First mock - 690. SC tanked my verbal score.

Question

Hi all,

I need some advice. After months of studying with Target Test Prep, which I used for quant and verbal, I took my first official mock today and got 690 (q49, v34). I am very disappointed with my verbal score but at least I know where my weaknesses are. I failed to get medium-level SC questions right and this prevented me from seeing harder CR and RC questions. For context, I never struggled to hit my accuracy goals with TTP or OG. While SC was weaker than the three, I managed decent accuracy while solving OG 2022 questions. IMO, my problem is not being able to get medium-level SC questions consistently right. The funny thing is, I manage hard questions just fine. For example, while watching a GMAT Ninja video dedicated to achieving an elite verbal score, I was able to get 5 of the 6 700+ level questions right. Also with my practice sets, I was getting a decent chunk of hard SC questions right. I know it is not representative, but I am trying to say is I don't seem to struggle with the meaning necessary for a +40 score. Or I might be wrong on this, who knows? Maybe I don't have strong grammatical foundations yet. I also have to mention that I struggle with timing on SC questions. While doing the mock I did my best not to spend more than 1.5 minutes per question, without the time pressure it takes me about 2-2.5 minutes to comfortably answer these types of questions. Perhaps constraining myself to 1.5 minutes/question hurt my accuracy.

What do you think I should do? Since TTP covers grammatical concepts pretty well I am not sure going through the same concepts via different providers or book(s) will help me. I have Manhattan verbal book and Aristotle SC and they all seem to cover the pretty much same basic concepts that I went over multiple times. Do you think my case is particular and for that, I need to hire a tutor?

I also would love to hear your suggestions and tips for getting my quant score to 50.

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to provide some context.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Ea306.

I noticed this.

What is "decent accuracy"?

Kushchokhani · Answer

Hi  Ea306

Based on my experience, I would suggest you to use GMAT Club's Practice question banks or Forum Quiz and try to solve 10 SC Ques (mix of medium and hard difficulty) in 16 mins for few days, then gradually increase the quantity to 15 and then 20 SC Ques in 24 mins and 32 mins respectively. Trust this may help in your case.

Further, Math Revolution has a money-back guarantee of improving Quants score. Please check out on their website.

pintukr · Answer

Forum Quiz provides 'ideal' practice Questions, nicely segregated into various difficlty levels..

Ea306 · Answer

hi, MartyTargetTestPrep Hope you are doing well. I am a big fan

By decent accuracy, I mean 74% accuracy on SC questions in the OG 2022. Unfortunately, the Wiley platform does not allow me to see the exact breakdown per difficulty level. I tried to attach several screenshots of the analytics tab from TTP and OG but I am unable to since I haven't made any posts on the forum before. To sum up, my SC accuracy in TTP stands at 85% with an average time of 2 mins 44 seconds per question. For the vast majority of practice sets on TTP, I was able to hit the stated accuracy goals (+740 content) the first time. Though several months passed since I finished the SC module, I went over my notes at regular intervals. So, I don't think I am forgetting the concepts. I seem to fail at the consistent application of those concepts within 1.5 minutes. Before taking the mock, I was able to improve somewhat on timing but I was not hitting 1.5 minutes consistently. My comfortable range seems to be around 2 to 2.5 minutes at the moment. Please let me know if you would like to see any additional data. Best Regards, Elvin

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

OK, the thing is that, to get a V40+ score, you have to be get at least 80 percent of the medium and hard verbal questions on the test correct, so basically 90 to 100 percent of medium questions correct and 70 percent or more of hard questions correct. Meanwhile, the difficulty of OG verbal questions is not that high, and there are many easy questions in there. So, 74% on OG SC questions isn't high enough to get you to your goal.

85% on TTP probably is, but apparently, your SC skills have to be stronger for you to achieve your goal.

On another note, you don't have to answer SC questions in 1:30 each if you answer CR and RC questions fast enough. For example, my SC time per question the last time I took the GMAT was close to 1:50, but I made up for it by spending less time on CR questions. So, if doing SC questions in 1:30 each doesn't work for you, then maybe your move is to spend more time per SC question.

Regarding increasing your accuracy, and speed, in SC, you probably just need to practice more. You could do untimed, high accuracy practice and use the TTP streaks method as well. Basically, learn to do what it takes to get SC questions correct close to 100 percent of the time, and if you come across a knowledge gap that trips you up, review the concept.

Once you're getting easy, medium, and hard SC questions correct almost 100 percent of the time untimed, work on reducing the time per question while maintaining high accuracy. I think that, once you've figure out how to get questions correct all the time untimed, you'll pretty readily preserve high accuracy when doing them at test pace.

Ea306 · Answer

Thanks for the advice and tips,  MartyTargetTestPrep . Much appreciated.

Yes, I came across the streaks method. I plan to review the concepts again and apply the streaks method extensively to the whole verbal section during my preparations. Hopefully, I will achieve my dream score by the end of this year and report back.

Best Regards,

Elvin

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Sounds good. I'm excited to hear about your success!

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Consider working with a study buddy with strong Verbal skills. There is a discord group on the GMAT Knight blog with about 100 students.

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First mock - 690. SC tanked my verbal score.

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