Verbal study plan

[Lakshminarayan]

Hi Stacey I've started my preparation for the gmat in July '14. Below are my practice test scores

1. MGMAT CAT-1 Q:43, V:21 TOTAL SCORE :530
2. MGMAT CAT-2 Q:44, V:29 TOTAL SCORE :590
3. GMAT PREP CAT-1 Q:48, V:25 TOTAL SCORE: 600

As you can see I'm facing difficulty in the verbal section. I need some tips about how to practice verbal everyday and managing time on the real test. Reading Comprehension is my main concern I don't know what to do with it. I've read all your articles about how to read RC passages,time management and setting up the scratch paper. The "scratch paper" article of your's was amazing but I couldn't make much out of the other two articles. My target score is 750+ so please help me out in this issue.

Thanks

Lakshminarayan

[StaceyKoprince]

I'll start by saying that nobody needs a 750 and I honestly believe it's a waste of time to go for that kind of score. (Unless you want to teach for us. In which case you need a 760. :)

If you turn in the exact same application with a 710 vs. a 750, that's not going to change your chances of getting in. Either score will make the school think "All right, you can handle the work here!" and then they'll make the decision based on other aspects of your application.

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way... :)

Your verbal score right now is in the mid to high 20s, so we're going to have to do this in increments - I can't give you a prescription today that will take you all the way from here to a 700+.

You had a 29 on test 2 and a 25 on test 3, so I'd like to know what the differences were that led to that drop in score. You mention timing. Did you time yourself during the GMATPrep test? (If not, for future, make sure you set yourself up to be able to track your per-question timing whenever you take GMATPrep.)

Still, you already know you have timing issues, so you can start there.

Timing is really a consequence of mindset: if you are hanging on to certain problems for too long, then your problem is that you're still in the school "I have to get everything right" mindset. You'll need to break that pattern. Read this:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

In fact, read it once a day until you've really internalized the message that that is how the GMAT works.

Next, start with section 4 of the time management article. Build your 1-minute time sense. Then use that time sense to help guide you as to when you should keep going and when you should guess and move on.

For SC: If you don't know exactly what you're doing by the 1-min mark, guess and move on.

For CR: If you don't know what question sub-type you have and/or you don't fully understand the argument by 1 min, guess and move on.

For RC questions:
Main Idea: treat this like SC
Specific: treat this like CR. By 1 minute, you should: know what Q sub-type was given; have found the relevant text in the passage; have re-read / understood that text. If not, guess and move on.

I'm going to guess that at least part of your score drop from test 2 to test 3 was due to hanging on too long on some problems - so if you fix that, your score will go back up just because you'll allow yourself to address the problems that you actually do know how to address.

Next, we need to dig into the data to figure out exactly what the issues are that are causing you trouble on verbal. You aren't going to get to a 700+ by working only on one of the three question types. Use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):

http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

For RC in particular, think about WHERE you are having the most trouble. On the first read-through of the passage? Are you getting the main idea but getting lost in the details? Are you getting so lost in the details that you're not even getting the main idea? Or is the read-through fine but you're getting tangled up in the answer choices? All of the above? For certain question types? Etc.

Also, read the below and make sure that this is actually how you are studying - including RC! You get better by analyzing the types of questions the test gives you:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

[Lakshminarayan]

Hi Stacey firstly thanks for writing to me with such patience. I would like to describe my reasons for the drop in verbal score from test 2 to test 3.

Test 2 was MGMAT CAT in which 3 out of the 4 RC passages where Science related and one was about history. So I do pretty well on science related passages but when it comes to History & Political sciences I really cannot understand such abstruse text used in framing the sentences and I get easily lost in specifics ending up having no idea about the passage. This is in fact the key reason for my low verbal score in GMAT PREP CAT 1. It threw at me 2 or 3 Political & History related passages so that literally brought down my verbal score. I also made some silly errors on sentence correction and critical reasoning. Yes I took the GMAT CAT under official conditions.

My main concern is History & Political science passages. Can you suggest me anything for this issue ? I will be taking the test in late December or early January will I be able to cross the 700 mark ?
I have already covered the MGMAT QUANT MATERIAL twice. I'm also done with MGMAT VERBAL MATERIAL i.e SC & RC. I did Powerscore CR bible for the CR. I'm done with all the material, now I need to fill the gaps and reinforce my strengths.

Thanks with regards
Lakshminarayan.

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, good: you don't do as well on the social science topics.

Bookmark this link:
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/

Every day, spend 15 minutes reading an article from one of the tabs labeled:
Arts & Humanities
Education & Social Service
Law, Policy, & Society

Try to pick titles that do NOT sound all that interesting to you. It's easier to read hard text when you're interested in the topic, but you may not get that lucky on the GMAT.

Use that to get more comfortable with these topics. If you're fine when the topic is science, then you know how to answer the different kinds of questions - you just have to learn how to wrap your head around these topics.

What do you think caused the careless errors on SC and CR? Did you use up too much time and brain energy on RC and that cost you on the other two areas? Were you rushing? Were there certain rules or strategies or traps that you'd forgotten in the lead-up to the test?

Did you read the very last article that I linked in my last post? How does that match up with how you have been studying so far?

[Lakshminarayan]

what caused careless errors in SC & on questions which I could have easily answered on CR are the god awful inference questions on RC. To say precisely If I improve my RC skills and timing I can easily get into higher 650's. On test 2 because of some RC questions on which I spent around 4 to 5mins for an inference question I totally showed disrespect towards timing. I know that sounds awful but at that time I took the test with a school minded attitude but after reading your articles I'm slowly changing my attitude.

And regarding analyzing practice problems I didn't analyze to the extent which you mentioned in the article "HOW TO ANALYZE A PRACTICE PROBLEM." I'll start analyzing every problem on the OG like you mentioned. But I have some queries

1. I have bought the gmat question pack and I have OG 13 so would you want me to practice from question pack and analyze on those questions which are roughly around 200( PS & DS) and 180 verbal (RC,CR, & SC) or should I go over OG 13 which I've already done but not analyzed as you mentioned ?

2. I need your help in this should I build sets of 5 or 10 problems in both quant and verbal do it and analyze it thoroughly ?

I'm currently on a vacation until January so I have got loads of time. I can spend 6 to 8 hrs a day. Please tell me what should be my daily practice habits I'm very inconsistent in this aspect ?

Thanks Stacey
Looking forward for your post

[StaceyKoprince]

Good to changing your attitude. This is not a school test. It's a test of your business intelligence. You'd go out of business very quickly if you spent way too high a proportion of your resources on things that didn't actually give you a good return!

For the analysis, I would start by analyzing some of the problems that you did in the past - because you already studied them, but you didn't get as much out of them as you could have. Learn how to learn from those.

Then, test yourself by trying some new problems (from GMATPrep or OG13, your choice). Then analyze those.

Then go back and analyze some more of the ones you did in the past. And so on.

Here's how to create mixed problem sets:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... blem-sets/

Don't always do the same # of problems in the set. Mix it up. Your brain actually learns better that way.

If you're going to study for more than 2 hours in one day, then you need to take a 2 hour break for every 2 hours that you study. For most people, that means not studying more than 6 hours in one day.

Your brain has a limited amount of energy. If you overload it, it will stop making good memories. The last thing you want to do is study 8 hours a day...but not remember most of what you studied (or, worse, remember it in a mixed-up way).

Here's more info on how to set up a study plan for yourself:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... our-score/

Feel free to come back and run any study plans by us!