Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ???

A small update - Last couple of days, I am working on RC passages from OG 11. Ofcourse for now I am NOT concentrating more on timing since I wanted to understand how the passage is framed and how is my comprehending skill for me to answer the questions.

First thing was I went thru the MGMAT RC book on understanding how to tackle RC passage. Then started working thru OG RC passages. For each passage, after solving the answers, I read thru the explanations provided for each of the questions. For the ans that I made an error, I was analyzing what mistake did I do that led me to pick the wrong ans choice. The lessons that I learnt from this exercise are very fruitful.

Also for RC questions, it is important to know the actual meaning of some of the commonly used words in RC ans choices especially when you have to ans the main Idea of the passage / author's tone. These type of questions are time savers, provided you understood the struction of the passage and also the meaning of the words mentioned in the ans choice. So I started taking notes on the actual meaning for each of the difficult words that I encountered in the answer choice. This is very much useful for NON Native speakers. Here are some of the words that I noted for the words that are found in the OG RC ans choices.

Compare = express the similarities between two things
Contrast = express the difference between two things
Advocate = to speak in favor of
Refute = to speak against
Contemporary = belonging to the same period
Exemplified = to show or illustrate with an example
Reconcile = to bring into agreement
Arbitrary = based on individual judgement / preference
Pragmatic = more practical

Without knowing what the meaning of the word is, it is difficult to pick an ans choice. For those who are struggling a bit for RC passages, see if this can help in improving your RC.

So how is your preparation coming along?

Satuday was NOT a productive day w.r.t to my preparation. So I think I compensated the lost day with today's preparation.

Today did around 40 question with around 6 RC passages with self review from OG 11 - Hit rate is around 70%
Also did 80 SC questions(was curious to know my status on SC since I was not concentrating much on SC the last couple of days) and the hit rate is 89%.

Looking at the way I am progressing in RC, I sure feel that my RC skill is improved little bit. I will try to solve RC passages from GMATPrep 1 & 2(that I already have taken once) and see how I am doing.

For the rest of the day, I am planning to do atleast couple of CRs. My goal now is to complete all the RC, CR and SC questions from atleast one OG(mainly OG11) before I take up the next GMATPrep. Planning to take GMATPrep the coming weekend.

At this pace I am sure, I can complete my preparation plan.

Hey!
Congrats on your progress!!
And oh,don't we all know the non-productive days!!They happen more often than we'd like,don't they?!
Take care:)

Mrsmarthi, That's really good progress. keep it up!

Atlast I am done with SC questions from OG 11 and the overall hit rate for SC is 87%. It is so much fun to solve the SC questions once you get the hold of the grammar rules that are normally tested in GMAT. Also my average time per question is less than 60 sec. (Most of the questions that were wrong are mainly testing comparisions. If time permits, I will try to understand in depth of the concepts tested under Comparisons)

Initially I thought I will do couple of questions from CR. But then as I was solving the CR question, I wasn't quite happy with the way I am picking the ans choice. So decided, I will go thru Weakening, Strengthen and Assumptions chapters of Powerscore CR bible and then comeback and do the CR questions.

Overall a productive weekend. So tomorrow's plan is to complete 4 RC passages and atleast 20 - 30 CR questions with review.

Awesome !! Keep up the good work...you are surely improving.

The preparation from the last couple of days was NOT really as per the plan....but a satisfactory one. In fact I completed all the RC passages except the last three passages from OG 11. I really see a very decent improvement in the way I am attacking the RC passage. Earlier my RC passage attempts were like hitting in the dark. Not sure whether the ans will be correct or not and the reason why the ans is correct or not.

Atleast now I understand how to ans the general questions and the specific questions. All this is because after I read the passage and solved the ans choices, I went thru the explanation provided in the OG trying to understand how the question is solved.........The crucial point that I realised is and what is suggested by MOST of the forum members is - It is NOT what is mentioned in the passage that I need to understand BUT to understand how the passage is structured. I know it is way too difficult to digest this statement for those who are struggling in RC. (Even I was in the same boat until now).

After solving around 120 RC questions, my overall hit rate is around 70%(with confidence in my ans) and for me it is a good improvement because, before this exercise, I was toggling at 50% +/- 5%(and that too for most of the correct choices that I made, I don't how I picked them correctly). Ofcourse I didn't practice the OG RC by strict timings since I was NOT sure of the approach. But I plan to follow the timing strategy when I do Verbal review.

Now I can say with confidence that RC can also be definitely improved. Of all, I felt that According to the passage / inference questions can be answered correctly because you can verify whether the ans that you picked is present straight forward in the passage / must be true as per the passage. (I know it takes more time comparitive to other question but I feel it is worth to allot more time considering high probability of being correct.) For those who are struggling in RC, see if this approach can help you guys.....

Planning to take GMATPrep exam this week end. Hope to see a good outcome from the exam.

Today I have taken GMATPrep 1 since I was eager to see how my RC and CR skills improved. The score is NOT that bad at all.....but definitely there was a chance for me to do better.

Here is the result

Total - 700, Q - 50 and V - 35

PS - 15 correct & 4 wrong (79%)
DS - 15 correct & 3 wrong (83%)

SC - 12 correct & 5 wrong (72%)
CR - 9 correct & 2 wrong (81%)
RC - 9 correct & 4 wrong (69%)

I reviewed my mistakes in QUant and almost all were careless mistakes due to either miscalculations or misinterpreting the question. In Verbal, out of 5 SC questions that were wrong, 4 were careless mistakes. I could have corrected them easily.

This is the end of the GMATPrep 1. I don't think I am going to every take GMATPrep1 again. This week end, planning to take GMATPrep2 and then the next CAT is going to be the real one.

I am tired of taking CATs, GMAT Preparation and straining myself and my family...The more I am going to extend my date, the worse it is going to be. So I decided to set my D-Day in the near future. Still NOT decided on the exact date. But yes matter of couple of days from now.

Oh BTW, there was a lot of distraction while I was taking the exam - I was so immersed into the exam that until the Fire fighter rang the door bell so loud,I didn't realize that there were fire fighters below my apt trying to put off the fire. (There was problem with the heater that smoke from the pumps spread the entire basement.)Once things are settled and I continued with my CAT exam, I really could NOT concentrate much for couple of min. Later I picked up the speed. Guess what.......I am sure I don't need any ear plugs in the real exam hall.....

ABSOLUTLY fantastic!!!!!!!!!Wow that's so so great..Congratulations!!!!!!

(I am feeling so so jealous of you right now!!..touch wood!!)

Let us know when's the D-day..

Thanks....Tejal777. I will decide on the exact date and time this week end. I think I am almost done with my preparation. Cannot consume any more energy,time, patience, sacrifices......for this Exam. There is lot more to do after this. If all goes well, then probably I plan to take it even before your's.

I am still pretty weak in my timing w.r.t to Verbal. I think I need to improve a bit on that side. And a little more patience and concentration should take me to my target score.

Very nice, mrsmarthi, very nice!

IIRC, on my 2nd GMAT Prep1 attempt, I had the exact same breakdown.

Just keep up the pace, stay cool, and everything's gonna fall in place.

Atlast I completed all the RC passages from OG 11 book. This is the first time I ever completed the RC passages from atleast on book during the enitre course of my preparation. Overall, my hit rate is 69%. This is definitely NOT bad at all considering the fact that I was very very poor on comprehending the RC passage. But almost each wrong answer that I did, I learnt some thing new. Overall a very good learning / practicing experience on RC.

Planning to do some more RC passages from OG review. Hope to see a good improvement in this exercise. I was reviewing the GMATPrep RC passages and I feel that the passages which are bit long are easy to comprehend but the passages which are small are much denser and difficult to comprehend? Do you body have the same feeling? I also feel that OG RC passages are relatively easy to comprehend than the dense RC passages in GMATprep. Is this true? I hope NOT.

This week end is going to be a very hectic weekend on personal grounds, but I will have to sqeeze my time to spend enough time on my preparation. Planning to take GMATPrep 2 for one last attempt - probably on Sunday. This time around, I need to concentrate little bit on my verbal timing. It is NOT that satisfactory. In addition, I should be more cautious on SC since I strongly believe that it is my strong area in Verbal.

Go for it ... All the best...

Thanks Javaexe.....almost getting ready to fight back in next few more days.

Finally today I completed RC from OG Verbal review and the progress is quite satisfactorily. The hit rate is 70% even though I took an avg of 4 - 6 min for the passage. But the questions to follow were on average little less than 90 sec. For me this strategy is convincing since I already made up my mind to compensate this lost time in SC questions. I was reviewing my mistakes that I made and some of them were careless mistakes - probably ignoring the NOT in the question, not concentrating on the question / ans choice too much etc. There were some genuine misses especially in Inference questions where I have to refer back to multiple places in order to get the correct ans choice and some where I don't know the meaning of the critical word either in the question / ans.

Overall a very satifactory improvement in RC. This was one of the dreadiest sections in the verbal where I almost lost hope on improving any further.By going thru the CR from OG 11 and OG Verbal review as a final windup preparation, I hope to make some similar improvement in CR in the next couple of days

I am still in a dilemma whether do I want to take the GMATprep 2 today as a last CAT attempt to judge my calibre or should I give myself some time?

I could NOT control my anxiety in knowing how I I improved my RC ans so took my GMATPrep2 for the final time. And here is the result -

Total - 700, Q - 50 and V - 33

PS - 16 correct & 3 wrong (84%)
DS - 14 correct & 4 wrong (78%)

SC - 12 correct & 5 wrong (71%)
CR - 9 correct & 2 wrong (81%)
RC - 7 correct & 6 wrong (54%)

I completed my analysis of the exam and here are my findings -

All 7 questions in Quant that were misses were silly mistakes that I could have easily eliminated. But then under timer, couldn't overcome GMAT tricks. (BTW, I have seen very few repeats - last couple of GMATPreps - O was consistently at 50. Hope to have the same or higher in the real one. )

Now coming to the verbal, my biggest enemy NOW is my timing. I am not able to keep up with the time. By the time I am @ 25 question or so, I am left with almost 1 min per question. So did very very badly in the last 10 questions - 6 / 10 were wrong and that too 5 in a stretch.
Almost all my SC questions and all of my RC questions were new.

a) All the misses in SC were mere careless mistakes - plan is to review the Prep SC document floating around just to get the grip of SC.
b) From RC, 2 were careless mistakes and 3 questions were wrong because I didn't comprehend the passage correctly(Less than 10 min were left for the last 10 questions) Would I have had enough time, probably my RC wouldn't have been that bad. But still I am comfortable with the way I attempted my other 3 RC passages. If I manage my time correctly, this can be corrected.
c) CR, I have seen couple of repeats. So I am NOT very sure 9/11 hits can be treated realistic. But I know I have to practice a little more.

Let me jot down a plan on how to overcome these problems and see when is the realistic date for me to book the date. Probably I will take a call tomorrow on the D-Day. Need to relax my brain before making crucial decision.

OK.....I think I am most prepared to take my GMAT....But one thing that I was noticing was my timing is real bad in verbal. In order to know where I am laking, I have taken Set Verbal test, under strict timings. I used the Error log document that was floating on the forums for monitoring my timing on each question. The outcome is my timings are way too off on my SC and CR. My strategy is to have SC in less than a min for most and CR in less than 2 min....but the Sets verbal proved that for SC I am taking almost 1.30 avg and CR I am consuming as much as 4 min......without knowing that I have consumed that much....So towards the end of the exam, there is no enough time.....

Now that I know where I am lacking, I decided I will retake GMATPrep once again......to rectify myself. And to my suprise, my Prep SCore is 740......:Yes it is 740 with Quant 51 and Verbal 38. Ofcourse I know that my score is very much blotted because I think this is the 4th time that I am taking.....Still doesn't matter. The more I practice the tests, the better my performance will be for the real one. Now I have confidence that I can and I will reach my target.

But the surprising fact is that even with 5 quant misses, my score is 51 but with 7 verbal misses, the score is ONLY 38. *Towards the end, there were batches ot 2 misses in a row in the last 10 questions. I think that might be the reason for the low verbal.....Hum I guess GMAT penalizes heavily in verbal for a miss and even more if the misses are consecutive. I don't think I can overcome this except that I will NOT guess consecutive questions. If time is less, then I will guess every alternate or random questions that I know will take longer time rather than guessing the questions in a row.

Most probably tomorrow I will book the date....And the plan for the last couple of days is going to be to write atleast one Verbal test(Sets / GMATPrep), go thru the GMATPrep SC questions document and do some random CR and RC passages atleast 10 each per day.