Beat The GMAT!

To quote Eminem: "Guess who's back? Back again?"

That would be me. After a refreshing weekend trip, I was fired up today to do some good GMAT studying.

I began cracking the Kaplan 2005 book this afternoon, covering chapters 1, 2, 3, and a practice quiz on critical reasoning (CR). I spent the bulk of my time studying chapter 3: Kaplan's critical reading strategies. I highly recommend GMAT prep folks out there to take a look at this chapter. Kaplan did a great job breaking down the various types of CR questions to expect on the test and provided something important that Princeton Review did not provide for me--a method. I feel a lot more comfortable about tackling CR questions now.

After the review, I did a timed CR practice test from the Kaplan book (located at the end of chapter 3), giving myself 75 minutes to complete 45 CR questions. I didn't perform so badly. Out of the 45 questions I got 7 wrong, and half of those were from careless misreading of the passages. I feel like I can feasibly cut down my rate of error by half with enough practice.

In the middle of my long study session today, I found myself starting to tire and lose focus. After drifting in and out of my reading for a bit, it hit me that I really had to start exercising consistently. The GMAT is a pretty long test. It isn't easy sitting in front of a computer for 3.5 hours with undivided attention. I think with better physical conditioning, my mental focus will improve as well. I guess I'll hit the gym tomorrow.

Hey, what a coincidence, that was my New Year's resolution!

SUMMARY OF DAY 12 WORK:
1. Kaplan Chapters 1, 2, and 3: pages 3-33.
2. Kaplan Critical Reasoning Practice Quiz, pages 34-70.
3. Spreadsheet analysis of Kaplan CR practice quiz.

RECAP OF DAY 12 INSIGHTS:
4. Kaplan's Critical Reasoning Review is very good.
5. Exercise is important to build endurance for the GMAT.

Labels: Critical Reasoning, GMAT Verbal

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 at 6:21 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.