Improving GMAT by 20 more points

Hi texas,

While I have no doubt that you've worked through additional practice questions, I'm more interested in the 'process' that you currently use. Are you approaching CR questions differently than you were before? Do you know more about that patterns/logic behind CR questions and the common types of wrong answer choices that frequently appear? And has all of your work lead to higher overall scores?

I ask all of these questions because your recent post makes it sound as though you haven't seen much improvement over these last 1.5 months. If that's the case, then you shouldn't continue to study in this way.

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

I am trying new ways to solve CR problems that have been introduced to me by a private tutor. I am familiar with patterns/logic behind CR questions, my problem is that it is hard for me to identify the assumption in really tough questions. It's a mental block that has plagued me since I started studying. I am not sure how to correct this mental block since this seems like a fundamental problem with who I am that I can't fix. I don't know if that is just a cognitive deficit of mine but I just can't seem to overcome it no matter how many new strategies I try.

It is a little surprising that you scored a 49 in Quant but a 5th percentile in CR. Usually, people who are strong in Quant do well in CR too. CR is quite mathematical and reasoning based. If even after putting in considerable effort, you are unable to perform well, your problem might be predominantly psychological. You should know that you have the skills to easily wade through most CR problems. If you can identify the conclusion of the argument, you are half way there. Following a step by step process should take you to the answer. I suggest you to check out our critical reasoning blog posts:

https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/catego ... +reasoning

They will give you ideas on what the "step-by-step" approach should be. Also, pick specific questions on the CR forum here and describe why you were unable to solve them - tag experts and discuss what led you haywire. Talk to your tutor why you were unable to arrive at the answer. i think it is just a matter of a few pieces clicking in place. Once they do, the 5 percentile should shoot up to 95 percentile!

A 680 is a phenomenal score. I think you will be able to make it to your dream business school provided you focus on and present a strong application. If, however you feel comfortable giving another attempt, 3 months is a good enough time to improve your score. As for verbal, if you are looking for some great practice go for the e-gmat Scholaranium. The e-gmat Scholaranium is one of the best verbal practice tools in the market. You can easily track your progress in that you can identify your strengths and analyze and improve on your weak areas. Further to improve your score, taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have a good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas.

Hope this helps. All the best.

Hi texas,

Assuming that you're still having trouble with CR questions overall, you shouldn't be focusing on "really tough" CR questions at all. I'd like to gauge your understanding of a few common CR concepts; if you don't know the exact answers to these questions, then that's okay (it will still help to define what you need to work on).

'Causality' is a common logic pattern in CR. In real basic terms, can you explain what causality is? How do you strengthen a causal argument? What are the 3 standard ways to weaken a causal argument?

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

Hi

From what I understand, causality in GMAT terms means that a cause (event A) results in an effect (event B). Clearly we are assuming in this that A happens before B. We are also assuming that event A is the sole reason for why Event B occurred. No other alternative explanation can account for the occurrence of event B. Furthermore there cannot be reverse causality (B cannot cause A).

Since causation implies that a causal relationship between A and B, you need to either weaken or strengthen this causal connection in weaken and strengthen questions. THe first way to do this in my mind is to find an alternative reason for the effect. You could also find an answer that shows reverse causality to weaken a causal connection. You could do a number of other things (effect happens before cause, when cause happens effect does not happen and vice versa) to weaken the causal connection.

Hi texas,

Your understanding of Causality is fairly strong - and that's good, since you'll likely see that logic appear on at least a few CR questions on Test Day. If your knowledge of the other major CR logic 'patterns' is as solid, then that's not the real 'issue' with why you're getting CR questions wrong.

1) When was the last time you took a FULL-LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections)? And how did you score?
2) How was your performance on CR?

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

I took another GMAT prep recently, it was another 680. Q50 V33. The Critical Reasoning was 40th percentile. I believe I understand the strategies. However sometimes I do not apply them properly because I do not understand some of the answer choices so I am naturally biased against those choices. I then spend lots of time trying to rationalise one of the other choices even though deep down something tells me it is wrong. When I check the answer afterwards I realise that the answer choice I did not fully understand was the correct answer. This generally happens on topics I am not an expert in such as this one on sea otters: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=in+t ... e&ie=UTF-8

I knew in my pre-thinking I was looking for an answer that weakens the causality that disease was the cause of the decline by either showing that killer whales could have caused the decline or by showing why the disease explanation was not plausible. But when faced with part A, I just didn't know why it was relevant so just brushed it off. I then found out all the other answers were wrong and my mind continuing to block out A, rationalised one of the other answers even though I knew deep down it was wrong.

The funny thing is I do sometimes get really tricky questions correct on topics I love- economics, business, humanities, etc. But when faced with a topic I know nothing about my mind completely blanks. don't know if this is a mental deficit of mine but I just don't know if I can change who I am. It pains me to say it because this implies theres no way I can improve CR....

The other problem I have is coming up with assumptions. Failing to arrive at the assumption is a common reason why I fail at difficult questions. Again if it is in a related field, I can arrive at the assumption but if not my brain tunes out completely, meaning I just go straight to the answer choices.

I took another GMAT prep recently, it was another 680. Q50 V33. The Critical Reasoning was 40th percentile. I believe I understand the strategies. However sometimes I do not apply them properly because I do not understand some of the answer choices so I am naturally biased against those choices. I then spend lots of time trying to rationalise one of the other choices even though deep down something tells me it is wrong. When I check the answer afterwards I realise that the answer choice I did not fully understand was the correct answer. This generally happens on topics I am not an expert in such as this one on sea otters: https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-the-late- ... 97919.html

I knew in my pre-thinking I was looking for an answer that weakens the causality that disease was the cause of the decline by either showing that killer whales could have caused the decline or by showing why the disease explanation was not plausible. But when faced with part A, I just didn't know why it was relevant so just brushed it off. I then found out all the other answers were wrong and my mind continuing to block out A, rationalised one of the other answers even though I knew deep down it was wrong.

The funny thing is I do sometimes get really tricky questions correct on topics I love- economics, business, humanities, etc. But when faced with a topic I know nothing about my mind completely blanks. don't know if this is a mental deficit of mine but I just don't know if I can change who I am. It pains me to say it because this implies theres no way I can improve CR....