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14 May 2020, 05:12
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi all, I don't think I have ever posted on a forum before, however, the GMAT has been with me for the last 2 years and it has been a journey, to say the least. It would be great to get some advice on how to use the next couple of weeks going forward.
To summarize 2018 - Economist GMAT Prep (6 Months): First ever Economist GMAT test score was 330, I slowly improved, but only made it to a 580 with the Economist Test Preps, not sure if I even got over 600 in the GMAT Testprep exams. Exam Day in May 2018 and I got a 640, which I was actually quite happy with, but I knew I would need to retake it at some stage, fast forward to 2020.
I purchased the Economist GMAT Prep (6 months) software in November 2019 again, as I thought I should probably start anew and for the very first Economist test I thought I was right, but then it kind of went downhill. That said, I did not want to take time off work, but rather studied during weekends. Sidenote: I purchased eGMAT as well, but just gave up using it, clunky software, just wasn't for me. Here are my stats:
March 7th 2020: 680 Q42 V41 (Economist)
March 8th 2020: 560 Q41 V26 (Economist)
March 14th 2020: 640 Q42 V35 (GMAT)
March 22nd 2020: 540 Q32 V35 (Economist - I don't really count this one due to a glitch in the Verbal section and I could tell during the exam that I messed up in Q).
March 29th 2020: 610 Q45 V29 (Economist)
April 13th 2020: 680 Q43 V40 (Economist)
April 19th 2020: 590 Q46 V25 (Economist)
April 25th 2020: 600 Q39 V34 (Manhattan Prep)
May 10th 2020: 600 Q44 V29 (GMAT)
When I look at this I see an inconsistency in my Verbal and I believe that this is where I need to improve (do you agree and if so, what can I do?) Now, for my time-management regarding Quant and Verbal, for Quant it is kind of all over the place but I am much more consistent in my Verbal. But sadly in Quant I usually have to rush at the end, sometimes missing the last question - I know, big NoNo.
I have tried an error log a while back, but there was no specific pattern for Verbal and Quant, apart from 10/30 Questions being Data Sufficiency Questions (various topics).
The story goes on, on 30th of April I took the online GMAT. What a roller coaster, the exam crashed the moment I clicked on the whiteboard, the proctor restarted it, but the time kept ticking. I probably lost 5 minutes, but completed the exam up until the last IR question, then it crashed again. Now I am still stuck somewhere in the review process before I get to find out my score.
As they were opening test-centers again in Europe last week I booked a date right away to "get it over and done with", just to mention, I still don't think that I have burned out, but the GMAT has become such an integral part of my life, that it is nearly difficult not to study every day anymore.
I took the exam in the test-center yesterday. Of course I was nervous and anxious, the test center was new to me, but Covid-19 regulations actually helped to overcome the anxiety as I was 1 out of only 3 test takers. Same strategy as always V,Q,IR. The result: 570. I am not even sure what my score was but I believe Q35 V32 (if that adds up) as I cancelled it. Verbal felt difficult and Quant ended up feeling so easy mid-way that I was almost convinced I performed badly. However, for IR I was in the 71st Percentile (I never took it in my prep exams because I followed a structure of V,Q,IR), not sure if that information means anything.
Thank you for reading and I would appreciate any advice that you might have. I am not really sure what to do a this stage so I was going to review OG Verbal Questions I got wrong and just practice. Thanks again!
To summarize 2018 - Economist GMAT Prep (6 Months): First ever Economist GMAT test score was 330, I slowly improved, but only made it to a 580 with the Economist Test Preps, not sure if I even got over 600 in the GMAT Testprep exams. Exam Day in May 2018 and I got a 640, which I was actually quite happy with, but I knew I would need to retake it at some stage, fast forward to 2020.
I purchased the Economist GMAT Prep (6 months) software in November 2019 again, as I thought I should probably start anew and for the very first Economist test I thought I was right, but then it kind of went downhill. That said, I did not want to take time off work, but rather studied during weekends. Sidenote: I purchased eGMAT as well, but just gave up using it, clunky software, just wasn't for me. Here are my stats:
March 7th 2020: 680 Q42 V41 (Economist)
March 8th 2020: 560 Q41 V26 (Economist)
March 14th 2020: 640 Q42 V35 (GMAT)
March 22nd 2020: 540 Q32 V35 (Economist - I don't really count this one due to a glitch in the Verbal section and I could tell during the exam that I messed up in Q).
March 29th 2020: 610 Q45 V29 (Economist)
April 13th 2020: 680 Q43 V40 (Economist)
April 19th 2020: 590 Q46 V25 (Economist)
April 25th 2020: 600 Q39 V34 (Manhattan Prep)
May 10th 2020: 600 Q44 V29 (GMAT)
When I look at this I see an inconsistency in my Verbal and I believe that this is where I need to improve (do you agree and if so, what can I do?) Now, for my time-management regarding Quant and Verbal, for Quant it is kind of all over the place but I am much more consistent in my Verbal. But sadly in Quant I usually have to rush at the end, sometimes missing the last question - I know, big NoNo.
I have tried an error log a while back, but there was no specific pattern for Verbal and Quant, apart from 10/30 Questions being Data Sufficiency Questions (various topics).
The story goes on, on 30th of April I took the online GMAT. What a roller coaster, the exam crashed the moment I clicked on the whiteboard, the proctor restarted it, but the time kept ticking. I probably lost 5 minutes, but completed the exam up until the last IR question, then it crashed again. Now I am still stuck somewhere in the review process before I get to find out my score.
As they were opening test-centers again in Europe last week I booked a date right away to "get it over and done with", just to mention, I still don't think that I have burned out, but the GMAT has become such an integral part of my life, that it is nearly difficult not to study every day anymore.
I took the exam in the test-center yesterday. Of course I was nervous and anxious, the test center was new to me, but Covid-19 regulations actually helped to overcome the anxiety as I was 1 out of only 3 test takers. Same strategy as always V,Q,IR. The result: 570. I am not even sure what my score was but I believe Q35 V32 (if that adds up) as I cancelled it. Verbal felt difficult and Quant ended up feeling so easy mid-way that I was almost convinced I performed badly. However, for IR I was in the 71st Percentile (I never took it in my prep exams because I followed a structure of V,Q,IR), not sure if that information means anything.
Thank you for reading and I would appreciate any advice that you might have. I am not really sure what to do a this stage so I was going to review OG Verbal Questions I got wrong and just practice. Thanks again!
14 May 2020, 11:07
Kudos
Bookmarks
Well the journey to one's target score is never easy in GMAT. The inconsistencies is what getting you at the end. To improve your speed, I'll suggest you to start solving the section within 70% time intervals during the practice CATs.
Like for example in Q, you should try solving 32 questions within 50 minutes. If you dont know an answer just learn to guess the best answer within the time and that would help you to increase your speed in the actual tesdt as well.
Ankush
Awarding kudos never hurt.
Like for example in Q, you should try solving 32 questions within 50 minutes. If you dont know an answer just learn to guess the best answer within the time and that would help you to increase your speed in the actual tesdt as well.
Ankush
Awarding kudos never hurt.
14 May 2020, 12:17
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi JoPro,
I’m sorry to hear about how things have been going with your GMAT. I think the first thing to realize is that you have made some really good progress between when you started in 2018 to now. The issue is that you have been unable to get over the hump, right? Furthermore, since your quant and verbal scores have been somewhat inconsistent, it’s a sign that you have numerous weak areas in both quant and verbal that must be addressed. Thus, to find and fix those weak areas, moving forward, you should follow a linear and structured study plan that allows you to learn each GMAT quant and verbal topic individually and then practice each topic until you’ve gained mastery. Let me expand on this idea further.
If you are learning about Number Properties, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.
When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.
Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.
Follow a similar routine for verbal. For example, let’s say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken The Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each question type, do focused practice, so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.
When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. Keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to analyze such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the New York Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.
Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects.
Regarding what you know, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not really a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning the grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending less than two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and none of those reasons are that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey logical meanings. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice until you start to see the differences that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to take the time to see the differences between answers and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off, and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could do differently to extend your streak.
As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you will want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find it helpful to read the following article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!
I’m sorry to hear about how things have been going with your GMAT. I think the first thing to realize is that you have made some really good progress between when you started in 2018 to now. The issue is that you have been unable to get over the hump, right? Furthermore, since your quant and verbal scores have been somewhat inconsistent, it’s a sign that you have numerous weak areas in both quant and verbal that must be addressed. Thus, to find and fix those weak areas, moving forward, you should follow a linear and structured study plan that allows you to learn each GMAT quant and verbal topic individually and then practice each topic until you’ve gained mastery. Let me expand on this idea further.
If you are learning about Number Properties, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.
When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.
Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.
Follow a similar routine for verbal. For example, let’s say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken The Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each question type, do focused practice, so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.
When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. Keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to analyze such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the New York Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.
Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects.
Regarding what you know, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not really a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning the grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending less than two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and none of those reasons are that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey logical meanings. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice until you start to see the differences that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to take the time to see the differences between answers and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off, and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could do differently to extend your streak.
As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you will want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find it helpful to read the following article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!
