Official Guide - Verbal Review - Practice Questions

One of my friends was nice enough to lend me his copy of the The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review when he was going away on vacation. He is a very good person, know him for so many years now. One friend whom you can depend on to never ever let you down. So today morning, It was me, my coffee and The Verbal Review, Questions. From my experience now I know for sure that the last 1/3rd of the practice questions are the toughest. So I decided to do the last half of Critical Reasoning Questions (Qn 41 - 82). As expected, the first 15 questions went like a breeze. Then I started to feel the cogs grinding, and neurons in the brain starting to fire rapidly. I did bad with the time. It took me 10mnts more than my self allocated 70 mnts, limit. I ended up with 38 Correct and 4 Wrong. I have not done the analysis yet. May be I will do it once I finish this post. I am quiet satisfied with the results. I am planning to do one set of Reading Comprehension later in the day. Also it is time for me to start on my Sentence correction theory. So that is the rough plan for the weekend. Couple of practice sets from Verbal review, and Sentence Correction theory.

Kaplan CD Questions

I spent the last two days concentrating on taking tests on the Computer under strict timed condition. It is evident that howmuch ever I try I cannot give complete justice to 16 questions of RC presented by KAplan CD in 25 mnts. I am getting 88% correct. Still the last RC, is more done by intution than by complete comprehension. The CR Section was a breeze. Thiming was not a problem, neither was the well practiced reasoning techniques. I scored close to 90% on CR practice from Kaplan CD. Also I took practice swings at the PowerPrep and GMATPrep software. Performance was not bad at all. CR, 100%, RC 90%. as of now I am feeling very comfortable to move on to the Sentence correction practice. I am going to leave couple of practice sets aside to attack later once I finish sentence correction preparation. The timing issue of RC is not a big concern as of now. My reasoning is that I will have left overs from SC and CR to compensate for RC.

Manhattan GMAT : RC & CR Question Bank : My Opinion

Today, I took the the Manhattan GMAT Question bank on RC & CR Twice. My performance was laughable. Out of the 25 Questions, I got 14 correct on the first attempt, 16 correct on the second attempt. I was very confused since none of the questions I attempted was particularly difficult. They were no where as taxing as the Kaplan 800 Questions. Still I performed far far below my average.

After the second attempt also failed I decided to look at the answers and explanations. In my opinion the logical reasoning in these questions are far far away from what I learnt using, Kaplan and what I experienced using OG. The answers, and explanations were not convincing for many questions. I have to conclude that, In my opinion these questions are badly written, and badly explained.

I think I will take the CD tests from Kaplan today in the evening. Also I will attempt RC from Kaplan 800.

Christmas Weekend Update

It was all about practice tests this weekend. Nothing much of theory. I finished the last and final set from OG. In addition to that I did the practice set on RC and CR from PowerPrep. Also I took the monthly test on Kaplan website (30 Questions). Also I did analysis of all the tests. Saturday I spent some 6 hours, Sunday around 2 hours, and Monday which again was a Holiday another 6 hours. RC I have improved very much. I am close to my 90% correct rate. CR, I am exactly where I was before, at Around 86%. Kaplan test, I flunked at 70%. I made some very silly mistakes in DS and CR.

In addition to this, I yesterday tried my hand at the KAplan 800. First RC, I got 3/4 Correct. I was charged up. The second one I got 1/4 correct. I was brought back to reality. I closed the book and called it a day.

Today, my plan was to start at 5:00 am as usual. But I decided to sleep till 6:30, since we slept late. I will be taking the Manhattan GMAT Question bank in the evening. It is on RC and CR.

Third Set of RC From The Official Guide

A Merry Christmas to Everyone !!.

This set was for Questions, 76 to 110. 35 Questions.

Timing was a little more than 2 mnts per question. That was not very encouraging. My initial feeling at the end of the test was over all I was satisfied, But last passage I felt, I lowered my guard a little.

Final analysis confirmed it. I got 29 out of 35 Correct. Again sticking to the 82%. That was a little disappointing. However a closer look at the wrong answers consoled me a little. None of the wrong answers were due to a technique error, or comprehension error. They were careless mistakes. As I suspected, 3 out of my 6 errors came from the last paragraph. Also, I was able to get all but one of the 6 Questions correct on my second attempt.

Next, The last and final set of OG !!. May be tomorrow early morning. Today, the Christmas day is cramped with Social obligations.

Analysis of First Two Sets - RC

A Merry Christmas, And Wonderful Holidays to everyone. Enjoy the season with your loved ones, and be ready for the new year !!.

Today I did a thorough analysis to understand my logical flaws in answering RC questions. The conclusion is that, defining the scope of the question is where I am going wrong. I am going to correct it by going back to the passage / Notes One more time to confirm an answer. This could take slightly more time. Since my current timings are very good for RC, and since with more practice speed of answering will increase, I think this new approach will not leave me short of time. Any way, I will start seeing the results, or effects soon. So corrective action, if required could be adopted.

My Analysis method was very simple. From my answer grid first I classified all passages into One of the four sections, Social, Biology, Physics, Business. Then I went to each paragraph and read it once more. After that I attempted the questions I got wrong in that passage. With the logical reasoning fresh in my mind, I went to the OG explanation to understand their reasoning structure. I must say I agreed with every one of their explanations.

I compiled a grid with some statistical data similar to the one I did for CR. I will publish those once I complete all questions in RC.

OG-RC Second Set Finished.

Today I came back from office a little early. So decided to attempt another set of next 39 questions from OG. Timing was not bad at all. Something like 109 Seconds per Question. That seems to be right on target for the test.

I got 32 out of 39 Correct this time. So the correct percentage is 82%. Now I will take a breather and analyse all the wrong answers. This is an important junction. I need to get the correct answer rate above 90%. Do not know where I am going wrong. Hopefully this analysis will shed some lights.

RC Train Back On Track

Yes !!.

As I promised myself, I woke up dot at 5:00. Started a pot of coffee. And did the first set of 36 Questions from OG. Initially I felt my speed was not up to the mark. For the first seven questions I took close to 19 mnts. Later I gathered momentum and finished 36 Questions in One Hour. I got 29 Correct. That is a percentage improvement of 4%.

90% of the errors were from the first 50% of the questions. I realized my answering grid need a little modification to the analysis of the answers more effectively. I need to add Two more columns, One With Topic : Subject (Business, Science, Social), And the Length of the passage. That way I will get a clear idea of which type of passages I have problem in comprehending. Over all I was satisfied with the Topic Paraphrasing technique I was using. I am able to remember most of the content of the para without going back to the text.

I will do the detailed analysis of the errors today evening. I will keep a tally of not only my wrong answers, but also the places where I got them wrong. From the initial scanning itself I can see a clear pattern emerging. This analysis, I believe will be to my advantage.

Also, I am keeping up my daily routine of doing 20 Quant questions everyday. Even though the questions are a lot simpler than what I am anticipating for GMAT, I feel this exercise will keep my Quant skills well oiled.

I am taking it TOO Easy

I am bad. I was watching a DVD whole evening. Now I am sitting next to the OG with all RC Section book marked and everything. I even neatly earmarked the question sets I am supposed to take as part of each session. Basically I divided the OG Questions into approximate batches of 35 Each.

But, I have not started !!.

May be it has something to do with my dismal performance in Kaplan RC. I scored 76% correct. That is a bad rate.

I MUST start my OG-RC Practice tomorrow morning. No snooze button when the alarm rings. Get up, Put the Coffee, Freshen up and attack the session. Procrastination has destroyed one too many good things in my life. Not this one.

The Reading Comprehension Train Rolls On.

By, Yesterday evening and today morning I finished the Study material from Manhattan GMAT and KAplan on RC. The approach of these two are as different as schools of thought from two religions. Both are trying to achieve, and will achieve the same set of correct answers. But there are some major differences in the way each of them tries to cultivate the quick reading strategy. I think I am going to stick to the Manhattan Technique for reading, and use Answering technique from Kaplan. Not because I want to be a nice person, but because I feel this is best suited for me.

Manhattan GMAT, forces you to read in a carefully careless manner. Also the approach is different for Short Vs. Long Passages.

For Long Passages :-

Read the First 3 sentences of the First Para carefully, Then SKIM through the rest of first Paragraph. After finishing the first paragraph Jolt down up to 3 important points from the first Para by giving core importance to first 3 sentences. This will become your Skull section. Box it up.

Next, Read the first two sentences of each of the remaining paragraph very carefully. And SKIM through the rest of the material. Al the end of each paragraph put down in billeted points what you think is important.

At the end of this exercise you will be left with a Skull section, and 2 Bulletted ideas from each paragraph. According to Manhattan, this is enough for you intelligently approach each question.

For Short Passages:-

You can take a more detailed note taking as you go along as long as the time allotted is not exceeded.

That brings the question of how much time should be spent?

For the timing what they suggest is, You will know in advance by looking at the Question header how many total RC questions are going to be based out of the given Material. For example at the first question, header will read as, Question 21 of 21-24. This will tell you that there are 4 questions. So they advocate using 2 x 4 = 8 min total for attacking this RC. You should use a maximum of little less than half of this time to read and prepare the summary. Something like 3min 30 Secs for 4 Question passage, 2 min 30 Second for 3 Question Passage.

That will leave us about a minute to answer each of the questions. These timings are as always rules of thumb. I will be starting to do practice questions today evening. I will update back as to whether these techniques are working for me or not.

Weekend Update : In-short, nothing GMAT about it

Yes, Nothing GMAT about it. Well, almost.

We had guests during the most part of this weekend. So my GMAT preparations were confined to doing CR from Kaplan GMAT 800 . Oh, Boy those are some tough questions. There are these 28 questions, which usualy can encountered only at Courtroom drama Movies from Hollywood. I could get only around 60% correct. Neverthless, I reviewd all the mistakes to get an idea of what to expect at the highest strata of GMAT.

Today morning I started with the Reading Comprehension section. First I did a review of Princeton Review : Cracking the GMAT with CD-ROM, 2006 . Then quickly moved on to Critical Reasoning & Reading Comprehension GMAT Preparation Guide (Manhattan Gmat Prep) RC Section. I have a feeling that I am going to stick to the technique Manhattan GMAT is advocating. If it works, which I will know for sure only when I start doing the OG questions, it will be the fastest approach to getting in and out of RC. Attacked with proper technique, RC should be a no sweat section to score high. Time management is key here.

OG - CR Section : Final Analysis of the Errors

Thinking Critically these numbers alone are not enough to draw a conclusion. An additional data classifying all Questions into different Question type buckets is also necessary to draw any conclusion out. However, I could argue that Practicing , 'Weaken The Argument' Type of questions more, could give me a better success rate in CR Section. Assuming the Questions in OG are representative of the questions I could expect in actual GMAT.

Total Questions : 124, Correct : 107 : Wrong 17.

The Wrong Answers are Distributed like below:

Type of Error	Concept Errors	Careless Errors	Total Errors	Error Type Percentage
Assumption	2	0	2	11.76
Weaken The Argument	9	1	10	58.82
Find The Argument Type	1	0	1	5.88
Find the Conclusion	1	0	1	5.88
Additional Premise	1	1	2	11.76
Strengthen	1	0	1	5.88
Totals			17	100

OG Practice Question on CR All Done.

Just Now I finished the last set of 44 Questions on the 124 Question CR Section on OG Ed 11th. On the last set I found some tougher questions with double negation in the stem. My score on this set was 36 / 44, Around 82%. For the Whole of CR Section I got 86% correct. I donot have any bench mark to cmpare it against.

These are the Question Numbers I missed:
1,10,18,26,38
48,61,74,77
81,91,94,95,107,109,115,116

I will do a thorough review of each of these questions to understand whether there is any pattern.

Today I did a neat 20 Qn. 30 mnt Quant set at the office. MAin objective was to keep my Quant skills sharp. Happy to note that I got All Correct :-))))).

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Foot Note:-
Okay, I got something to bench mark. I took the OG Diagnistic Test results table. There were 17 CR Questions in the test. Diagnostics table states if you get 14-17 Correct, your score is 'Excellent'. Hmm, Reducing 107/124 to a Fraction with 17 as the denominator, My score is equivalent to 14.6/17. That is Consoling.

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Some Study Notes on CR Strategy

These are my basic principles for approaching CR. This is based on a very successful strategy from GMAT 2006, Premier Program (Kaplan Gmat (Book & CD-Rom)) .

1. Understanding the structure of the argument

Separate out, Conclusion, evidence, Assumption


2. Preview The Question.

This is the first thing to do when you see a CR Question. Read the question actively. Keep it in the back of your mind.


3. Paraphrase Author's point.

An active mind is required when you read the stem. Keep Criticizing every sentence you go over. Also in your mind do some sort of paraphrasing / summarizing. This will help to not to lose track of the argument.


4. Judge argument's persuasiveness.


Think, 'Does it really make sense !!'. Don't be afraid to call Bullshit a Bullshit.


5. Answer the Question being asked.


If you understand the Qn wrong there is a high chance of picking a wrong answer. So keep an eye out for that minor words like, 'Except', 'not'.


6. Try to Pre-phrase an Answer.


Where ever possible keep an idea of what the answer is. Some times you may be right on the money. Nothing to lose. This strategy helps to treat CR like a game.

(I tell myself, Full marks to you and JK tires, when ever Pre-Guess an answer. It's reference to an old quiz program on Doordarshan TV).


7. Keep the scope of the argument in mind.


Some of the answer choices will go to an extra length to support or weaken an argument. Same is true for Assumptions, Conclusions etc. But the right answer will be from what ever is stated as a TRUTH by the specific question.

OG - Critical Reasoning Practice Set 2

Was in the mood for some Critical evaluation. So I sat with OG to complete CR Questions 41 to 80. It was not strictly timed. After 23 Questions I went and watched the show Apprentice on NBC. Finished the remaining 17 after the show. Over all I felt the Questions were a little harder than the first set. May be it is the fatigue from a working day. Final tally was, 36/40 Correct. That will take my CR scoring rate to 90%. Very relieved to know that my skill is improving. Tomorrow morning I will take the last set of 40. Hope to get everything correct on that :-).

While reviewing the wrong answers I realized my mistakes were none from carelessness. All four I got wrong were above my finer critical evaluation skills. For the inquisitive mind any out there, The Questions I got Wrong are,

48,61,74,77 All referring to The Official Guide for GMAT Review Critical Reasoning Section.

Today at the office I got a half an hour to spare. So I dived into some Quant questions. After all my plan is to ace the quant section. So need to keep my Quant skills fresh. Well, I was very disappointed with the results. I got 3 wrong in a 20 Question 30 minute set. That puts my Success rate at a dismal 85%. I really need a reassurance tomorrow to make sure that I am okay with Maths. I will take two more sets tomorrow on Quant.

Cracking the Critical Reasoning OG Practice 1

Today morning I took a 40 Question , 1 Hr Practice with OG Ed 11. The timing was very good. I finished all 40 from 5:30 am to 6:30 am. I got 35 Correct. That puts the correct percentage at 86.5%. Evening I will be doing a thorough analysis of the Questions I got wrong. Since the scores are kind of consistant, and is moving up I feel it will not be necessary to review the reasoning lines of the ones I got correct. Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning I should start today evening. Of The Three books I bought, That one is the most interesting in its approach.

Attacking Critical Reasoning

So, my first Peak to Climb is Critical Reasoning. Yesterday evening I spent 3 Hrs to Understand Kaplan GMAT Principles on CR. I was alot more impressed than I was with PR, Same section. Any way, Today Morning I started my preparation at around 5:30. My Plan was to finish the 50 Qn Practice test at the end of Kaplan CR. I did 40 of them in the morning. Finished the test after reaching back home in the evening. First Cut, I got 86% Correct. Then sticking to my plan I did a round two on each of the Problems I got wrong answers for. After the second round I had 48/50 Correct. After that I went through the explanations of all Questions I got wrong. It was interesting.

Manhattan CR, I strted to read. I am not able to take it a lot further tonight. Had a very tiring day at work. So my plan is to do 40 Questions of CR from the OG 11th Ed, tomorrow morning.

For now..Good night :-)

Weekend Updates : In short Very Productive

My estimate was right on the money. I suck at Verbal, Compared to my Math. Not a surprise for a Foreigner, who did all his schooling in Malayalam. In short I am very much at 90% in Math. With a push I can get it to 99%. But I am still at a 75% as far as verbal is concerned. The theory got a confirmation after I took my Kaplan, Practice quiz (It is a not timed, 38 Qn Exam with Math (PD,DS), Verbal (CR, SC, RC)). Approximately 7 Questions per section. A huge surprise was that I got all but one of SC correct. CR & RC I was wrong Twice. Well it is true that I got a few wrong on the DS. I am not very worried about that.

Some Common abbreviations that bowled me first few weeks :-

DS - Data Sufficiency
PS - Problem Solving
CR - Critical Reasoning
RC - Reading Comprehension
SC - Sentence Correction
OG - Official Guide GMAT
PR - Princeton Review
800 - Kaplan 800


Today morning I got up to read. A friend emailed a beautiful interview with Sachin Tendulkar. That got the better of my time. All I did was, I did some serious planning with all the materials I got. Now since I know what is there in each of these books I should chart out the study plan. I will publish my plan in one of the future posts. The Outline is to dedicate first 4 Weeks for Verbal. Each Week I will be attacking one Principal section.

Week 1 : CR

Start With PR, Write Good Notes

Move On to Kaplan, Refine add to the Notes

Move On to Manhattan, Refine add to the Notes

Do 40 Qns, Timed Each Day starting from (Day 4) Taking either From Kaplan or OG

Depending on the performance on 40 Question attacks Move on to CR on Kap-800

Take a 120 Qn Mix on the Corresponding Weekend as a Finale

I am not going to start taking any Full tests till 4th Week of my study. This will be the general approach

Cracking the Princeton Review

Saturday was very productive. Over Friday Night and Saturday I finished Princeton Review Math and Verbal sections. Still when I took the diagnostic test, I was exactly where I was. Math I got 18/20 correct. Verbal I got 12/20 correct. I think I need to Study PR verbal section. There is no alternative here. I am happy that there is a wide crater in my ability which I could fill up with enough preparations. I am getting confident on the RC part. Sentence correction seems to be the problem child now. Today I will devote to some serious Verbal preparation. Not only that Let this whole week be invested on Verbal preparations. I have Manhattan GMAT books as well. They are more fundamental than Priceton Review's short cut approach. Both works. Lot more to study.

The Books Have Arrived !!

Finally !!.

I got a partial shipment from Amazon with Everything except for the OG. That is great !!. My wife is very supersticious. She believes, starting anything in Thursday is bad. I respect her point when she is convinced of anything. So I did not open the books till today morning. I woke up at around 5:30am. Enjoyed the snow scape outside the window for some time. As suggested by many a learned GMTees, I sterted with the Princeton Review book.

My first impression is that it is basic. I will have to spend lot more time in the evening today to get full understanding of their philosophy. The concept of imaginary companion, Joe Blogg - 'The Average Test Taker' is childish. I hope they drop that angle after first few pages.

Till 6:45 was all I could spend with the book in the morning before getting out into the snow to dig my Car out. :-)

Looking forward to the strategies in the verbal section.

Three Days Into the Week 2

I am being un ethical at work. I am doing ONLY GMAT Preparation. Solving Quant quaestions to be precise. On PR site I got my quant score to 48 on the next attempt. Felt better. Today a Good friend of mine forwarded a set of GMAt Quant Questions. I did two sections of them. Good stuff. May be I will put iton the Blog some where. I will work on them till amazon graces me with their shipment.

Talking about Amazon, The tracking says the shipments were delivered to my home. It either is microscopic or it is lost :-(. I did not get them. So I called Amazon.com customer service. One very nice gentleman in Delhi answered the call. He was exceptional. He issued a new 2 day shipment for all my lost books. Very impressive work !!.

Over The Weekend

Amazon finally decided to package part of y order. Thank god !!. I hope it arrives this week.

This weekend I mainly read through Montauk's guide, How to Get Into Top MBA Programs. This book I bought close to two years back. Finally I am reading that. Also I took a subscription to Business Weeb B-School Insider. It was mainly to go through the rankings. Babson is ranked 1st for Entrepreneur stream. Intersting Carriculum. Their course work is totally different from other schools. May be I will drive up to Mass for a visit next week.

Also I took a Free practice test on Princeton Review website. Score was very pathetic. Math : 36 Verbal 28, Overall 540 :-(. Well this must be the bottom. I reviewed every wrong answer in Math. 3 Were Silly mistakes. I need to read the question carefully and completely. Rest were mistakes. I will not repeat them. I was able to complete the test on time.

Also listened to a stupid webcast from Manhattan GMAT. It was a waste of time. I can't wait to get my Prep material to start of my preparations.

Another Thursday

Yesterday was another Thursday. The exception will be.,last Thursday was thanks giving. So we roasted Chicken, and Had some guests at home. I did not miss Donald Trump's show this time. He fired two blondes yesterday. It is pathetic. NBC is so twisting his arm to get over with his Swan Song on TV that he has so far fired two twice and four once. Similar fate is going on for Martha's show too. There definitely is a lifecycle for reality TV shows.


Day before we watched March of the Penguins. It was beautiful. Emperor Penguins are amazing birds. What all they do for their kids !!.


On the GMAT front, I started doing the practice questions on the GMATPrep software. They were very few. 15 in Maths. Except for 1 I could have got each one correct. But I got only 11/15 correct. I reviewd the errors. Got some early pointers on tackling the questions. Still waiting for Amazon to ship me my preparation books. They have not even shipped one of them.


Also I spoke to the lady at the Volunteer work company, NYC. She was sounding very excited to have me signed up. Apart from doing social work, I need to do social work with a leadership angle.


I am finding myself thinking a lot about my application essays. I should get over it for the time being and concentrate only on a good GMAT score. Researching the school and preparing for the essays I should be able to do in a month max.

Day 3: Change of Plans

After Reading though dozens of Blogged experiences I started to see some holes in my plan. So I am changing my plan to adapt to the realities. Joining columbia on Fall of 2006 looks difficult. I satrted the GMAT preparation late. Completing the application by March is near impractical. Fall 2007 is my new target. I will take the GMAT as planned. Also I signed up for two Volunteering programs to amass some social points. Apart from this I will attend community college in 2006 to get some recent A grades. I am not sure, whether a 64% B.Tech in mechanical engineering is Columbia standards. A good GMAT score is given. Apart from that I will need an excellent application as well. One more Year at work is going to help me pay for the MBA from a firmer footing.

This Blog is going to be Long.