Frustration - Plateauing b/w 650 & 700 - Help / Advice Needed

Question

Hi there experts,

So I just took a mock today on Veritas and scored a 670 (V37,Q45) and i'm super frustrated. At this point, I honestly do not know how to escape this 650 to 700 zone and break past it.

Some background:  I started my GMAT prep back in 2020 January (from pretty much scratch) and took my test in mid Feb. I scored a 650. Disappointed I dropped my prep for re-take and months went by. I decided that I could not continue in my current job and career trajectory and hence I restarted by GMAT prep again in mid October 2020.

I have observed a marked changed in my conceptual clarity w.r.t. SC and even while reviewing the questions I had gotten wrong, it was more of "****, I should have looked at that" rather than "oh, I didn't know that". My CR has also improved but more often than not, I find myself relying on intuition vis-a-vis being mechanical about it (like SC).

I am still struggling with quant especially in P&C, Inequalities & Abs Value & Geometry, especially in DS. I have noticed that I am unable to visualise much of the problems, which either causes me to think very narrowly or takes too much time. On the veritas test, I noticed that I ran out of time in the Quant section for the last few questions. In my re-prep, I had not even started doing 700 plus Qs and was still at 600 to 700 and my accuracy wasn't great there either.

Honestly, I'm just struggling at this point in terms of what is the problem and what should be my road ahead. How do I go about exactly diagnosing my problem and then deciding on the way forward? I feel even more than the way forward, diagnosis bit is really imp for me at this stage so I can really pinpoint the gaps in my understanding or my approach.

Any help at this stage would be appreciated. And I'm planning to re-take in January 2021 and at this point, I can probably devote 10 to 15 hours a week to GMAT given that my work is hectic in December. Any help would be appreciated.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ravigupta2912,

We last discussed your studies back in February - and from what you describe in this recent post, you are still scoring in the same general 'range' that you were scoring in before (650 +/- a few points). This implies that you while you have kept many of the same strengths from your earlier studies, you are still making the same consistent mistakes during your CATs.

Many GMATers become too fixated on the 'implied level' of the questions that they're working on - instead of what really matters: defining WHY they're getting questions wrong and becoming more efficient at approaching the overall Exam. It's also worth noting that just because a 3rd party describes a question as "700 level" does not necessarily make it so. You're actually closer to a 700+ than you probably realize, but you likely developed some 'bad habits' during your prior studies that are keeping you from scoring higher (and will take time to fix - and replace with new 'good habits'). Thankfully, the GMAT is the same consistent, predictable Exam that it has always been, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

Since it's been about 9 months since we discussed your studies, I have a few questions about your recent studies and your current goals:

Studies:
1) What study materials are you currently using?
2) Since you restarted your studies in October, 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) Back in February, your Score Goal was 720+? Is that still your Score Goal or has that Goal changed? 
4) For your next attempt, are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
5) Are you planning to apply to Business School in early 2021? If you are, then what specific application deadlines are you facing?

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

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your post. To answer your questions

1) I practice only on GMAT club. I have an aristotle sentence correction guide, which I refer to and put my flash cards in (for SC). I don’t practice RC at all, since I feel its not very different from CR and as long as I maintain my concentration about the text I’m reading, I’m in good stead. For CR, I refer gmat club though I have used the power score bible in the past. For quant, again, I’m only referring to gmat club and the GMAT club math book.

2) I restarted in mid Oct and the first few weeks were spent mostly in brushing up the previous concepts etc. I’ve only taken (Yesterday on Veritas) 1 mock since I started my reprep.

Goals
1) still that goal i.e. 720+
2) planning to take it at a test facility (most likely)
3) apart from ESMT Berlin (April 21 as the early bird deadline) and a few other schools, most of my planned schools (HEC, LBS, Judge, Said, SDA etc) have deadlines in Sept / Oct. However, I would like to be finished with my GMAT in Jan and work on other aspects of my application after that.

Thank you Rich. Please advice as to how do I diagnose my problem? The standard methods are not working for me.

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ravigupta2912,

670 is a good start! To improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you have to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.

You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you had to know to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.

So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find my article with more information regarding  how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ravigupta2912,

To start, studying for the GMAT now - far in advance of when you will actually "need" your Score - is a smart choice.

Many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores. From what you described about your studies so far, you only studied for 1.5 months before your 1st GMAT (in February) and you've only recently restarted your studies (which was about 1.5 months ago). Thus, since you have not yet put in 3 straight months of study, you might naturally over time as you continue to hone your skills. That having been said, it is not clear what you are doing differently at this point. I have no doubt that you've worked through lots of practice questions - but if you are approaching GMAT prompts in the same ways that you did back in January and February, then it's not surprising that your Scores have not changed much. To consistently score at the 720+ level, you're going to have to focus on learning and practicing some specific Quant and Verbal Tactics.

"Review" is an exceptionally important part of the GMAT training process; your ability to define WHY you're getting questions wrong is essential to defining the areas that you need to work on (and the specific things that you need to 'fix'). As such, I'd like to know a bit more about your recent CAT. While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):

After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Ravi,

I understand that GMAT prep can be frustrating at times. It's just that you have to do the prep in the right way. If you do it right, you can finish it off in a few months. But to do that, you need to first understand what's holding your score back.  Because the first step in the process of improving your score is to identify your weak areas.
 
But I understand that you are not really clear about your weak areas. Don't worry!! I'll definitely help you with that. The best way would be to connect over a zoom conference call and solve a few questions together.  This way I can understand the flaw in your approach and identify which areas you are weak in and based on that make a proper study plan . I'm sure you must be mostly struggling with the application because a score of 670 indicates that you have good understanding of the concepts. So, if you wish to get in touch, you can use the below link to schedule a call.

Click here to schedule a call

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Hi Rich, Thanks for your post again. It is in the "review" process that I am struggling since beyond a point, I am not able to correctly diagnose the problem and hence take course correct. Diagnosis in terms of whether the approach is wrong or conceptual clarity is missing or some mental visualisation trick is missing, etc etc.

I have tried to review all questions and I have attached detailed list for your reference along with my remarks (whether it was a silly mistake or Q was too hard or i had to guess).

Thank you so much for talking to me through this, Rich. I really appreciate this.

Regards,
Ravi

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Thank you for commenting. I have scheduled a call. Thank you again for responding. Appreciate this.

Regards,
Ravi

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Hi Scott, thank you for your detailed explanation. I know TargetTestPrep is a great team. I have read through debriefs of  dcummins  and I have immense respect for you guys. I agree with your post and I generally try and follow through while prepping for Verbal or Quant. Yet, atleast for verbal, I have seen myself getting stuck and unable to correctly diagnose and fix the problem.

While I have gotten somewhat mechanical in SC (compared to my Feb 20 prep), I lack the same rigor in CR and RC (derivative of CR imo!). And I have tried hard to do that but I feel I am unable to do so. Usually I pre-think my answers and go along with them and it usually works.

My quant is seriously week and needs work. I struggle with P&C, Inequalities & Abs Values, and Geometry. And i seriously do not know how to rectify those. While I may be "broadly aware" of the concepts, the application bit is something I am really struggling with, though I am trying to practice that as well.

What i'm lacking right now, or what i feel I am, is correct diagnosis and the way forward from such diagnosis.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello, Ravi. Apologies for getting to this later than I would have liked to, but I am still catching up after a power outage in my area that lasted more than a day. I have crossed paths with you in the forum quite a bit, so I feel I have some insight into how you have been practicing. My advice falls in line with what Rich said earlier about review: spend more time understanding what makes the wrong answers incorrect, particularly in Verbal. And play a little game with yourself when it comes to practice. Either hit certain benchmarks for accuracy at a certain level of difficulty or stay at that level. Start with Easy (humble yourself... Easy questions are not to be taken for granted) and take on just five questions of, say, CR. If you hit five out of five, then  the next day , you can allow yourself to graduate to a Medium set, where you are allowed to miss one question to graduate in subsequent practice to Hard for that question type. Sure, you can practice just  boldface  CR, or weaken or strengthen questions, and so on, but unless you have a definite weakness with a certain question type, you can mix them up to keep your practice more stimulating. When you miss a question, STOP. That is, once you have completed the set, go back and research what makes that question tick. Look it up on the forum and read over posts until you find one or a few that resonate with you. If there are none, then request an Expert reply. The biggest mistakes I see people make concerning Verbal practice are blitzing through questions, in hopes of achieving mastery through exposure, and looking over those they have missed only as deep as skimming the OE for the  correct  answer and, possibly, the wrong answer they chose. This kind of study is nonproductive, and you will keep making the same mistakes. I like to say that if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten. More questions are not the answer. Review and tightly controlled practice can lead to major shifts in understanding.

Regarding Quant, you can read through either index posted by   Bunuel   in his signature: the Megathread or All You Need. Both are excellent places to start to brush up on fundamentals. Of course, you are also welcome to try any of the various online learning modules, which I think can help students more on the Quant side by progressing through concepts one by one. Again, you will have to take the time to understand why you are missing questions, and you had better be paying attention to your accuracy across  official  Easy, Medium, and Hard questions, or you can easily waste a lot of time wading through a sea of random questions before picking up on any helpful trends. Are you making careless mistakes when you understand the concept? Do you have trouble with a certain topic? Is the phrasing of a question or a vital piece of information throwing you off? You have to get to the bottom of what is causing you to miss any question you miss in order to understand how to fix that issue.

That is where I would start if I were you. By coaching students in the manner I have outlined above, I have seen some major turnarounds. Remember to treat each question as an opportunity to learn, not as a way to inflate your ego. Leave those Hard questions alone until you have earned the right to lay eyes on them. Your score will increase beyond 700 in no time if you get your performance in order on Easy and Medium questions, trust me.

Good luck.

- Andrew

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ravigupta2912,

I've sent you a PM with some additional notes and questions.

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

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