GMAT Verbal Strategy for Preparation

[nuwalt]

Dear MGMAT Colleague,

I am a MGMAT course student. I took the in-person course last year but did not attend all the sessions due to work travels. Above all, I postponed my MBA start date ot 2012 (Going for EMBA now). I wish to achieve atleast a score of 700+ (720 to be ideal). I have all the MGMAT materials and wish to enroll in another online course to get started. I plan on taking my GMAT end of January, so I have 6 months. I also plan to study 2 hours on weekday and 5-6 hours each day on weekends.

Here is my plan of attack:
1. Start with Fundamentals (Verbal and Math). Build content knowledge and solve most of the Fundamentals questions to buiild the comfortable floor below which I can never be wrong,. comfortably.
2. Then go through the strategy guides/On-Line Course and do the Benchmark problems.
3. Once the class is done, do the rest of the OG problems (including 2nd ED Verbal and Math).
4. Do timed drills (mixed topics) and then start real condition CAT exams (1 exam every week) during the last couple months.
5. I plan to focus only on MGMAT instructed problems for practice so that I focus on quality and analyze every problem to study well (rather than doing just plan questions and look at the answer sheet).

My issue:

1. I dont have any issues with Math, although I do need to rebuild content and practice.
2. For Verbal, I believe that SCs can be mastered with rules, content, and knowledge. My biggest challenges are RC and CR. I dont even know how to practice and what to read to practice and be good at that. Can I be good at those in 6 months. Should I read things like Economist, WSJ, HBR, Chicago Business, Scientific American for atleast 30 minutes a day online and analyze what I read focussing on GMAT stlye questions.
3. Also, I have read and heard from many students that MGMAT CAT Verbal is easier than the real GMAT, and students do poorly in the real Verbal GMAT. I want to avoid that surprise.

Can you please advice and help on how to build a strong strategy for RC and CR and where to get more GMAT like tough & dense practice problems?

Also, is 6 months enough for a complete GMAT preparation and achieve a score of 700+ assuming that I am an average candidate with good analytical skills. Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

I apologize for the delay in response; we've been short-staffed.

By "Fundamentals," do you mean the Foundations of Math and Verbal materials?

For RC, here are some good sources from which to read:
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/ - particularly articles in the "Investigations" tab
http://harvardmagazine.com/
http://sciam.com/

And here are some articles to get you started:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... mp-passage
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... ading-comp

For CR, read this article to start:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/C ... n-type.cfm

It talks about what you want to be able to do with CR in general - how to approach these, and the kinds of questions to ask yourself as you study each type.

Re:

I have read and heard from many students that MGMAT CAT Verbal is easier than the real GMAT, and students do poorly in the real Verbal GMAT.

Be very careful what you read online. The nutshell: some people are always going to do more poorly on the real thing than they did on practice tests - I've been teaching GMAT for 15 years and that's always been the case. The difference now: it's very easy to then find others online in the same situation and speculate that there's some big trend when nothing has really changed.

Read this thread:
huge-gap-in-gmatprep-test-score-and-actual-gmat-score-t12739.html

We ask our students to tell us their results, and we do extensive analysis on the data. There is no huge variance, up OR down, on either quant or verbal, from last MGMAT CAT to official test. Obviously, some individuals score higher or lower on the official CAT compared to their last MGMAT CAT - but the individual differences balance out across the entire pool. There isn't a skew one way or the other across all students.

In terms of what practice questions to use, I do agree that you should use official questions as much as possible for anything - there's nothing like the real thing. Note that you don't need a thousand questions - make sure that you're not wasting your questions by blowing through them without taking the time to truly analyze / dig into each question, and you'll be fine with the existing OG questions.

Your plan looks good in general. If you have flexibility in your schedule, try to pick a class that will skip a week or two because of some holiday(s). That gives you more time to do homework / practice and still have your teachers available to ask questions. :)

Also, is 6 months enough for a complete GMAT preparation and achieve a score of 700+ assuming that I am an average candidate with good analytical skills.

There's no way to answer this without more data. What's your starting score? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Etc. Generally speaking, though, most people study for 3-4 months, so 6 months is a good chunk of time. Make sure that you don't burn out though - if you're feeling sick of it one day, take that day off. And if you're planning to work for 6 months, you don't need to study for 5-6 hours per day every single week-end.

[nuwalt]

Thanks Stacey. I believe by mistake I posted the same not twice. Please ignore the other one on the same matter.

Yes, by fundamentals, I mean the FOM and FOV that MGMAT offers. But in addition, I mean the general section of the strategy guide review and make sure I can understand questions thats in the MGAT homework.

I plan to study for 6 months (2 hours during the weekday and 5-6 hours each day on weekends). I will be working full time during my prep months. Is that good assuming my starting score with no preparation is ~550 and I need to get above 700 (+). My weakness is in Verbal, more specifically in RC and CRs. Please let me know if the time I am keeping for myself is enough to get where I want.

Thanks so much Stacey for the help.

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, I agree on your note re: the fundamentals (foundations and general portions of strategy guides).

I think your timeframe is fine as well. Will you be working on your own? With a friend? Taking a class or working with a tutor? At some point, it may be helpful to have some outside perspective, even if that's just a friend. You and your friend will have different strengths and weaknesses, so you can help each other.

[nuwalt]

I took the MGMAT class once, so I have all the resources available to me until December. I was not able to really attend all classes and focus on preparation due to work travels, so I do plan to take a live online course as well....Any suggestions?

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, I do think re-taking the course is a good idea so that you keep to a regular schedule - that can be one of the hardest things, especially if you're working and traveling a lot.

Do your homework before class. You get so much more out of class that way. If necessary, what a few weeks to start the class to give yourself more time to get a headstart on the homework.

Also, take the Quant Diagnostic (on our website) and see whether you need to work through any of the Foundations of Math material before class starts - if so, give yourself some time to do that.