How to use POE effectively?

In response to my earlier post on CR, Prachi & Vikas suggested me to always use POE in Verbal section of GMAT. If I remember correctly, even Tranquil suggests this in his blog. I too identified this as one of the areas of improvement in CR, but I don't like the idea of drawing answer grid on the erasable answer sheets. This affects my speed and sometimes confuses me if I miss marking one question. I need to check the question number on the computer screen and then make entry (POE) under the right row/column.

So, I adopted this trick in a different way. While reading the SC/CR/RC, I just mark "N" for the answer choices that are surely WRONG ones and mark "K" for the answer choices that, I think, could be RIGHT answer choice. The advantage of this method is that I can mark this anywhere. I don't worry about the question number or row/column on the answer grid. All I need to ensure that I don't move my pen/marker from the place where I'm writing. I have been practicing this for the last one week. This seems to be working..!!

My POE entry on the answer sheet for any question would look like "NKKNN". This means the answer choices have narrowed down to B & C. Read the answer choices B and C again, identify the correct one, and move on.

So far so good..!! If you think this is a good approach, or you use some other approach that you find helpful and don't mind sharing the trick, Please leave a comment here.

Mastered CR? Oh man, how wrong I was..!!

After completing Powerscore Critical reasining bible, I was practicing one set daily from 1000 LSAT/CR collection. I was also using these tests to fine-tune my approach to CR. In GMAT sets, my average accuracy level is certainly improving. Starting with 15-20% mistakes, I have improved to < 10% mistakes and those mistakes are mainly because of carelessness. But, I am also concerned because I find too many OG-11 questions repeated in these tests. I am not too sure if I really improved my accuracy under test condition, or it's because of the repeated questions from OG-11. I certainly don't want to get into the same trap as I did in the last attempt.


So, I decided to try LSAT sets and see whether I maintain the same level of accuracy. I took up one of the LSAT test sets today (Test - I, Section - I & IV). The questions were much tougher than GMAT sets and are much lengthier too. The results are not encouraging. I did too many mistakes in both the sections. Here are the details..

Test - 1, Section I - (Total Q# - 25, Time - 43minutes, Mistakes # 6)
Test - 1, Section II - (Total Q# - 26, Time - 41minutes, Mistakes # 11)

Some of the observations/learnings

1. Time pressure did me in! Many of the mistakes happened because I didn't read the argument carefully and missed some important keyword (what MLIC calls modifier words).

2. Conditional reasoning is damn comfusing. Identifying the necessary and sufficient condition is not as easy as I think. I need to go back and read the Critical Reasoning book once again.

3. I need to work on Formal Logic concepts. There was a Question that could be solved using the Some Train to draw inference.

4. I took more than estimated time in some questions. I had to hurry during the last questions. This resulted in 5 consecutive mistakes in the last set. I must have done something like this in my last GMAT attempt.

5. Practice to use POE in tougher questions where the argument isn't clear to me.

6. Practice to focus more right after a question where I'm not confident of my answer choice. I MUST avoid consecutive mistakes.

I will try focussing on these mistakes and continue taking tests everyday.

Good Luck!!