41 Verbal on GmatPrep. 9 of 10 incorrect were SC. Advice??

Question

Hi gmatclub!

I finished all of the MGMAT Cats and decided to switch back to the GmatPrep question banks/Cats with only 2 weeks before I take the GMAT. Out of 10 incorrect questions on verbal, 9 were SC. When I took the MGMAT Cats I usually did worse on CR and better on SC. It seems as though the more I study SC the worse SC scores I get. Do you have any advice on how to rapidly improve SC or did anyone encounter the same issue when switching from MGMAT to GmatPrep?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi MikeC,

You're asking a very specific question, but I'd like to make sure that it's the 'right' question, so I'd like to know a bit more about your studies so far:

1) How long have you studied?
2) What resources have you used so far?

3) How have you scored on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each)?
4) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
5) Do you have trouble finishing the Verbal section on time (and do you have to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish?)?

6) What is your goal score?

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

MikeC · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the quick response!
I have studied for two and a half months. I only began taking CATS in the last month because I needed to review a lot of math concepts.

I have worked through Magoosh lessons/questions, the Manhattan books, and the free Veritas Prep sentence correction videos on youtube. I have completed all the sentence correction problems in the Official GMAT book as well. All of the CATS I have taken were full length with the IR and essay. I finish all my sections with about 3-5 minutes remaining on both the quant and verbal sections.
My CATS:
MGMAT 1: 620 (Q39, V35) IR 
MGMAT 2: 630 (Q40, V36) IR 5
MGMAT 3: 650 (Q42, V37) IR 6
MGMAT 4: 660 (Q43, V37) IR 5
MGMAT 5: 680 (Q45, V37) IR 5
MGMAT 6: 680 (Q42, V40) IR 6
GmatPrep 1: 710 (Q 45, V41) IR 7
Goal Score: 740
All the verbal sections for my Manhattan CATS had a mix of answers wrong from all 3 categories. The GMATPrep I took today had 10 answers incorrect on the verbal (one critical reasoning and 9 sentence correction).

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi MikeC,

From what you've described, you're taking your CATs in a realistic fashion and you're seeing a nice uptick in your scoring. I would advise a couple of things though:

1) You really should be taking just 1 FULL CAT per week, with the rest of your time spent on additional studies, review, drills, etc.
2) With your recent Verbal Scaled Scores, I wouldn't have said that you had a 'weak' category in Verbal. The 9 wrong SCs on your last CAT might just have been an anomaly.
3) A 710 is remarkably close to a 740+ score. At this scoring level though, the GMAT becomes really sensitive to little mistakes - so you have to eliminate as many of them from your process, if possible. To that end, you might actually find it easier to pick up those missing points in the Quant section than in the Verbal section (which would require you to focus more on Quant Tactics than on SC practice).

1) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

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

GMATPILLBILL · Answer

Hey MikeC, The SC section is the easiest verbal section to make improvements on. Once you understand how to think and approach this question type, there are only so many ways you can be tested. Here at GMAT Pill we developed the 10 core frameworks which detail the 10 ways to approach GMAT sentence corrections. Here is a sample video detailing one of the core frameworks: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... stion/2184

41 Verbal on GmatPrep. 9 of 10 incorrect were SC. Advice??

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