jatin1230 wrote:
Hi
I gave my GMAT test today and ended up with Verbal - 25 and Quant - 44 Score - 570.
I prepared for around 4-5 months for the exam. I had started getting between 680 - 720 in my MCAT mock test. Thought there were some repeat test. But today when 570 score shined in front of me, i almost ended up in tears. I got 630 in GMAT prep 1 and 700 in GMAT prep 2.
After coming back to my senses, i realized that there was a lot of time issues i faced during the exam. My Quant was going pretty good but then when i reached on the 29th question with less than 8 min left for Quant to get over. I got nervous and lost my whole concentration with making guess on my last questions left (In fear that i may leave some questions answered).
Then came the verbal. The first question was a SC (which i thought was my strong thing in verbal), i quickly eliminated the 3 options out of 5 but got confused in the last 2. I also spent around 4 minutes on first two questions. This thing really got onto me that i am not able to answer the first question of verbal. The feeling moved on with me to the second question which was a CR. I am still not sure i marked it correct or not. In the rest of the SC questions i got so confused that i felt like i have come unprepared. In most of the SC's i ended up with two options looking both correct to me. Then came the RC's which i think i did fine. I am still not sure i marked them right or wrong. Honestly, i practiced around 80-90 RC's, more than 300 SC's, around 300 CR's. I never felt that blank feeling earlier which i felt while taking verbal. When i was on 31st question i had around 10 minutes left. Then again i started making guesses on the questions. I kinda got the feeling in the exam that i am doing everything which one should not be doing in the exam.
Well, i am not going to leave GMAT here. Surely, i am going to give my second attempt in probably 2-3 months. So, Please advice me what should be my first, foremost, step in starting my preparation for second time. I have exhausted almost all the material i have. I am completely blank on what should be my next step. I have to get atleast 700 in my next exam. I may be sounding desperate here but yes i am pretty desperate to kill the GMAT next time. How do i seriously improve my verbal to breeze through the exam. I have to get it right the next time. Please share your advice.
I am a first time poster here so pardon me for anything wrong.
I studied the SC rules from Manhattan SC book, CR from Kaplan and RC from Manhattan RC book.
Thanks
For a 700 score, you will need to work on both Quant and Verbal. Your time management was certainly an issue but some conceptual understanding might also be lacking.
The number of questions you practiced is immaterial. You need to work on building your basics. That will automatically improve speed too. There are many options for you.
You can take a full classroom course - thoroughly go through concepts in the class, do class exercises and homework questions, utilize 24 hour help, complete assignments and practice tests etc. It gives you the entire package that you need to succeed.
Another option is self study with a set of books.
As is apparent from your post, you faced problems in SC. Two options seemed correct in many questions. It is possible that they were! Nowadays, many SC questions are meaning based i.e. grammatically, two options would be correct but logically, only one will make sense. So the grammatical rules that people used to swear by have limited use. SC has become much more logical, which is expected, isn't it? The rest of the test is a test of your reasoning skills, why should SC be any different?
e.g. consider the two sentences given below:
I will try and get the work done.
I will try to get the work done.
Which one is correct? Grammatically, both are. Logically, only the second one is. You will not do two things separately - 'try' and 'get it done'. You will 'try to get it done'
Also, in CR and RC, it is good to understand the question type. It helps you decide the strategy you need to use and gives you clues so that you do not make mistakes. For example, an inference question will never give you new information in the correct option. A strengthen/weaken question on the other hand, will always give you new information. Once you are comfortable with all such strategies, you should be able to do well.
Check out our blog:
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/It has lots of useful posts on both Quant and Verbal (and various schools)
You can also check out my blog:
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/categor ... er-wisdom/It deals predominantly with Quant concepts though I discuss some Verbal off and on.
close
22 Mar 2014, 23:01
