40points or +6 in verbal section in 3weeks - MISSION POSSIBLE?

Question

Hey, what do you think, is it possible to improve my Verbal section (GMAToff CAT - 45Q24V) in 3 weeks or ~70 hours of studying? I must reach at least 600, last time I scored 570

Thanks!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi matisch,

Yes, given your scores, you COULD make up those missing points in the next 3 weeks. The question is what you plan to do in those 3 weeks though. If you're just going to continue mowing through practice questions, making the same mistakes over and over, then you might not be able to improve your score.

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What resources have you been using during your studies?
3) Would it be acceptable to pick up those points in the Quant section or do they have to be in the Verbal section?

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

Rk91 · Answer

Hi ! I will be writing my gmat exam this August 11th (29 days).. I have attempted two mock tests (one with IR and other without) .. I have scored a disappointing 480,followed by a 430 I am aiming for 700+. Should I reschedule my exam to another month?

matisch · Answer

Hello, I think I am in the right direction - today I made Kaplan CAT and scored 610 (Q46V31), so maybe I am able even to score 630 or something like that, what do you think?

I am studying since 2 months, or 120hours. Quant section is for me much easier.. ;D

VeritasPrepDennis · Answer

As Rich pointed out, you can certainly reach the 600 level but how you prepare is the key. It sounds like you have taken several practice tests in addition to actual exam, so the first step would be to analyze the tests to see what types of questions you are getting wrong and the "why's". Try to categorize your incorrect answers and then work on either the fundamental concepts or how to weed out the careless mistakes. This will allow you to focus your limited time on the areas that produce the best return. You should also analyze the questions you answered correctly in this manner as well so that you can re-inforce those concepts you truly understand and recognize those that you need to solidify. Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi matisch,

At this point in the process, taking your CATs in as realistic a way as possible is a MUST (meaning that you need to take the Essay and IR sections, take the CAT away from your home, at the same time of day as your GMAT, under test-like conditions, etc.). Assuming that you took this CAT in a realistic way, then this latest score is a good sign. As you review this CAT, you should make note of the little mistakes that you made and what you could do to keep those mistakes from happening (hint: taking more notes is usually the answer). Points can be gained and lost relatively easily on Test Day, so you have to make sure to put in the necessary effort to EARN those points.

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

matisch · Answer

Hi Rich,
thank you for your advice. I wanted let you know that today I took a Kaplan CAT and scored 660 (!!) with 48Q36V. I am very happy about my improvement in verbal section, but math seemed this time very difficult for me.. :D I hope this good result is not an accident. I worked all last week with material basicaly from GMATclub (all tasks in OG and Kaplan Premier are done). I have still 10 days to my exam. Is it possible to improve myself?

I am weak in RC (only ~30%).

Thanks!
Matthew

I am weak in RC (only ~30%). Thanks! Matthew

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Matthew,

A 90-point improvement is some really nice work on your part. In your original post, you did not state WHEN you scored 570. How long ago was that?

Given that your original stated goal was 600+, you certainly appear to be in position to accomplish that goal. Did you take the ENTIRE CAT this time?

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

matisch · Answer

Hi Rich,
570 was my first score on CAT, about 2 months ago, but the same score I reached about 2 weeks ago. I think the main problem was time management, because till the last CAT i had almost always too much time left in quant section (7-10minutes) and I lacked time in verbal section.
To be honest, I am not sure if I am able to repeat my score during the real gmat.. you know, stress and so on.. ;s but i hope so very very, i have still 8 days to prepare myself

And yes, I took a full Cat with two 8-minutes breaks.

Matthew

And yes, I took a full Cat with two 8-minutes breaks. Matthew

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Matthew,

For Test Day, you have to try to keep the same mindset that you have now - stay calm, work hard, make good decisions. In this last week, you might be tempted to 'cram', BUT you shouldn't - stick to your typical routine and plan to take it a little easy in the last 1-2 days before your Official GMAT. You still have time to get in some extra repetitions and do some review, and you have enough time to take one more CAT (if you choose).

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

matisch · Answer

HI Rich, you know, I am soo disappointed with my life..

Last two weeks I took 3 CATS (2 Kaplan and 1 Official) and scored respectively 660 660 and 640. Yesterday I took a real GMAT test and scored only 550 (!!!), my math was very low (39), though I have never scored below 44 in math.... I can not understand why I got such a low score (and math??), because I didn't feel overstressed or something like that...

For new GMAT I can register only for 7th. September, during 5 weeks I can lost my skills .. .;s

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Matthew,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Your practice CAT scores clearly show that you're capable of scoring at a much higher level. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day.

If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, listen to music, etc.)? 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?

6) On what days did you take these last 3 CATs?

It's possible that you just had a "bad day"; but if we can figure all of this out quickly, then you shouldn't wait too long to retest.

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

matisch · Answer

Hi Rich, thank you for your response and positive word

When you took your CATs: 1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)? 2) Did you take them at home? 3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT? 4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, listen to music, etc.)? 5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? 6) On what days did you take these last 3 CATs? Answers to your questions: 1. Yes, ENTIRE CAT, except maybe first time.. 2. 3 at home, 2 not. 3. Almost at the same time (The Official at 10a.m., CATs at ~9a.m.) 4. No, i always tried to simulate my real exam. 5. No, always took a different one. 6. Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday I am especially astonished about my low score in math... ;s I am thinking about retaking at 7. September (the earliest possible day in my country). Now I take holidays of 2 weeks, and then begin to learn again, but maybe not so intensely as I did up to now (~6 hours a day for 6 weeks). What could you advice?

Matthew

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Matthew,

From the extra information you've provided, I can point to a few minor 'red flags' that could have impacted your performance.

1) The GMAT is a rather specific 'event', which you CAN train for. The more you deviate from what you'll face on Test Day, the more your scores can deviate (and usually the scores end up 'inflated'). Taking your CATs at a slightly earlier time of day and taking them at home could have skewed your scores a bit. If you were training yourself to take the GMAT at 9am, then you took the Official GMAT at 10am-ish, then there could be some differences in energy, attention-to-detail, etc.

2) You took 3 FULL CATs in the last 9 days before your Official GMAT. That is a LOT of CATs in a short period of time, so you might have been dealing with a little bit of 'burn out' on Test Day.

I have a few additional questions about Test Day itself:

On Test Day:
1) How did you sleep the night before the Exam?
2) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
3) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
4) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?
5) Did you finish any sections early?
6) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?

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

matisch · Answer

Hi Rich,

On Test Day:
1) How did you sleep the night before the Exam?  Really well
 2) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home? 6 hours, but i have arrived one day before, took a hotel and full rest, i felt really relax
3) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test? no.
4) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks? i took some water and food, went to a WC ;D
5) Did you finish any sections early? yes, math ~2 minutes earlier
6) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)? no

So, what do you think, 7 september for my second GMAT is good time? and what training would you suggest?

Matthew

KyleWiddison · Answer

I assume you have rescheduled your exam because that kind of jump is not realistic in that short timeframe. Have you taken another mock exam since you made this post?

KW

KyleWiddison · Answer

To be clear, my last post was directed to Rk91, not matisch.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Matthew,

Your latest post provides some really specific information worth noting:

Having to do significant travel right before your Exam AND staying in a strange hotel room (and sleeping in a strange bed) can have a SIGNIFICANT impact on you mentally, physically and psychologically (on the day of your TEST)- and usually these effects tend to be negative.

If the closest Center to your home is that far away (and you cannot get around the travel and hotel 'issues'), then you have to train a bit differently for your next attempt. A September 7th Test Date is fine, and it does give you plenty of time to continue studying, but you now have to add another couple of details to how you take your CATs:

1) Since you're not going to be sleeping in your own bed the night before your GMAT, you should consider sleeping in a different bed the night before you take each of your CATs. This will force you to learn to 'work around' sleeping in a different location. 
2) You shouldn't take your CATs at home. Again, this is to train your brain to learn to work well in a location that is not one that you're used to.

These steps will cause some 'inconveniences' to your studies, but they'll serve to better prepare you for the reality of Test Day.

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

Rk91 · Answer

Hi kyle,
Yes i have rescheduled my exam to Nov 14th. 
After the first mock i took three more mocks :
mock 2 : 530 (Q37 V27) (25/7/15)
mock3 : 580 (Q40,V30) (30/7/2015)
mock4 : 590 (Q34,V37) (1/8/15)
 
In quant I faced the following issue :in the first two mocks, the first 10- 12 questions i had spent reasonable amount of time (not exceeding 2 mins) - i was well within the my cumulative time and the no. of question answered correctly were also more. However , midway, when i started facing difficult questions, i started exceeding my time limit (going beyond the cumulative time proposed). Both the times i ended up answering the last few questions in a hurry. I realized i had a major timing issue. That is when i came across a the gmat club timer feature, and the directory containing questions from different levels . I regretted and was disappointed with myself for not being so active in the club and for realizing that this club had such amazing benefits and that I should have utilized it from the beginning of my gmat prep.

I also saw a post from the math expert Bunuel that has certain concepts and tips on quant. Aaand that churning started! I repented for not seeing this earlier and for just relying on official guide and princeton review (what i mean is that i needed to do more). I was caught up in a dilemma - if i had to reschedule i had to do it before 4th of august . I somehow thought of practising for another day using the timer feature and the directory of questions. I attempted my third mock . I was little less confident about quant ( late realization of me not utilizing the features demotivated me a little bit). While attempting quant i knew i was going to fail miserably (for i was i getting easy questions )- 590 (Q37,V34)

Verbal i never really had an issue with the time . All my mocks, i completed verbal without hurrying up. Especially, the last one, which is the greatest i scored in verbal, i had about 2 mins to spare in the end. So, i knew i had to work more on my verbal concepts. especially SC .

I used to do spreadsheet analysis of my mock ( for eg the mock of 30th july)

Correct ( count)
500-600 2 
600-700 10 
700-800 5

wrong (count)
500-600 1
600-700 10 
700-800 9

% wrong
 
500-600 33
600-700 50
700-800 64

percentage of DS questions wrong : 15% , while % of PS wrong 22%

i had also done topic wise analysis.

I used to go with a mindset that I must reduce the % wrong figures in 600-700 level, try not to get into the 300-500 category so on an so forth. I am pretty sure i am going wrong in my analysis somewhere. Please tell how should i analyse my mock exams. And now that i have rescheduled , what should be my next steps.

I get really scared of work rate, probability and combinatorics problems. How should i tackle them..(ok a sly and a very stupid question..what are the chances of getting these questions ..as in their frequency?:P)

VeritasPrepDennis · Answer

Rk91 -

Based on your analysis above (and I am assumiing it is the Quant. portion because of the 37 total questions), it appears that you have the fundamentals down fairly well. Just from the numbers presented, it looks like you need to work on the strategy side of the questions. Knowing the fundamentals is half the battle; understanding how the test makers can craft more difficult questions from these concepts and being able to dodge their traps is what allows you to really boost your score.

One thing you really should be analyzing on your mocks is the concept of the question being tested. This will allow you to begin to grasp your weaker areas and also to see where you make silly mistakes. For example, if you miss a number of easier algebra questions, it might be because you are gowing too fast and answering the wrong question. Or, perhaps you get the high level concept of the question but mess up the easy math (not uncommon). Understanding these things will allow you to focus your studying better and help you to keep some of your bad habits (going too fast, forgetting about 0, etc.) top of mind.

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