700+ Verbal Content (content focus, and materials)

[ChrisL]

I am three weeks away from my exam and have been scoring fairly high on the Verbal side of things. I want to focus my study on the more challenging verbal topics/questions that I am likely to see. So I had a few questions:

1. For Sentence Correction, what types of questions am I likely to see at the higher levels? Where can I find some challenging questions if I have exhausted the OG & Verbal guides, as well as the MGMAT question banks. I downloaded the 1000 SC document I have seen on other forums, is this a good place to get some additional practice content?

2. For Critical Reasoning, same questions: what are question types should I expect to see if I am reaching 700+ in this area, and where can I get more questions to practice on these types? (I have not finished the OG/Verbal in CR, but am getting close and will easily finish it this week).

I really want to prepare for the Verbal because it seems to make the most difference on my score. I also have seen more variance in my scoring in this area, whereas Quant seems relatively stable for me (Robert of MGMAT did an evaluation for me and said I pretty much hit a wall at the 700+ Quant questions, and 3 weeks doesn't seem like enough time to greatly improve here).

Mainly, I just want to make sure I have content to keep going; reviewing old questions over and over is starting to wear on me...

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

[StaceyKoprince]

I am personally NOT a fan of the 1000 series. There are some good questions in there, but there are also others that are very non-GMAT-like, and there are even outright errors in there. The problem is, unless you have the experience level of a teacher, you're not going to know which ones are good and which ones are bad.

We do have a 1-session virtual workshop called the Quest for 750: Sentence Correction Slam. It focuses specifically on the hardest and most convoluted questions you're likely to see (700+ level, as the name of the workshop implies), and also offers an additional question bank of really hard SC questions (not the ones you get through our regular courses). If you already took our main course, there's a pretty significant discount - check out this link for details:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-preparation-course-one-day.cfm

For CR, you should still expect to see the 5 main question types at the top levels - on my last test, I only had 1 question from all of the minor types combined. For more questions here, I would get some of the old paper-and-pencil tests (these are floating around the web - illegally - already, but I'd suggest ponying up the money to buy these b/c then you'll know which ones are the hardest ones. The old paper test questions used to be given in order of difficulty.)

Also, if you have already taken your two GMATPrep tests, keep taking those not for the score (which will be inflated b/c you'll see questions you've seen before) but to pull other questions out of the pool that you haven't seen yet. You can also look through the GMATPrep threads here to find questions you haven't already seen.

[ChrisL]

I wanted to do the Virtual Quest for 750 Sentence Correction but I missed the last one because I was finished my 9-week session, and the next one offered is the same day I take the GMAT :-(

I did however sign up for the two Quest for 750 math workshops.

[StaceyKoprince]

We tape the Quests and you can also buy access to a tape - contact the office to ask about this option (800.576.GMAT or studentservices@manhattangmat.com). Obviously, you won't get to ask questions of a live instructor, but you can at least get the instruction and the question bank.

[delta750]

Could you please let me know what is SC-1000 and where I could get it from ?

[StaceyKoprince]

There is a bank of 1000 Sentence Correction questions floating around on the web somewhere - I don't know where it came from, nor do I know where to get it. The name of the bank is 1000SC.

My point from above, though, is that I don't recommend studying from these questions. Some of them are actually from past paper-and-pencil official GMATs, so there are some good questions in there, but whoever transcribed them didn't always do so correctly, so there are errors that can actually mess up your studying. You wouldn't know which ones are the good ones and which ones are the bad ones, so you could end up studying something thinking it's right when it's actually wrong.

If you need more questions beyond the 1400 that are already contained in the OG (though, frankly, 1400 questions should be enough for anyone, if you are studying each problem thoroughly), then your next source should be buying old paper-and-pencil tests from GMAC. Don't use the paper tests as full tests (that is, don't take a test all at once, calculate a score, and expect that to be reflective of the CAT). But they are good sources for individual question practice.