The Best GMAT Resources For Self-Study

[@CareerProtocol]

Huge thank you to Brian for agreeing to share his knowledge! 🙏

[@MrSAIUS]

Laugh a lot about what you said with gmac explanations. Please for nonnative speaker, how could we improve reading comprehensions score and AWA?

[@CareerProtocol]

From Brian: There's a lot to say about RC. Far more than I could fit into a comment here. First AWA, because that's easier. Depending on how advanced your written English fluency is, you may have to utilize tutors or classes to improve your general writing skills. Aside from that, the most important thing is to be a robot :) Don't try to sound smart or use fancy words. You are not submitting a sample to the New Yorker for publishing consideration. Simply follow a script: Intro, Body 1, Body 2, Body 3 (optional), Conclusion (essentially repeat the intro). Use what you've learned about analyzing Critical Reasoning arguments, and take a position. Your position is that the argument presented is terrible! For 2 or 3 reasons (makes an assumption, leaves out an important consideration or possibility, etc.). Each reason is a (relatively short) paragraph. In your conclusion, restate why the argument is terrible and then recommend a thing or two the author could do to improve the argument. Reading Comp is a lot harder. The heart of a good strategy is to see that these passages are actually quantitative. Reduce them to equations. The Verbal section is an exercise in ignoring 95% of the information to focus on the 5% that actually matters, whereas quant is about using 100% of the information to maximum effect. Here are a few tips: 1. Exercise daily - read challenging articles both inside and outside of your personal interests. 2. In that reading, and also on the GMAT, focus on two things. a). Structural indicators (conclusion words such as "Thus, Hence, Therefore;" evidence indicators "for example," "in a recent study"; and pivots "but," "however," etc.). The important thing - on your first read - is not the content of the study or the specifics of the evidence, it's simply to see that evidence is being presented for a particular point of view. You must always be asking yourself "What is the author's opinion of this?" b). Identifying tension. "For decades, Keynesian economists have championed the modern conception of government debt..." If the author followed that with, "And they're totally on the right track!" there would be no tension. And it would be unlikely to be a GMAT passage (though some passages with little or no tension do show up occasionally). Whereas if the author followed that opening with "Luckily, they have largely been discredited," the situation is entirely different. That one word, "luckily" reveals the author's position. The author is not a Keynesian, whatever that means, and the author thinks it's a good thing they are wrong. This is 77% of what you need to know in order to you attack the questions.

[@MrSAIUS]

​@@CareerProtocol Brian, very helpful. Many thanks