ESR Analysis Required - Did really bad!

Question

Good morning folks!

I can't post URLs or attachments. But, would love to share my ESR with any expert willing to take a look.

I have done AWFUL on Verbal. This kinda came to me as a surprise as I have been doing well on Practice Tests.

My scores on e-GMAT mocks were pretty decent (710 and 660 - ignoring the first one as I have taken that 25% into my prep). In addition to this on GMAT Practice test scores I have got the following scores

Practise test 6 - 730
Practise test 5 - 680
Practise test 1 - 710
Practise test 2 - 690

I see I have done pretty bad on SC and CR. I shouldn't have faltered on SC at least. Beats me how I managed to do that. Maybe anxiety?

Can one of the experts go through my ESR and give me any pointers that might help in my future preparation. If a short 15 mins call is something you guys have a time for I would love to get in touch with you too.

I really value GMAT Club as a community in helping MBA aspirants like me and would love to keep contributing in discussions more as I work to improve my score to 740 (my target).

Best,
Sriram.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi sparavas,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT. Since you know that you struggled with SC and CR, would you like some general advice on how to improve in those sections?

sparavas · Answer

Scott,

Sure. I would love to hear any suggestions to improve my SC and CR.

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sriram,

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) How did you score on the Official GMAT (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)? When did you take the Exam and was it the At-home GMAT or did you take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
3) What study materials have you used so far?
4) On what 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)?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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). Since you have your ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you. Before you can include attachments with your posts/PMs, you need to have at least 5 posts in the forums (right now, you have just 3 posts). If you would rather not go through those extra steps right now, then you can feel free to email me directly (at Rich.C@empowergmat.com)

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

sparavas · Answer

Rich, I have emailed you with ESR attached and with all the answers to the questions you posted above.

I look forward to your expertise.

Best,
Sriram.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sriram,

I've sent you an email with an analysis of your ESR and some additional questions.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

When studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various question types. Do you know the importance of an assumption within an argument? Can you easily spot a conclusion? Do you know how to resolve a paradox? Do you know how to properly evaluate cause and effect? Do you know how to properly weaken or strengthen an argument? These are just a few examples; you really need to take a deep dive into the individual Critical Reasoning topics to develop the necessary skills to properly attack any Critical Reasoning questions that you encounter.

As you learn each Critical Reasoning problem type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you incorrectly answered a Weaken the Argument question, 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. 
 
Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to 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. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning 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 meanings that make sense. 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 repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices 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 put in the necessary 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.

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ESR Analysis Required - Did really bad!

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