Extremely close answers in RC and CR

[ayushbiy]

Hi Staff,

I recently took my second MGMAT CAT ( the first one after the free test). While I scored 650 on the free one, I scored 680 on the second. Both of them had my english as the deal breaker. I scored 34 in Verbal in the second test.

Going into the detail of mistakes, I realized that in at least a couple of questions in RC, the options were extremely close; where the question used the following language in the option : The answer C though talks about this point and discusses bla bla..is still not the ...bla bla thing..though even the answer that is said to be right is not fully clear.

What I am wondering is would gmat even throw such very close choices. I never experience this thing in the two of the tests in gmatprep. Are manhattan answer options deliberately designed so close to make the candidate do that mistake or is just my muse.

what do the other candidates think ?

same with CR..In reasoning two closer reasonings often cannibalize each other and we end up selecting a third wrong one.

[tim]

I've found that one of the most effective strategies is to use such problems as a learning experience. If you don't get such close calls on the GMAT, that's great, but if you do you'll want to be prepared. You want to learn how to pull out subtle differences between the answer choices so you can tell them apart and identify which one is wrong. Thus for EVERY practice problem you do (whether you get it right or wrong), you need to make sure you understand not only why the correct answer is correct but also why all the wrong answers are wrong. This will help you get experience identifying small pieces of wrong answers that just don't add up. The more you do this, the better able you will be to find flaws in the incorrect answers on the real test.

[ayushbiy]

Thank you but is there ( for all good reasons) any deliberate attempt from MGMAT to increase the closeness of two options to make the candidate go confused ?

[RonPurewal]

Thank you but is there ( for all good reasons) any deliberate attempt from MGMAT to increase the closeness of two options to make the candidate go confused ?

No.
Also, when you start to think with the required level of precision, you'll notice that there are practically never any "close" wrong answers. All of the wrong answer choices on CR and RC are definitely wrong -- and not for reasons that are subtle/nitpicky.

You just have to approach the stuff with a precise understanding of what the issues are and aren't.