skills are sure to improve, and you won't be wasting your time, because you'll not only hit your score goal but also develop writing skills and analytical skills that will serve you well going forward.
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navderm
Hey everyone!
I finished my 2nd attempt at GMAT. I was looking at the ESR. A few things stand out.

1. My performance in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" portion of CR isn't as good.
2. My performance in "COMMUNICATION" is abysmal.

I scored 700 but I think I could easily have done worse if I didn't get RC passages that were super easy for my background.
I am planning to take the test again on 17th Feb and I want to get to 730.

Question,
1. How do I improve SC? I have done way too many questions and from multiple resources at this point to improve only with questions.
2. What does "COMMUNICATION" part of SC entail? How do I improve specifically in "COMMUNICATIONS" part of SC? Looks like out of everything in GMAT, this is where I lost the most points.
3. What does "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR entail? How do I improve specifically in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR?
4. Is there anything else any one can see that is glaring and can be improved upon?

I know I had to rush through last 5 questions of Quant; I spent way too much time on some of the questions in the middle there. I am not worried about quant. Verbal has been stuck for a long time.

Any input on this would be super helpful!
Show more

"Communication" is about meaning, clarity, diction, and other such issues, not so much about grammar.
But do remember that the classification of questions is not that clear cut, as the same question can test many issues. And the ESR stats about strong and weak areas are based on a rather small sample of questions.

There definitely is a lot of scope for improvement. The ESR makes it clear that you have problems with harder questions in Verbal, especially in SC.
If you improve SC, the difficulty level of CR and RC questions will go up too. So you can't focus only on SC.

Pull out and try/retry harder official questions from Gmatclub. See in which ones you're going wrong and learn from the mistakes.

Posted from my mobile device
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navderm
Hey everyone!
I finished my 2nd attempt at GMAT. I was looking at the ESR. A few things stand out.

1. My performance in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" portion of CR isn't as good.
2. My performance in "COMMUNICATION" is abysmal.

I scored 700 but I think I could easily have done worse if I didn't get RC passages that were super easy for my background.
I am planning to take the test again on 17th Feb and I want to get to 730.

Question,
1. How do I improve SC? I have done way too many questions and from multiple resources at this point to improve only with questions.
2. What does "COMMUNICATION" part of SC entail? How do I improve specifically in "COMMUNICATIONS" part of SC? Looks like out of everything in GMAT, this is where I lost the most points.
3. What does "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR entail? How do I improve specifically in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR?
4. Is there anything else any one can see that is glaring and can be improved upon?

I know I had to rush through last 5 questions of Quant; I spent way too much time on some of the questions in the middle there. I am not worried about quant. Verbal has been stuck for a long time.

Any input on this would be super helpful!
Show more

Hi navderm,

The SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. That's what the communication part is. There might be few questions which you can solve just based on grammar rules but the meaning-based approach is the most preferred one. So, to improve on that, I would suggest you to understand the meaning that the original sentence is trying to convey, identify the errors if any and then eliminate answer choices which either do no convey the intended meaning or are not grammatically correct.


And there is a four frameworks on which most of the CR questions are based. They are:
  • Plan-goal
  • Comparison
  • Causality
  • Quantitative

And there are certain guidelines for each framework using which you can pre-think the missing link. This way you can make the process of solving CR questions more structured.


I can help you understand in a better way if we can get in touch over a call. We can connect over a zoom conference call and analyze your ESR together. This way we can dive deeper into your ESR and get a few more insights on how to improve your score. You can get in touch with me using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call
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MartyTargetTestPrep
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Hi navederm.

What resources have you used to prepare for SC and what have you done to prepare for SC?

The reason I'm asking is that, since you are having trouble with Communication, i.e., meaning, and with "complicated" sentences, I'm wondering what you have done to learn about the construction of sentences and in particular about how the various types of modifiers function in sentences.

Well, I have used a bunch of them, e-gmat, veritas, ttp, and then bunch of questions from gmatclub 600-800 range. Looking at the lectures again doesn't help, i feel i know everything. Doing questions is good but I think when I am at the stress of test, it doesn't go as planned.

Also, I personally find SC a drag. It's, to me, useless and a waste of time. I feel I just have to do it because of GMAT. Otherwise, unlike CR, Quant, RC, it's just not applicable. May be that is why I am not doing well.

However, I am stuck because of it and I need to concentrate on it for next 2 weeks and get better, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Regarding SC being "useless," actually many people find that their writing gets tuned up through their preparation for SC. I know mine has. So, that might be something to keep in mind if it helps.

Regarding how to proceed, if you still have a TTP subscription, you might want to review the Introduction to SC, for some tips on how to approach the questions; the Sentence Structure Chapter, for some insights regarding complex sentence structures; and the Modifiers chapter, which is the chapter that is most related to meaning conveyed by sentences.

I realize that you feel that you have the concepts down, but if you're having trouble analyzing complex sentences under pressure, then I have to wonder how clear you are about sentence structure and modifiers.

On another note, something that could be tripping you up is things that you "learned." In other words, some ideas or strategies that you picked up from some of the resources you used may not actually work.

For instance, the concept of "intended meaning" is basically a myth. So, if you are applying that concept when answering SC questions, you are sabotaging your performance by doing what someone who supposedly knows what to do told you to do.

Overall, any gimmicky strategies that you have learned will not work, and I have seen people's scores decrease precipitously as they have "learned" strategies for SC.

With that in mind, I think you likely have to review modifiers and then approach SC sentence versions more holistically. Probably, to improve your skill in the communication aspect of SC, you need to work on reading the sentence versions from beginning to end to determine what they convey and how effectively they convey it.

You have to ask question such as the following:

    Is the meaning conveyed logical?

    Is is clear?

    What does this sentence convey if I read it literally?

Also, you need to do your practice untimed, spending easily 15 minutes or more on each SC question you see and carefully analyzing each choice to develop (1) skill in seeing what the issues are and (2) skill in clearly articulating what they are.

In other words, in analyzing SC questions, you need to be able to come up with explanations as clear and thorough as the SC explanations in the TTP course.

If you practice in that way, your SC skills and your writing skills are sure to improve, and you won't be wasting your time, because you'll not only hit your score goal but also develop writing skills and analytical skills that will serve you well going forward.
Show more

Thanks marty. I will try all the things you mentioned out, go through the TTPs SC curriculum in detail, and attempt SC questions untimed for accuracy.
From what you're saying, I feel it would be good if I spent an hour trying to write something moderately complicated and read good quality books looking only for SC-based concepts. Do you think that would be a good supplement?
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navderm
Hey everyone!
I finished my 2nd attempt at GMAT. I was looking at the ESR. A few things stand out.

1. My performance in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" portion of CR isn't as good.
2. My performance in "COMMUNICATION" is abysmal.

I scored 700 but I think I could easily have done worse if I didn't get RC passages that were super easy for my background.
I am planning to take the test again on 17th Feb and I want to get to 730.

Question,
1. How do I improve SC? I have done way too many questions and from multiple resources at this point to improve only with questions.
2. What does "COMMUNICATION" part of SC entail? How do I improve specifically in "COMMUNICATIONS" part of SC? Looks like out of everything in GMAT, this is where I lost the most points.
3. What does "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR entail? How do I improve specifically in "ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE" part of CR?
4. Is there anything else any one can see that is glaring and can be improved upon?

I know I had to rush through last 5 questions of Quant; I spent way too much time on some of the questions in the middle there. I am not worried about quant. Verbal has been stuck for a long time.

Any input on this would be super helpful!

"Communication" is about meaning, clarity, diction, and other such issues, not so much about grammar.
But do remember that the classification of questions is not that clear cut, as the same question can test many issues. And the ESR stats about strong and weak areas are based on a rather small sample of questions.

There definitely is a lot of scope for improvement. The ESR makes it clear that you have problems with harder questions in Verbal, especially in SC.
If you improve SC, the difficulty level of CR and RC questions will go up too. So you can't focus only on SC.

Pull out and try/retry harder official questions from Gmatclub. See in which ones you're going wrong and learn from the mistakes.

Posted from my mobile device
Show more

That is a very valid point. I will keep working on CR and RC too.
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navderm
Thanks marty. I will try all the things you mentioned out, go through the TTPs SC curriculum in detail, and attempt SC questions untimed for accuracy.
From what you're saying, I feel it would be good if I spent an hour trying to write something moderately complicated and read good quality books looking only for SC-based concepts. Do you think that would be a good supplement?
Show more
Yes, both of those could help you notice more.
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You could read free pieces from the New York Review of Books (nybooks.com) --for academic style writing and really long and complex sentences

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You could read free pieces from the New York Review of Books (nybooks.com) --for academic style writing and really long and complex sentences

Posted from my mobile device
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