GMAT Improvement Struggles

Hi zwang,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) What type of study routine have you been following over the last 2 months? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Have you used any additional study materials besides the ones you already listed?
3) 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:
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?

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

Hi zwang,

I'm also happy to provide some advice but would like to first learn more about your situation with the GMAT. Once you respond to the questions already asked, I can provide some advice.

Hi Zwang,

GMAT is not just about learning the concepts and practicing questions. There's much more than that. You have to learn the right methodology to solve questions of a topic before you move on to practicing questions of that topic. Without learning the right methodology, no matter how many questions you solve, your score most likely remains stagnant.

It applies to both Quant and Verbal sections. In quant, the strategy part mainly applies to DS questions as you have to do certain pre-analysis before you move to solving statements. Once you learn the right methodology, you will start seeing the results. You don't have to practice too many questions to improve your accuracy. You just have to get comfortable with the methodology.



Coming to Verbal, it's more about the strategies and the methodology you use to solve questions and eliminate answer choices. GMAT Verbal is all about eliminating four incorrect answer choices rather than choosing the right one. So, there are three important skills that you need to master in order to score well on Verbal.

• Comprehension skills
• Analytical skills
• Ability to focus on main points

Since the three skills are interdependent, it is important to build them progressively. Now, when we say progressively, we mean you should first take up the skill that is least dependent on the other two, i.e. the Comprehension skill and then move on to the other skills.

Since, Sentence Correction requires you to master only one skill – the comprehension skill – you can start your prep with SC. In SC, you need to focus only on one sentence and choose the one that communicates the correct and logical meaning.

Critical Reasoning requires mastering two skills, i.e. comprehension and analytical skills. You must understand the meaning of every sentence and you also need to understand how the given sentences are linked to identify the logical gaps. By learning CR after SC, you will only need to learn the analytical skill while studying CR.

Reading comprehension requires all the three skills – comprehension, analytical, and the ability to focus. So, even if you find yourself acing the RC naturally, it is best to save it for the last.



I hope it helped. I would suggest you to choose a proper resource to work on your weak areas and to learn the methodology and then practice questions. Focus more on the process than on practicing questions. You can attend our free webinar series that we are currently running to learn a few strategies that will help you solve questions in a methodical way. You can register for the webinar series using the below link.



If you need any more help with the study strategy, you can get in touch with me using the below link.

Hello Zwang,

GMAT club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, and many more.

Your current Mock test score is shaky. You can surely do better.

You can schedule a Comprehensive counseling(https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session) session for 30 mins with one of our experts to have detailed advice on your current study plans.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• Lack of basic math skills
• Not detailed knowledge of GMAT Math pattern and Question types
• Inefficiency by using time-consuming Conventional method to tackle DS and PS questions still
• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Precisely, there has to be one end-to-end solution encompassing all the points mentioned above. We also want to understand your approach to solving PS and DS questions. You can try our free diagnostic test https://www.mathrevolution.com/diagnostic/dtExamMember and receive a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas.

The diagnostic test report will give us detailed insight into various topics and your performance. After an in-depth analysis, we will draw out the category of the topics in which you are already better and those where you need more improvement. Also, we will be able to compare your performance while solving the PS and DS questions.

Also, make a note of various possible combinations to achieve your target score. The possible scores will help you track your performance after taking the mock or practice test. It will also help you maintain balance in both the sections, and you will always be in a great position to allot the study hours to a specific area accordingly.

We recommend that you must learn the Variable Approach for solving DS questions and the IVY approach for solving PS questions in order to improve your accuracy and save time while solving the question types.

The most important thing for you will be learning and commanding the Variable Approach for DS questions and IVY Approach for PS questions. These approaches are the robust self-designed time-saving techniques that will help you learn efficiently, thus raising your score in the quick nick of time.

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-day full on-demand course (27 topics, 490 subtopics, and 1,500 questions) for free trial lessons.

After registering, you will have access to the practice section. Initially, try solving the DS and/or PS questions from very easy and easy category questions on the topic(s) you have learned. You may also connect with one of our experts to get one of the best tutoring supports, which will help understand the topic(s) and solve questions and learn how to manage time and accuracy.

Adding to the same, mastery of the Variable Approach to solve DS questions and the IVY approach to solve PS questions would add a feather to the cap. Below is the useful link we will recommend you to visit on GMAT club to experience the power of DS and IVY approaches.

Ultimate Q51 guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ultimate ... l#p1613600

Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

Regular tests will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and hence will be able to learn time-management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@mathrevolution.com

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Punit Joshi
Math Revolution Team

Hi Zwang,

I suggest you to not shuffle across too many resources because that will do more bad than good. Stick to one good resource which can help you with the methodology. I personally used GMATWhiz to improve my score from 570 to 720. To brief you a little about my journey, even my mock scores were inconsistent and were mostly around 600 range, when I first started my GMAT preparation. But I didn't know what else to study as I have finished learning the concepts and practiced questions from various sources. I eventually gave the test and could score only 570.

That's when I got in touch with a mentor and realized that there's lot more than just the concepts to learn for GMAT. I started focusing on the approach and the methodology and I started seeing the results. I eventually improved my score to 720. You can go through my debrief below to understand a few tips.

Debrief of My journey from 570 to 680 to 720:



I suggest you to choose a right resource to study which can help you with the methodology and which can help you to work on your weak areas. You can try GMATWhiz online course as that will help you learn the methodology part, help you will in the conceptual gaps and help you work on your weak areas. All the best