Strategy required to study MGMAT SC

[tak2pratik]

Hello,

I took the GMAT last year(September) and scored a 650(Q51,V28). I am planning to re-take the exam on May,2011.

During my first attempt I had missed out on MGMAT SC guide and only came to know about the book with a week left for the real thing(my bad).

I want to improve my verbal scores this time around and need a strategy to study the MGMAT SC guide. The problem I am facing is when I go through a chapter in the book and immediately attempt the questions listed at the end of each chapter(from OG 12th Edition) the concepts being tested are rather fresh in my mind.
E.g. If I finish the Subject-Verb agreement(Chapter 3) from the book and then attempt questions 2,5,13,27,etc. from OG 12 I know that the problem lies with Subject-Verb agreement [:)]. Hence I know that other concepts such as Parallelism or Modifiers are not being tested in these questions.Thus,instead of applying other concepts listed in different chapters of the book I apply the concepts that I have studied most recently(for Subject-Verb agreement) to solve these questions.I have a feeling that this won't help me raise my accuracy in the real exam.

Should I read the entire book before attempting the questions from OG or is there any other unique strategy which may prove helpful during my preparation.

[StaceyKoprince]

You're right that quizzing yourself immediately after reading / learning something is the easiest way to quiz yourself, and that quizzing yourself only on one topic at a time is not the best way to get better.

What I do is this:
- read the chapter
- do a few of the questions at the end of the chapter to test my comprehension, but not all of the questions
- do a few (but not all) of the OG problems to test my ability to apply the knowledge (or re-do a few questions from my CAT exams, to see whether I can use my new knowledge to answer these old questions more accurately or efficiently; if I do this, I can save more of the OG questions for mixed sets, later)
- read another chapter and repeat for that chapter
- after a few days, go back and do some chapter questions from multiple chapters, mixing them up a bit so that I don't necessarily know which concept this chapter it testing
- do a mix of OG problems from multiple chapters so that, again, I don't already know before I even start the problem what the problem is probably testing

And then I keep building from there. Two general rules:
(1) The more I learn, the more "mixed" my practice should be, since the real test is going to give things in random order
(2) I should quiz myself frequently and I shouldn't only do it right after I've learned something; I should also quiz myself days and weeks later to ensure that I'm retaining the material

Hence I know that other concepts such as Parallelism or Modifiers are not being tested in these questions.

This, by the way, is the wrong assumption to make. :) Almost all SC questions test multiple things - there are only a few SC questions that literally test one thing (and you can spot those quickly because they're the ones with only one or two words underlined). The vast majority will test multiple things, and possibly things that you have not yet learned. When you see a question listed with the "subject-verb" group, all you know is that subject-verb IS tested on that question. You don't know what else is or isn't tested until you look at that question.