RON 对GMAT 复习的解析

只在梦里

看到 RON 回答童鞋们的问题，觉得特别好，放上来也方便自己以后查阅。以后有更好的会继续贴

原PO: I am restarting from tommorrow and have decided to do 20 Problem Solving, 20 DS, 20 SC, 20 CR and 20 RC daily. I will go back to the OG as it has been a while since I touched it.
Sat for test and Sun for review.

To all the experts out there, please advise how I should use my time daily and what books to work from. I also intened to work through the Verbal and qUANT og SUPPLEMENTS.


RON:
100 problems a day?
*five* days of just doing problems for every *one* day of review?
this is not good... not good at all.

if you're studying properly, you should be spending substantially MORE time on review than on doing problems. if you can do even close to 100 problems per day, that indicates that you're just doing problem after problem after problem after problem after problem, and not spending nearly enough (if any) time reviewing.

here's what you should be able to do:

for EVERY quant problem:
* don't concentrate on the solution to that actual problem, since you can be sure you aren't going to see that actual problem on the exam
* instead, try to find TAKEAWAYS from the problem, which you can then APPLY TO OTHER PROBLEMS. this is key - DO NOT LEAVE A PROBLEM until you have extracted at least one piece of information, whether a formula, a strategy, a trick/trap, etc., that you can apply to OTHER problems.
do not leave a problem until you can fill in the following sentence, meaningfully and nontrivially:
"if i see _____ ON ANOTHER PROBLEM, i should _____"
* notice the SIGNALS in the problem that dictate which strategy to use. if you miss the problem, then notice the strategy that's used in the book's solution (not always the best solution, in the case of the o.g., but better than nothing), and go back to see if there are any signals 'telling' you to use that strategy.

for EVERY verbal problem:
* you should be able to give SPECIFIC reasons why EVERY wrong answer is wrong, and why EVERY right answer is right. ("i just know that it's wrong/right" is NEVER acceptable -- you need to think carefully about the problem until you have discerned a specific reason.)
* you should GENERALIZE these lessons in ways that could conceivably apply to future problems (e.g., "on this problem type, any answer choice more general than the passage = wrong").

for EVERY SC problem, in addition to the above:
* you should be able to go through the CORRECT sentence -- including the non-underlined part -- and justify EVERY construction in that sentence.
e.g.
-- if there's a modifier, you should be able to explain exactly what it modifies, and exactly why that modification makes sense.
-- if there's a pronoun, you should be able to explain exactly what it stands for, and exactly why that makes sense.
-- if there's a verb, you should be able to find its subject. you should also be able to justify the tense in which the verb is used, and/or the tense sequence of multiple verbs.
-- you should be able to explain the exact meaning of the sentence.
-- if there are parallel structures, you should be able to explain (a) the grammatical parallelism AND (b) the parallelism in meaning.
etc.

if you're doing these things, there's no way you'll be able to get through even half that number of problems.

quantity ≠ quality.

Quote:
Another point to note is that if I practice SC today then tomm. I perform well in SC and bad in other areas of Verbal. If I practice CR today then RC and SC will inevitable fall.
this doesn't seem reasonable; if this is really happening, then the result is 100% due to psychological factors -- i.e., you're telling yourself you're going to do worse at topic X, so, surprise!, you do worse at topic X.

barring things like brain lesions or memory disorders, the kinds of skills that are necessary for this exam can't reasonably be forgotten in less than a month or two.

--

also, DO NOT STUDY FOR SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.
do not do it.
you need at least 1 day OFF per week.
you also need at least 1.5-2 hours of FREE TIME each day.
if you don't have these rest periods, your brain will not make lateral connections, as i've mentioned in some previous posts.

------RON 的建议，大家共勉

只在梦里

原PO: 太长：简述：复习10个月，最后540. 一月份最开始500+到后来700+。考试那天状态很好，童鞋很有信心拿到最少650+，甚至700+，然而分数崩溃的540.
相信很对同学有这个问题，模考超好，最后考试砸了。

RON 回答：
i received a private message regarding this thread.

satishchandra wrote:
1)Mgmat SC 4th Ed(3 times)
2)Powerscore CR bible
3)Kaplan Premium
4)Quant 700-800 questions
5)OG12
6)Verbal review
7)Kaplan 800
that's a LOT of books. if you used that many books, then you are probably studying by just trying to memorize lots and lots of things; that approach will not work. in fact, the entire purpose of the gmat, especially the verbal section, is to be impossible to master via memorization.


Quote:
As I am an IIT student, I never had any serious problem with Gmat Quant. I improved myself gradually. I got 510 in gmatprep in January when I did not even know A,b,c,d of Gmat.I used to score in the range of 600 in the month of May. I reached 700 mark in September.
ok, so this is 3 gmat prep scores so far. there are only two distinct exams in the software, so it's already guaranteed that these later scores are repeated administrations of the exam. furthermore, the wording of this statement strongly suggests that you took gmat prep more than 3 times.

as i hope you are aware, repeated scores are going to be inflated, and are pretty much meaningless.

Quote:
In verbal, I reached upto 31st question. I marked all questions D for the later questions.
...so you were forced to make random guesses on the last 10 out of 41 problems (!!)
that is a huge quantity of random guesses -- a quantity so large that it may explain most of your score discrepancy by itself. that's one-fourth of the entire verbal section!

Quote:
I used to get this score when I started my prep in Jan. I have improved my self so much. I wrote more than 20 tests so far.
actually, the fact that you've done 20 practice tests is not a good thing -- it's a bad thing. after this much over-studying, it's a virtual certainty that you were in a worse situation regarding CR/RC than before you even cracked a gmat book for the first time.
for more on this, read near the bottom of this post:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/how-to-improve-my-sc-skills-t88594.html#405217


Quote:
It not only happened with me. My friend who gave on the same day(Oct 21st) same time in Blore got 540(q41, v24) too. She consistently scored 680 or 670 in Gmatprep exams recently. She gave her official Gmat in August and got 600. She prepared so much (worked about 8 hours a day) during next two months. Even She was expecting to see a 660 when she clicked to view scores. But she also got 540(q41, v24).
if someone is preparing for 8 hours a day, there is a 100% chance that he or she is preparing in a way that will be completely ineffective and most likely harmful. in fact, every student i've known who has studied that many hours has made negative progress on verbal (i.e., scored lower on the official test than on any of their practice tests).
read the above link again; the reasons are in there, and they should make sense.

Quote:
We are so clueless on how did it happen? What went wrong in the exam. Everything looked so perfect while writing the test but eventually got poorest score what you can think of on any day.
well, as i said above, the sheer quantity of materials you've cited makes it pretty obvious that your primary mechanism of studying is memorization, memorization, and more memorization -- if you are studying had a more conceptual basis, there is no way you would have used that many materials.

fun fact: if you study primarily by memorization, your practice test scores will be inflated, and you WILL score lower on the official test than on your practice tests.
the reason is pretty simple: the existing materials, including practice books and practice tests, are based on official problems that have already been published -- i.e., exactly the same problems that appear in the official guides and in gmat prep. therefore, when you take gmat prep after having studied these materials so extensively, the problems are going to look strangely familiar, because they are the problems on which the prep materials are based in the first place!

if your studying has a conceptual basis (i.e., you are actually trying to understand the mentality and strategy behind the problems, and not trying to memorize “rules”), then seeing new problems on the official test will not be an issue; the underlying mentality and strategy behind those problems will be the same.
however, if your studying is based on memorization, then you are going to crash and burn on the official test -- because the problems, while still fundamentally working in the same general way, won't contain any of the exact same structures, arguments, etc. in this case, even the slightest change from what you've memorized will throw you off, and so you will underperform on the official test.

Quote:
Can it happen this way?on one day if most 750 gmatprep scorers give their official exam, a 650 gmatprep scorer gets 550 in official exam?
no.

Quote:
On other day if most 550 gmatprep scorers give their official exam, a 650 gmatprep scorer gets 750 in official exam?
no.

Quote:
How does the scoring algo works on any particular day?
it works in exactly the same way it works on any other day.
the only thing that might change at all is the percentiles -- and those are going to change very, very, very slowly, because they are based on the last five years' worth of results. the way in which the algorithm generates numerical scores is always exactly the same.

Quote:
We both are so confident that you ask us to give any practice exam available today, we will score 650 or above. That’s what our Prep history is.
see above re: inflated practice-test scores.

Quote:
But the fact is- I did not screw my exam; In fact exam screwed me
I can believe it just because I experienced it.
i'm sorry, but anecdotal evidence is not evidence. if you want anecdotal evidence on the other side of the equation, i have a private student who just recently took the exam and scored 710, even though none of his practice-test scores had ever been higher than 660.

what bothers me most about this post -- and, in fact, the primary reason why i'm responding to it -- is that there is absolutely no consideration of the fact that you may have been studying the wrong way! you've explored a bunch of other hypotheses, including the rather farfetched idea that the scoring algorithm changes drastically on a daily basis, but you haven't given even a thought to the notion that your preparation may have been misguided.
this attitude is problematic in general (it's impossible to improve at anything if you blame all of your failures on outside sources), but it's especially problematic for anyone who aspires to be a business manager. in business, there are no “hard rules”; if you manage a business and it is failing, you have to look introspectively at the situation and find out what you are doing wrong. what if you've read eight different business books and memorized all their contents, and your business is still not making a profit? ... well, you still have to look introspectively at the situation and find out what you are doing incorrectly.

this post also betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what the gmat is all about.
this test is NOT a test on which people can achieve top scores by simply “cramming” for an incredible number of hours over an incredibly long period of time. if it were that kind of test, it would be absolutely useless for its intended purpose!
here are a couple of posts i've written, in which i give some insights into what this test actually is. you should read them, consider the ways in which they clash with your (and your friend's) study strategy, and think about making the appropriate changes.

只在梦里

请不要过度学习，BY-RON

DO NOT OVER-STUDY!
IF YOU ARE FATIGUED, STOP, AND TAKE A FEW DAYS OFF!

this is NOT a test that can be conquered by spending extraordinary time and effort on memorization and rigorous note-taking. (the objective of the test is to measure reasoning skills ultimately related to business management. as a result, the entire structure of the test -- especially the verbal section -- is designed with the specific intention of defeating memorization-based approaches. if you could conquer the test by simply studying for X number of hours, then the test would be absolutely useless!)
the test depends heavily on lateral thinking, intuition, subconscious pattern recognition, and (especially in CR) real-world common sense that is absolutely impossible to replace with any sort of memorized rules. if you over-study, then you will destroy your brain's ability to use intuitive thinking and common sense, an effect that will ultimately redound negatively to your verbal score.

if you have been studying more than 3-4 hours per day, or if (heaven forbid) you have been studying 7 days per week, the first thing you need to do is take a couple of weeks completely off -- totally shut the books and walk away from them. if you don't, then it will be impossible for you to reactivate your brain's capacity for creative thinking and good old-fashioned common sense; your mind will be stuck in a memorized rut that will prevent you from thinking intuitively on test day.

also, the only part of the verbal section that really merits extensive study is sentence correction. if you have been spending hundreds of hours on the other two sections of the test, then most of that time has probably been wasted.

* you can't memorize rules for critical reasoning. you really can't; don't try. there are a couple of large-scale techniques that are useful -- such as the method of negation for assumption questions -- but specific rules are not going to help you. if you attempt to approach CR with memorization and rules, you will inhibit the processes of intuition and common sense that actually solve most CR problems. as a result, IF YOU STUDY CR TOO MUCH OR TOO RIGOROUSLY, YOU WILL GET WORSE AT IT.
you should study CR only for long enough to understand (a) how each question type works and (b) what general qualities characterize the correct answers (again, it's useless to memorize rules that characterize specific situations).

* on reading comprehension, a rules-based approach will be similarly ineffective. you do need to study RC, of course -- but, again, only for long enough to understand how each question type works and what general qualities characterize the correct answers.
if you are having trouble with reading comprehension because you are not sufficiently proficient in english -- as opposed to having trouble with the questions themselves -- then STOP studying for the gmat, at least for a few months, and get better at reading and understanding professionally written english first!

爱哭的santa

谢谢lz分享，目前和CR死磕的我看到这个有些困惑啊。按照Ron这样说的，CD上那些分类啊，写逻辑链啊，结题思路难道都不用么？看完bible做了OG还有PREP一套题，肯定是提高了，但是目前有点失去方向了。

还有我就是Ron说的那种人，学习SC的时候觉得CR下降了，学习CR的时候感觉SC已经全不记得了。。。真的是心理作用么

只在梦里

爱哭的santa 发表于 2015-11-28 23:13
谢谢lz分享，目前和CR死磕的我看到这个有些困惑啊。按照Ron这样说的，CD上那些分类啊，写逻辑链啊，结题思 ...

看了几个RON 对大家回复的帖子。感觉他说的主旨就是不要过度学习，让自己过度劳累。GMAT 并不是题海战术可以提高的考试。模考成绩超好，真正考试却砸了正是印证了这点。如果亲出现RON 说的状态，也许就是题海战术催出来的效果。太多靠记忆而非真正掌握理解，所以过断时间不看就忘了。

只在梦里

今天没有学习，看电视。感觉RON 说的有道理，试试看。以前每天学GMAT，前几天做了套模考，紧接其后的两天实在太累就没来及review那些题。过两天后再看，有几道之前做错的题发现自己很神奇的做对了（做题时没有来及看答案，因为过了2天已经有点忘了，所以把错题重新一边做一边看解答）。所以不解的看了之前做错的选项，很疑惑自己为啥当时那么stupid的选那个选项。之后就看到了RON的帖子，"不要过度学习“。
大家也可以试试，给自己放松一天回头再看是不是效果好很多。

只在梦里

做练习一定要计时-BY RON

when a student reports huge discrepancies between practice results and test results, those discrepancies are almost always the result of poor time management.

i've noticed that you only mentioned TIME MANAGEMENT one little bitty time in this post, and then only as an afterthought ('...GMAT time'). this smells like the classic case in which you just do tons and tons and tons of practice problems at home, without worrying about time, and then go in and get slammed because you aren't used to the draconian time limits imposed by the exam.

DO NOT EVER do ANY practice problems, of ANY type, without a timer. there is an enormous difference between solving problems and solving problems in 2 minutes apiece; any studying that reinforces the former of these is just plain bad.

it appears that you have a very strong work ethic, which is great. take that work ethic and do a bunch of practice problems from og11 and the like, WITH A TIMER. try giving yourself LESS than the normal allotment of time, and see how that goes.

-----------
at this point you need to concentrate about 90% on time management, and 10% on EVERYTHING else. this test is primarily a test not of answering problems correctly, but of answering problems correctly under severe time limitations. you have admitted yourself, in this very post, that you 'suck at' time management - which is as important as, if not MORE important than, content (especially with 6 weeks remaining until test day).

learn the basic time management guidelines:
2 minutes average per math problem
1:00-1:15 average per sentence correction problem
2:00-2:30 per critical reasoning problem
3-5 minutes per reading comprehension passage, and then 1:00 max per problem (less on 'big picture'/'main idea' problems)

you need to start sticking to these guidelines on ALL practice that you EVER do, whether that be practice tests, homework, individual problems out of the OG, etc.

doing anything untimed, beyond simply getting used to the very basics of the test, is a very bad idea: you may unintentionally reinforce strategies and concepts that simply don't work within the time guidelines. time management uber alles!

here are a couple of strategies to get started.
(1) internalize the stopwatch: you need to learn what one minute feels like, instinctively, without ever looking at a watch. you should be able to call out one minute with good accuracy while you are working on practice problems. once you can do this, you'll be able to implement the following rule effectively:
(2) if you don't have a rule for solving a problem by halfway through the time, start the guessing process. this means that if you don't have a CLEAR idea how to solve a math problem by 1 minute, you should start guessing or using process of elimination. if you don't see the key to a sentence correction problem by 30 seconds or so, start examining random splits between the answer choices and eliminating some choices. if you don't see the key to a critical reasoning problem by 1:00-1:15, start going through the answers and doing process of elimination.
(3) do not deliberate. for many business-minded individuals, this is the hardest part to swallow: you CANNOT deliberate, on ANYTHING, in the time allowed by the test. you must make FAST DECISIONS about both strategy and content. this goes back to step (2) above: if a method doesn't work, abandon it immediately. also, NEVER sit there and try to think about whether a method will work; if you think it might work, just dive in. if it's not practicable, you'll find out in a hurry, and you can then switch over to guessing mode.

as you can see, time management is not simply a matter of learning to look at a stopwatch: it's a fundamental shift in your outlook toward the test. you need to pound these habits into your head, as difficult as that might be.

i will post more on the other topics if time permits, but be aware that time management is your Number 1 concern. at this point, everything else is completely secondary.

爱哭的santa

只在梦里 发表于 2015-11-29 08:09
看了几个RON 对大家回复的帖子。感觉他说的主旨就是不要过度学习，让自己过度劳累。GMAT 并不是题海战术 ...

我没有过度学习啊 因为上班每天只能学3个小时不到，只做过OG16和PREP08，其他都没。我当时看完Bible做了PERP 2008 第一部分，觉得脑子特别灵，读文的时候哪些地方可以略过，哪些地方存在什么问题，感觉很清晰，看完题目很快能选出答案。
后来我中断了两天复习了点别的，再回来做PERP 2008第二部分，两夜之间就完全失去做第一部分的感觉了，有的读文的时候读了两遍都不知道在讲什么。所以目前正打算开始练习写逻辑链。也不知道复习方向对不对。

叶豆腐腐子

这绝对是个非常棒的帖子，我也是准备考gmat的在职党一枚。gmat考了三次没一次上了600。后来才发现是自己方法错了，绕了一大圈弯路，准备明年再战冲700.今年才知道RON神的存在和Manhattan。还有一点就是个人的语言基础对考试尤其是阅读很重要的。当习惯背了经济学人后，就会发现思路就是那样的。if you are having trouble with reading comprehension because you are not sufficiently proficient in english -- as opposed to having trouble with the questions themselves -- then STOP studying for the gmat, at least for a few months, and get better at reading and understanding professionally written english first!还有就是计时做题非常重要！每道题都要计时做。

yuanyue67

感谢分享！