Critical Reasoning Basics

Although, I did not fare as I expected in my GMAT , I'm going to go ahead and post my flashcards here,as I promised myself. I hope it is useful to someone.

I started the Verbal Section with the Critical Reasoning(CR) part. Mastering this section gives us a good hold over the Verbal Section and also helps us improve in the Reading Comprehension part of the Verbal Section.

There are a fixed type of questions that are askedd in the CR portion and mastering these questions by types is the best thing to do.

Note - I used the Powerscore CR book for my CR. A brilliant book and all my notes here are based on the book. Please don't sue me for any copyright issues, I'm just paraphrasing the book and my understanding.

Good Luck!

The following are the question types for CR
1.Must be True questions
2.Main point questions
3.Method Of reasoning questions
4.Flaw in Reasoning questions
5.Parallel Reasoning questions
6.Strengthen/Support the argument questions
7.Find the assumption questions
8.Resolve the paradox questions
9.Weaken the argument questions
10.Evaluate the argument questions

In the next post, I shall start targetting each question type.


SOURCE: Critical Reasoning Bible

Done

I did not perform as expected. Nevertheless, if anyone is interested in knowing my test experience or score then e-mail me or leave a comment here

Day 01 to the Graduate Management Admissions test

                                                    THIS IS IT

I'm almost there. I am excited, worried, happy, curious, and confident! Waiting to KILL the GMAT. GMAT - Here, I come to murder you.


For those of you who want a peek into the testin center, check this out : GMAC Video - Must Watch . This video gives a perfect understanding of GMAT centers.

Wish me luck - I have a huge task at hand ;-) . See you on the other side of the GMAT

Days 03 and 02 and India won the match!!!

Yesterday was my Day 03 and I took a GMAT prep CAT. Not at all happy with the score V was a 25. My worst verbal score till date. I noticed that concentration levels do affect my Verbal performance. Need to rest for the next 2 days so that I perform at my optimum level during the test on Saturday.

....And Indian beat Australia to enter the Semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup...woot woot!!

Days 05 and 04

Didn't really study anything yesterday and today because I'm already having exam-day stress. But, I need to buckle up and go through my flash cards as well as some other random topics that I am weak at. But, I still did 10 CR and 10 SC questions because I am 'inherently' weak in these areas and if I fail to do questions even for a day, I tend to mess up a lot.
Going to take a practice CAT tomorrow afternoon and will then drill my weaknesses again. I'm super super stressed out and I am going to do more yoga ont he coming days to de-stress.

Day 07 and Day 06

Took a MGMAT CAT on Saturday evening. The total was a 630 44Q and 32 V. Looks like my Q 44 has stabilized. Verbal seems to fluctuate between 28-30 usually and it is 32 this time.I need to get down to VErbal basics again this week as I wind up my prep. I tend to forget Verbal strategy much more easily as compared with Quant Strategy. In the meanwhile, I signed up for GMAT pill. The Videos in CR are good upto the one that I viewed. I really need all the help in CR.Sad Sad.

So,6 days to go.....the COUNTDOWN begins!

Day 08

Completed 40 DS problems from the Official Guide 12. The most daunting and boring task was to review the problems. But, I made some 20 Flashcards upto now of concepts that are new to me/hard to me. This seems the best part as it helps me cement concepts into my otherwise-dead brain :-D

Today's plan:
-Complete all the DS problems and their review
-Review my SC flashcards. I'm still debating with myself whether I need to go through the Advanced portions of the MGMAT SC guide. The topics seem too much for me to absorb and I'm already in a position in which I can kill atleast 8 out of 10 SC questions from the 600+ level. Anyone has any thoughts on this? Feel free to post.
-Take up 20 CR problems and their review

Day 9

Today is the time for 20 DS and 20 CR questions from OG 12. Also, need to go through my Verbal SC flashcards. I have a comprehensive list of flash cards that I made as a part of my GMAT prep. I shall put it up here once I'm done with my test - need to literally type them out as they are physical copies and not soft copies.
 Some of my Quant topics need brushing up. Speed problems and number properties are two such areas. Will work on these areas tommorow.

Day 10

As mentioned in my previous post, I took a practice CAT and reviewd the results too.
Now, 10 days to go for my day - I can't wait :-)
I took a 1 day break in between to prevent myself from going insane with GMAT prep. Here's what I did : Strawberry jam , for those of you who are interested.
The plan over the next 7 days it to go through EACH OG question and make flashcards for those questions that I don't understand. Then,1 final CAT 3 days before the exam. That's it.

I did make a plan for myself as outlined in my previous post but i'm not going to follow it. My plans are going to be dynamic. This will allow me to adjust for my weak areas.

Oh, and I took a Princeton Review test yesterday and scored a 570(Q40,V28). I REALLY trust PR tests. They are a very good indicator of your real GMAT score which will be 20-30 points higher as compared to PR.

my GMAT prep test

Took a GMAT prep test today from mba.com. Results were WAY below my expectation. I realized that I made a lot of silly mistakes and only 2-3 questions in each section were related to concept errors. I got 17 incorrect in Quant with a raw score of 44 and 16 incorrect in Verbal with a raw score of 30. 10 of the incorrect questions in Quant were SC questions. I can't believe this because I thought SC was my strenghth!
Need to work hard for the next 2 weeks.

Plan for next 2 weeks

Plan for the next 2 weeks:

March 12 - Take a GMAT prep test from mba.com (Supposedly, the most accurate indicator of your official GMAT score). Review the results.

March 13 - Review some AWA templates. I shall post links to these templates when I get to them. Also, start with OG 12 Quant Problems(oops, I've done only 20% of the problems upto this point).Target:20PS+20DS+10SC+10CR+2 Passages

March 14 - 20PS+20DS+10SC+20CR+2 Passages AND REview of MGMAT EIV book(make flashcards). Cover remaining chapters of Powerscore CR,about 4 chapters.

March 15 - 20PS+20DS+10SC+20CR AND Review of MGMAT WT book(make flashcards)

March 16 - 20PS+20DS+10SC+20CR AND Review of SC Advanced portion from MGMAT SC book(not really imp but I want to glance through this portion)

March 17 - 20PS+20DS+10SC+20CR

MArch 18 - 20PS+20DS+10SC+20CR

March 19 - 20PS+20DS+10SC+20CR

March 20 - 20PS+20DS+10SC+20CR

March 21 - Complete PS and DS

March 22 - CAT, Note down weaknesses. Need to revisit flashcards, do additional questions and revire the corresponding MGMAT guide for these topics.

Will plan on the last 3 days a little later.
MArch 23
MArch 24
MArch 25

Day 14

I improved on my CR today. Finally, Finally, Finally, I've started to get the hold of it. I really struggled for more than a week to get here and have been super busy studying almost 5-6 hours a day. For sure,GMAT is interesting and I'm actually enjoying my journey. I'm almost at the end of my journey, 15 days to go. Yippee! GMAT prep tends to burn you out sometimes, so I'm going to stop studying for 2 days and just relax. I"ll spend some time doing things that I like to do such as Crochet, Painting and watching Cookery shows(oh, did I tell you ,I LOVE cooking?). I"ll be back to the GMAT on sat, 12 march. I have a rough plan in my mind. Will outline the plan in my next post.

Good Luck to all of you studying away for the GMAT. It sure is a hard test, but take it in the right spirit and the GMAT teaches us so many things along the way. I developed my English Skills tremendously with GMAT Sentence Correction Questions. I, also, got a chance to review Math which may be used in Graduate or Business school. That reminds me, I'm going to continue this blog even after my GMAT to outline b-school admission procedures that I have collected over the last one year or so. This may be helpful to International Applicants applying to Universities in the United States.

Ok, I'm going to call it a day for the GMAT.

Days 17,16 and 15

I have been busy with some CR review. This is the hardest part of Verbal for me. And, I get worse with respect to accuracy when I follow books and strategy. May be I'm not following the books 100% which is very improtant for CR. For practice, I have been  10 SC and 2 RC passages daily. Quant practice is taking a little back seat for me. I shall catch up with Quant starting Monday 03/14.

Also, this afternoon I'm going to take a Princeton Review test. Will post back here with my result! Fingers Crossed.

Day 19 and 18

I am going to get down to CR basics this week. CR is my only problem area and it alone causes my verbal and total score to go very low. Also, I have learnt that an improvement in Verbal score will help boost the total score faster than a Quant score can. So, I want to make Verbal my strength and as a matter of fact, I am enjoying studying verbal more than Quant.
In summary, this week it will be a review of Powerscore CR book. I have not completed many chapters and need to get myself to do most of the chapters if not all. In addition, I am going to do 15 SC questions and 1-2 RC passages daily.  There's more to this - I'm weak in word problems so need to get some review done in that area. LOT of work this week and what's more , I have my TOEFL iBT scheduled on March 11. I wanted to be done with this test before the GMAT so that after the GMAT it is only partying ;-)

IMP - As the CR book name implies, this book is truly a CR bible. One thing that I learnt is we should not act smarter than the author and implement our own theory or strategy. Trust me, I learnt this the hard way and you would not want to do this. Follow this book blindly and think the way the book trains your brain to think. You will learn to kill most CR questions privided you have also done some practice from the Official Guide. Oh, and by the way, the Official guide is a GREAT book for the Verbal part. If short on time, religiously do as many problems as you can in the verbal section and READ/REVIEW the corresponding OG explanation. This explanation does a very good job and also teaches us many things.

Another imp foot note - Keep practicing the sections even if you feel you have mastered them. Why? You will tend to forget a few rules/theory if you leave a section untouched for more than 3-4 days. This happened with me. Let me explain. CR is a big weakness for me today. But,will anyone believe that CR was a major strength area for me 2 months back? I used to be able to do most CR problems and my accuracy rate was 85%. After mastering the CR section, I totally forgot about it and continued with other parts. now, when I try to go back to do CR, I realized that I am not able to recollect much. So, moral of the story : keep practicing the topics that you have mastered on a regular basis.

It is said that life is too short to make all mistakes on your own. Truly applies in this case. Got it? So Don't try to figure out what will happen to you if you don't practice daily. Take my word for this- been there done that - and you will not regret it!

Days 21 and 20

I have been doing some practice CR questions from the Official guide, Verbal Supplement. Not great news here. II have noticed that my CR accuracy depends ENTIRELY on my concentration levels except for a handful of questions in which there in a lack of understanding in concepts. Same goes for RC for me. I have not been doing much RC practice since the last 1 month and my MGMAT CAT #5 proved that this is not a good sign. I gto a 640(43,34) in my practice test. The third saturday after today is my test and I'm not changing the date.

Days 23 and 22

I did some RC practice over the last 2 days. Also, started my review for CR. Finished 5 chapters of the PowerScore CR book. It is 5 PM here and I still have a couple of hours of study that I can put in. I am going to start with the Official guide questions for CR. I'm also doing some practice SC from the OG,about 15 questions per day. This is just to make sure that I don't forget SC!

Days 25 and 24

It is already March 01 and I have started freaking out!!! Oh my. I just realized that it is hard to study under this pressure. I managed to complete a review of the NP guide in the last 2 days and also completed all the PS questions in the OF Supplement book.
My Verdict : Do only the last 50-60 problems in the PS section of the OG Quant review book. The rest of the problems are very simple, probably 500-600 level questions. Do them if you have the time otherwise just start with say problem 100 and go up!
I got half the problems wrong in the last leg, that is last 50 questions. This shows that I need to really review the problems so that I have something to learn from it. Today's target will be the review of all the problems.
Once done with this today, I shall start a review of the Critical Reasoning section. This may take me 2 weeks to do along with the OG questions. Oh,I don't have time :-(. Need to squeeze it in my schedule somehow. Alongside this CR, I have to review the Math concepts too(4 MGMAT books,****!!!).