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Re: How can i score 730+ from current score of 690 [#permalink]
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Hi SALAKSHYA,

Based on your score breakdown it's clear that you need to improve your verbal score in order to hit your 730+ score goal. Here is some advice you can follow to do so. I'll start with CR.

When studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various question types. Do you know the importance of an assumption within an argument? Can you easily spot a conclusion? Do you know how to resolve a paradox? Do you know how to properly evaluate cause and effect? Do you know how to properly weaken or strengthen an argument? These are just a few examples; you really need to take a deep dive into the individual Critical Reasoning topics to develop the necessary skills to properly attack any Critical Reasoning questions that you encounter.

As you learn each Critical Reasoning problem type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you incorrectly answered a Weaken the Argument question, 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 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 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 answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be stimulating. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such bland 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. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects.

Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning 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 meanings that make sense. 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 repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices 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 put in the necessary 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’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.

Ultimately, if you are unable to learn and practice in the manner described above, you may consider looking for additional verbal prep resources. If you are unsure of which resources to choose, check out some reviews here on GMAT Club.

Here are also some helpful articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

GMAT Sentence Correction: 8 Essential Tips

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!
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Re: How can i score 730+ from current score of 690 [#permalink]
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SALAKSHYA wrote:
Hi All,
I gave GMAT last week and got 690 Q50/V34

I am good with quant and at the time of writing the exam i tried to make sure i didn't make any mistakes but still got Q50

also for Verbal, it seemed to me that i was going to make V40+ but ended up with V34

What strategies i shall adapt to score 730+ in a month.



Hi Salakshya,

First of all, congratulations of Q50. The good news is you don't have to worry about Quant. You can just focus on improving your Verbal skills. To do that, it is important that you identify what's holding back your score and work on improving that. Let me elaborate it to you.

What should be the path forward?


A score of V34 indicates that you have a fair understanding of the concepts but you might be struggling with the application. To score a V40, you need to have a strong conceptual understanding and use the right methodologies to solve questions. You might be aware by now that verbal questions can be very tricky. You might have come across close answer choices which are very similarly worded. To eliminate such answer choices on solid grounds and choose the right answer, you need to use certain strategies.

What should be the plan now?


  • First two weeks, dedicate your time to learning the methodology. Work on one topic at a time.
  • 3rd week you can start taking sectional quizzes
  • Last week, take mocks once in two days

What do I mean by the right methodology?


If you are wondering about the same, let me explain it to you using SC. For example, there is a misconception that SC questions test your knowledge of grammatical rules. But what GMAT actually tests is the ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it is really important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. Grammatical rules are helpful but only to some extent. You might often come across a few answer choices which are grammatically correct and also convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect. So, it is important to understand the meaning the sentence is trying to convey and identify the errors and then eliminate the answer choices which do not convey the intended meaning.



The best way to learn the right methodology is to learn the concepts along with the methodology. And to understand where you are going wrong while solving questions, it is really important to refer to the detailed solutions and compare your approach with the right one. This will help you nullify the gap gradually, making sure that you master the skill of using the right methodology.

Hope it helped! Feel free to connect over a call if you wish to know more about how to learn the right methodology. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call
Re: How can i score 730+ from current score of 690 [#permalink]
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Kudos
GMATWhizTeam wrote:
SALAKSHYA wrote:
Hi All,
I gave GMAT last week and got 690 Q50/V34

I am good with quant and at the time of writing the exam i tried to make sure i didn't make any mistakes but still got Q50

also for Verbal, it seemed to me that i was going to make V40+ but ended up with V34

What strategies i shall adapt to score 730+ in a month.



Hi Salakshya,

First of all, congratulations of Q50. The good news is you don't have to worry about Quant. You can just focus on improving your Verbal skills. To do that, it is important that you identify what's holding back your score and work on improving that. Let me elaborate it to you.

What should be the path forward?


A score of V34 indicates that you have a fair understanding of the concepts but you might be struggling with the application. To score a V40, you need to have a strong conceptual understanding and use the right methodologies to solve questions. You might be aware by now that verbal questions can be very tricky. You might have come across close answer choices which are very similarly worded. To eliminate such answer choices on solid grounds and choose the right answer, you need to use certain strategies.

What should be the plan now?


  • First two weeks, dedicate your time to learning the methodology. Work on one topic at a time.
  • 3rd week you can start taking sectional quizzes
  • Last week, take mocks once in two days

What do I mean by the right methodology?


If you are wondering about the same, let me explain it to you using SC. For example, there is a misconception that SC questions test your knowledge of grammatical rules. But what GMAT actually tests is the ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it is really important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. Grammatical rules are helpful but only to some extent. You might often come across a few answer choices which are grammatically correct and also convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect. So, it is important to understand the meaning the sentence is trying to convey and identify the errors and then eliminate the answer choices which do not convey the intended meaning.



The best way to learn the right methodology is to learn the concepts along with the methodology. And to understand where you are going wrong while solving questions, it is really important to refer to the detailed solutions and compare your approach with the right one. This will help you nullify the gap gradually, making sure that you master the skill of using the right methodology.

Hope it helped! Feel free to connect over a call if you wish to know more about how to learn the right methodology. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

Thanks a lot, its really helpful
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Re: How can i score 730+ from current score of 690 [#permalink]
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Hi SALAKSHYA,

First off, a 690/Q50 is a fantastic 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. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

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

As it stands, you're closer to a 730 than you probably realize. Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) For this attempt, did you take the At-home GMAT or did you take your GMAT at a Test Facility? Which option are you choosing for your next attempt?
2) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
3) What study materials have you used so far?
4) On what 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)?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and hat Schools are you planning to apply to?

If you took this GMAT at a Test Center, then 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
Re: How can i score 730+ from current score of 690 [#permalink]
EducationAisle wrote:
Hi! What are your areas of weaknesses in Verbal and how have you been preparing so far? Also, how much were you scoring in Verbal, in the official mocks?

I scored the same around 34 to 35. I have worked equally on SC, CR RC and they are pretty at same level. I am good at RC, SC and CR in GMAT club practice question in easy and medium level questions. in Difficult questions my accuracy level is around 60 to 70%
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Re: How can i score 730+ from current score of 690 [#permalink]
SALAKSHYA wrote:
Hi All,
I gave GMAT last week and got 690 Q50/V34

I am good with quant and at the time of writing the exam i tried to make sure i didn't make any mistakes but still got Q50

also for Verbal, it seemed to me that i was going to make V40+ but ended up with V34

What strategies i shall adapt to score 730+ in a month.


Hello SALAKSHYA,

There is no quick fix - but I can confidently say it can improve for sure.

Do you have your ESR? if you can PM me your ESR we can take a look and see what are the areas of concern and draw out a plan.

rgds,
Shree
GMAT Club Bot
Re: How can i score 730+ from current score of 690 [#permalink]

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