shubhajeetsil wrote:
I have been preparing for the GMAT for the last 60days.
Materials used:-
1.
Manhattan prep books
2.
Official guide.
3.Official and Verbal Quant Review.
Mock Tests:-
Source Date V Q Toal Score
1 Official Mock-1 15 May 2020 34 45 640
2 Manhattan 24 May 2020 34 43 640
3 Manhattan 02 July 2020 33 45 640
4 Manhattan 07 July 2020 35 44 650
5
Experts Global 08 July 2020 41 49 740
6
e-GMAT 10 July 2020 32 47 650
7 Official Mock-2 13 July 2020 40 49 730
8 Manhattan 14 July 2020 37 44 670
9 Manhattan 16 July 2020 37 46 680
10 Manhattan 17 July 2020 32 46 640
11 Official Mock-1, Lots of Repeat question 19 July 2020 44 51 770
12 Official Mock-2, At most 3 repeat questions 20 July 2020 40 48 710
13 GMAT 21-07-2020 31 45 630
Note: I took all the tests at one go.
Since the time the result flashed on the test day I have been puzzled as to what may be the reasons. I was expecting a score in the range of 690-740 ( I was of the impression that 50 points on total or Q+3-4 can be added to the manhattan Mocks), which I presume is a pretty wide bandwidth. I have been perplexed and seeking an answer. Few answers that I have come up with are:-
1. I was too burned out, shouldn't have taken so many mocks at the fag end.
2. I may not have developed strong enough approaches to fall back on during the tensed exam situation.
But I am not sure what led to what.
However, I no more know what to base my 2nd attempt on. Seeking advice on the following questions:-
1. Should I give a short break, brush up in a week's time, attempt a couple of mocks, and based on that go for another attempt?
2. Should I take professional help and start from scratch?
Hi,
It’s sad to hear that you couldn’t get the desired score. I can understand the feeling of getting 700+ scores on a few mocks and not able to reflect the same in the actual test. Don’t feel disappointed. An improvement is always possible. Let me share my observations.
First of all, taking too many mocks is never a great idea. And that too, when the scores are inconsistent, the right thing to do is to introspect the reason behind the inconsistency and work towards the right balance.
The possible reason behind the inconsistency in the mocks and the actual score:
The scores of your mocks and the test tell that you might not be using the right strategies to solve the questions. They indicate that there is no definite approach and it keeps changing with every test. GMAT is an adaptive test and getting a string of questions wrong can greatly affect your score. So, it is always recommended to learn the right methodology and use it every time you take a test.
What should be the path forward!
To answer your question, it is okay to take a short break. But a week is too fast to give another attempt. Giving an ample amount of time for preparation and then taking a test seems to be a good idea. This time, make sure you take the mocks carefully and book the slot only when you get consistent scores.
The focus now should be on filling the conceptual gaps and learning the right methodology to solve the questions. Your quant score is decent but there is a scope for improvement. In verbal, it’s better to start from the concepts again. Let me share a detailed approach for both the modules.
Plan for quant:
The score indicates that you might be struggling with a few concepts. To identify them, I would recommend you to take sectional quizzes on each topic and mark the topic as your weaker area if you get less than 60% accuracy.
Once you identify the weaker areas, start working on them by going through the concepts. I recommend you to work on one topic at a time. During the learning phase, make sure you learn the right methodology to solve the questions. After that, start taking sectional quizzes for the topic and move to the next only if you get easy-medium questions right. I reiterate that the focus should be on learning the right methodology.
Plan for verbal:
In verbal there is a scope for overall improvement. There are chances that you might be doing well on a specific module (SC, CR or RC). You can know your performance level by taking the quizzes for each module. Let me tell you the right approach to approach verbal questions and the importance of using it.
- To solve SC questions, you need to approach them from a meaning stand-point. The main thing GMAT tests using SC questions is the ability to convey the right meaning without ambiguity. There can be answer choices with ho grammatical error and convey a logical meaning but do not convey the intended meaning. So, it is important to use the meaning-based approach.
- To solve CR questions, you need to develop the ability to pre-think. This will help you save precious time and also guarantee you the right answer. To do this, you need to understand the framework behind the CR questions.
- For RC, use the right reading strategies so that you can understand the intention behind the author’s writing of the passage.
How should you plan your studies and allocate the time?
I recommend you to start with Verbal. Identify the weak areas and start working on them.
- In the 1st week and 2nd week, dedicate your time to verbal. Work on one topic at a time and take sectional quizzes. Then move to the next.
- 3rd week you can dedicate to quant.
- The next week you can start giving equal time to quant and verbal. You can take a mock in this week and analyze the performance.
- The next week, you can start taking mocks for every 2 or 3 days and analyze the score pattern.Once you start getting consistent scores, you can book a slot.
This should be the ideal study plan. If you wish to seek further help and know more about the study strategy, you can schedule a free consultation call with the GMAT Strategy Consultant using the below link.
Click here to schedule a call
close
22 Jul 2020, 02:16
