分享美国NN-760的考G心得

mjiirggh

今天在PR online test center看到一个米国NN 成功杀G归来，760 w/ AWA 6.0。 偶觉得他的心得很好，贴上来和XDJM分享一下。看到他对SC，RC的分析和强调OG的重要性就感觉到不管是哪国的NN，英雄所见都略同啊。 文章挺长，大家就当练阅读了。

I bought the Princeton book /CD, the Kaplan book/CD, and the OG from ETS. I also downloaded the PowerPrep software from ETS for free. I completely exhausted the Princeton and Kaplan material-test strategies, exercises, practice tests. I did all the practice tests in PowerPrep. Moreover, I did the last third of the questions from the OG (the harder questions are in the back).

First, start with the Princeton book-this will give you a solid foundation. Next, exhaust the PowerPrep software. This will give you a good baseline of where you are and where you need to focus. (I scored 730 and 740 w/ the PowerPrep software.)

Next tackle the Kaplan book, but the only focus on sections where you are having trouble. Then exhaust the Princeton software. ( I scored 720 and 730 on the practice tests on PR’s CD.) Then do the Kaplan CD practice exercises and practice tests. The tests are very hard, more difficult than the GMAT…particularly the verbal. You will score lower on these tests. The practice exercises don’t give you enough time to answer all of the questions. Nevertheless, try not to become too frustrated. Keep in mind that you are building stamina and you are improving by seeing new, challenging quant. Questions. (I scored 640 on the diagnostic, and 680, 580, 650, and 600 on the Kaplan CD practice tests, much lower than Princeton and PowerPrep.)

When you’re finished w/ the Kaplan CD, start doing the last 1/3 or so of each section in the OG, 20 questions at a time. these are ACTUAL GMAT questions. The explanations are EXCELLENT, far better than either Kaplan or Princeton. Unfortunately, some OG questions are repeated from the PowerPrep software.

Reading Comprehension

First, do take notes and do not skim. In sum, Princeton says to read for the main idea of the passage then skim the rest, taking notes throughout. That didn’t work as well for me. I did better by reading it carefully, not skimming, while taking notes.

Second, become familiar with the “patterns” of the passage and the questions. For example, some passages start by introducing one view (such as a traditional theory) and then introduce a second (contrasting or alternative). Another example, when you see a list in the passage- make note of it- there’s a good chance that there will be a question about the list, like “which of the following were not included in the author’s description of xyz.”

Sentence correction

This is tough. On the one hand, the GMAT tests for standard written English, which is very different even for native English speakers. On the other hand, SR relies a lot on what “sounds” right.

The Princeton book does a good job of introducing tactics. Process of elimination is key. Unless the answer was clear to me, I always compared the answer choices, quickly spotting the differences. From this I could deduce the possible problems with the sentence choices.

I would also suggest that you get the OG from ETS. There are hundreds of SC problems, each with a great explanation of EACH answer choice. You might use this to figure out the types of problems that you get wrong frequently. Idioms won’t be easy.

1. Keep in mind that the GMAT tests very specific things, so it doesn’t indicate intelligence or future business success.

2. You’ve likely do better on the real test than practice tests. That seems to be the pattern.

3. Early on, I was frequently being “ tricked” by the question into the wrong answer. I was also pretty sloppy. So if you’re scoring really low then maybe you’re getting ticked by the question

4. Kaplan's questions are good to practice and for the challenge but not indicative of the actual test questions. With the Kaplan software, I fought hard to NOT get frustrated because these questions sets were so difficult.

5. PowerPrep was the more accurate score in the end, but the quant was definitely harder on the real GMAT.

6. I've heard rumors that a new OG is going to be published and that the math questions will be more like the real test. The real test questions included more number theory than the OG or PowerPrep would indicate; so some of the Kaplan questions are helpful in that regard.

7. If struggling, try and figure out what types of questions cause you the most trouble. For example, initially I had a bear of a time with permutation/combination problems, mixture problems, and sets/ subsets problems. So I foucused on a) learning how to recognize those problems quickly and b) finding a good standard attack stratety for each.

8. The full length tests are good to build timing adn stamina, no doubt. But if you're struggling on certain types of questions, spend more time on practice sets and those questions types...not full length tests. Another thing is I went back and redid the questions that I got wrong. If I got them wrong again, then I knew I had a proble. That helped a lot. This is how I studied the night before the test, actually, by reviewing the quesitons I got wrong in the OG.

9. And one final tip. I found that if I was struggling to choose between two answers on RC, SC, or CR, then there was a good chance that both answers were wrong! The right question is there on the page. And it has to be a straightforward answer-indisputable. So if two answers seemed right but not absolutely, then frequently I had read the correct answer incorrectly. Funny

My advice is to take NO tests the day before the GMAT. Clear your head some. Spend time getting comfortable with a template for the writing section. Review specific questions that you’ve missed in the past-the OG is ideal for this- understanding the correct approach. Relax if you can and get a good night’s sleep.

Last piece of advice, bring a snack and use ALL of BOTH breaks. Stand up, stretch, whiz, drink something, eat something. The test is exhausting and you need to use the breaks to clear your head and refocus.

If you do all this you should get a great score. The real GAMT was VERY difficult, particularly the quantitative section, even after all of my preparation. I had to guess on a few quant questions that I had no idea hot to attack. The whole test went by in a blur. Stamina and timing, however, were not an issue with so much full-length practice.

I ended up with a 760 AWA 6, far better than I targeted and expected, even better than on any practice test I took. This was a pleasant surprise, given how difficult the test was as compared to much of the practice material. However, by using all of the practice material effectively, I am now able to look at top 10 programs instead of top 20! Yeah!