After 2.5 months of hard study faced a regress in my gmat score

Question

Hi,

About 2.5 months ago I took a break from my job to study gmat dedicatedly. I started with score of 640 in CAT 1 and gradually improved to 680 in CAT 5. However, finally, I ended up in 620 in CAT 6 and 620 in real exam. After 2.5 months of hard study I'm puzzled by the current state and do not know what my next step should be. Will highly appreciate if you let me know how can I improve my score to 700+ in a month.

More details:

Last Scores:
- CAT1: 650 (Q49, V28) -- taken 2.5 months ago
- CAT2: 660 (Q49, V28)
- CAT5: 680 (Q50, V31)
- CAT6: 620 (Q48, V27) -- taken few days before the test day
-  Real Test : 620 (Q48, V27)

Resources
- Manhattan: SC, RC, and CR
- Official GMAT: 2019 edition
- Official GMAT Verbal
- Online Course of Empower GMAT (completed one month plan)

Verbal Breakdown:
- SC: accuracy 60%, avg time: 1:30 (being a non-native speaker, I put much efforts into improving SC, however, the result is still way far from the expectation)
- CR: accuracy 60%, avg time: 2:00
- RC: accuracy 85%, avg time: 2:00

My Background: 
- 4 years of working experience in Uber/Lyft equivalent company in Iran (currently head of data science team)
- A year of working experience in an online shopping search engine (as a data scientist)

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi soltanveis,

Based on the scores of your practice exams and real exam, it's clear that verbal is really holding you back. That said if you'd like some advice on how to improve your verbal skills, here is a helpful article:

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi soltanveis,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. 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. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) On what date did you take the Official GMAT? Did you take the GMAT at a Test Center or did you take the At-home version?
2) How many hours do you typically study each week?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks?
4) It looks like you last logged into our Course on July 14th - but you didn't take the GMAT until about a month later (in Mid-August)? What study routine did you follow for that last month (and what study materials were you using?)?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

Is the pacing data that you included from an Enhanced Score Report or from a CAT/mock? While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchased the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Consider checking out a gmat scoring grid to see what "combo" score gets you to your target "out of 800". If you begin to focus on Verbal take care to not abandon your Quant prep.

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Soltanveis, I understand how it feels to not being able to hit your target inspite of dedicated efforts. But it’s necessary that your time and efforts are put into the right direction, otherwise the result won’t be very much productive. A significant improvement of around 100 points in one month is challenging but possible with consistent efforts and structured approach. Let me help you. What you are experiencing is just the symptom and not the disease. Early diagnosis of actual disease is important for curing it. You appear to be good with concepts in Quant Section but only need to work on the application of concepts. However, your verbal score clearly indicates there are many conceptual gaps and you may need to start from scratch, revisit the concepts and get a clear understanding of them before you solve the questions. The inconsistency in your score is hinting towards unstructured approach being followed by you for your preparation. What needs to be done for Quant? For Quant, identifying your weaker areas and working your weaker areas should ideally get you a score of 49/50. You have to work a little more on the application of concepts while solving the Quant Questions. You should consider spending more time on analysing the solutions of the questions from the topics in which you are weak. By analysing I mean, go through each step of the solution, identify the exact step at which you made the mistake, compare your approach with the right one and then learn the right approach. This should help. If you are struggling with some specific topics, you may share the same for better understanding. How to Ace your Verbal Prep? Verbal questions on GMAT are very tricky. Let me help you with the right way to approach your Verbal Prep. For GMAT Verbal, it is very important that you follow the right methodology and the logical approach. Your focus has to be on eliminating four incorrect choices rather than choosing the right one . The key is to develop a solid understanding of the concepts that are typically tested on the GMAT and master the process skills that are required to solve GMAT questions. Only then, you will be able to smartly avoid the traps set by the test makers. Before you start learning, it's important to understand what is actually tested using the questions. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a different way. For example, before you start learning the concepts of SC, you need to understand that SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the process to approach SC questions is to: • Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence • Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise) • Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning You can go through the link below to understand the process in a better way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM Once you start solving SC questions using a systematic approach as detailed above, you will be able to avoid taking too much time in SC questions as there will be no confusion in your mind regarding the approach. Also, improving in SC alone won’t fetch you the desired score. You need to prepare for RC and CR as well in a structured and efficient manner. You have to follow a methodical and systematic approach while solving the questions in order to work on your accuracy and increase your score. For example, • In CR, you have to understand the argument, identify the premise and the conclusion and then pre-think the answer before looking at the solutions. • In RC, you need to have the right reading strategies to understand the inferences which are not directly stated in the passage. I’d recommend you to follow this order for the verbal part - SC->CR-RC . The reason for this is very specific. Each question type on the GMAT is testing a specific skill. SC tests your comprehension skills. CR tests comprehension & analytical skills. Finally, RC builds on the previous two skills and also tests your ability to be able to grasp the central point of the passage i.e. Your inferential skills. Thus, when you learn in this order, it's much more effective. The importance of using a standard resource: The only method to make sure that you invest your time, money and effort in an effective way is to use a standard resource which teaches you the concepts, strategies and also helps you work on your weaker areas. Studying using OG or a few random resources might help you to solve GMAT like questions but I’m afraid that they won’t be able to help you much from a strategy perspective. I would suggest you to go for some standard course for your Verbal preparation at least which can help you prepare in a structured and efficient manner thereby increasing your productivity. It’s always better to spare some more time on your preparation until you are ready instead of missing out on your dream colleges/ b-schools in hurry. GMATWhiz helps you with all these things as we follow a structured and methodical way of teaching things , which makes the learning process simpler and efficient. It also helps you to develop an understanding of the test maker’s intention behind asking the question. It uses an AI powered learning platform to provide you with real time improvement modules after every practice quiz. It provides you with additional concept videos and practise quizzes which helps you overcome your weaker areas in a specific topic right away without having to put in additional effort to identify your weaker areas. You can check out GMATWhiz and go for its Verbal Prep Course. Here’s a link to our free trial – https://learn.gmatwhiz.com/?page=signup Hope this helped and feel free to contact if you have any further queries. You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link. Click here to schedule a call

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Your scores have been consistent--Quant is impressively high, but verbal is low, and is keeping your score down. I'd love to hear your thoughts on verbal. What do you struggle with? How has your study looked? Do you have a process for verbal questions? Do you struggle with timing?

I'd check out the link in my signature: "The Studying For Verbal starter kit." It's a list of free video resources that give great advice for the topics and strategies needed to excel at the verbal section of the test.

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After 2.5 months of hard study faced a regress in my gmat score

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