Best Meaning-based SC Education Material Available?

Hi mrauj,

In a recent post (here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/14-day-study ... 27820.html), you noted that you had scored 670, but you've provided no evidence that 'meaning-based' SCs are a big source of your missing points. With a Q45, you actually missed out on LOTS of 'strategy based' points in the Quant section, so the idea that you would be so focused on a relatively rare issue in SC right now is a problematic one.

Before we discuss how you might best prepare for a retest, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) Did you take your GMAT at a Test Center or did you take the At-home Exam?
2) How many hours do you typically study each week?
3) What study materials have you used so far?
4) On what 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:
5) What is your overall goal score?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

Hey mrauj,

Combining my responses to this post and your previous post below:
1. A drop from Q48-50 to Q45 is more concerning than a drop from V40 to V37. This drop is unlikely to be because you got 700+ problems incorrect. It is more likely that you made silly mistakes, did not execute timing strategies well and took too long to solve problems, rushing the test, etc. Do you have an ESR for this attempt? I feel this is a more urgent issue when compared to SC. Q50 V37 will get you a 720. The likely solution here is to practice test-taking strategies (such as the timing matrix, skipping strategy, guessing strategy etc.) in GMAT like conditions (31 questions in 62 minutes with no distractions). However, I would still like to confirm this with an ESR if you have it.

2. How comfortable are you with the meaning-based approach? If you are familiar with the concept of it but uncomfortable applying it in a timed environment, I'd say it's too late to start now. Less than a week does not give you enough time to master it and possible improvements can be made in other areas (CR, RC etc.) If you are fairly comfortable with the application then I would recommend timed practice in a GMAT-like environment, practice sessions where you force yourself to apply the approach on every single sentence. It is not wise to pick and choose sentence on which to apply the meaning based approach because even shorter sentences, with say one word underlined, may have meaning-related inaccuracies. In short, there is little correlation between the length of the underlined part and the occurrence of meaning-related inaccuracies - so you would need to train yourself to apply the approach on every sentence.

3. I make the recommendation to skip any changes to SC (if it involves re-learning a new approach) because your accuracy on SC is not terrible. Therefore, learning Meaning-based approach from scratch does not seem like the most efficient use of your time. Are there other, more obvious problems in CR or RC? May be we could consider fixing those first.

I would re-iterate that your Verbal score is fine and lesser of an immediate problem than your Quant score. Q45 would limit your chances of getting an admit from a top school or limit your chances of making it into certain professional fields (Consulting, Investment Banking). I would recommend focusing on remedying Quant first, and then moving to Verbal.

Best,
Deepak