confused how to plan my future

Question

Hello
I started my preparation for gmat around march 2020.I left job during covid time for GMAT preparation.I attempted 2 times til now but no use.My scores are 570 and 560.
1st attempt(Oct, 2020)-570 Q47,V23
2nd attempt(Aug,2021)-560 Q49,V19
Within these 2 years i joined E-GMAT,Gmatwhiz,crackisb(hyderabad), and attempted mock tests of Experts global and gmatprep.
After my first attempt again i tried once again to clear gmat.From last 2 years i prepared for only gmat at home
My scores in Gmatprep:
mock 1-710(Q50,V36)
mock 2-730(Q50,V39)
mock 3-740(Q51,V38)
mock 4-680(Q50,V31)
mock 5-710(Q50,V36)
mock 6-670(Q49,V31)
Finished all gmat prep questions and mocks.
I attempted 13 mocks tests of experts global.Even in these mock tests i consistently scored in between 660 to 700.
After attempting so many mock tests still in final exam not able to cross 600.
I am not understanding whats going wrong with me in final exam.
I expected a lot in my 2nd attempt.I invested lot of money and time for gmat preparation.
I lost confidence on myself.My academics are also good.I have done Mtech in structural engineering from IIT ROORKEE.
My reading skills are not so great.I have to read slowly to understand the meaning.If i read fast i can't understand the meaning of the sentence.
How should i improve my reading skills.What should i do now.I feel that i have wasted 2 years and lot of money.I got 2 years break from work.
I am hopeless now.I got saturation level.please suggest me what to do next and how to start my prep and when to start.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi mandadi5raaaj,

I'm sorry to hear about what has been going on with your GMAT.

Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than V19. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

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 articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

mandadi5raaaj · Answer

Hello sir.
Thanks for your reply .please suggest me how to improve my vocabulary and reading skills and how to prepare for verbal.Need experts advice

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mandadi5raaaj,

I'm sorry to hear that your 2 attempts did not turn out as well as hoped. 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:

Studies:
1) Prior to each attempt, were you studying on a consistent schedule (or were there large periods of time 'off' from your studies?)? Approximately how many hours do you typically study each week?
2) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
3) What is your overall goal score?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

If you took either of your 2 Official attempts at a Test Center, then you might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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 purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

SalahT · Answer

Vocabulary: Personally I had the same issues. I haven't learn any vocabulary by memorizing a list/ dictionary. Because of two reasons 1.GMAT doesn't test vocabulary. 2.No matter how much I memorize I seem to forget them anyway

However, What I am doing, is when I read or write any GMAT question, I mark any unknown words / any misspelled words and add those in a personalized list. This is my own list and these are the only vocab I need for GMAT. By following this strategy after solving 1000s of official and unofficial questions one should have enough vocabulary to get a good score in GMAT. So far I am having less vocabulary issues day by day. This is my strategy, you can pick up if you like. I welcome any opinion about my strategy. Reading: There is no way of avoiding you need to read more to get efficient. Read this excellent RC reading guide by BB " Books to Read (Improve Verbal Score and Enjoy a Good Read) "

EducationAisle · Answer

Do you have a ESR for your latest attempt that you can post here?

confused how to plan my future

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