Need Urgent Advice with Retake : General GMAT Questions and Strategies

vikasblue1

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Joined: 19 Feb 2011

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Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

Updated on: 24 Mar 2011, 22:20

Hello Guys @ GMAT Club,

I am an Indian GMAT Candidate and have scored 680 in my first attempt . I plan to retake GMAT and looking for Verbal Centric Course that could help me with a 40+ points increase in my Score.

I studied MGMAT extensively , and found their Verbal Books barely average ( Though Quant Books were excellent ) . I have also analysed MGMAT Practise Exams extensively.

I intend to study a new material henceforth and looking for some insights from you guys @ GMAT Club. I don't intend to re-study the material that i practised for my first take , since i feel that i could answer them without even compeletely reading the questions . I have done them a couple of times , infact.

I studied the following for my First take
1)MGMAT (All Quant Books and MGMAT SC & RC)
2)OG 11
3)OG 12
4)The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2nd Ed
5)The Official Guide for GMAT Quant Review 2nd Ed
6)Kaplan GMAT 2011 Premier
7)Kaplan GMAT Advanced
8)Kaplan GMAT Verbal WorkBook

I feel i need lots and lots of improvement in Verbal.

Please help me out with a proper course that could help me in my endeavor to get a great score.

Also , Could one throw some light on the Veritas Prep Study Material . I have over the last few weeks researched the Forum intensively , but couldn't find many people recommending Veritas material . Their Course Structure looks awesome , but i had a few doubts . I visited their website and from the first look their techniques like STOP ,VAMPIRES,etc looks a bit too mechanical , rather than taking a logical approach. I haven't seen the books though ,so i am not sure whether i am right on not .Please provide your reviews .

Thanks!

Originally posted by vikasblue1 on 25 Feb 2011, 08:17.
Last edited by vikasblue1 on 24 Mar 2011, 22:20, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

25 Feb 2011, 08:37

1

Kudos

See this thread for more information:

should-i-retake-gmat-thread-retaking-gmat-strategies-83339.html

Read the reviews for the Veritas:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... ritas+gmat

The general consensus on Veritas is very positive.
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ibbys

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Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

01 Mar 2011, 10:33

1

Kudos

vikasblue1 wrote:

Also , i am planning to take up Grockit / Kaplan Question Bank . Do you have any reviews on that ?

I personally haven't used such resources but there is so much information on this forum that you may not need them. First, go through the verbal books and then search this forum for practice questions. There are tons of questions on here and the forum provides good explanations as well.

Good luck.

ibbys

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Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

01 Mar 2011, 10:42

1

Kudos

Here is a free CR question bank for download:

https://www.aristotleprep.com/free-resou ... stion-bank

It's more challenging then the OG. Even though they are LSAT questions, many of the "true" LSAT ones have been weeded out and the ones in the question bank are more similar to the ones tested on the GMAT. There is an answer key but search the forum for more detailed explanations.

Here is a collection of SC from GMAT Prep:

gmatprepsc-105446.html

Don't go through this until you finish the GMAT Prep tests. The questions are complied from GMAT Prep and it may inflate your score. For SC, it's best to practice from "official questions". If you practice all the SC from the OG12, OG Verbal Supplement and the document above, you should be in a good position. You can only improve SC by knowing WHY the right answer is right and WHY the wrong answers are wrong. It takes time to read through all the explanations but it must be done. I would suggest doing about 20 SC questions a day in this manner and make flashcards of all the rules/questions that you get wrong. Keep referencing them and I am sure you will stop making similar mistakes in the future.

mbafall2011

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Posts: 240

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

25 Feb 2011, 12:09

Could you post your individual raw scores. You may not even need to retake!

mbafall2011

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Joined: 21 Mar 2010

Posts: 240

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

25 Feb 2011, 13:16

I do see that the V37 may be making you reconsider but is your verbal over 80 percentile? It should be in the vicinity,

you may take it again but i would spend time polishing my app. You have more to gain by doing that overtaking it again and scoring say 750! This is just my opinion here but anything over 700-720 proves you pass the gmat criteria. now its all the other factors which will help you.

Check out the retake strategies but please reconsider! See the book published by rhyme- he has some interesting graphs.

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M23A

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Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

25 Feb 2011, 17:02

You should also get Aristotle SC, RC99, and PowerScore CR.

Posted from my mobile device

jonblazon

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Joined: 26 Oct 2010

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Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

28 Feb 2011, 20:12

what about the MGMAT CR book? It's decent

ibbys

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Posts: 100

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

28 Feb 2011, 21:04

You should probably figure out your specific area of weakness in verbal. Is it SC, RC, or CR? I would recommend the following books for each area.

RC: If you have already exhausted all the passages in the OGs, then take a look at RC99. If you are making a lot of mistakes in this section, then maybe you should reassess your stratgey. In my opinion, RC can't be learned from a book. I just did a post on RC strategies here: questions-about-rc-110173.html (Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert, I just love RC :wink:

)

CR: PowerScore CR Bible. To me this was a "fun" read. Easy to understand but covers the "theory" exceptionally well.

SC: The MGMAT book is highly recommend on this forum (personally, I didn't like it). Maybe you can check out Aristotle SC Grail since it's an easier read and then supplement with the MGMAT SC book.

Good job on the Quant, by the way.

vikasblue1

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Joined: 19 Feb 2011

Posts: 15

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

01 Mar 2011, 00:25

mbafall2011 wrote:

I do see that the V37 may be making you reconsider but is your verbal over 80 percentile? It should be in the vicinity,

you may take it again but i would spend time polishing my app. You have more to gain by doing that overtaking it again and scoring say 750! This is just my opinion here but anything over 700-720 proves you pass the gmat criteria. now its all the other factors which will help you.

Check out the retake strategies but please reconsider! See the book published by rhyme- he has some interesting graphs.

I agree with you totally , mbafall2011 , on reconsideration for a retake of GMAT . But coming from a typical Indian / IT / Male background , i am looking for differentiating factors in my profile . Having researched a lot , i came to a conclusion that i seems that 700 is not good enough to get you a seat in some Top notch B Schools with my typical profile. I am trying to clear hurdles one by one , and it seems that a good score will alleviate one of the concerns

Thanks!
Vikas

vikasblue1

Intern

Joined: 19 Feb 2011

Posts: 15

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

01 Mar 2011, 00:27

jonblazon wrote:

what about the MGMAT CR book? It's decent

Nope jonblazon! . I did not find MGMAT Verbal books particularly impressive , though their Quant books are highly recommended

vikasblue1

Intern

Joined: 19 Feb 2011

Posts: 15

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

Updated on: 01 Mar 2011, 00:39

ibbys wrote:

You should probably figure out your specific area of weakness in verbal. Is it SC, RC, or CR? I would recommend the following books for each area.

RC: If you have already exhausted all the passages in the OGs, then take a look at RC99. If you are making a lot of mistakes in this section, then maybe you should reassess your stratgey. In my opinion, RC can't be learned from a book. I just did a post on RC strategies here: questions-about-rc-110173.html (Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert, I just love RC :wink:

)

CR: PowerScore CR Bible. To me this was a "fun" read. Easy to understand but covers the "theory" exceptionally well.

SC: The MGMAT book is highly recommend on this forum (personally, I didn't like it). Maybe you can check out Aristotle SC Grail since it's an easier read and then supplement with the MGMAT SC book.

Good job on the Quant, by the way.

Thanks a lot ibbys , for such a detailed post .

I cannot agree with you more on the fact that no book can teach you Reading Comprehension . And thanks for you suggestions for Aristotle SC and RC 99 . They are infact on top of my list , when i begin my preparation again in a couple of weeks .

As far as the Manhattan SC is concerned it did it couple of times before my GMAT , and did it exhaustively . But , frankly , when it came to the GMAT Exam , it seemed all Greek and Latin , and i wondered whether spending so much time on Manhattan SC book was worth it . Maybe , i was just not good enough to use the book in a wise manner . But since , MGMAT SC is so highly recommended , it would again spend time on that in addition to AristotleSC.

Also , i am planning to take up Grockit / Kaplan Question Bank . Do you have any reviews on that ?

Thanks !
Vikas

Originally posted by vikasblue1 on 01 Mar 2011, 00:35.
Last edited by vikasblue1 on 01 Mar 2011, 00:39, edited 1 time in total.

vikasblue1

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Joined: 19 Feb 2011

Posts: 15

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

01 Mar 2011, 00:37

Samwong wrote:

You should also get Aristotle SC, RC99, and PowerScore CR.

Posted from my mobile device

Thanks Samwong . Infact , i plan to go ahead will all three books listed by you.

Thanks!
Vikas

vikasblue1

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Joined: 19 Feb 2011

Posts: 15

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

01 Mar 2011, 11:11

[quote="ibbys"]Here is a free CR question bank for download:

https://www.aristotleprep.com/free-resou ... stion-bank

gmatprepsc-105446.html

Thanks a lot ! Couldn't have asked for more .

G

GMATPill

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Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

14 Mar 2011, 21:08

Hi vikasblue1,

Wow, that's quite a bunch of books you've gone through. But remember--it's not about just plowing through books. In fact, we generally recommend just sticking to OG and GMATPrep questions so you don't confused by the varying qualities of GMAT questions from different sources.

If your focus is on maximizing your verbal score, the most important part is probably Reading Comprehension. The easiest section to improve is generally Sentence Correction.

For Reading Comprehension, these passages and videos may help you:

SC is the easiest to improve in the short term. Here are 2 videos that might help you there.

Hope that helps!

gmatclubot

Re: Need Urgent Advice with Retake [#permalink]

14 Mar 2011, 21:08

Need Urgent Advice with Retake

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