GMAT Retake advice

Question

Hello all!

I appeared for my GMAT (at a test center) yesterday and scored 660 (Q49 V31). I am unhappy and unsatisfied with my score because I had hoped to breach the 700 mark.

I will reappear for GMAT retake 20 days from now.

Need some serious advice and suggestions about how to ace the test in my second attempt (I want this attempt to be my final attempt)

The major challenges that I am facing (apart from D-Day nervousness and anxiety) are low CR score, which ultimately reduced my Verbal score (I didnt ask for ESR but I know it is CR) and inability to score a 50 on the Quantitative section (I have scored 50 a few times and I know that I can achieve it, but couldn't)

I also realized that I didnt time my sections properly. I spent more time initially to be cautious and not make any mistakes in the initial questions. Halfway, started rushing it and didnt do much justice to my final 5 questions in both sections.

I have started to prepare for my retake but now the problem is I have appeared for all 6 official mocks and have attempted a lot of questions from OGs, Advanced OGs and other official material, so attempting these questions would not be the right approach to test my skills as I have already encountered them before.

Kindly help me.

I don't know who to tag in such peculiar topics, therefore, anyone who reads this, please tag someone who can provide good suggestions!

Thank you in advance!

catinabox · Answer

Have you tried timing each quarter of the section? For example, 65 mins for verbal implies roughly 16 mins per quarter (9 questions). Ideally, your timer should show around 49 mins left when you're on the 9th question, 33 mins at 18 questions and so on. This should help with the timing issue.

You need to be equally cautious throughout the exam not just while attempting the first 10 questions. Too many people do this and too many of them run into timing issues later in the exam.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Consider trying to emulate the way you gave the mock that you got a 700 in in a fresh mock and seeing how you fare.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ProfChaos,

I’m sorry to hear about how things went with your GMAT. Since you are certain that CR is bringing down your verbal score, here is some advice you can follow to improve your CR skills.

To improve in Critical Reasoning, you first need to master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each question type, do focused practice so you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, 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.

A major mistake that people make when training for CR, and for GMAT verbal in general, is that they do practice questions too fast. To get Critical Reasoning questions correct, you have to see exactly what's going on in the passages and answer choices, and it's likely that you won't learn to do so by spending a few minutes on each question. At this stage of your training, you may need to spend as many as 15 minutes on each question, learning to see what there is to see. Here is a way to look at this process: If you get a new job in a field in which you are not experienced, you may not be as fast as the other people working with you, but you know you have a job to do and you make sure you learn all the angles, so that you do the job well, if not as quickly as those around you. Rushing through the job and doing it incorrectly would not make sense. Then, as you gain more experience, you learn to do the same job more quickly. Think of Critical Reasoning questions similarly. Your job is to do what? To get through questions quickly? Not really. Your job is to get correct answers.

So, first you have to learn to get correct answers, generally at least 10 to 15 in a row consistently, and more in a row would be better. Doing so is your job, and if it takes you fifteen minutes per question to get correct answers consistently, then so be it. Only after you have learned to get correct answers consistently can you work on speeding up. Working quickly but not doing your job is useless. Better to work slowly and learn to do your job well. You can be sure that with experience, you will learn to speed up, and then you will still be doing your job well, i.e., getting correct answers consistently.

Finally, a key aspect of getting correct answers to Critical Reasoning questions is noticing the key differences between trap choices and correct answers. Trap choices can sound temptingly correct but don't get the job done. The logic of what a trap choice says simply doesn't fit what the question is asking you to find. So, to get better at your job, learn to see the key differences between trap choices and correct answers.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ProfChaos,

First off, a 660/Q49 is a strong Score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

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, many of your CAT/mock score results - along with your Official Score - show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 670+/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also leave yourself open to making certain types of mistakes.

While you have self-identified certain issues that you likely have to work on going forward, we have to be careful about assuming that those are the only issues keeping you from scoring higher. 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:

1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What specific study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates (or 'approximate' dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks?
4) 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

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