HELP WITH ESR REPORT

Question

Hi everyone, I took my first GMAT last week and scored 640

so I bought the ESR from the GMAC. Can someone help me dissect the report? I cannot attach it, but I know I need to improve my quant grade, can someone help me get the most amount of info from the report? Im looking for a 700 score. Specifically, I can see that my biggest problem is in the "Value/Order/Factor" questions. Which ones are those questions? How do I prepare to improve my DS strategies? Also, in the verbal section, where can I get more questions related specifically to "grammar" in SC and "construction/plan" in CR? I have three weeks until my next exam, does anyone has any study tips for me? Every little help would be deeply appreciated, Regards,

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mateopalacios,

You can feel free to email me your ESR (to [email protected]) and I'll be happy to analyze it for you. 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) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is the exact date for your next Official GMAT?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi mateopalacios.

Why can't you attach your ESR? People attach them all the time.

Gladiator59 · Answer

Hi mateopalacios , Welcome to the GMAT Club! If you are worried about your personal info ( Name etc.) as you rightly should be, you could black out those parts and attach the rest of your ESR. Feel free to send me a pm with ESR attached and I would be happy to remove your personal info for you and attach the ESR to your post. Let me know.

u1983 · Answer

Hi Gladi ...... he probably need min 5 posts before he can do any attachment.

Hello  mateopalacios  ......  Gladiator59  is an one of the best we have in our community. I would definitely send him a message with the ESR. His inputs will be really helpful.
AND ..... you need min 5 posts before you can attach something here. So, by then I would key in the report in the forum as well ...... so that other experts can throw-in their 2 cents as well.

Hope it helps!!

mateopalacios · Answer

Hi guys!

Thanks for the help. I'm trying to attach it via PM but I don't have the five posts required to do it.. Feel free to post an email account and I'll certainly send you the ESR.

Thanks!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi mateopalacios,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. If you’d like, feel free to PM me your ESR and we can chat further. That being said, you really need to take the information from your ESR with a grain of salt. Remember, your ESR is based on only 31 quant questions. So, for example, although I am unsure of your actual breakdown, let’s say you scored 100% in Rates/Ratios/Percents. Does that mean that you are devoid of weakness in those topics? Not necessarily. Perhaps you were given many lower-level questions or had some lucky guesses on those topics. Furthermore, there is no way to know HOW MANY questions you were given from those topics, right?

The good news is that 640 is a solid starting point. However, to improve to a 700+ score, you need to go through go through GMAT quant carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. 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 at least around 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. As you 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. By using the above process, you should be able to score at least 2 to 3 points higher in quant.

Verbal is a different animal, and GMAT verbal is trickier than many people think it is (your hit-or-miss results in SC are one sign of this trickiness). To consistently score high in verbal, you have to more clearly see the tricks and trap answers in the questions, and learning to see those things takes more than quickly learning a few strategies or patterns. You will have to do a lot of slow, careful practice in verbal, and learn to carefully define EXACTLY why each wrong answer is wrong and each correct answer is correct.

As you go through verbal questions, do a thorough analysis of EVERY choice in every question that you answer. Learn to see the logic, key details, and traps in the questions. If you miss a question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you needed to know in order to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.

So, for both quant and verbal, 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.

You also may find it helpful to read my article for more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

mateopalacios · Answer

Hi Scott, thanks for taking the time to answer me and for the advices. I'm taking my 2nd GMAT the 13th of February so I got a little more than 2 weeks of studying. I will certainly try to apply your strategies.

Thanks!

Regards,

Thanks!

Regards,

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

My pleasure. Let’s do this!!

Posted from my mobile device

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

640 is not a bad score to start with. You can definitely reach 700+ with consistent efforts!! You may find this link useful for Data Sufficiency Strategies:- https://gmatclub.com/forum/data-suffici ... l#p2073589 All the best!!

HELP WITH ESR REPORT

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards