texas
I recently took the GMAT and I got 680 (Q49 V34). I was disappointed until I saw my ESR breakdown for verbal. My SC and RC was 88th and 85th percentiles respectively but my CR was 5th percentile! I am normally bad at CR and have practiced but still my score in that is so low it seems to be dragging my verbal down too much. Does anyone have any suggestion on how I can improve this? I need 700, so I just need to improve my verbal to V36 assuming I maintain my quant score.
Dear
texas,
I'm happy to respond.
First of all, congratulations on a strong GMAT experience otherwise. Also, please DO NOT take the Quant or the SC & RC for granted on any retake. Yes, you need to focus on CR, but do not underestimate the challenges of the areas in which you excelled the first time. That is the biggest mistake of people preparing for a GMAT retake.
First of all, I am going to recommend a few blogs:
Introduction to GMAT Critical ReasoningGMAT Critical Reasoning and Outside KnowledgeDoing GMAT Critical Reasoning QuicklyThe first blog has links to other articles discussing each of the CR question types.
As you may surmise from those blogs, part of what I am going to recommend is read. Read business news. Read the
Economist magazine. Read the
Financial Times and
Bloomberg Businessweek. Hunt down the arguments that happen in the real world, and for each one, force yourself to think about the CR question--what are the assumptions? what would strengthen or weaken the argument? what can we infer? what further information would we need to evaluate it?
As you practice CR arguments, certainly read the solution and
keep an error log. In addition to that, for any CR question you got wrong, come hear to GMAT Club. Search for the question, read the discussion, and post your own unanswered questions in that thread. You are welcome to ask for my help, using the "mention this user" feature.
Finally, here are a couple free CR practice questions:
ACL injuriesThe TJ-700 andWhen you submit your answer, the following page will have a complete video explanation of the question. Each
Magoosh practice question has its own VE: that kind of immediate feedback is exactly what you need to make big strides on the GMAT CR.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Mike