Depressed_Fresher_Very Low Verbal Score

Question

This is my first post in this forum. I am having a nervous breakdown. I gave a mock test today and scored really badly. 
 Background: 
- Engineer
- I am a very slow reader (always have) 
- Non-native speaker

I started preparing for GMAT 3 months ago. My GMAT journey so far: 
 1st Month - I scored 320 on my diagnostic test. I am a non-native speaker. I knew my verbal score will be low. I completed CR, SC, and RC from manhattan books in the first 15 days of prep. I started practicing through OG soon after that. I read that I need to focus initially on getting answers correct but with that strategy, I am not able to attend to all the questions in the exam. The first month, I had spent 6-7 hrs practicing as my workload was very less. My scores were 410 (V12 Q23), 490 (V17 Q42), 590 (V27, Q44)

2nd & 3rd Month  - Due to work pressure, I was able to spend hardly 1-2 hrs daily. My scores had been dropping every week since then. I think stress is taking over me. I am not able to sleep properly. I am not able to balance GMAT and job. I felt like someone took away a chance to complete my dream. I am losing confidence day by day. I don't know how to reduce test anxiety (started meditation but not helping).I wasn't paying attention to quant in last one month. I know I can improve it to Q49-50. I am really worried about my verbal score. I am not able to guage my current level. These are my scores in the last month - 570 (V26, Q42), 530 (V21, Q42), 470, 430, 450 (Verbal scores are dropping day by day)

Prep Strategy so far: 
I am preparing through OG only. I am following GMAT club since day 1. I read each and every solution of wrong answers in the GMAT club. To build a strong foundation, I knew that I have to spend time on both right and wrong answers. I followed it religiously. I have built sufficient knowledge in verbal. I can even solve hard questions (50% accuracy). But I am confused between 2 options most of the time. I also review error logs sometimes.

After 2 months, I feel lost in my preparation. I read a lot of articles and debriefs on GMAT club at the time in hopes of figuring out how to deal with this situation. Now I am confused about which plan to follow. Whether I should focus on easy questions or hard questions. Not planning to join any traditional coaching/ online classes. Will not prefer mass level teaching. I feel hiring a personal tutor would help me. It would be great If someone can recommend any personal tutor.Goal: My Target score is 680+, 2021 intake

Russ19 · Answer

Hi Gmatninja is the best tutor on this platform. You can find some of his video lessons in the link here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmat-nin ... l#p2396353

homersimpsons · Answer

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hellohelloehello · Answer

I think your approach on reviewing all the answer options is a smart way to learn. I have spent a year to study for the GMAT and finally get a 100 point increase to mid 600 range. May be I can give you a few tips.

1. Don't do mock exam. The purpose of mock exam is to pace yourself to make sure you can complete the exam within time limit. Focus on practice questions instead.
2. Practice Verb and Quant each day. Some people like to focus on one section each day and that's not a good approach. We should have a balance between everything everyday. 
3. Yes, you are right to find a tutor to help you. One on One tutoring is always the best, but it comes with money. I am unable to introduce my teachers to you as I learnt it in a foreign language. 
4. Not being a native speaker of english is not an excuse to do very badly for verb as there are a lot of non native speaker taking the test too and they can come out with a decent score. 
5. Again, don't use your practice test score to judge yourself. I often score 50-51 for Quant in practice test and the actual exam score is only 42-44. If you want to know where you stand, take an actual test.
6. Memorise vocab and do more readings to improve the reading speed. 
7. Many people are confused between 2 options, that's why GMAT is tricky. They purposely make it difficult to tell between 2 options. That's where critical thinking is required. 
8. When you said you can get 50% of the hard questions correct, did you set a time for yourself and complete the question within time limit? GMAT is also an exam on speed. It means nothing if the test taker can answer a difficult question correct when he uses 10min to answer one question. Many people can do that in 10min but not within time limit.

Hope the above points can help.

Posted from my mobile device

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Sneha,

Not doing the preparation in the right way can result in the wastage of lot of time and effort. I see that you are struggling with the GMAT preparation and are looking for an expert's guidance. I can definitely help you with that. But, before suggesting you any plan, I would like to understand your concerns in detail so that I can figure out the right study plan for you.

We do provide personal tutoring for students who seek an expert's guidance and one-on-one personal attention. We do understand that every student has one's own concerns and requirements. So, we focus more on making the preparation more personalized and adaptive. And the first step in that process is to know your concerns and the way you have approached your preparation till now. You can use the below link to get in touch with me. Looking forward to helping you achieve your dream GMAT score.

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Sneha2021 · Answer

Would like to thank everyone for responding to my post. Really appreciate your time. I see a ray of hope.

iverson76ers  - Thank you for sharing the valuable tips. 
1. The purpose of giving mock was to check the time limit. As mentioned earlier, I am a slow reader and end up skipping some questions (mostly one RC or last few questions). I still don't know how to manage time. If you could share some tips, that would be great. 
3.I heard a lot about e-gmat. Do you think it's helpful at this stage? Should I spend next one month building knowledge/courses and then resume practicing. 
4. I agree that a lot of non native speaker have come out with a decent score. I want to understand how much time will it take to achieve the desired score (It will help me to prepare mentally) 
8. For hard questions, initially I used to spend 7-8 min in CR and 3-4 min in SC. Now I am able to solve CR hard questions in 3-4 minutes (50% accuracy) and easy questions in 2.5 min. I have reduced RC timing from 13-14 mins to 8-9 mins for short passage (60-70%). Nowadays I am not confident in easy and medium questions. I used to solve easy with 80-90% accuracy and medium with 60-70% accuracy. To be very honest, I am confused with the preparation. I don't how to proceed.

vamshikaithi · Answer

Hi Sneha, It's not the questions you have to focus on. Instead, focus on the right methods and strategies. I know that it looks very vague it in the initial stages. But GMAT has a certain way to approach it. I scored a V26 in my first GMAT attempt. I thought just the concepts and practice would be enough but I was wrong. Only when I started focusing on the right methods and strategies, I was able to eliminate the four incorrect answer choices and choose the right one. I eventually improved my score to V38. I have made a couple of debriefs regarding my GMAT journey which you might find helpful. Debrief of my journey from 570 to 720 https://gmatclub.com/forum/my-journey-f ... l#p2648110 Scoring a perfect CR 51 ( 97 percentile ) from being an amateur in CR https://gmatclub.com/forum/scoring-a-pe ... l#p2526853 I suggest you to focus on the process instead of just just solving questions. Because I have done that before and didn't see any progress. Practicing 700 level questions is not the ideal way to improve your score. Identify what's going wrong. Analyze all the quizzes and mocks you have taken till. Go through the solutions carefully. Use a standard resource if you are not using any. I hope it helped. All the best

hellohelloehello · Answer

Alright, since you said that the reason you do the mock exam is to pace yourself, then it is fine. But I think you shouldn't spend the time to pace yourself at this point because the most important thing is to get the questions right first. Once you have made the improvement, then you go back to attempt the mock exam to pace yourself. The reason is simple, if you don't get the questions right, is the timing still important? And as you practice and make the improvement, you will be able to complete the questions faster, so there is no need to pace yourself at this point. The only time when you can pace yourself is 2 weeks before you take the actual test.

I don't know about e-gmat, but I think you can check it out online to see what people said.

When I studied for GMAT, people said on an average, each candidate spent 100-200 hours in total to prepare the exam. But in my case, I would say I have easily spent more than 1000 hours on GMAT. I have attempted about 2000 math questions at least including get to know the correct answering approach to those wrong questions.

I would said that don't waste time on doing easy questions, just go ahead with medium to difficult questions. The average time to spend on a question is total time / total question.

There is no easy way out. Most people spend 100 - 200 hours on GMAT, but may be I am a less competent student, that's why I spent more than 1000 hour on GMAT. But it doesn't matter. Just keep trying until you succeed.

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