GMAT Strategy

I've been preparing for 4 months and I just don't see a big improvement in my CR timing and accuracy. After solving entire OG12 and 2nd ed verbal review, I thought I will be in good shape but things turned out to be different when I gave my 1st MGMAT prep exam this past weekend.

I scored a low 530 (Q43 V22). My timing is pathetic (3mins on average for CR questions). I just don't seem to intuitively get the assumption in an argument, and I believe this is the main reason I'm jumping between choices. Spending too much time on CR questions leaves with very less time for other questions. As a result I end up guessing quite alot of questions and getting them wrong.

Name the books and I have them (powerscore, MGMAT). So I do believe I have the right material. It is not the case that I was acing OG CR questions, but I always thought that after learning from the mistakes I would do better 4 months down the line. For sure I didn't learn from my mistakes.

There were times during my prep when I did question my reasoning skills. I never thought I was this bad. I definitely cannot afford to do this 1 month before my exam. I need some advice on how can I improve CR in this 1 month. Should I keep taking prep tests and try to reason out the answer choices quickly? Or should I refer to the strategy guides again and figure out something?

With a typical 40hr/week work schedule, I can literally count 6 days when I havn't studied for GMAT in these 4 months. Disappointing to see such a low score. I know I can do it and I know I'm better than this.

I just wanted to add a couple of things to all the resources that Mike has included. I have seen this many times where people have read all the thick books and still don't grasp the essence of critical reasoning.In fact, the thicker the book the more likely it is to just confuse things on the GMAT CR.

It is not more study that you need it is simply an understanding that allows you to break these questions down to the essentials. That is what I try to describe in the materials at the link below.

The link is to a posting called "The best of David's first 1000 postings". There are several postings on critical reasoning and a couple of articles that were on BTG as well. Just scroll down to the critical reasoning section of the list.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-best-fro ... 01075.html

@Mike: Thanx alot for the links. I will do my best to refer them. I feel I should have realized this early.

@David: You are absolutely right. I have all the material but I don't think my concept is upto the level. Others are also referring the same books so I don't want to say it's the books. I almost feel I'm taking a step back in my preparation in developing my concepts rather than acing the questions.

I too am having serious problems with CR - just attempted a set of Kaplan CR questions from the Verbal Workbook, and got an accuracy of an abysmal 25%. After reviewing the explanations, I realized the questions weren't all that tough or confusing, rather I need to start thinking in the correct way to eliminate wrong answers; for which the main reasons are -

• Weaknesses and EXCEPT questions

• Not understanding the meaning of some answer choices, possibly due to time pressure and hence selecting the wrong one between close answers.

• Inferring wrongly or too far

• Assumptions

The above links should be helpful, thanks!