GMAT Critical Reasoning becoming easier to reason

That's how I used to feel about Critical Reasoning

Now I don't claim to get every Critical Reasoning question right YET!  But I will say that by doing either 20 Critical Reasoning questions or 20 Reading Comp questions a night since my last tutoring session on 9/18 has given me a positive outlook on Critical Reasoning and Reading Comp.

I just finished my last set of 20 Critical reasoning questions in the blue verbal review guide book.  I didn't know how many critical reasoning questions there were in that section, but day by day I could see how they made the questions harder.  I didn't get any more right or wrong towards the end of the section either!

That was nice for me to see... I did see that I got some of the same ones wrong that I got wrong back in April.  Now that's not necessarily because I haven't learned anything (some may think differently) but that's a function of me not being able to solve questions that I've seen before.  Here is the reason I find it difficult to solve questions I've seen before....

- I read the premise.  If I recognize it I try to remember what the premises were about...the story they told

- I look at the answer choices and remembering two of them sticking out in my head for some reason.  The reason usually being because those are the two I narrowed it down to previously.

- Then I reread the premise again

- Then the two answers again..

- Then I hone in on one answer and then debate in my head if I'm choosing that answer because it's the best one, or if it's the OPPOSITE of the one I chose the last time, but the thing is.. I don't remember which one I chose the last time.

Needless to say instead of looking at the question with a fresh set of eyes, I'm going off of the time I previously saw the question.  It's just the way my brain works so leave me alone!  :-)

But now I am more confident than ever about reading comp and CR.  There is still one type of question that I need more practice with and I'm going to point it out to my tutor.  Sometimes the two answer choices seem exactly the same to me. This is something I need to work on so that I go into my exam confident about my answer choices and not debating on whether I should choose the answer opposite from the one that I want to choose!  Oh yes!  I have gotten to that point before...

On that note - I've also done it before during a practice set hahaha...I wrote on a separate piece of paper the answers I would have chosen for a select few problems that I couldn't pick 1 answer on, and I said to myself "I'm choosing B but I think C is the better answer but I just don't know why and can't justify it."  Then I wrote C on another piece of paper and I got it "right" lmao.  Hey gotta make yourself laugh sometimes right?  I obviously know that I can't do that in the exam - or can I?  ;-)

Needless to say - Critical Reasoning is becoming easier to reason

Tomorrow I'll write a real update about conversations I've had with folks and upcoming events.