[ponds_ggn]

Originally Posted by razor's edge

hey guys,
I m performing pathetic in my cr and rc section. Generally get 60-70 (%) correct. I simply cannot think of the reason. HAve completed kaplan and official guide 12 and these days i'm doing those questions again so as to get to know them more intimately but to no avail. can u plz suggest me some ways to improve upon my skills. I m scared to death.

Today i took the sectional area(cr) of diagnostic test (available in og 12). Got 10 wrong out of 17 and exceeded my time limit too. Please help me guys know how to comprehend them quickly. Though initially i try to analyse it by asking myself like what could be the assumption etc but it takes me a hell lot of a time so now i directly jump on to the options and then choose one of them.

Hey Buddy,

Common Mistakes with GMAT preparation
1: Rushing to take tests before learning anything - waste of tests
2: Starting with the Official Guide - waste of official GMAT questions
3: Giving GMAT the worst time of the day - studying after a long day
4: Skipping basics and rushing to advanced topics
5: Starting to prepare with poor English proficiency.

[ankurgupt]

Originally Posted by razor's edge

hey guys,
I m performing pathetic in my cr and rc section. Generally get 60-70 (%) correct. I simply cannot think of the reason. HAve completed kaplan and official guide 12 and these days i'm doing those questions again so as to get to know them more intimately but to no avail. can u plz suggest me some ways to improve upon my skills. I m scared to death.

Today i took the sectional area(cr) of diagnostic test (available in og 12). Got 10 wrong out of 17 and exceeded my time limit too. Please help me guys know how to comprehend them quickly. Though initially i try to analyse it by asking myself like what could be the assumption etc but it takes me a hell lot of a time so now i directly jump on to the options and then choose one of them.

I think you are having trouble
1. understanding the argument
2. evaluating it for its strengths and weaknesses

I would strongly suggest getting the Manhattan CR guide and the Powerscore CR Bible. They will really help you understand the basics behind typical CR questions and should definitely help you improve your speed and accuracy.

For RC I would not suggest any books. Try to understand the RC passage properly by reading it 2-3 times.
Also start reading good quality newspaper articles and editoruials.

Do not worry about the time you take to answer each question, it's more important to understand the question (both CR and RC) and get it right first. With time and practice your speed will also improve.

Also, stay away from OG for CR qns for now. Do all the questions in the CR guides i mentioned above.

How's your SC performance? and quants?

[gmatdelhi]

Originally Posted by ankurgupt

I think you are having trouble
1. understanding the argument
2. evaluating it for its strengths and weaknesses

I would strongly suggest getting the Manhattan CR guide and the Powerscore CR Bible. They will really help you understand the basics behind typical CR questions and should definitely help you improve your speed and accuracy.

For RC I would not suggest any books. Try to understand the RC passage properly by reading it 2-3 times.
Also start reading good quality newspaper articles and editoruials.

Do not worry about the time you take to answer each question, it's more important to understand the question (both CR and RC) and get it right first. With time and practice your speed will also improve.

Also, stay away from OG for CR qns for now. Do all the questions in the CR guides i mentioned above.

How's your SC performance? and quants?

who do u say "stay away from OG for CR qns for now"??? I gave a gmatprep, did horribly on CR. And was just thinking of doing OG CR qns now!

[ankurgupt]

Originally Posted by gmatdelhi

who do u say "stay away from OG for CR qns for now"??? I gave a gmatprep, did horribly on CR. And was just thinking of doing OG CR qns now!

from razor's post, it seemed like he was weak in his CR basics.. Hence I suggested brushing up on the theory.. Doing OG questns will not help him improve his basics, instead he might get hassled seeing his poor accuracy on CR questns..

If you are having trouble understanding the CR questns/arguments I suggest you do the same..

[razor's edge]

Well thanks for that piece of advice. With my poor performance in cr last night i kept it aside for the time being and decided to review my mistakes today. After contemplating a lot i thought was that what i actually lack is correct interpretation of the questions. I m pretty comfortable with the assumption based questions and majority times go wrong when i fail to comprehend the matter correctly(Considering the sometimes the language is really tough and intricate). They deliberately twist a normal topic in such a manner that it becomes hard to understand its core idea. Ankur, Can u suggest me some links on internet which have good questions on cr and other too?
As far as sc goes, i wouldn't say that i m good at it but among all the sections in verbal i perform the best in it. But i still need to lean a lot in this realm.
Quants is pretty normal and i think with my past cat material i can manage that except for some complicated questions esp on number system. They literally make me scratch my head.

A couple of days ago i took gmat powerprep. Scored miserbly in verbal. Failed to do 8 questions and scored somewhere near early 20s. Couldn't sleep the whole night dreading that what would i do at the end of this month? quant was ok. Scored 42 but i realised that hadn't i made a few silly mistakes (overlooking the question, geting paniky), would have done better than this.

Now can anyone tell me what should i do. PLease note that i may have to take the exam during the last days of november???

[razor's edge]

Originally Posted by ankurgupt

I think you are having trouble
1. understanding the argument
2. evaluating it for its strengths and weaknesses

I would strongly suggest getting the Manhattan CR guide and the Powerscore CR Bible. They will really help you understand the basics behind typical CR questions and should definitely help you improve your speed and accuracy.

For RC I would not suggest any books. Try to understand the RC passage properly by reading it 2-3 times.
Also start reading good quality newspaper articles and editoruials.

Do not worry about the time you take to answer each question, it's more important to understand the question (both CR and RC) and get it right first. With time and practice your speed will also improve.

Also, stay away from OG for CR qns for now. Do all the questions in the CR guides i mentioned above.

How's your SC performance? and quants?

And Ankur the books you have recommended aren't available in town. And by the time i order for them it would be too late. So as of now all i can think of making the most of the material which i have at my discretion.

[razor's edge]

Well, i guess no one seems to be active on this thread unless one has any query or a question to ask. So here I'm again. To improve upon my rc i've started doing the passages of my cat material. Is it worth the effort, considering that at the end of the day i have to read the passages from the computer? So should i practice them on my pc?

[gyaanimale]

Originally Posted by razor's edge

Well, i guess no one seems to be active on this thread unless one has any query or a question to ask. So here I'm again. To improve upon my rc i've started doing the passages of my cat material. Is it worth the effort, considering that at the end of the day i have to read the passages from the computer? So should i practice them on my pc?

Hi Razor Edge, thats correct. With your exam date nearing you should be conditioning your mind for the actual test. Reading on a computer screen is a completly different ball game. Its difficult concentrating if you havent practiced enough, you eyes would start waivering and you might miss lines in between.

One very important thing with RC, is that you need to believe one thing. All of the answers are there infront of you, if you believe the answer is there believe me you would find it a lot more times that you would otherwise have. Even the inference questions, you dont have to think about something out of the world, you have the clues in the passage, just look for them.

I would suggest you do a large number of passages(say 10-15) in one go. Try to use whatever you have learnt in the previous passage in the next passage, this way you would be much better off by the 10th passage. Moreover it would help you inculcate paitence, which is very very important in RC.

Hope that helps, Keep me informed mate !!

Wishes and Sunshine,
Santosh

[mvr912]

My two cents..

Gave GMAT today. Booked my appointment a month earlier.

Here is a brief summary of my score.

Quant - 50
Verbal - 38
Total - 730

Now to start with, I would suggest go pick up OG 12 and do the diagnostic test before you start your preparation. I did the same and It was clear that, for me the decider would be Critical Reasoning, rest of them being reasonably good.

I did all the questions in Critical Reasoning in OG. This was one of the few times I actually practiced something so sincerely and it did pay off.

So Please follow OG like your Gita, Kuran or Bible or whatever. Just practice it. In Quant, be very clear with the basics and it should be enough. I mean this. Just basics. Dont complicate and practice all those olympiad problems.

All the best to all those who are giving it.!!!

[shamikmadhu]

Dear all,
I appeared for the GMAT prep examination from GMAC without any prior preparation. Scored 620 (47/27). Please advise where do I stand after 3months of extensive preparation?

Please help !!