Jinxed at 510. Is it possible?

Question

I have been out of touch with math and as such. I studied a bit and gave my gmat in june 2014.
GMAT 1 510 Q 33 V 27
I studied really hard for 3 months again and scheduled my gmat for December 2014
GMAT 2 510 Q 38 V 22
I was devastated. As I couldn't have applied anywhere with that score and decided to give one more try
I scheduled my gmat for Jan 7th 2015
GMAT 3 510 Q 40 V 20

I went through various verbal strategies on verbal on this forum. I really thought I had got my head wrapped around it for sure. But I know deep down I was guessing my SC. RC was always wrong for some reason. CR was a particular weakness.I just don't know what to do. Even though my english isn't particularly so bad. But I am getting worse at verbal. I cannot apply this year to any schools with this score. I can't help but feel like a failure. I just don't know what to do. Friends and family have started to mock me now. I just don't know where to pick up from again.

Thanks
Maitheli

Thanks Maitheli

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Methylik,

You're not the first person to take the GMAT more than once, so you shouldn't feel too bad about that. Thankfully, Business Schools don't care how many times you take the GMAT, so doing so is not a problem.

I'd like to know more about how you've been studying, since "your way" of doing things has you 'stuck' in the low-500s.

1) What resources have you used during your studies?
2) How were you scoring on your practice CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
3) What is your goal score?

The GMAT is a predictable, standardized Test, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. You've likely developed some "bad habits" during yours studies. To improve, you'll have to replace those bad habits with new "good" habits. This will likely require that you invest in some new GMAT resources and practice some new tactics.

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

Methylik · Answer

Thank you  rich  for replying. Seems like you're the only one reading my post for now.

I would like to think so too that business schools wouldn't care much about GMAT score. But isn't so. I met a few admissions advisors and informed them about my score. They didn't hesitate to tell me that I fall far from the range of score they look at. Taking someone in with such a score is not going to look good on their marketability inspite of my profile and my work experience. I am a fashion major with solid work experience. Then an entreprenuer since last 3 years. I teach and have done loads of volunteer work as well.
Now that's another story.

But here is what I have been doing. 
Quant
I studied the topics in detail first. Understood the concepts. Then used the OG 13 guide to start solving questions. I saw data suffciency, word problems as my weak point till the last. I feel till the end I was always second guessing my data sufficiency questions. But when I'd solve the same ds questions with no time I'd get them all correct. I bought Manhattan test series and Gmatclub test series. Saw myself improve significantly. But wasn't able to touch 45 and above even once.
Verbal
I studied little for this as I thought it would come easy to me. Nonetheless, I got Manhattan CR, SC, RC guides and studied all the stratgies and course material. But when I analysed my tests I realised CR was the biggest problem. Discrepency, strenghtening, Inference questins. Then RC inference questions were ALWAYS wrong. Sentence correction I am decent. But I realise I am not not sure of my answers I am always guessing sentence correction.

I did work on my weaknesses. But I just don't know how to break this barrier.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Methylik,

With your last post, I think that you've actually defined many of your problems, so you should be able to fix them. Here are the points worth noting:

1) Business Schools DO care about how high you score on the GMAT, but that was NOT what I wrote about. I wrote that they don't care how MANY TIMES you take the GMAT. Based on your response, I don't think that you read that sentence very carefully - maybe you skimmed it without paying enough attention or maybe you just misunderstood it; if this happens when you do RC and CR, then that would help to explain why you're having problems in those two categories. It would also help to explain why you can't score at a higher level in the Quant section. 'Wordy' prompts might be giving you trouble.

2) You wrote that you studied "LITTLE" for Verbal, so I'm not sure what you were expecting to happen to your Verbal scores. No Test Taker "magically" improves in the Verbal section. The Verbal section takes lots of practice (for some Test Takers, the Verbal section requires MORE practice than the Quant section does). There are patterns to that side of the Test and tactics that you can use to pick up a lot of points in that section. You need to learn those patterns and practice those tactics.

In real basic terms, it sounds like you did practice problems, but that you did not learn much in the way of strategy (beyond what you taught yourself). You need consistent, professional guidance to raise your scores, so you should consider investing in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or Instructor-Led) and you have to be ready to practice some new approaches.

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

Celestial09 · Answer

Hey!!!
This is an virute of yours which demostrates others to give a fight .. tough fight to GMAT!!!
I am with you.. and reading your posts and waiting to read how youscored 700+
which you luck

Methylik · Answer

Hi Rich, I went through your post and I admit it might be a fundamental problem that I do not read the questions that are 'wordy' carefully.

Methylik · Answer

Thanks Celestial09 for the encouragement. At least it feels like I am not alone in this.

joshnsit · Answer

Methylik, Good thing is that you are aware of your weaknesses(Bad CR/RC/Stamina). Bad news is that you are overconfident that you strength(Quant) is reliable.

There is an answer to cover up your weaknesses and strengths in your own post.

First things first, your weaknesses of Bad CR/RC/Stamina can be overcome by only focusing solely on them. I am pretty much sure that RC is the toughest and highest from weight-age perspective of marks in GMAT. The power of RC increases with the ability of RC to drop your score in a compounding fashion as they make you commit errors back to back in real GMAT. The best advice I received is to take LSAT RCs back to back till 4 hours. If you are non-native, here is the bad news, you are pushed further back because of your non-awareness of topics, diction, idioms which native speakers are well aware of. You have to push and train yourself at least to remain attentive with your dodgy mind for four hours in order to peak your performance. This should be done regularly for 21 days because it takes at least 21 days for someone to get into a habit. GMAT is just a pursuit of mastery over techniques and your abilities to focus. I am not sure about how many techniques you have come across to tackle GMAT, but "ability to focus" is something which is in your own hands. To add to this, if you are really interested to grill for CR from the scratch, go for Powerscore CR Bible.

For the Quant part, I think you are still falling in standard traps. Try to wrap up as much as GMATClub tests and focus on trap part. There are questions which are just too lengthy and too difficult to solve. But they can be left off for the time being. But do remember to revise all the tricks.

BOL

joshnsit · Answer

I can't tell how much I can empathize with your over this. I myself felt like thrown to the bottom of a well full of trash. But, I kept bouncing. Nature/God(whatever it is) doesn't allow everyone the time, environment and conditions to retry, and re-re-retry. But, looking from where I am standing as of now, it feels something accomplished which I dreamt of. Are you from India?

Methylik · Answer

Thanks BOL
I think you might be right that RC has highest weight-age in GMAT. I have started my prep. But the 21 day rule is a virtue I need to stick to. Does anyone have LSAT ebook handy?

joshnsit · Answer

Hey Methylik, I am sure about RC weight-age because I was into 90+ percentiles of accuracy in SC and 80+ percentiles in CR. But my analysis over RC accuracy was only in 50 to 60 range of percentile. My Verbal net scores in tests hovered between 30 to 38. I found in my analysis that no of questions in verbal are also on lower side than CR or SC, but still they cause a higher drop in GMAT. Further weightages analysis on my GMATPrep and GMAT scores convinced me that there is higher weightage to RC. As far as the habit formation is concerned, I must admit that I had to give up my social life, extra time, luxury time(TV, Youtube) etc for those 4 hours of continuous RC sessions for two months. Then, it became easy as I got into hang of it. Send me PM for references, if you still need LSAT ebook. I will try to find references. BTW, BOL stands for "Best OF Luck" and my profile name is joshnsit :lol:

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Jinxed at 510. Is it possible?

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