GMAT Preparation Strategy

Hi Mishthi, generally such wild fluctuations in score (V27 vs V34) are indicative of shaky concepts.

Hi Mishthi,
If you explore the link, you can have some insights on how to resolve SC efficiently;
https://gmatwithcj.com/solutions-gmat-o ... questions/

Good Luck

Hi Mishthi,

Studying for the GMAT now - far in advance of when you will actually "need" your Score - is a smart choice. As an aside, the 750+ score is approximately the 98th percentile - meaning that most GMATers never score that high on the Official Exam. Thankfully, NO Business School actually requires that you score that high - so it's important to realize that the score that you "want" and the score that you "need" to get into your first-choice School are probably not the same thing.

With a V27 on this recent CAT/mock, you lost significant points in all 3 major Verbal categories (RC, SC and CR). You mentioned that you have a pacing issue in that section - and if you have to rush through lots of questions just to finish that section (and/or you leave questions unanswered), then that would help to explain this drop in your Verbal Scaled Score. In addition, if you are frequently "narrowing the answers down to 2 choices and then "guessing"', then that could lead to big potential swings in your Verbal Scaled Scores. The Verbal section is as consistent and predictable as the Quant section is, but Verbal questions have no 'safety net' - meaning that if you make a little mistake or miss a vital piece of information, then you will convince yourself that one of the wrong answers is correct (and not realize it). To earn a 750+ on the Official GMAT, you will have to hone some really specific Quant and Verbal skills.

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:

1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Have you taken just these 2 CATs/mocks or were there any others?
3) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
4) While you are not planning to apply to School for several years, do you have a list of Schools in mind?

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

Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

Hi Mishthi,

Coaching will definitely help to create bigger improvements in Verbal (and also address your remaining quant gaps) on your way to a 750+ score.

But before that you need a clear assessment of both your Advanced Conceptual knowledge and your Test Taking Skills by an expert.

We offer a FREE 90 minute diagnostic session with a GMAT Performance Coach in which we simulate a practice test live on Zoom and assess every element (across 20+ dimensions) of your Test Taking skills. Let me know if you're interested and we can set up an intro call.

Hi Mishthi,

I see that you are focusing more on practicing questions, than on the process, which is not the right way to prepare for GMAT. GMAT is a test of application of concepts. So, before you start practicing questions, you should be conceptually clear and learn the right methodology. So, instead of directly practicing questions, make sure that you learn the right process to solve questions. Once you do that, the rest follows.

Looking at your individual break up of score, you are surely on the wrong path for verbal preparation. There are wild swings in your scores which implies that you haven’t followed a very structured approach. Especially for verbal.

Your verbal score clearly indicates there are many conceptual gaps and you may need to start from scratch, revisit the concepts and get a clear understanding of them before you solve the questions. Verbal questions on GMAT are very tricky. Let me help you with the right way to approach your Verbal Prep.

How to Ace your Verbal Prep?

For GMAT Verbal, it is very important that you follow the right methodology and the logical approach. Your focus has to be on eliminating four incorrect choices rather than choosing the right one. The key is to develop a solid understanding of the concepts that are typically tested on the GMAT and master the process skills that are required to solve GMAT questions. Only then, you will be able to smartly avoid the traps set by the test makers.

Before you start learning, it's important to understand what is actually tested using the questions. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a different way. For example, before you start learning the concepts of SC, you need to understand that SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the process to approach SC questions is to:
• Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence
• Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise)
• Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning

You can go through the link below to understand the process in a better way:
Once you start solving SC questions using a systematic approach as detailed above, you will be able to avoid taking too much time in SC questions as there will be no confusion in your mind regarding the approach. Also, improving in SC alone won’t fetch you the desired score. You need to prepare for RC and CR as well in a structured and efficient manner. You have to follow a methodical and systematic approach while solving the questions in order to work on your accuracy and increase your score. For example,
• In CR, you have to understand the argument, identify the premise and the conclusion and then pre-think the answer before looking at the solutions.
• In RC, you need to have the right reading strategies to understand the inferences which are not directly stated in the passage.

Generally speaking, the best order of prep for Verbal is SC->CR->RC. The logic behind this is the level of skills tested. SC acts as the most basic skill tester and tests your comprehension skills. CR builds on this, and also tests your analytical skills on top of the comprehension skills. Once you've mastered these two, you move on to RC, where you are tested on both the previously mentioned skills along with a third one - your ability to focus on the main point in a given passage. This way, its a natural progression of skills that you learn.

The importance of using a standard resource:

The only method to make sure that you invest your time, money and effort in an effective way is to use a standard resource which teaches you the concepts, strategies and also helps you work on your weaker areas. Studying using OG or a few random resources might help you to solve GMAT like questions but I’m afraid that they won’t be able to help you much from a strategy perspective.

I would suggest you to go for some standard course for your Verbal preparation at least which can help you prepare in a structured and efficient manner thereby increasing your productivity.

Hope it helps and feel free to reach out in case of any queries!