GMAT done - Unexpected results :(

Hi, It is advisable to take ESR and experts advice. Based on their advice do the practice and mock tests.

Hi Mel1212,

Although I do not have much information regarding how you were preparing, I can provide some general advice on how to improve your GMAT quant and verbal skills. Regarding how to improve your verbal skills, you need to ensure that you are following a study plan that allows you to learn GMAT verbal from the ground up. In other words, follow a study plan that allows you to learn each GMAT verbal topic individually and then practice each topic until you’ve gained mastery. For quant, since you’ve already scored 49, you can maintain your skills by engaging in topical practice of each GMAT quant topic. This type of practice will allow you to clearly identify your weak areas in quant, so you can make improvements in those topics. Let’s look at some specifics for how to structure your study plan, starting with verbal.

Say you begin studying Critical Reasoning. First, 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 such that you 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.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.

Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and 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, 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 under 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 those reasons are not 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 answer were always the one 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 that 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 be determined to see the differences 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 that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order 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 have done differently to extend your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your Sentence Correction skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.

For quant, as already mentioned, you’ll want to engage in focused practice. Let me expand on that idea further. For example, if you are reviewing Number Properties, be sure that you practice 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 and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions 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.

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!

I started my gmat journey with 620 q49 v25 in 2017. I guess you have to do all questions and read all explanations -be
your answer right or wrong- OG2020, OG Verbal Review 2020, and OG Quant Review 2020.

Good luck

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Mel1212,
I can understand your frustration.
Following dcummins and going through related links might be helpful.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/430-to-710-q ... l#p2427270

Hi Mel1212,

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:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) 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)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

Hi rohan2345,

Thanks for the reply. I would prefer to do the preparation by myself. I'd appreciate if you can suggest any books for self-prep

Hi Asad,

I have used Kaplan Prep Plus 2020, Manhattan Foundations of Verbal, OG 2017, Kaplan mock tests, GMAT Official practice tests and MGMAT Free CAT. I'm willing to devote atleast 20 hours per week before my next attempt. My target score is 740 - 760.

Hi ScottTargetTestPrep,

Thank you so much for the exhaustive reply. I have also read your article on How to Score 700+ on the GMAT. After reading the article and your reply, I feel at ease and clearer on what I'm supposed to do next.

chondro48 - I'll keep in mind during the preparation that I should review my correct answer explanations as well. Thanks for this!

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC,

Studies:
1. I have been preparing since Dec 1st, 2019. I jumped directly into solving questions from the Official Guide 2017.
2. I have used Kaplan Prep Plus 2020, Manhattan Foundations of Verbal, OG 2017, Kaplan mock tests, GMAT Official practice tests and MGMAT Free CAT.
3. 1. Kaplan MOCK 1 - 650 Q46 V33

Hi rohan2345,

Thanks for the reply. I would prefer to do the preparation by myself. I'd appreciate if you can suggest any books for self-prep

Hi Asad,

I have used Kaplan Prep Plus 2020, Manhattan Foundations of Verbal, OG 2017, Kaplan mock tests, GMAT Official practice tests and MGMAT Free CAT. I'm willing to devote atleast 20 hours per week before my next attempt. My target score is 740 - 760.

Hi ScottTargetTestPrep,

Thank you so much for the exhaustive reply. I have also read your article on How to Score 700+ on the GMAT. After reading the article and your reply, I feel at ease and clearer on what I'm supposed to do next.

chondro48 - I'll keep in mind during the preparation that I should review my correct answer explanations as well. Thanks for this!

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC,

Studies:
1. I have been preparing since Dec 1st, 2019. I jumped directly into solving questions from the Official Guide 2017.
2. I have used Kaplan Prep Plus 2020, Manhattan Foundations of Verbal, OG 2017, Kaplan mock tests, GMAT Official practice tests and MGMAT Free CAT.
3. 1. 4th Jan'2020 - Kaplan MOCK 1 - 650 Q46 V33
2. 12th Jan'2020 - Kaplan MOCK 2 - 660 Q47 V34
3. 19th Jan'2020 - GMAT Official Prep Test 1 - 560 Q46 V22
4. 4th Feb'2020 - MGMAT Free Test - 620 Q43 V32
5. 5th Feb'2020 - GMAT Official Prep Test 2 - 620 Q48 V27
6. 6th Feb'2020 - GMAT Exam - 620 Q44 V31

Goals:
1. My target score is 750.
2. I'm planning to apply to SDA Bocconi, NUS, Richard Ivey, University of Rotterdam and Indian School of Business for their 2021 intake.

I'll be purchasing the ESR soon. Will let you know when I get it. Thanks in advance!

It seems that your quant and verbal (both) concept is not clear at all. You quant and verbal scores are fluctuating continuously. You should brush up both of quant and verbal, i guess.

The following resources may help you.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gma ... l#p1886497

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... s+with+ron

And use the following one to perfect study..
https://gmatclub.com/forum/search.php?view=search_tags

Thanks__

Trust me...I know the feeling. I am going through the same thing now where I am not seeing the same results in the real thing as I am during practice tests. Do you have test day nerves? Are you taking your practice tests at the same time as the scheduled time for your real test? I think it helps to simulate the exact same routine you would have on test day, during your practice test day.

Hi Mel1212,

GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function, most of your CAT score results - along with your Official Score - show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 640 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so since you studied for just 2 months before taking the Official GMAT, you just might not have put in enough time and effort to have scored higher yet.

That having been said, raising a 620 to the point that you can consistently score 750+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. The data in your ESR would help to define a number of aspects of how you handled Test Day - so once you've purchased it, I'd like to see it. 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 post your ESR publicly, then you can feel free to PM it to me directly (or you can email me directly at Rich.C@empowergmat.com).

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

My pleasure! I’m happy to help.