[insanely_differ]

hi all,

m giving GMAT this september...22nd to b precise....hav a prob in DS n critical reasoning...all critical qt ans seem to go wrong.....wat do i do??? also in DS some qt r damn confusing which lowers my score....help reqd ASAP....

thanks..

[insanely_differ]

n ya thnx ankit 4 sharing ur val exp..if u cud mail me sum material for GMAT..wud b gr8...test prep etc..have got 2 tests from POWERPREP...if u or ne1 else cud send any other wud b gr8...

[ankitgarg20]

Originally Posted by insanely_differ

hi all,

m giving GMAT this september...22nd to b precise....hav a prob in DS n critical reasoning...all critical qt ans seem to go wrong.....wat do i do??? also in DS some qt r damn confusing which lowers my score....help reqd ASAP....

thanks..

For Critical Reasoning questions,try this:

1) Read the question before the given stem. This would help you while you read the stem.
2) Read the stem criticaly. Dont accept anything(except facts) given in the stem just for the sake of it. Question every part of the stem,looking for flaws. Words like 'however','thus','therefore','because' etc would help u pick dose parts of the sentence which are supposed to be crtiqued.
3) Eliminate answer choices. Invaribly, there will be choices in answer which would do the opposite of what is asked in the question. That is options which wud strengthen an argument in a question in which u r supposed to find a statement weakening the argument.
4)Think tangibly. Some answer choices are very close, you might have to think out of the box effect of those choices on the argument. This comes with practice only.



DS

1) revise ur number system first of all. Most of the DS questions come from this segment of maths.
2) When u start solving, make sure you are juding both the statements seperately first,before combining the info given. Most of the DS mistakes arrive from the fact that after looking at statement 1, we take it to be true for statement 2.
As a practice, you may try evaluating statement 2 before statement 1. Do it on a adhoc basis and switch between which statement to select first as you go ffrom one question to another. This mite help you.

3) Make sure you have eliminated choices A & B before u move to evaluate other choices.


Regards,
Ankit

[insanely_differ]

thnx ankit for ur suggestions.....i hv solvd all math books provided to me....but i cant gt enuf of d same...can u fwd me some more in math?? verbal will also do.....

thnx again,

[ankitgarg20]

Originally Posted by insanely_differ

thnx ankit for ur suggestions.....i hv solvd all math books provided to me....but i cant gt enuf of d same...can u fwd me some more in math?? verbal will also do.....

thnx again,

I have most of my math material as paper back. And since u say that u have alrdy solved most of math material, i dnt think watever I have in soft wud hlp u. Still, in case u can post da math material solved by u, it cud b possible I find some exclusie material.

[ankitgarg20]

I just recd my AWA score.....and to my pleasent surprise....it reads

6.0!!!!!

May be I can use it to offset my low verbal score in GMAT,by putting up the best essays.

I was so scared to open my score report when I recd the mail.Keeping my fingers crossed, was just wishing for a better score than 4-4.5....but it turned out to be 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dopa]

Originally Posted by ankitgarg20

I just recd my AWA score.....and to my pleasent surprise....it reads

6.0!!!!!

May be I can use it to offset my low verbal score in GMAT,by putting up the best essays.

I was so scared to open my score report when I recd the mail.Keeping my fingers crossed, was just wishing for a better score than 4-4.5....but it turned out to be 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Words like fantastic and terrific will not be appropriate for this man! :2gunfire:

Great job...this will surely add on to your good score in verbal (I will not say 34 a low )

Many other people also might have got a 6 in AWA but before you I only heard of Neo2000, mod of gmat forum who has got the same.

I am sure you will share the secret for AWA when you have some spare time!

Congrats dude

[Inder.14]

Originally Posted by ankitgarg20

I just recd my AWA score.....and to my pleasent surprise....it reads

6.0!!!!!

May be I can use it to offset my low verbal score in GMAT,by putting up the best essays.

I was so scared to open my score report when I recd the mail.Keeping my fingers crossed, was just wishing for a better score than 4-4.5....but it turned out to be 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

congrats man!!!!!!!!!!!!!
can you just tell how did you write your AWAs? did you follow any templates from some book?

[ankitgarg20]

Very frankly let me admit, I have never considered myself a good writer. AWA was one part of GMAT that I always hated and wished that it wasnt tested at all.My prep for quant and verbal never left me with no time to even look at AWA. Then, one fine day, I got my hands on a doc which lists all the topics of AWA...I thought that would help me in at least familiarizing at least the topics..But to my horror, the file had more than 250 topics...It didnt add even an iota to my interest of reading the file.

As for my prep, i went through the essays given at the end of Kaplan Premier book and OG. I also had anoder file in soft which had some GMAT essays written, but they were definately not of best quality. Hoever, after reading on various forums and online resources, here is what i came up with my approach and deductions of AWA essays:

1) AWA essays are not only about correct english and grammar. A logical flow, linked paragraphs and critical points matter as much.
I still believe my sentence formation and grammar is not to the best of levels, but I do believe my critical assessment of the arguments has been really good. The reason I believe that I got a 6 on AWA was more of my critical reasoning ability than english grammar. I came up with various loopholes in the argument,which even my friends couldnt come up with(I discussed AWA too with my friends after GMAT) and I guess that made the difference.
I would only recommend puys to look at an argument as critically as possible. Most of the times(read 99% of the times), argument would have assumptions,logical flaws etc. In case you can locate 3 such distinct flaws, you are on the track.



2) Writing essays.
I followed the simple technique of Intro,Para1,Para2,Para3,Conclusion to write my essays. I categorized all the points I could think of into three categories and wrote 1 para about each. Para1 should have the most important category/points to mention.Para2 the second important and third para the least important according to you.
I wrote intro and conclusion at the end. The reason being simple, after having my most important paras written, it was a lot easier to write an intro and of course a conclusion.

I tried using global examples to substantiate my points. But, frankly in that little time that I had to write the essay, it was very difficult for me to link up global examples.

So, I played smart . In the Issue essay, I wanted to quote an example which was so ready in my mind. But , it was about an Indian IT giant...the TCS. But, rather than writing TCS in my example, I wrote IBM's Indian division. The reason was simple, I thot IBM would be much better recognized by a firangi reader than TCS.

You may also try to include some general examples. Like, I mentioned a simple earthquake to strengthen my point in one of the essays.


Please keep first 5 minutes to gather your thoughts and at least last 5-6 minuted to review your essay. I found this exercise particularly useful. It would help you put your essay in a correct logical flow.

The length of essay doesnt matter at all. After all, in 30 mins in total i cant type a 500 word essay and probably GMAC understands this and a short but crisp essay would only do good to you.


I believe I have put all my thoughts regarding AWA here. In case you puys have any questions, fire :2gunfire: them to me.

Regards,
Ankit

Originally Posted by Dopa

Words like fantastic and terrific will not be appropriate for this man! :2gunfire:

Great job...this will surely add on to your good score in verbal (I will not say 34 a low )

Many other people also might have got a 6 in AWA but before you I only heard of Neo2000, mod of gmat forum who has got the same.

I am sure you will share the secret for AWA when you have some spare time!

Congrats dude

[ankitgarg20]

Originally Posted by Inder.14

congrats man!!!!!!!!!!!!!
can you just tell how did you write your AWAs? did you follow any templates from some book?

Rreply number 18 on this forum is my exp of AWA.hope it helps you.