GMAT 640 (Q48, V31, IR6) - Reappearing in 4 weeks - Target 720+

Question

Hi. I appeared for GMAT on 30th July and scored 640 (Q48, V31, IR6). I prepared using OG18 and e-gmat verbal course. Given 6 GMAT Prep mocks and scored as below -

1. 640 (Q46, V31) - 23 April 18
2. 590 (Q45, V26) - 06 May 18
3. 690 (Q49, V35) - 15 July 18
4. 690 (Q49, V34) - 19 July 18
5. 680 (Q50, V31) - 22 July 18
6. 580 (Q48, V23) - 26 July 18

My last mock went really bad and I think the same impacted me days before GMAT. I also mismanged timings in second half of verbal section, had to guess through last RC which was followed by 3 more questions.

My verbal performce has been fluctuating very much with out any clear weak areas. I performed better in 2 out 3 sections in different mocks.

Need advice how to approch now before reattempt. Which materials should I use now and which mock test?

Looking forward to expert guidance.

Best
Asif

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GMATbuster92 · Answer

you have mentioned that you have used e-gmat verbal course, have you contacted them with your queries? and how they responded .Also share your GMAT detailed analysis , it would help others to understand your weak areas.

AkshdeepS · Answer

Hi,
 
You should have not attempted any mock in the last week. It really drains the mind. Changing strategy at this time may not come handy. Your Verbal score is quite decent and you must focus on same strategies, perhaps need better time management. Taking any new course at this time may make you vulnerable to loss of time and confidence. Better to go with same strategies and better management. Fill gaps of topics that are weakest.

All the best.

Akshdeep

Arro44 · Answer

Hey buddy,

it looks like you have a great quant foundation and just need to tidy up some things in the verbal section.

With regards to Verbal there are a couple of options:

1. Check out the SC specific threads on this forum, some of them (generally those with a lot of kudos) are very helpful

2. Listen to some of the videos on the YT chanel from Veritas, Magoosh and GmatNinja
These YT videos and their respective explanations have been very helpful for me so far

3. Maybe check out the link in my signature, it adresses some verbal topics in general.

All the best for your prep my friend,
Chris

asifh · Answer

I found e-gmat course pretty straight forward and was able to understand their solutions easily.

I am unable to upload my ESR. Let me check the issue and get back.

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CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

I think this was just one of your off days. Having said that you will have to improve & be more consistent if you have get to your target of 720+.

I wish you all the very best for your next attempt.

asifh · Answer

Hi Akshdeep.

Great advice. I would have given the same advice to anyone else who was in same situation.

Still I need to practice more questions in my weak areas of verbal and to furthen strengthen my quant. Can you suggest any good practice resource for both?

Looking forrward to more help. Thanks

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asifh · Answer

Thanks Chris. I will certainly look into these.

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AkshdeepS · Answer

I would suggest you to go for only official questions for Verbal at this stage. You can also try LSAT questions from GC club as here we have several separate threads for LSAT questions. You can also buy GMAT prep question pack for some nominal price from mba.com. For quant, you can use GMAT club questions to your advantage as GC's math questions are perfectly crafted by Bunuel. Try to work on RC regularly without missing a day. Hopefully you will crack the 700 mark. Following links may help you : 1. https://blog.targettestprep.com/how-to- ... -on-gmat/# 2. https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/tag/qu ... -wisdom-2/ 3. https://gmatclub.com/marketplace/free-stuff Akshdeep

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi asifh,

I’m sorry to hear about how things when with your GMAT. Since you scored between 580 and 690 on practice tests, and scored 640 on the actual GMAT, your real GMAT score seems to accurately reflect your current ability level.

While 640 is a solid start, as I’m sure you are aware, you will need to put in a lot of effort and time to improve to a 720+ GMAT score. Thus, you probably will need to push your test back to a later date, and take the test only once you are hitting your score goal on practice exams. That being said, I’m happy to provide some advice on how to improve your GMAT score.

It's possible to score 640 without fully understanding some topics or refining certain skills. In order for you to score 720+, your preparation is going to have to be more complete. So, to increase your quant and verbal scores to higher levels, 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 find weaker areas, learn all about how to answer questions of types that you aren't that comfortable with now, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving your score up point by point.
 
For example, if you were to find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, you would 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. 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 you got it wrong. 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 and types that you would rather not see and that there are types questions that take you 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 currently take you 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, make some more areas stronger.
 
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 you didn't get it right. 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, if anything, you would have needed to know in order 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.
 
When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of the questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to at least around 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.
 
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 it helpful to read my article for more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

Please reach out with further questions.

Good luck!

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GMAT 640 (Q48, V31, IR6) - Reappearing in 4 weeks - Target 720+

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