ESR Analysis PLEASE -need guidance on way forward

Question

Dear all,
I took my first GMAT on July 26,2023 and ended up with a disappointing score of 640(V28/Q49).
My performance in various mock tests(in chronological order):
GMAT official mock 1 : 650 (Q43, V30)  
GMAT official mock 2: 680 (Q50, V31)  
GMAT official mock 3: 670 (Q49, V32)  
GMAT official mock 1 Reattempt: 710(Q50, V31)  
GMAT official mock 2 Reattempt: 760(Q50, V31)  
MGMT Mock 1 : 640 (Q43, V34)  
GMAT official mock 4: 640 (Q50,V27)  
GMAT Exam: 640 (Q49, V28)

I ordered ESR. I found that I have scored at 30th percentile in Critical Reasoning, way below the mean score(I used to get 70 percentile in mocks). I am sure I can do bad in CR but this was my worst!
I have been preparing for GMAT for last 4 months from April till July. I prepared for 1-2 hours daily on weekdays and 4-5 hours on saturday and sunday.

Materials used:
OG, OG Verbal Review and gmatclub.

My target is 730. I have attached my ESR. Experts please kindly help me with your inputs on how I should improve my score and what materials I should use. I am planning to retake GMAT in two and half months.

Bunuel 
 nightblade354 
 GMATNinja 
 KarishmaB 
 ScottTargetTestPrep 
 bb 
 EMPOWERgmatRichC 
 MartyTargetTestPrep 
 GmatTutorKnight 
 AndrewN

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Average question time per Verbal quarter: 2:12 2:19 1:43 0:41

Using question/time markers may be helpful for time management. Have suggested Manhattan-Prep's 6th Edition for SC and CR. If you feel your fundamentals are solid, consider working on your solving approach. May boost your score a bit. Had a student who went from a similar score (v31) to a v40 in about 30 days on a retake for example. Perhaps work with a study buddy who is really strong on CR. There's a study buddy thread on gmatclub you can check out/sign up to.

5 Verbal tips

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  thelastskybender . Even without an ESR, you should deduce from your results on official practice tests that your Verbal performance falls within a predictable range of 30 +/- 2 points (that 27 could be considered an outlier). I am pretty sure you mistyped that V31 for the reattempted mock that resulted in a 760, as that combination of sub-scores would lead to a lower score. What you ought to consider now is that there is no single best resource that can get you to where you want to be. Any way you look at the matter, you will have to spend a lot of time reviewing questions you have missed. Until you understand why you pursued an incorrect line of reasoning, you will be way more prone to repeat those mistakes, whether you practice a handful of questions a day or a hundred. (In fact, I would argue that it would be worse to practice a greater volume of questions, since you would have so many more opportunities to reinforce bad habits.) When you review, you want to stop focusing on the correct answer. That is too easy, and all you will achieve is a bit of memorization. You might even create a false rule that if you see such-and-such a pattern in a question, the answer will be similar to one you have encountered in a different question. Such a strategy will only work for easier questions. Also, work from the ground up and leave 700-level questions alone until you can reliably achieve greater than 90 percent accuracy on Easy questions and 80 percent accuracy on Medium questions, per official categorization. Too many people prioritize Hard questions, which often deviate from easy-to-spot patterns, when the backbone of a strong score is Medium questions. Mess up on those, and you will dig yourself a hole on the exam that might take five more questions to get out of, and you can even run of space to prove yourself: there are only 36 questions in the Verbal section, after all.

You might consider checking out the resources found in the signature of any post by  GMATNinja , particularly the collections. You can read articles or check out videos if you prefer that method of learning. You should probably study in earnest across the board. You might have performed poorly on CR questions on your last exam, but CR and RC questions are related, and it is rare that someone will get all of one question set correct while doing poorly on the other. Finally, if you want to practice new questions, GMAT Club can be an excellent resource for looking up questions from older sources. Try the  Practice Question Banks . Just do not fall into the habit of forcing yourself to complete x questions a day. My guess is that you have done that already. Try something different, maybe no more than five CR or SC questions or perhaps a single RC passage, and then revisit each question by the end of the week to pick it apart. You can grow by leaps and bounds with a more focused approach. By coincidence, I have seen two people earn exactly a 730 after studying nothing more than Easy and Medium questions, people who at first were hammering through all the hardest questions they could find and not getting the results they wanted. When you develop a sound approach to Verbal questions by sticking to the fundamentals, you will prepare yourself to take on more challenging material. The process works from the ground up, not the other way around.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi thelastskybender.

It sounds as if you have mostly practiced for Verbal and not thoroughly studied concepts and strategies. So, maybe you need to work on your Verbal fundamentals to achieve your goal.

For some key tips on how to increase your Verbal score, see this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyyPP9XQBxI

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi thelastskybender,

To start, a 640/Q49 is a solid Score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement (and the more time that you have to act on that advice, the better). There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for - and before we discuss the data in your ESR - it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) Have you used any other study materials besides the ones that you listed?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]
www.empowergmat.com

KarishmaB · Answer

One thing that stands out - you spent too much time on one very hard question in the second quarter and got it wrong. What that does is throw you off your game in the entire rest of the section. You had no time left in the fourth quarter and likely guessed on most questions. You perhaps spent your time on the easy ones and that was a good call.
If you are struggling with a question that seems hard to you, guess and move on within your budgeted time, especially in verbal. Spending too much time on it will not work in either case - whether you get it right or wrong. 
If you get it right, the algo throws an even harder question at you and you struggle even more and spend even more time on it. This means you are not left with any time for the later part of the section and you will miss easy questions which will give you heavy penalties and your score will drop below your achievable score.
If you get it wrong, you wasted time and still got the same penalty that you would have had you moved on quickly. 
Work on your verbal from a test prep course to understand the nuances of various question types.

You did have a similar time management problem in Quant too.
Focus a bit on sets, stats and sequences. Incorrect questions were mostly of highest difficulty (which is great and hence the good score) but you did spend too much time on them. Hence, you dropped some easy questions in fourth quarter and that likely impacted your score a bit. Perhaps you would have seen a Q50-51 had that not been the case.
You can review sets, stats and sequences.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi thelastskybender,

Since it's clear that CR could use a boost, here is a great article you can check out:

GMAT Critical Reasoning: 8 Essential Tips

ESR Analysis PLEASE -need guidance on way forward

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