Countdown: Day 23

As per yesterday, here was the plan for today:

- Study Study Study - CHECK

The plan for tomorrow is as follows:

- Morning Commute - Study Verbal

- Review Recommender Packet with Manager

- Lunch - Quant

- Review Recommender Packet with VP

- Quant

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.

44Q tonight! Guess the first wasn't a mistake!

So today was/is a good day.

First on the agenda is a big congratulations to my friend.  She will not be taking the GMAT ever again!  She just took it for the 3rd time and did well!  Now I must follow in her footsteps!  I'll see your score and raise you _____!  ;-)   She's probably laughing right now as she reads that!

In any event, I can't wait until I'm completely done with this GMAT exam.  I seem to be getting closer and closer to that goal and it makes me smile!

Studying for the GMAT has no longer become a dreadful thing.  It's actually quite fun trying to figure out the intricacies of this exam.  I no longer study for 5/6/7 hours a day reading through material doing 1 problem here and 1 problem there.  Working with my tutor has been very beneficial, albeit expensive, but given the opportunity cost it's worth it.  Now when I study it's usually going over mistakes.  I know all of the information - for the most part - now it's a matter of putting it all together...getting faster...and refining my skills.

QUANT

Tonight I took another Veritas quant section and scored a 44!  I think I did a fist pump (I'm from Jersey so it comes naturally!) when I saw the score.  I pressed B for every verbal question so my final score was  a 460 lol, but when I found where the Quant score was I was very pleased.

Number properties is still my achilles heel, but I see that issue fading slowly but surely, although my tutor may disagree.  The next thing that I want to focus on in terms of my Quant score is getting it up to 47/48 consistently.

VERBAL

So yeah.... verbal... not a fan until I figure it out.  I know I'm on the verge of an epiphany but I'm getting anxious waiting for that EUREKA moment to arrive.  I think I've dialed in to what I need to focus on.  My problem is not that I don't understand the premises...I think that before in my prep I was so focused on figure out what the questions were asking and not so much the premises, but now I need to go back to looking into what the questions are exactly looking for.  

I had a discussion with Brandon today after I got my quant score.  He really wants me to take a full practice exam to see where I am this time.  I keep telling him "No... my tutor doesn't want me to do that yet."  I'm really putting a lot of faith into my tutor and I want to do things on my own, but hey you know what?  He just took the exam again and got a 780 when he was sick!  So who am I to override his suggestions?  My job is to simply do the work assigned, which is getting harder I might add.  

After I finish writing this post, I'm going to tackle critical reasoning again.  I'm going to try something different this time and underline the conclusions.  I know that obviously when taking the actual test, I won't be able to draw on the computer screen, but I think my problem is forgetting about the conclusion and then choosing answers that are too broad in scope.  So I'm going to see if this tactic works this go around!

Just a reminder - I will not be posting my exam date on my blog or any forums.  It will be a surprise because I don't want the added pressure of having people wishing me good luck and then thinking about them asking how I did - post exam.

I better get going because even though it's the weekend I still need to get some sleep as per my tutor!  I'm going to be posting a lot over the next couple of days because things are about to get uber hectic!