Having improved my verbal score from mid-20s to 80%, i take the pleasure in giving some tips
to the GMAT aspirants,especially those who are struggling with verbal scores.
Sentence Correction:
Step1: Read the basic blocks of sentences,i.e., know the different grammar fundamentals like phrase,clause,verb,modifiers etc.,
You can read them from any grammar book.I read english club's book.
Most important aspect is to learn how to form sentences in active/passive voice using auxiliary verbs be/do/have.
Just for an example,those who are not aware of the grammar might think that 'had been' is a continuous tense in all contexts.NOT TRUE
' the ball had been kicked by the boy' -> this is just past perfect tense<though you can see 'been' > in passive voice
'the boy had kicked the ball'-> this is reframed sentence in active voice.
But if you are short of time and don't want to read a cumbersome grammar book, read Kaplan Verbal Foundations [this deals with fundamentals,
addressing concepts which are tested in GMAT ]
Step2: Once step1 is done,whenever you read any kind of office document/newspaper/magazine , just break the sentences and identify different roles of each word in the sentence. Do it for 5 paragraphs.Going forwarYou will develop a natural skill and find out mistakes<as per GMAT standards> in your daily reading of stuff.
Step3: Read Manhattan SC...IMO God of SC till date..
Buy the paperback book. the soft copy on the net has no advanced chapters.[i did not try powerscore SC. I trust powerscore books though ]
Step4: Do 20 questions from
OG,take down the answers in scratch paper. Review answer explanations for all questions,even for those you have answered correctly and take notes.
OG explanation has lot of grammatical jargon.Read it twice/find out on net to understand the concept,don't let jargon bother you.
Critical Reasoning:
Step1: Learn building blocks of an argument. Learn how to break the arguments into premises,conclusions.
Book
OWERSCORE CR Bible initial chapters
Just go through some CR arguments from various sources,don't answer the questions.Just identify the premises,conclusions,addtional premises ,counter premises etc., for a few days.
Step2: Identify question types, family types from POWERSCORE CR Bible
Step3: You could learn each question type chapter from CR bible. But there is a danger that you may use rules/wrong answer traps to eliminate right answers. DEVELOP your OWN STRATEGY
Step4: PRACTICE . CR is a very different type of question from the rest of examinations you may have written.You may get them wrong initially .May be even for 30-40 days because ,you are not used to these kind of Qs. Once you get hold of these Qs, what traps the test is throwing at us etc., you will get more accuracy..
BEST SOURCE FOR CR :
OG,Kaplan
Dont worry about your CR performance from other wierd sources
Check whether you are doing well in
OG CR
Reading Comprehension:
Step1: You may get frustrated if you are not good at reading english passages since even one unkown word/sentence can hinder your mental strength.Even i faced this.
Read 501 Reading Comprehension. This is very basic book,but good book.
Anticipate what the author is going to talk while reading,
infer the meanings of words by using surrounding sentences/tone of the author.
This will help even in CR.Even till this day,i don't understand many words not used in normal conversation.
Step2: know the different types and how to attack each question type.REVIEW
OG RC EXPLANATIONS-->very Imp.
Best Source for RC :
OG Dont worry about your CR performance from other sources
Check whether you are doing well in
OG RC
Last but not Least: Timing:
If you are not good at reading at a decent pace, you will run out of time for the last questions.I just marked random answers.
This could be the reason for my percentile dipping from ,say 88-89% to 80%.I regret it.
But I COMPLETED the TEST.And I played a safe game by trying to answer 37 questions with more accuracy than trying to answer 41 questions with a decreased accuracy.
One has to either improve the pace(not sacrificing comprehension) or develop own strategies to give time to answer questions.