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.

Frustrating GMAT Prep Night/Day

I write today after having just completed a Quant section of the Veritas exam.  I'm embarassed about my score after that 45Q.  Also, because in practice exams back in March... I've seen this Quant score before.  Really wonder if this is for me.  I know I should keep at it blah blah blah, but at this point it's just becoming embarrassing.

The only thing I was excited about was that the things I got wrong during this practice exam were topics I haven't covered yet with my tutor.  One would see/hear that and say - "Well it looks like you're on the right track!"  and what I say to that is... "I don't care I want to see an improvement every time I take an exam."

The last topic we went over was number properties.  I'm starting to get the very very very basics, but if something new is thrown at me, I don't know how to think around it.  We'll definitely need to spend at least two more sessions going over that.  When I look ahead to all of the topics that we need to go over still I just hear the cash register sound going off in my head.  Cha-Ching Cha-Ching because I know I have many more weeks before I'm completely ready.  Then on top of that there's one thing to be ready and there's another thing to feel confident, which I believe comes afterwards.  Well I do have a deadline in my head and a potential exam date so that's what I'm aiming towards.

On the topic of CR... well.. I'll be honest.  I emailed him earlier today if we should stop working on CR and focus on other things.  That way I can focus on it by myself with GMAT material instead of LSAT material.  I think the LSAT language is getting in the way.  But then.. when I think of that statement I say to myself "Well if other people swear by LSAT material...it should be helping right?"

Maybe I need to just do a CR set from the OG Guide again to see where I stand (Just emailed him to ask him that question.)  I've realized that I'm a very needy "tutee."  I email him constantly.  Ratio of my emails to his responses is.. well today... 4:0, but that's because I email all day everyday.  To me it's simply an ongoing conversation, so if I think of something before he responds I just re-forward my last email and add in my new comments.  But when he respond it's to all of them usually late at night since he does have a life! As I typed this sentence he emailed me back! I kid you not....  No screenshots this time, just take my word for it.

In any event we have just added the Veritas Number Properties guide to my homework sheet and I get to do a CR set from the Official Guide.  Let's see how this goes!  ::sigh::  you should hear me cursing at this exam!

Well part of my homework is to get proper amounts of sleep.  So... since it's almost 12pm that means I need to start getting ready for bed.

I am the weakest link... goodbye!

Critical Reasoning How I hate Thee

Oh Critical Reasoning How I Hate Thee... Let me count the ways,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 1000

GOOD NIGHT!

I'm Getting There... Slowly but Surely

Today I was thinking to myself about what I write about and nothing pertinent came to mind.  Then I went back to studying and figure it would be a good time to let you know how I've been doing on that front.  Let me back up and tell you about my Friday. 

After work on Friday I walked 10 blocks south to meet with my tutor.  The first thing we did was go over my CR mistakes.  The interesting thing here is that the last batch of CR questions I did ended with 14/26 incorrect.  This was a huge blow to my ego so I was anxious to see what he had to say about my performance.  More times than not I could narrow down the answers to two choices, one being the correct one.  It got so bad that I remember saying to myself as I was mulling over two choices 

"Ok... I want to choose this one, but because of my track record, I should probably choose the other one even though I don't know why it would be right."  

Yeah!  I know right.. it got to THAT point.  But I would inevitably choose the incorrect answer thinking that "well maybe...just maybe I am correct."  Nope... EENNNT  WRONG!  So my tutor couldn't find a pattern in the types of questions I was getting wrong.  I was literally all over the damn place!  Then he said that he thought my problem was that I wasn't being LITERAL.  Hhmm I thought... I think it got to a point for me where I was thinking the answer choices were trying to trick me.  While they can be confusing... if you take it literally there really isn't a gray area.

So today when I did a batch of RC passages, I wrote "Be Literal" and "Modifiers" to remind myself to well... Be Literal... and watch out for Modifiers.  The modifiers thing got to me a couple times because I didn't like answer choices because of the "at least some" or "a little."  Needless to say, taking that advice to heart I only got 7/27 incorrect which is my best RC hit rate to date.  Now I know some out there may be saying "um... Richard... that's still a lot" and to that I say... "HUSH!"  The next time I'll do better, but at least I'm moving in the right direction!

So I was feeling good about that performance today and decided to do some Quant.  I was going to do a math section from one of the Veritas practice guides, as prescribed by my tutor, but I was cutting it a bit too close to the Real Housewives of NJ Reunion.  So instead I started doing problems from the BeatTheGMAT practice set, just to keep my brain in working order.  

What I enjoyed about these sets is that I felt myself being good at some things I would have struggled with before.  It was to the point where I was finishing problems in a minute ON THE REGULAR.  I definitely feel like NOW is when the uphill battle ensues on the way to a 700, as my tutor cringes as he reads this knowing the road ahead of US for me to get there!  ;-)  

It's amazing that I have sooooo much GMAT material and yet I feel that I'm making the most progress from an LSAT book, some worksheets and problem sets, and the Official Guide(s), both OG Review guides.  When I say I have so much GMAT material... I'm not joking!  I was definitely THAT guy who wanted to get all the material out there and just bulldoze through it.  Clearly this was not fruitful, otherwise I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now.  

Or I wonder if it could just be my biorhythms - right Nick? Read this it's interesting...  http://bit.ly/affR4c maybe when I do decide to schedule my GMAT I'll pay attention to my biorhythm.

Sidenote - Do you guys know what Thursday is?  I'm uber excited for it!  Tell you more tomorrow... right now it's time to go to sleep!

Addendum to WTF CR = Death (below)

As per my post below here is an addendum - I just watched the first 10 slides of the CR 2 lesson and already realize where I made my mistakes...  I was focusing on the content within these more advanced sections rather than the LOGIC behind them...  I threw the whole SWIMMER categorization out the window.  This is my own fault and oversight...

so what I've done is put SWIMMER on my wall and I'm going to make notecards with each component.  I will NOT tackle CR again until I have these memorized!

So when I'm laying in bed watching Hulu or Studying or just playing around on the internet this is what I stare at in front of me on the wall on three big posterboards.

The SWIMMER poster was just added tonight after my little hissy fit haha... the other two have been up there for a while...

Thanks for bearing with me through my little hissy fit bout!  Back to the CR 2 Lesson.. hahaha...

Signing off,

Hot Mess Overreactor

WTF CR = Death

This is going to be a short post because it was not planned as I had another topic planned for tomorrow... but I just got incredibly frustrated going over the CR questions in the Veritas CR 2 book.

Last night I did a bunch of problems.  Probably like 20 problems but I did not look at the answers until tonight.  I figure I do the problems one night and then the next night I go over the answers and then read the explanations on the ones I got right.  Well this strategy didn't turn out to be the best vote of confidence.

I got so many wrong that I simply closed the book and pushed it off my bed... LITERALLY... I know it may seem dramatic but I was just so pissed.  I probably got 16/20 incorrect.  When I went through the answers.. of course they made sense...except for one of them but I can just post that on BTG and get the reasoning behind it.

I'm just very pissed right now so I had to come and vent...  in this short amount of time I do feel slightly better...  so now I need a plan of action.. next step = watch the Veritas Critical Reasoning lesson.  I also think that while I think studying late at night is a good option for me... maybe I'll try 8pm(ish).

Crap!  I just realized that tomorrow I have my stats class, so it looks like I'll be studying around 10pm tomorrow...AND I just realized that it's 12:45 so I probably won't get through much of the CR lesson.

::sigh::  I'm all over the place... how did this happen?

Signing off,
Defeated