General Strategy for RCs

[nuwalt]

Stacey,

To practice RCs, where should I focus? OGs, both OG12 and Verbal supplement? I have not practiced RCs much and now I am thinking that I can go thru all RCs in the OG. I realize that RC has no real strategy and cannot be improved with learning a trick or two in a short amount of time. But to make sure that I understand what I will follow during the exam and practice timing, how much should I practice and from what source? What should I focus on....and how?

My exam is in 3 weeks.

[StaceyKoprince]

There are definitely strategies for RC:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... p-passage/

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... prehension
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/11/ ... il-problem

:)

When doing RCs out of the OGs, make sure to do no more than 3 or 4 questions per passage (in one sitting). You'd have an artificial advantage when answering the 5th or 6th or 8th question - and the real test never gives more than 4 for a single passage. So do 3 or 4 (make tick marks next to the ones you did) and then you can come back to that passage again in a while and re-do it with other questions.

Also, I get the sense from your email that you're just getting started on RC. Is that the case? Are you sure you're where you need to be in order to take the test in 3 weeks? Are your practice test scores getting close to your goal score? Typically, the last 10-14 days should be pretty much only for review - by that time, you should have completed your primary studies. Ideally, you don't want to be learning new stuff in the last week before the exam.

[nuwalt]

Hi, Stacey,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I havent done much of RCs. I understand that we should not learn new material etc...last week before the exam. I may also get burnt out. However, I do not have a choice now. I have submitted my EMBA application and booked my test date. I understand that I have not prepared as much as I would have liked to get a score of 680 +, however, I am going in with solving all OG 12 questions, reading the MGMAT strategyguides, general and advanced chapters and atleast read through the MGMAT advanced quant book. For verbal, I am doing all of OG 12 and thats it. If I am unable to pull a decent score, I will re-take it or postpone my MBA start date by 1-year. My application is strong so unless GMAT score is too low, I dont think I should get rejected on the basis of GMAT alone.

I know this is not the forum for this, but any thoughts? Worst come to worst, I will re-take the exam in 2 months after preparing a bit more.

Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay - I know we can't also do the ideal thing. Just make sure not to burn yourself out in the last 3-5 days before the test. If you burn yourself out, your score could drop and you obviously don't want that to happen.

Let me know what happens and then we'll go from there!