Redoing the SC questions from the GMAT® Official Guide

Question

Hi,

I want to ask the experts here whether redoing the SC questions from the OG is a good idea. I had worked out the SC questions in the OG prior to learning the concepts thoroughly from MGMAT SC book. I feel that I will faintly remember these questions, thereby affecting my timing and accuracy.

Alternatively, I am thinking about purchasing the Official GMAT Practice Questions.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

KarishmaB · Answer

A second round of SC questions from OG is never a bad idea. It helps you really get used to the official language and style. And yes, buying additional official practice questions will help too.
Many people find that doing a lot of SC questions helps them develop an ear for the way GMAT asks them.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Cubie,

Revisiting questions that you've worked on before can be quite useful to honing your overall skills. That having been said, you can't use a Quiz or CAT of questions that you've already answered to properly measure your 'ability level.' The only practical way to do that is to take a FULL-LENGTH CAT under realistic and Test-like conditions OR take the Official GMAT.

Since you're asking specifically about SCs, when revisiting questions that you've already faced, one of your goals should be to explain the grammar/idiom rules involved in the correct answer and the grammar errors in the incorrect answers.

A few weeks back, you noted that you had only taken 1 CAT in the current/shorter format of the Exam. Have you taken any additional CATs since then (and if you have, then how did you score - including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores?)?

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

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Hey  Cubie , 
if you only faintly remember them, it shouldn't be much of a problem. 
The real issue, though, is to make sure to analyse them in a useful way.

After each mistake, ask yourself: why did I get this wrong? Was the problem…
- Professional? Did I just not know the material well enough? If so, this means: go back and study it! Review the fundamentals.
- Technical? did I just mess up with something seemingly small or silly? If so, let’s figure out if there’s a tip or technique I need to adopt. (this could be writing down the answer choices and crossing them out, writing down a formula at the beginning of the section, and so on…)
- Strategic - did I choose the wrong answer strategy and waste time? If so, let’s figure out what about the question made a different strategy the right one, and how I will identify this next time.

Cubie · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your inputs.

I have not taken any additional CATs post the 1 CAT taken in the shorter format. Since I identified my weak area to be the Verbal section, I felt that I should revisit the concepts thoroughly and then attempt the next CAT. I will post my score here once I take it.

Thanks once again,
Cubie

Cubie · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC

I took a CAT in the shorter format and got a score of 630 (Q46, V30). I have pretty much reached the same score that I started with.

During this test, I really fell short of time on both the sections. I had only 15 minutes left to attempt 15 questions in the verbal section and about 6 minutes to attempt 6 in quant.

I am starting to get a bit worried as my test is only about 2 weeks from now. Any suggestions on the way forward will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Cubie

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Cubie,

In a prior post, we discussed the importance of reviewing your CATs in detail, so that we can define WHY you're getting questions wrong and zero-in on the specific areas that you would need to work on. As such, you should plan to do that same review now:

After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

Pacing issues don't exist on their own - they are the result of OTHER issues (often based on 'process' problems with how you do your work). Think about how long it takes you to read a CR question ONCE - it's probably 30-40 seconds depending on the prompt. Now, what happens IF you read each CR prompt TWICE.....? If you had 10 CRs on this CAT, then you would end up spending an extra (10)(30 seconds) = 300 seconds = 5 minutes on just REREADING those 10 prompts. To properly 'fix' this issue, you have to train to 'attack' each prompt as you read it AND take notes while you read. With a Score Goal of 730+, you cannot afford to be 'inefficient' with how you approach the Test AND you cannot afford to miss points because you made little mistakes. This is all meant to say that you might need more time than you've allotted to continue studying for the GMAT and honing all of your skills - and that you might need to consider pushing back your Test Date.

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

GMATPill · Answer

If you're redoing the SC questions in OG, we encourage you to follow along expert video explanations to guide you in your thought process.

Here's a shared Google doc of video links you may find helpful:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1f_ckd ... H1HmTgctJI

You can learn more about GMAT Pill at:

https://www.gmatpill.com

Redoing the SC questions from the GMAT® Official Guide

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