bellcurve wrote:
Jum,
Wonderful insights! Very Informative post!
What did you do differently to go from 35V to 44V? That much of a jump is purely amazing. I am in the same boat and hoping to do the same, but could not really put down my strategy together. Do you mind giving us some ideas about what really helped you (study methodology, approach to question, study materials, G-day experience, timing strategy etc. etc.) to improve that much?
Thanks
BC
Frankly, I think I screwed my verbal on the first attempt. I was a good 3-4 points short of my average verbal score during practice CATs.
Looking back on each section:
SC: from good to really good.
This is the most mechanical part of the verbal section and hence, I feel, is the most easy to improve.
The best trick is to use the black & white tests first - use SV agreement, modifiers, pronoun agreement, tenses, verb etc. - things that make the sentence either correct or incorrect. These are easy to pick up and the best way to eliminate sentences.
Then come to parallelism, active/passive (if required) - things that may or may not render the sentence incorrect. (You will see correct sentences that are passive or not 100% parallel). Having said that, parallelism is the single most important concept that you should be able to master. I do not recall now whether I had a very strong hold of the topic when I first wrote my exam, but, during the second time I was pretty comfortable with it - obviously, I had made so many mistakes during my practice sessions that I spent a lot of extra time on my 'special needs'.
After solving tons of problems, I was able to pick up GMAT-esque language and that helped me a LOT.
RC:
I just wish this were not there in the test. Though I have a pretty good accuracy on them, I hate RCs. SC and CR are a lot like puzzles; RC, on the other hand, is just that - RC.
I knew I failed on my RCs and CRs the last time, still, I wasn't able to give a lot of time to RCs. I inadvertently found myself practicing CRs and SCs.
I've listed a few strategies that I used in the third post of this thread. You may try those out if you find them useful.
Also, my two tests were a year apart. During that time I spent a LOT of time reading stuff on the net. I can't say if that helped or not!
CR:
During my first test, I was bamboozled by a lot of CRs. I practiced a lot of them for my second attempt. I've written this earlier as well - number of CR ques. practiced and the score you get, probably have the highest co-relation among all other ques. types (caveat: my theory! ). Once you do tons of questions you recognize the pattern of correct answers. 2-3 are almost always irrelevant; I always found myself fighting between the final two options.
I also revisited my mistakes/logs periodically - to note where I was making a mistake. At the end of it, I had almost memorized my
error log - that is how many times I had to go over it (and no, I did not make few mistakes).
During my first test my CRs and RCs were bad because I wasn't able to concentrate on the text. In hindsight, it was absolutely rubbish prep at my end. Why would anyone not take tests with AWA/IR and simulate the real test conditions while practicing is beyond my understanding. I improved that and my concn. levels and stamina was intact the second time. Though I was worked up during verbal in patches, it was far better than the first time, where I was just staring at my computer screen and wasn't able to comprehend text.
In a nut shell, practice and review. A lot.
hope that helps.