Magoosh Gmat verbal

Question

My Gmat Journey has started almost 4 years back. i took Gmat 4 times, and my score pattern is as follows

Gmat1: 470, 35(Q) 21(V)
Gmat2: 500, 39(Q) 20(V)
Gmat3: 500, 43 (Q) 17(V)
Gmat4: 550, 45(Q) 21(V)

followings are the books i used to prepare.

OG 10,11,12,13, Verbal &Quant Latest Edition,
MGMAT Full 8 books with 6 Mockups.
E-gmat live classes.
Kaplan Advanced.
Princeton Review.
Magoosh Online .
GMAT Prep Question banks, 
GMAT Prep Additional 2 paid mockups

Now to the point, Basically i am an engineer with more than 10 years experience. Knowing the fact that this 10 years gap requires me to have a very good preparation to get a good score, i started my preparation from the scratch.When i evaluate my score myself, first 2 Gmat exam results are a indicative of my careless way of preparation. After almost 1 year gap i again decided to give a third shot , By this time i studied MGMAT, E-gmat and other stuff really seriously and almost all MGMAT mockups results varies from 580 to 700. Even though , i set my target 600 in my third attempt. Unfortunately i couldn't make it. After 2 months , i started my preparation again , and i enrolled in magoosh online preparation. i prepared for another 3 months and i got 550.

My target score is atleast 600. On getting all these score, i started thinking what happened to me, why i could get good scores in my mockups but not in my Real Gmat exam. My introspection says that whenever i am in a timed exam , i easily gets nervous and eventually my brain could not focus on the exact question . means, on the first time when i see the Verbal question i feel some what a blackout then slowly i have to bring my attention back to the question . This attitude consumes my time.

Now, i am planning to give my 5th and could be the last Gmat attempt. But what i feel that i am lacking a strong strategy how to approach Gmat more than the basics of the Verbal section. But i have no idea how to prepare now and what to do now, because almost Gmat preparation resources got exhausted even i know the answer once i see the question itself. even i am planning to go for a private tutor who can asses my strength and weakness closely and guide me .......

Before starting preparation for my 4th attempt , i joined with magoosh Gmat(verbal) preparation. And i did all the question 2 times and got score estimation between 31 to 38. i know magoosh has helped lot of students to get their desired score, but i don't why its not happening to me.............. what should i do. what i felt is during exam i feel too nervousness , panic, and lack of concentration. How can i overcome these issue. pplease advice me a strategy to follow....

Regards,
jose

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Jose, I'm happy to respond. :-)

I'm very sorry to hear about all the troubles you have been having with the GMAT. Yours is a somewhat perplexing case. I have a few questions for you. 1) What is your relationship to English? Are you a native speaker? If not, for how long have you studied English? 2) In Magoosh, when you say you "did the questions", does that include watching every single video explanation for every single question? The VEs of the Magoosh questions are where more than half the instruction takes place: if you did not make full use of those, you would have missed a good deal of what Magoosh had to offer. 3) When you followed Magoosh, did you use one of the study plans? 4) Similarly, when you say you " used " books, such as the MGMAT books, what does that mean? What percent of the content of the MGMAT books do you know solidly? 5) Apart from your GMAT preparations, how much do you read? Do you read the Wall Street Journal regularly? Have you ever read the Economist magazine from cover to cover? 6) By what time frame are we limited? Is there a particular date by which you have to take this fifth and final GMAT? Do we have some flexibility here? Tell me the answers to these questions, and then I will be more able to make some recommendations. Mike :-)

jp001 · Answer

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your detailed analysis of my GMAT preparation.

I will answer the question one by one.

(1)What is your relationship to English? Are you a native speaker? If not, for how long have you studied English?

As you guessed , i am a non native English speaker from india. Albeit , i have started studing English since i am in my first standard , almost 16 years. But in India english is the second language to the mother tongue, still we use English for academic purposes not as a medium for our day to day activities. Moreover, i do agree that my English is not good, as i didn't get an opportunity( i would say, i didn't try ) to bring my level of english up to the mark. That is the reason i am struggling for my GMAT.

(2) In Magoosh, when you say you "did the questions", does that include watching every single video explanation for every single question? The VEs of the Magoosh questions are where more than half the instruction takes place: if you did not make full use of those, you would have missed a good deal of what Magoosh had to offer?
As mentioned in my Post, Before my previous attempt, i tried magoosh. At least magoosh helped me to bring my score 50 points more. I never say magoosh or any other preparation Company is not worth. Because lots of students are getting benefited from these GMAT courses. 
 Now, when i say that i have done the Magoosh Question, it means that i have completed all 383 questions twice. i could say almost 80% accuracy in SC section, 65% CR,50% RC. I have been trying for gmat exam for long time , so what i did with Magoosh questions is as i see the question, directly i try to answer and if i get the answer correct i try to evaluate myself and find the reason why it is correct and why it is not correct. If my answer is wrong then i check the explanation video and try to understand.. this is how my approach to Magoosh online course.

(3)When you followed Magoosh, did you use one of the study plans? 
 To be frank, i have never used any study plan recommended by any preparation company. normally i use my own plan like
daily to cover few question from SC, CR,RC, PS&DS.
i use the question banks from GMATCLUB forum.

First of all, i have all GMAT OG Books and went through the books few times.
I have all 8 books of MANHATTAN GMAT, ( I found SC, Maths( all 5 books) are very helpful), MGMAT question bank, 6 mockup test
I used Powerscore CR Bible for Critical Reasoning.
I registered with E-gmat online preparation.
I used kaplan books. 
From GMAT site , i purchased 1 full set of question bank, and 2 paid exams.

Here I have a interesting question. WHY I COULD GET GOOD SCORES IN MY MOCKUPS BUT NOT IN MY REAL EXAM. IS IT BECAUSE OF LACK OF CONCEPT OR SOMETHING ELSE?

(4)Similarly, when you say you "used" books, such as the MGMAT books, what does that mean? What percent of the content of the MGMAT books do you know solidly?

I went through SC more that 5 timed. when i read the concept , i do it as if i want to extract from the book each and every minute point . somewhat i do succeeded ( as per my point of view) and i could answer the SC questions almost correctly if something wrong i could understand the reason why it is wrong. As i told , for CR i used CR Bible from power score, and for RC i used random books.ook

Now about Quant section( MGMAT 5 books) plus OG books, MGMAT mockexams, & Gmatclub forum question banks. in short all the materials that i have .

(5)Apart from your GMAT preparations, how much do you read? Do you read the Wall Street Journal regularly? Have you ever read the Economist magazine from cover to cover?
 I am very sorry to say that i don't read with the intention of practicing for GMAT exam. i know this is my Weakest area that i have to improve.

(6) By what time frame are we limited? Is there a particular date by which you have to take this fifth and final GMAT? Do we have some flexibility here?

I have 5 months of time from now. and i am ready to spent at least 6-7 hours per day; However, my target score is at least 600.

I hope after reading my answers, you can give me a proper guidance in this regards.

Regards,

joe

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Joe, Thank you for you detailed response. :-)

First and foremost, my recommendation to you is: READ . Read an hour a day, over and above any GMAT preparations. You are planning to go to business school, the the best thing you can do for your preparation would be to read the Wall Street Journal every day and the Economist magazine every week. Not only will this improve all of your verbal skills, but also it would give you invaluable information for your essay, your interview, and your time in B-school. Here's another perspective on RC: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/curiosity- ... n-success/ I would say, from this point forward, whatever verbal questions you practice, always read the text explanation or watch the video explanation, regardless of whether you get it right or wrong. Be eager to verify that you understand what you think you understand, and always look for further elements beyond what you initial understood. It always limits a student to be too eager to jump to the place of " I understand! I'm done! " You wrote: " Here I have a interesting question. WHY I COULD GET GOOD SCORES IN MY MOCKUPS BUT NOT IN MY REAL EXAM. IS IT BECAUSE OF LACK OF CONCEPT OR SOMETHING ELSE? " This can be the issue of stress and anxiety. No matter how realistic you make the practice sessions, something in simply knows, "This is not for real" --- if you have a bad day in your private practice, nobody knows about it, and it doesn't cost any money. By contrast, the real GMAT is "for real" --- at every level, you know that this one matters in a way that the practices do not. I would say you need to work on stress management. Here's a series of articles you may find helpful. https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/overcome-g ... y-breathe/ https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/beating-gmat-stress/ https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/the-gmat-b ... g-picture/ https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/overcome-g ... y-breathe/ Practice all those recommendations for five months, and you will see definite changes in your ability to handle high-pressure situations. Perhaps the most tricky thing is know what questions to practice at this point. I would say use the Magoosh questions, but you have already been through those twice, and it sounds like you have already been through all the MGMAT questions and the OG. Have you also gone through all the question in the OG Verbal Review? Most of the Veritas questions I have seen are very good: you may try them. It never hurts to go back to each and every Verbal question in the OG and make sure you understand everything happening in the question. Again, it's very easy to see one reason that, say, (B) is correct and (D) is wrong and stop there; a thorough student wants to understand every reason why the right answer is right and why each wrong answer is wrong. Start to look for patterns among wrong answers. I would also recommend: read through every single Verbal article on the Magoosh free blog: https://magoosh.com/gmat/category/verbal/ The questions in the earlier blogs would be the same as questions in the current product, but the newer blogs have new questions that haven't been entered into the Magoosh product yet. Finally, here's an important perspective on getting a good GMAT score: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/getting-a-good-gmat-score/ If you walk into your GMAT thinking about verbal strategies, that could help you get a high score. If you walk into the GMAT with the focus, "I need to get a 600", that almost guarantees that you will fail. Thinking about the score, focusing on it, fixating on it, actually prevents you from achieving it. This is a basic fact of mental/emotional health that many students fail to appreciate. I hope all of this helps. Mike :-)

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