Hard work, soft gains

Question

Hi all,

My GMAT prep has been a really interesting yet difficult experience for me so far, as I have gone through a series of burnouts.

Having a rusty C1 level of English, I started my GMAT Prep on June 2020.

During the first three months of my prep, I started becoming comfortable with the mechanics of this test and I managed to get my score to  520 (Veritas Prep Mocks), but I had experienced a burnout by the end of the summer. The GMAT English level used to cause me headaches. I had to take 1 month off my prep.

From November to December, I spent another 3 months of dedicated studying to improve my level of English, while studying for GMAT Quant. A few days ago I got my Ielts score (8/9). Overall, I have significantly improved my English skills and I feel very comfortable with the language. Right now I can easily comprehend RC passages or study any GMAT material without getting a headache. After those last 3 months I can confidently score a  550-580  (Quant 39, Verbal 30, MGMAT Mocks).
Unfortunately, I feel burned out again and I'm taking another break.

My initial plan was to score at least a 650 by February 2021, but right now this goal seems unrealistic.
The problem is that I have another 3 months until May in order to prepare for the GMAT and this final period is my last chance to prepare.

I went through all MGMAT guides for Quant.
I solved questions, both Quant and Verbal, from the GmatClub forum.
I completed the Quant section of OG 2020.

To sum up, it feels like I am spending an enormous amount of energy for the GMAT, yet I do not seem to get any significant improvement.

Note that I do not blame any of the material for my ineffeciency nor do I blame myself. I understand that even though I did not significantly improve on the GMAT, at least I have significantly improved my English skills. This improvement was vital to me, so I guess this is a win!

As for the GMAT, what do I possibly do wrong?
Any advice would be welcome. I should somehow improve the structure and efficiency of my studying. I do not want to get myself into another 3-month cycle of intense studying only for a 20 points improvement. I also do not want to get burned out before Test Day.

Thanks!

bb · Answer

Hi. I am sorry about the lack of progress. It is hard to balance learning English and taking the GMAT. The two are kind of connected but ideally you would get the language proficiency done first instead of doing it simultaneously.

As to your study plan, I highly recommend targeting three months rather than six or longer. It is very hard to maintain momentum and initiative when you’re studying for that long. It’s also hard to keep track of all the nuances and traps.

The good news is that it seems you can improve in both quarantine Verbal. It seems you have raised your level to a good base and need to focus on getting both improved. Frankly, I would focus on the area you could improve the most and fastest. Then, I would focus on the more challenging which probably is the verbal, while doing 10% or 15% of your time for reviewing quant to stay fresh.

I would also recommend reading GMAT fiction. You can see what that is about.

Posted from my mobile device

nikosgan · Answer

Your words are very helpful, honestly! I'll focus my energy on the next three months, using your tips for my study plan and hopefully I should improve enough and sit the test before I get exhausted.

The GMAT fiction seems very motivating for non-native speakers such as myself, and it should add a tone of inspiration to my studying!

bb, thank you for your help!

bb · Answer

As you take a break for the next few weeks or months, I would just read books. I found many of them enjoyable and interesting and captivating that motivated me to keep reading them, get very little sleep, and be pretty tired at work the next day 😂

You will probably encounter a number of words that you are not familiar with. At first I was writing them all out, then I was looking them up in the dictionary and by the end I would only look them up if I run into the same word twice. This is especially true about some historic books where they were talking about specific terms for carriage pieces or weapons and having a general idea was good enough for me.

For the Gmail, when you restart, make sure that you don’t go for another three months and then realize that the improvement is not where you expected it to be. I would not worry about taking full tests. There is no reason to face Mike Tyson in the ring if all you’ve mastered is a jab. You will go down just as fast or perhaps even faster since you’ll be overconfident. Master each little chapter. Use questions for specific topics to test yourself and aim to have 90% correct if you’re looking for a high score or about 75% correct if you’re looking for a 650. Obviously this would be a mix of various difficulty of questions. So let’s say 10 questions with difficulties of easy, medium and hard equally distributed. This way, you will know if you were progressing or not within a week. And if it’s not working, then you are not wasting a lot of time thinking you’re doing well but in reality just spinning your wheels. If something doesn’t work, do you want to find that out as soon as possible.

If you’re running into a mistake or a question that really threw you off or had a pretty interesting trick about it or was particularly sneaky, I suggest you save it somehow. Are used to print them out and put them in the folder that I would review on a regular basis.

Posted from my mobile device

nikosgan · Answer

I already ordered a few books that I liked from the GMAT Fiction

They should be a great boost! I love fiction, so it should make my experience much more fun! Besides, getting myself drown into a hopeless score-hunting hell just for the sake of it is pointless. What matters more is probably enjoying the process. For the Gmat, so far I focused on concept building and I randomly solved questions from every topic, but I lacked structure. To be honest, I feared that I'll spend another 3-months of effort without any important improvement. You're advice is brilliant! I'll change my approach by focusing on each little chapter and try to master it before moving to the next one. I'll also use the forum for guidance. The method that you describe is very structured and methodical, and so, I am not afraid of the end result anymore, since I know that I can at least keep better track of my improvement and set more realistic goals every week. I'll take some days off to recharge and do my readings, and as soon as I come back for my prep I'll make better use of the GMAT Club forum and the GMAT Club Tests by following your tips. You're amazing!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi nikosgan,

Since you have been studying for some time and have yet to hit your score goal, moving forward, you need to follow a study plan that allows you to learn GMAT quant and verbal from the ground up. In other words, follow a study plan in which you individually learn each topic, starting with the foundations and progressing to more advanced concepts. Let me expand on this idea further.

If you are learning about Number Properties, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. 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 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 around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

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. 
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, types that you would rather not see, and types 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.

Follow a similar routine for verbal. For example, let’s say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken The Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each question type, do focused practice, so that 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.

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 instead 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 thereby 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 Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. Keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to analyze such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the New York Times, 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.

Regarding what you know, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not really a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning the 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 less than 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 none of those reasons are 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 answers were always the ones 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 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 logical meanings. 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 until you start to see the differences 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 take the time to see the differences between answers 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 to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently 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 do 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 skills improve, you will want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal 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 the following article about  The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT .

Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!

vamshikaithi · Answer

Hey nikosgan, If your score is stagnant, that means that you are probably not doing the prep in the right way. I did this mistake during the initial stages of my preparation. I didn't know how to study, what things to focus on. I just learnt the concepts and spent hours and hours practicing questions. I was in a misconception that practicing more questions would help me improve my score. But I could eventually score inly 570 in my first attempt. That's when I got in touch with a mentor and got to know the right way to prepare for GMAT. Between learning the concepts and practicing questions, there's one important step I missed, that is learning the right methodology. I started focusing on the methods and strategies and I could see the result. I improved my score to 680 and then finally to 720. I would suggest you to get in touch with a mentor if possible. Get to know your weak areas and focus on learning the right methodology. And I don't see any standard resource you used in your prep. Use a good standard resource which can help you with the methodology and detailed solutions of the questions you practice. There's nothing wrong in investing in the right resource. It's worth it rather than just spending months and months for preparation and finally ending up not getting a good score. You can go through my debrief to understand how I approached my GMAT. My journey from 570 to 680 to 720 - Things I did differently https://gmatclub.com/forum/my-journey-f ... l#p2648110 Hope it helped. All the best

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi nikosgan,

From what we discussed back in August, it sounds as though you took a logical approach to the last several months of your studies (and working on the IELTS during that time was a smart choice). Depending on how you have scored on your most recent GMAT CATs/mocks, you might be closer to a 650+ than you probably realize. However, if you're continuing to answer GMAT questions in the same general ways that you did before (without honing new, Tactical skills), then that might explain why you are scoring at the same general level right now. To score at a much higher level, you need to change how you "see" (and respond to) the overall Exam.

1) Over the last 3 months, what type of study routine have you been following? How many hours have you typically studied for the GMAT each week?
2) 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)?

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

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello nikosgan,

GMAT Club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, etc.

Your current GMAT mock score is shaky. You can schedule a Free counseling(https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session) session for 20 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.

• 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.

Your study plan will now change as you are already ready with the vital concepts and their application. 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 a score of 650+. 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.

700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too. Start with the learning of the concepts. Make a habit of taking notes during the initial learning of the concepts.

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 [email protected]

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Punit Joshi
Math Revolution Team

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi nikosgan

I don't think there's any point giving up now as you have spent some much time in preparing for GMAT. If you can just analyze your weak areas, identify what's holding your score back and work on it, then I think you will score well on GMAT. Let me help you with the same.

Reasons for the score being stagnant: 
One main reason could be you are probably not doing your prep in the right way. If you have focused more on the concepts and practicing questions, then I am afraid you have missed one important step in between, that is, learning the right methodology. Your approach towards solving questions determines your score on GMAT. For example, in verbal, you have to use the right methods and strategies to eliminate four incorrect options rather than choosing the right one. There are ways in which you can identify the incorrect answer choices. GMAT follows a specific pattern for that. So, your preparation has to be more structured as it will help you track your progress and work on your weak areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxZ_btODnnQ

As you are planning to take the test in Feb, I suggest you to make a proper study plan and have weekly deadlines. This way you can be clear of what to study on any given day. And most importantly, I suggest you to switch to a resource which can help you to learn the right methodology and work on your weak areas. You can check out GMATWhiz course for that matter.

If you wish to know any specific study strategy, I suggest that we get in touch over a call so that I can analyze your approach of solving questions, identify the flaw if there's any and suggest you the plan. This will help me understand your concerns and guide you in a better way. You can use the below link to get in touch with me.

Click here to schedule a call

nikosgan · Answer

ScottTargetTestPrep, your description is very detailed and it really helps to carefuly work towards my goal! After trying it out, the TargetTestPrep study plan seems to perfectly suit my needs, and so, I decided to invest on it for the rest of my prep.

In my opinion, every prep platform, along with its team, is excellent after trying it out, but eventually making a choice depends on each individual's needs and learning style.

vamshikaithi, I read your entire debrief and it became an important source of motivation, as I related to your story. I bookmarked your debrief in order to often refer to it both for inspiration and tips. I hope to return a few months later with a success debrief such as yours!

EMPOWERgmatRichC, I really appreciate your help since you adviced me to focus on my language proficiency first, and to be honest this advice was gold before proceeding solely on the GMAT.

MathRevolution, I considered the barriers that you mentioned for my improvement. I also think that both the Variable and the IVY approach are really interesting for solving Quant questions.

GmatWhizTeam, I reflected on your post and it is indeed the lack of proper approach and methodology, besides concept learning, that might affect my results. Your video is extremely helpful and it provided me with a deeper understanding on how the test works.

Overall, I've got something unique from each of your answers, as they helped me to reflect and properly adjust my study approach.

Thank all of you for your insights and your encouragment! I hope that these insights will also help and encourage other test takers who have a prep experience relatable to mine!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I'm pumped to have you on board! I'm here if you need me.

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