Help! All my errors are the same!

Question

Dear gmatclubers,

First I want to thank this community as the value it provides is huuuge and I've learnt a lot going through the immense database and posts from other members!

I am facing a persistent challenge with my RC and don't know what to do to overcome it, appreciate any suggestions/tips/advice. As a non-native, RC is the section of the gmat I struggle the most with, I started failing 1 of every 2 questions I did but after 1.5months of continous practice and lots of reading on the side I have significantly improved my scoring, now I am able to get 70-80% right and I am happy with that except for the fact that 95% of the questions I get wrong are all the same!! These questions are those that ask for the  primary purpose of the passage  and I don't know how to get them right, every time I face these questions, many answers seem right to me so I end up guessing and almost always get them wrong (when I get them right is purely by change, though statistics seems to play against me).

Does this happen to anyone else or am I alone here? How to improve this?

AliTariqPrepVista · Answer

I can help you get to perfection on RC in as few as 10 days.

I have helped many non-native speakers get to perfection on RC, and I am confident that you'll be able to get every primary purpose question correct after just a 2- hour session with me.

I can help you connect with my students, with whom you can talk directly, and verify my bold claim.

Regards,
Muhammad Ali Tariq.

P.S:

Have a look at my Primary Purpose related post here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/rc-primary-c ... l#p2815389

I have discussed something related with RC's strategy in following posts:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-verbal- ... l#p2800685

rajatchopra1994 · Answer

Dear  LongTermWarrior

It happens with everyone, But with a lot of RC practice, you can easily overcome from this.
First, I would say, try to clear your concepts (take courses EGAMT or Crackverbal / revise from your notes) parallelly solve RC's.
Start with 600 level, gradually increase your difficulty level.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-project-rc-butler-2019-practice-2-rc-passages-everyday-287783.html

Regards,
Rajat Chopra

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi LongTermWarrior,

Many GMATers (both native and non-native) find RC to be challenging - so you're not alone. Those types of questions are generally not too difficult, but if you're consistently getting them wrong, then there might be some issue with how you are reading and taking notes during your RCs (and by extension, making some slight changes to how you work through those prompts could provide a big 'fix' to this issue).

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi LongTermWarrior,

Since you are struggling with RC, here is a great article you can check out:

GMAT Reading Comprehension Tips: Top 8 DOs and DON’Ts

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

bb · Answer

The main topic of the passage is tricky and it is sometimes very debatable. But you should get better the more mistakes you make. It is a bit surprising to me you have not learned from the mistakes?

Do you know why each of those answers was correct and why you did not pick it? I feel a lot of times it has to do with SCOPE and PURPOSE of the passage. I don't get 100% of them right either but what i sometimes do is answer the question without looking at answer choices so that I express my real thinking first. Then I eliminate things that are outside of scope and then consider purpose... maybe that will help - it can be diff for diff people.

Thelegend2631 · Answer

Yeah. Makes sense. Prethinking.

Posted from my mobile device

LongTermWarrior · Answer

Thank you all for your comments.

bb  I apply this technique (i.e. thinking of an answer before reading the options) to every question except for SC and DS (obviously), I like forcing myself to get the answer without hints/elimination of the options given. However, for the "main purpose of the passage" questions I always end up with 2/3 options that seem correct.

Whenever I fail a question I don't spend time understanding why (yet) as I just mark the question as wrong and I continue with the next one. I plan to go over all wrong questions during my last 2 weeks of prep and only then, go over the explanations to understand why my asnwers are wrong.

bb · Answer

You should review your mistakes right after your quiz. That’s a big part of the learning. If you’re doing some boxing and you’re keeping your right hand to low and you’re getting hit on your chin all the time, you don’t want to keep doing that probably 😉

Try to fix your mistakes right away and understand why you made them and pursue solutions to avoid them in the future

Posted from my mobile device

Try to fix your mistakes right away and understand why you made them and pursue solutions to avoid them in the future

Posted from my mobile device

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Probably better to solve RC main idea questions in different way than the other types of RC questions (i.e. inference). Sent you a pm.

LongTermWarrior · Answer

bb makes sense. I chose this way because I already spend 2h/day doing questions from the OG and was trying to save time as I work long hours but maybe it is worth changing my strategy so I'll start reviewing the answers today even if I have to do less questions (I still have 1.5months to go for the real exam).

GmatTutorKnight I'll check my mail box!
Thanks!

GmatTutorKnight  I'll check my mail box!
Thanks!

Sobujhossain93 · Answer

i can help you at any problem.please tell me what is your problem.

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Help! All my errors are the same!

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