430-550-560-650 to 650 again. New ESR attached

dcummins sorry to hear that things did not work out today. Clearly, it was not your bestest day. Take a really good break, go travel if you can afford it, or just hang out with family & friends. Reset your mind and re-evaluate what you want to do next.

Also, 650 is a very decent score. And you did score Q48 and V36 on different occasions. And who knows, perhaps, this score and the rest of your application will open the door into the school of your choice. You might as well just apply to the schools and see what happens next.

Enjoy the break!

I am sorry dcummins. Long stretches of prep do tend to have negative effects, unfortunately. As prep stretches out, our memory starts failing and our motivation grows weaker. It is hard to be on the offensive after getting stuck for months. I feel for you!

P.S. Someone did post a HEC Admit with a 650 a few days ago so not the most impossible score but it is not helpful per se....
_________________

Hey Dan,

This just did not seem to be your day. I think a combination of burnout and some freak events taking place during the quant section really threw you off your game. The good news is that, despite all these things happening, you scored V35, which is one of your better GMAT verbal scores. With all this said, I agree with your assessment that it may be time for a break. I’m not saying to give up, but I think you really need a mental break in which you step away from the GMAT, so that you can come back refreshed and ready to rock. When you are ready to dive back in, Marty, and Jeff, and I will be waiting to help you bust through this brick wall once and for all. If you’d like to chat further, feel free to reach out to any of us directly.

We’ve got your back, my friend.
_________________

Dan, dumping questions just to catch upl is a great way to kill your score. Never ever dump questions just to catch up.

You are better off doing your best throughout the test and guessing on a few at the end if you have to.

Alternatively, you can catch up by having your trigger finger for dumping questions with which you are having trouble be a little faster.

By dumping questions with which you are having trouble, you are likely to dump hard questions.

By randomly dumping questions to catch up, especially a the beginning of the section, ESPECIALLY after missing the first one, you probably dumped relatively easy questions, driving your score down hard.

Notice the average difficulty of correct answers in the first quartile of your test, below medium.

Anyway, don’t ever just dump questions to catch up. By doing so, you may dump easy questions that you could have answered.

The good news is that that one move may have driven your quant score significantly below what it would have been had you dumped only hard questions. So, apparently, even in a burned out state with bad pens, you can readily score higher than you did on this last test.
_________________

We are always happy to help, Dan. So, please keep us updated and reach out when you need us.
_________________

Hi Dcummins - what is your target score?

By the way, good improvement! Congrats on getting a 650!
_________________

Thanks for your insight once again, Marty!

I didn't look at Verbal in the way you pointed out (bolded). I think this is something that without a doubt should bridge the gap to finish line

Thanks for your kind words, Scott.

Yourself and Jeff have been extremely supportive, taking the time to answer any of my questions and providing me with detailed guidance on the steps I need to take. It feels as if I've embarked on a journey with you guys!

I think yourself, Jeff and the TTP platform are the cornerstone to my GMAT strides, and when it's done and dusted I think this needs to be recognised in one way shape or form.

Thank you

Hi nigina93,

I honestly have no idea. I believe this is my sub-sectional percentile ranking? So it's likely a mix of accuracy and ability

Sure does!

Thank you

Just got back from a short 4-day holiday, so tomorrow commences the final leg of the GMAT marathon haha

Hi All,

Just over 2 weeks into my post-sitting prep and I just wanted to ask a few questions.

What is more apparent to me now than ever is that my Verbal is completely hamstrung by RC timing.

I've answered a number of OG questions and I've found the following:

• My reading times are inconsistent but it can take me from 2 to ~4mins to read the passage properly
• It can take me up to 13 minutes to solve a complete RC passage + questions.

The question below, for example, took me a total of 12.5 mins (and this is a short passage)
https://gmatclub.com/forum/historians-who-study-european-women-of-the-renaissance-try-to-measure-268528.html

• Sometimes it helps to make a passage map containing the "WHY"- why did the author write this para...e.g "to introduce a hypothesis", "to detail examples". This "why" is written for each Paragraph and then I write the "topic", "scope" and "purpose (or tone: critical/ discussion etc.)". Sometimes it may not help to make the passage map as I've only ever referred to it if my comprehension of the passage is absolutely perfect, a rare occurrence, so the passage map may provide some unconscious retention benefits but for the most part it could be killing my time. is

As a counter, I"m going to consciously mentally ask 'why' and see how this goes.

• I find that RC is probably the topic i'm least enthused to study - probably because it's the topic i'm performing worst at
• Irrespective of my reading time I still go back to the passage unless it's a Main Idea type question, in which case I would only go back to the passage if it was really hard for me to determine wtf was said
• I find I often re-read the question
• I haven't been timing myself that often during RC prep. I've purely focused on raising my accuracy.

Right now I still have a bunch of OG VR questions left before I hop on over to the LSAT questions GMATNinja mentioned.

Based on what I've mentioned above I can deduce that I need to:

• Limit writing - instead I'll only try note the main idea and tone, but mentally consider the relationships of each paragraph (I've found this to improve with practice - might be obvious but i never consciously made an effort before).
• Limit re-reading the question. Perhaps I'm reading the questions and passages to quickly at times

If anyone has any other suggestions or comments then i'm all ears.


*EDIT* Attached my RC error log.

Majority of errors are made on science passages in the 600-700 level difficulty.

Thanks a heap, Marty!

Great suggestions.

The re-reading one is a killer. I noticed that I was doing this on CR as well and that I was doing it more if I was stressing.

I've found science passages to be my weakest link. In my EL attached there is clear evidence that focusing on this subject matter may help me make strides in solving <700 level passages correctly.

So first answer choices are typically the worst? I'll keep that in mind for sure.

Despite the pain points I've documented above, I have noticed that knocking out 3-4 passages daily has helped me significantly with comfort - now its just a matter of resolving the pain points, so I may increase my coverage provided I incorporate improvement points and don't compromise other topics

Did we connect on this? I am not sure that we did. What I was getting as is that you can always find a worst one to eliminate first, not that the first is usually the worst.


You can't go wrong with certain things, such as getting better at clearly defining why choices are incorrect or correct.

Overall, sounds like a plan!
_________________

There goes my RC Ability being put to the test haha...

Yep in no general order they go from worst to best. I thought you meant worst to best in terms of (A) to (E). My bad

Will keep at it.

I haven't taken a practice test since sitting the official over 2 weeks ago now, so I'm incline to plan out my last GMATPrep test before I recycle the tests.

Perhaps I should take a test from another provider then. I'm skeptical of Manhattan as I know they're math is more difficult, so I don't want to be down mentally before going into a test.

I have scheduled the test date for 19th July, but I'm also in the frame of mind of just winging it and pulling the trigger at the end of next week and worst case scenario it'll be an expensive mock.

Just an update.

Took a Veritas Practice CAT last Tuesday and scored 650 (Q46/V34). Not too fussed about the score as I am about the findings: weaker topics/ timing on questions/ ability to manage stress before the test.

I have seen some users test on third-party CATs and get destroyed, so I'll keep these as an improvement tool. For example, I reviewed the timing on some questions and Dayumn... i spent 6 mins 55 seconds on 1 RC question, 5 mins 23 on another!

Although these were likely the questions in which I received the passage (and read) its clear to me that I need to 'learn to let go' as i only got 1 of these 2 RC right.

Good to note my RC has improved - I've been nutting out 4 passages a day and have reviewed past mistakes (this is a very slow burn).

Also, some analysis of my error log reveals that of my 46 or so RC errors, 52% were Inference. So Inference questions are a strong contender to dump on the exam if I can't get it in a suitable time.


Will plan to retake another Veritas CAT soon, then take my last GMATPrep CAT before recycling GMATPrep.

Thanks again for the continued support, particularly MartyTargetTestPrep for our most recent discussions.

Hi all,

MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja ScottTargetTestPrep

I just wanted to ask for some guidance. I've hit the study pretty hard over the last 3 weeks.

2 weeks ago I sat a Veritas CAT and felt okay with it, scoring 650.

Since then, I moved back with my parents to focus on studying and I've knocked out ~40hours of quality study this week with 1 day of work.

Today, I reluctantly took an official GMATPrep CAT (last CAT) and scored 590.

I well and truly ran out of time in verbal as I needed to rush through quite a bit.

This is incredibly frustrating as I'm 13 days out from my exam.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't have moved back home and just focused on continually improving. I'm also wondering whether I should push back my test.

**edit
I think I'm going to just jump back to my city residence and balance out other life commitments, but focus on reviewing past mistakes. I'm likely overstudying.

**EDIT**
Based on my quick analysis of verbal I got a 95% type hard CR question to start, likely blew 3-4 mins on that then was slapped with 2 RC passages back to back, and I bombed out on one completely. Then it was pretty much a game of catch-up after there.

Hey Scott,

Thanks for reaching out as well!

Yea man I think it sorta clicked with what I need to do in my studies, and I took a bunch of actions down.

Bottom line is I think i'll need to just silo in on a few areas, namely RC, in an untimed manner, then timed, then take ensure i'm at that level of mastery before taking another practice test.

I normally take 1 day off and go for a bike ride or something at my city residence, but I had been grinding for 14 days straight leading up to that dog **** CAT yesterday; I amassed 106 hours of study in this time. So, I'm taking today off and considering moving back to my city residence where my life and existence aren't circulated around the GMAT lol

As I'm cutting it fairly close to the 19th, It makes sense that i move my Exam date back at this stage, but I've got the intention of preparing as if I was sitting it on the 19th, so I can bring the exam date forward if need be.