less than 24 hours left.....my 1st attempt

Walker, I agree with you that understanding of grammar is crucial. But IMO there's one more thing you have to consider - understanding the rythm and logic of English. How the language works, sounds, means. Use "The Elements of Style" of William Strunk & White. Gooood thing indeed.

I've NEVER scored 51 in gmat prep, even when I know half the answers ... I just cant break the 50 barrier....

For you walker - I think you should only think in terms of 51. There is at least a 10 point difference in your final gmat score if you get a 51 instead of 50.

It's easy to crack. only 4(d) has a needed pattern "they do less ... than those did"

hey walker, do you have the manhattan SC guide?

I feel that one part of English (for example speaking) can boost other parts automatically. Yeah, English is not just tricky GMAT grammar....it is a language!
I'll try that book.


Yeah, But, frankly speaking, I did not use it often as I believed that my 85% SC performance is close to real....So, now I have to start again with this book.

Walker,

make sure you use the MGMAT SC guide WITH the OG, else the concepts won't be reinforced in your brain.

Also i think lots of people concentrate on SC and CR but don't give 1/3 of their verbal time to RC. RC is the biggest problem if you are a non-native english speaker in my opinion, since if you don't understand the passage fully, instead of missing 1 question, you miss 3-4 in a row, which on an adaptive test can be fatal.

Hey walker, I believe reading as much as you can will be another great help. Publications like "The Economist" and "Businessweek". You can also do some reading practice on cnn.com and scientificamerican.com. Reading has increased my prep test score by at least 30 points. You might also want to review all these grammar rules as you speak and write if you are not a native speaker.
Your score is great, don't worry it is just a matter of few practice sessions that you can get your score closer to 750!! ATB

congratulations walker...you just deserve more than this...

ATB!

Haha, Walker, I understand why you shoot only 50-Math. I'm sure that you're dancing at that time so you lost 1 in the total, right?!

Walker, it can boost other parts automatically but that takes many-many years of permanent speaking practice, TV watching, people listening, collaborating etc. I guess you don't have some amount of time

hey walker,
i think 'dushver' is right on. if you were getting 85 percent on SC, and got that verbal score, im guessing you really need to improve in RC and CR.

These are my two strongest areas, easily. And both areas I have had done least studying for.

Reason is, cause i think ive read good literature. Some people attack the RC/CR, with strategies, trying to udnerstand the argument types, etc.

I really thinkg Dushver is correct. If you can realy just improve how fast you read and understanding what you read, you'll see a big jump. 'The Economist'. I cannot think of any piece of literature, more than this one, which will prepare you better for the GMAT CR/RC. No study guide, imho, will better equip you.

Read that magazine relgiously. What i mean is, every article, read it, and read each article again and again, untill you really understand what they are saying.

you will see improvement in a few weeks. it will take you less time to get thru an article and understand it, i think this will translate on the gmat.

again, if you were getting 85 percent on SC 1000, i think this means you've got this category pretty well covered. your verbal score does not match up to 85 percent on SC1000; so it must be CR/RC where you really struggle.

There are lots of 'strategies' on RC. I think (and Ive gotten perfect RC scores on last two gmatpreps), its most important to just read thru the passage, absord it, and understand it, then answer questions. questions that refer to specific details, or parts in passage; simply go back to that part of passage and read it again.

making notes, etc, i dont think is way to go. better just improve your ability to read high quality literature and understand it in limited time.

The Economist will help you here alot. I cannot praise this magazine enough. The RC in gmatpreps; are to me just like any economist article i read all the time; and i can breeze thru them. also the articles usually have arguments built in them; you see the logic. it helps you with CR.

Again, there are shortcuts to improve your RC/CR score. But they limit you to a certain score. Approach it from the holistic standpoint of improving your ability to read and understand high quality literature in a shortened time; and your score has a higher ceiling.

READ. READ. READ.

thank irishspring! +1 till monday i'll finish my lsat superprep cause only the last set left. and tomorrow morning i'll try to buy an Economist as u suggested. the additional 30 points are not redundant indeed

Thanks guys! Thanks irishspring!

Walker i guses may be i am wearing glasses....should be 780....friend....reg verbal...i have started browsing cnn,wall street journal national geographic etc for a while.....jus go to it....15 min..may be before to bed...whenever you feel...you will find automatically how the author is expressing... and then when you keep sc in mind, i am sure you will get things better....and Reg verbal i personally feel Rc has a lot of weightage...gave gprep many times....u can also see....you get more rc's correct,others wrong score dips less,but say one long rc,all questions wrong that particular Rc...thats it....sure40 points difference....i am sure you can do it...infact me too working more on verbal....all the best.....Remember Hope is a very good thing and no good thing ever dies!!!Happy Gmatting

My 2c.

The Economist. I am in love with that magazine. In my opinion, it is the best business magazine out there. I have been reading it over the last year or so. But my reading has taken on a different mode now - I look at sentence construction and possible CR questions in each article i read.

I find the articles in Businessweek to be a bit light. Not enough content to substantiate some of the articles.

NYTimes - probably rate it 2nd. Competent journalism in the business/tech/science sections. Again I sometimes use the NYTimes as a CR source.

All the best walker !!!!

Walker that is a good score. You can definitely score better.

I took the test on 22nd and got 630 Q(47) V(30).

I spent too much time in verifying the answers in quant. Thus, had to guess about 5+ questions in the end. I felt it was possible to score 49-50 as my scores in Prep were mostly 48-50.

On Verbal, CR choices were very abstract than what we see in the forums and Gmat Prep. RCs were also tough. I thought I did well in SC but the result does not prove that

I really need to do a lot of preparation in English before I make the next attempt. I will update you with whatever that helps me improving verbal.