30 days to get to V40+

Question

I currently am practising verbal and amongst the mocks I've given, I'm averaging at 37 in the Manhattan Mocks and 32 in the GMAT Mocks. Given I have 30 days to improve my score to V40+, what can I do to improve it? From what I can see upon reviewing the mocks, I am unable to be accurate with the answers I'm choosing.

I am studying the concepts from the following:

Critical Reasoning from Powerscore
Sentence Correction from Manhattan
Reading Comprehension from the RC Grail - Aristotle

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

verbprephelp  - Welcome to GMAT Club!

Unfortunately, if tips and tricks alone could help score high, the GMAT would not be the challenging exam it is. You will have to rely on extensive practice test analysis, finding strengths and weaknesses and thereby eliminating those weaknesses one by one.

Gmatsaiyan · Answer

https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-go-to ... fl=similar

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi verbprephelp,

From what you describe, it's possible that you might be 'narrowing the answers down to 2 choices' too often. The more often you take that approach, the greater the potential for a 'swing' in your Verbal Score (since probability dictates that you would correctly answer only half of those questions - but you might get a bit 'lucky' or 'unlucky' on individual Exams).

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far besides the books that you listed?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When is your exact Test Date? Are you taking your GMAT at a Testing Facility or are you taking the At-home option?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

bschooldec · Answer

Thanks a lot  EMPOWERgmatRichC !

Below are my responses

Studies-

1. Studied for four months, and now I have started studying 24 hrs total for per week (6 days), and taking mocks once a week.

I was not very consistent with the mocks previously, i.e. I was taking them in gaps, but now I will be taking one GMAT official mock every week, I have 4 of them left.

2. OG, Manhattan CR RC SC, took a Magoosh subscription where I watched some videos and practised questions, watching the GMAT ninja videos now

3. Mocks

Manhattan mocks
11 Apr 2020 - 640 - 42Q 34V 8IR
18 Apr 2020 - 640 - 43Q 34V 5.9IR
25 Apr 2020 - 670 - 47Q 34V 4.5IR
2 May 2020 - 680 - 45Q 37V 5.9IR
9 May 2020 - 680 - 47Q 36V 5.9IR
23 May 2020 - 590 - 38Q 34V 4.5IR

Gmat official mocks 
30th May 2020 - 690 - 50Q 32V 8IR
4th July 2020 - 660 - 49Q 30V 3IR
I have the next one due on 11th July 2020.

Goals:

5. Overall score goal- 730
6. Test date- 6th August 2020, at home, GMAT online
7. Planning to apply by mid-September - ISB India, NYU, Wharton, Stanford

unraveled · Answer

See if you have made grave errors(oversights or misunderstanding) specially in easy questions of Official mocks. V30 - V34 means you have around 8-13 incorrect answer roughly. So, making a errors intermittently penalises a score. Another possibility is you are getting stuck in hard questions under test conditions and if that becomes a pattern in a test your score plateaus. https://gmatclub.com/forum/debrief-onli ... 28629.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/my-experienc ... 31910.html Links might help.

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi, Let me provide you my insights here. The scores of 37 and 32 vary significantly and as per my understanding there might be two reasons. One reason is that you might have taken a fewer mocks of either Manhattan or GMAT, in which case the average is not the right parameter and you can ignore the variation. The second reason which I feel is apparent in this case is that, you might not be using the right methodology to solve Verbal questions. For every module in Verbal, you need to have a particular strategy to solve the questions. For example, you need to follow a certain framework for every CR question. Understanding the framework will help you pre-think the assumption before jumping into the answer choices. In the same way, to solve SC questions, in addition to grammar rules, meaning based approach plays a very important role. The process of elimination has to be done in the right way so that you do not get confused between the close answer choices.Finally, acing RC questions would require a good reading strategy so that you can understand the main point and inference. A good reading strategy will also help you to understand the passage in one go so that you don’t have to go back and forth to the passage for every question To improve your score to a V40 : 1. You need to learn the right methodology to solve each kind of question. Just solving “N” number of questions does not help because you keep repeating the same mistakes and you will be stuck at the same score. 2. You need to identify the weaker areas and work on them. The resources you mentioned might be a great source for the questions, but to overcome your weaker areas you might have to look at a different source. GMATWhiz is one such platform which uses AI technology to assess the performance and helps you identify your weak areas and in turn lets you work on them. It is an application driven course that teaches you the right approach through its unique pedagogy and well-designed concept boosters. You can actually check the verbal section using the free trial on GMATWhiz on https://www.gmatwhiz.com so that you get a brief idea of how to improve your Verbal score. Feel free to contact if you have any queries regarding the approach and GMATWhiz.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi verbprephelp,

To start, since you are interested in some highly-competitive Schools, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

Since you're planning to take your next GMAC CAT on the 11th (and that will be just the 2nd CAT you've taken over the last 40 days), I'd like to see that result before we discuss your next steps. Make sure to take that CAT in a realistic fashion (take the FULL CAT - just as you will on Test Day, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.). Once you have that score, you should report back here and we can discuss the results and how you might best proceed with your studies.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

bschooldec · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC

I have taken the mock and have scored the following:

• Verbal - 37
• Quant - 50
• Total - 710

I am now looking to improve my score in verbal to 42 and quant to a total of 50+.

Thank you for your help!

freedom128 · Answer

best book to practice and learn verbal is latest OG. Read all answer explanations thoroughly, even if you choose correct answer.

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi verbprephelp,

I see that your GMAT is coming up. Do you still need any advice regarding how to improve your GMAT verbal skills?

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