720 GMAT - From 500 to 720 (Q48,V41 :: 95%)

[TBAY]

For some reason I cannot upload the verbal files, I received an error message on my 2nd attempt. If anyone needs them, simply post your email (or send me a PM) and I'll mail them to you. Here are Charu's critical reasoning notes. They were helpful.

[TBAY]

Originally Posted by mchao

TBAY,

That was an amazing debrief. I am just about to embark on this journey with little confidence but a lot of determination. I haven't taken the diagnostic yet but i can only imagine I will fall into the 300+ region. I shouldn't even try but I will. I start tomorrow, August 1st, 2007.

If you start off with the right material (I sent you a few nice documents) and with intensity, you will see yourself improve at an unreal pace. I was scoring in the mid 30's in Quant early on, but when I began using this site every day, I saw my scores increase to mid 40's. Treat this test as a challenge and don't get discouraged by low practice test scores. I don't believe that this is a test of intelligence. If it were, I would've scored in the 500's. Instead, your score will positively correlate with the amount of effort that you put into your studying. Keep track of the Qs that you miss so that you can go back to them during the late stages of your prep and test yourself again. Practice your weak areas because the GMAT will test them. My weak area was Venn Diagram Qs. I worked hard on them (I received some great advice from the site) and I saw 3 of them on my test. Go hard out of the gate and you'll be fine.

[Lorelai]

TBAY,

I am doing critical reasoning from The Next Ten Official LSATs but have realised that the subject matter of the CRs for LSAT and GMAT is very different. Is the GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible that good? I have a month for my test. Would you recommend buying this book?

Also I am uploading Clintonn's summary doc.

[TBAY]

Originally Posted by Lorelai

TBAY,

I am doing critical reasoning from The Next Ten Official LSATs but have realised that the subject matter of the CRs for LSAT and GMAT is very different. Is the GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible that good? I have a month for my test. Would you recommend buying this book?

Also I am uploading Clintonn's summary doc.

@Lorelai: I can definitely endorse the Critical Reasoning Bible. I believe that after you go through the sections in the book, and do all of the problem sets included, you will build your confidence and be able to conquer any critical reasoning that the test throws at you. Along with the book, practice the verbal SETS. By doing the SETS, you see many different types of CRs--from bold faced to fill-in-the-blank questions. The level of difficulty is heightened when dealing with verbal SETS also. I also practiced GPREP repeatedly and I saw the type of "hard bin" questions that the test would throw at me. I KNOW that your hit rate will improve after using that book. Some on this site have stated that the critical reasoning Bible is to CRs as the Manahattan Sentence Correction book is the SCs; I would have to agree.

[Lorelai]

I can post attachments now. So here it is.

[TBAY]

Originally Posted by Otori Takeo

@TBAY
Where can i find critical reasoning bible ?
Thanks,

I believe that I bought mine from Amazon.com. You can also check out the company's website: PowerScore® | Ultimate Test Preparation.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my hit rate was, on average, about 50%. After going through the book, completing the problem sets and practicing the SETS, I was missing 2 CRs (at the most) by my last week of prep. I know that if I had focused on verbal as much as I focused on quant on my last attempt, I would've scored higher than v41. This books gives you the most powerful thing that you could ask for going into the test: CONFIDENCE!

[jordan23VT]

tbay, congrats on the great improvement. Can you please tell me more about bellcurves? I am struggling to improve my math. Does the site have many tough problems and also build your speed? Do the problems prepare you for the problems on the actual Gmat? Are they quite similar in wording and function? Thanks man appreciate it.

[TBAY]

Originally Posted by ShakeVT

tbay, congrats on the great improvement. Can you please tell me more about bellcurves? I am struggling to improve my math. Does the site have many tough problems and also build your speed? Do the problems prepare you for the problems on the actual Gmat? Are they quite similar in wording and function? Thanks man appreciate it.

The site has plenty of tough problems that will prepare you for the GMAT. My quant rose from Q41 to Q48 by using bellcurves. I already knew the material, but I became more comfortable and confident by going through the questions and drills on the site. Last I checked you were at Q46. The questions on the GMAT (at least my test) were not on TM's level. To increase your score, you really must understand the concept being tested--and bellcurves did that for me. You literally begin to see problems differently and you cut out 2-3 steps. I didn't believe that I was making any progress on the site until I took a practice test about 2 weeks after using it. I scored Q50 (I saw a few repeats), but that wasn't the impressive part. What impressed me was that I could see the mistakes that I would've made had I not been practicing the way that I had been. The tricks that the GMAT used became obvious and I was able to move past them and into the harden bin Qs. Once you progress into that zone you'll be fine because you're practicing on this site. You have to knock down the "middle" questions to makeit there though.

I highly recommend it (in conjunction with TM of course) to those who are stuggling in the quant area. The exercises help you really LEARN the concepts and develop a new way to think about attacking problems. Let me know whether you have anymore quastions.

Tbay

[mdmdmd63]

t-bay is bellcurves for free??????

[TBAY]

Originally Posted by mdmdmd63

t-bay is bellcurves for free??????

It's 29.95/month. I used it for one month and it was worth it. Also, you get to try it for a week (FOR FREE) before signing up to see whether you like it.