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Loner
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Verbal Section pattern change rumours 14 Apr 2006, 04:42
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Hi,

I am new to the club. While I have never posted a topic earlier, I read the discussions frequently. Though I have a doubt now. Many people who have been taking the GMAT since Jan 2006 have come back saying that the verbal section is much much tougher and that they noticed a difference in the pattern. Can anyone please throw some light on this.

Thanks.
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NTLancer
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Verbal Section pattern change rumours 14 Apr 2006, 08:12
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I just took the test 2 days ago and I can offer my humble opinion. Firstly, I believe that people over inflate the difficulty of the actual test as compared to the GMAT Prep practice exams. During actual testing conditions there are several factors that would make material of normal difficulty seem extra hard. These factors range from time pressure to using the stupid markers and notepads they give you. However, most people still score rather close to their GMAT Prep practice scores … yes the experience was most definitely more grueling than the practice, but the material didn’t change all that much (it couldn’t have changed in great detail as most people are achieve about the same scores as they do at home … I don’t think everyone automatically becomes smarter on test day haha … I sure didn’t ).

Second, who cares what people are saying! What exactly would you change in your prep because a handful of people said they found the verbal section to be harder…. Or even more obscure statements about patterns. Even Organizations like Kaplan cant figure out this kind of inside information ( and who in the world sits there thinking about the pattern of their test while taking it ) everyone’s test is somewhat different and unique. And what exactly do you gain from these statements? In reality the only thing you gain is fear and confusion. You should forget about these statements … crack open those books focus on your weak areas and use GMAT Prep to estimate your readiness.

Yes I think the gmat is a hard test. Yes you need to prepare for it. Yes it will somewhat consume your life for a period of time. But in life … nothing good comes easy. The actual path to success is success itself. And following the herd ( because in reality that’s what your doing when you buy into these statements ) will most likely lead you to that peaceful yet boring and unsatisfying land of mediocrity.
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Verbal Section pattern change rumours 14 Apr 2006, 08:43
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Wooh! NTLancer are you a public speaker or group motivater or what? :) You reply to Loner also helped me alot. I agree with you that people have their own experiences, their own strengths and weaknesses. Point in not finding what others feel ... point is in finding what you lack and work towards improving it. Well! let me get back to my prep then :2gunfire:
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Loner
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Verbal Section pattern change rumours 15 Apr 2006, 08:04
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Hi NT Lancer,

Thanks a ton for your inputs. You are right, I think I was just getting distracted by these stray statements. Thanks for sharing the experience you had during the test and the suggestions you gave on the test prep itself. Really appreciate it.

GMATacer,

Bingo! Me to goes RIGHT back to my books!

By the way guys, verbal is my area of improvement. If I stick to the OG and the Kaplan 2006 book, is that adequate? I also plan to go pick up the OG - verbal workout.
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Verbal Section pattern change rumours 15 Apr 2006, 09:45
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You are welcome !

i think the OG is great for verbal ... much better than math ... i figured that the easiest way to get a good score is to balance between math and verbal ... i think it takes a great deal of effort to score 50 51 on quant ( and i have a great amount of respect for people who achieve those scores ) However i think its a bit more efficient to balance a decent math score of 47 48 with a decent verbal score of 39 40 ... this will get you into the 700 zone AND show balance between your math and verbal. I myself have an engineering background from a great research universities ( so i have plenty of quant background in all kinds of mathematical concentrations ) however my college English experience was somewhat lacking ( us engineers don’t take too many lit analysis courses ... although i love to read ) so i figured that a good verbal posting is important to my app process.

Also the Kaplan 800 book will provide some great HARD examples … give em a shot … but don’t think too much into how many you get right … just focus on why you got them wrong and how you can prove your right answer right. It will make test day RC seem like I walk in the park.

In reality I am terrible at SC so I needed to be almost perfect on my CR and RC … I found Kaplan 800 to be a great help.
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Verbal Section pattern change rumours 15 Apr 2006, 22:12
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Hi NTLancer,

Just a quick query, which is the Kaplan 800 book? Is the one they use in their coaching institute? I went looking for this book after I read your mail, but did not find it. Found only the Kaplan 2006 Premier Program which I have done. I have a friend who has attended the Kaplan coaching, should I ask her for the reading material given there? Please let me know. Another thing, how big was the marker and board at the center? I think I'll get one for myself and practice on it, I am very used to writing while solving RC/ CR and Quant! Don't want to the board to pull me down. I just have three weeks to go..

Thanks so much!
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Verbal Section pattern change rumours 16 Apr 2006, 08:02
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Hey,
Well the Kaplan 800 book can be found anywhere … I haven’t had to look for it at any bookstore but im sure you can find it online. Here is the link for amazon this way you know what it looks like ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/074326 ... oding=UTF8 ) … I found this to have the best DS examples. However, if you can get your friends class book I would most definitely do so. Their advanced quiz sets are most excellent…. Probably better than the 800 book. The marker and note board where quite comfortable, I actually found the better than paper ( aside from the fact that your hand is black after the exam ) I requested a new marker and note board every break ( the markers tend to dry out if you don’t use them and forget to put the cap back on ) … cant say it was a factor in my test taking , it was just as good as using paper.

Three weeks is a long time. Pace yourself … make sure you avoid that silly thing called a burnout ( in reality its just you getting so bored of the material that even a though of sentence corrections makes you gag ) haha. I found my adrenalin kicking up within the last week … thus no burnout wasn’t in sight … however in the middle of my studying I had to take a few days off and put away my gmat books … simply because I was sick of doing problems every day and felt that I needed a break. Also if you exercise regularly make sure you continue to do so. And if you don’t you should start :o) im a firm believer in the “healthy body healthy mindâ€
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