Need corrective guidance | Plan of attack

Question

Hi All,

I appeared for the GMATPrep Mock-1 on June 8th, 2019.
I have scored 660 ( 78%ile ).
  Split:  
 Q: 49 ( 75%ile ) | V: 32 ( 66%ile ) 
Order: Verbal -----> Quant -----> IR|AWA

I have a target score of 720.
I'm aware that I shall be needing a raw composite score of ~90 to reach the 720-mark.
 Q: 49-51 | V: 40-41 
I have been studying for about 2 months now.

Study Material:  
 OG 2018 
OG Verbal Review 2018
Manhattan SC Guide
 GMAT Club's Ultimate Grammar Book 
 GMAT Club Math book v3 
PowerScore CR Bible

Things which I felt went wrong:   
1) Towards the end of the verbal section, I was exhausted and fatigued to even answer.
2) I took way more time in SC: ~115 sec/Q, resulting in the haphazard approach in answering the other  paramount  sections of verbal.
3) Under time constraints, the accuracy went haywire throughout the exam.

Right now, I'm dubious about my preparation, the  less-than-the-ideal  score, and the direction should I choose.
I am more than willing to right the wrongs and turn the tables. 
Will be really great if you can provide your insights on how to move forward!

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

With a 660 (Q49, V32), you have successfully mastered all the GMAT concepts. The next 50-80 points just require a bit of fine-tuning. At this time, you have to focus on your weaknesses and eliminate them one by one. For instance, apart from subject knowledge, you need to improve your pacing and not get a string of 2-3-4 questions incorrect on the test. Quite frankly, several recorded scores say that to get a 710-720, you need to get Q49 and V36+. Therefore, the gap between your current score and your target score is slim. Since Verbal is an area of improvement, I would recommend that you review a few amazing forum posts from one of our highly valued Verbal expert.

Ultimate SC Guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-sc-guide-for-beginners-gmat-ninja-244623.html#p1887645
Ultimate CR Guide:https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-6-19-17-ultimate-cr-guide-for-beginners-243170.html
Ultimate RC Guide:https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-5-22-17-ultimate-rc-guide-for-beginners-241004.html

Ultimate SC Guide:  https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-sc-guide-for-beginners-gmat-ninja-244623.html#p1887645 
Ultimate CR Guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-6-19-17-ultimate-cr-guide-for-beginners-243170.html 
Ultimate RC Guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-5-22-17-ultimate-rc-guide-for-beginners-241004.html

Murthykvln94 · Answer

Hello,

Don't let that target score be at your back of your mind all the time. Don't overthink that stuff. Practice more and believe you are better than 720+ Write the exam with an open mind.

Just do 1 revision on concepts /flashcards and one on your errors on weekend.
All the best .

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Xylan,

From your post, it's not clear whether this is your first practice CAT or just your most recent CAT. If it's your first, then that's a really strong performance (the average Score on the Official GMAT hovers around 550 most years). If there were other CAT Scores, then we need that data to help define potential patterns in your performances (such as the 'inefficiency' that you note in how you handle SCs).

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 many hours do you typically study each week? 
2) Have you taken any other practice CATs - and if so, then have you scored on EACH of those other CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
3) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

XyLan · Answer

DisciplinedPrep , Thanks for the sweet words of encouragement!
I will definitely go through the said articles and eliminate the weaker areas one by one.

XyLan · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC ,

It was my 1st FULL GMATPrep mock, although I used to create sectional mocks to assess the weak areas and work on them through GMATClub Tests.
The score used to oscillate in Q: 48-49 and in V: 28-35.
I was able to narrow down to a few areas of improvements such as: 
1) Usually takes an upwards of 210 sec in Detail and Inference-Qs in RC.
2) Spent more than 3 mins EACH on 2 SC Qs.
3) Was running out of time for the last couple of Qs.
4) Failure in understanding the impact of correct answer choice over incorrect ones in CR.
   - I understand these are symptoms, NOT the exact root cause.

Studies:  
1) How many hours do you typically study each week? 
 Each week ( majorly  on weekdays): Around +25 Hours.
During weekends: I spent time on Mocks, sectional quizzes, reviews, error logs, etc. 
2) Have you taken any other practice CATs - and if so, then have you scored on EACH of those other CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
 No. I'm afraid I was occupied with my professional commitments.
However, the scores in the sectional tests were hovering around:
Q: 48-49 | V: 28-35.

Goals:  
3) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
 I'm targeting to be done with my GMAT within the next 45 days so that I can spend sufficient time on the applications. 
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
 By last week of July, post the completion of GMAT.  5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
 I'm majorly targeting 1 year, B-schools in Europe.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Xylan,

Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so since you've been studying for 2 months, you might naturally improve over time (as you focus a bit more on the specific questions types, Tactics, patterns, etc.) and train to handle the FULL GMAT in one sitting. To that end, as you take CATs in the future, you should plan to take each one in a realistic fashion that matches what you will face on Test Day (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take it away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.).

Since this is your first CAT, we can't say for sure if this is indicative of your true 'ability level' right now - you may have gotten a bit 'lucky' or 'unlucky' on this CAT (meaning that your current level is lower or higher than this Score indicates). You've defined some areas in the Verbal section that you need to work on though, so I suggest that you study as you like for the next week, then take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT (as described above). Once you have that Score, you should post back here and we can discuss the results and how best to proceed. 
With about 6 weeks of study time, you could potentially improve a great deal and hit your Goal Score. If you'd rather start immediately with a Verbal-focused Study Plan, then I'd be happy to offer some suggestions.

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

XyLan · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC ,

Thanks for the prompt reply!

I solemnly feel to  have  those Verbal-focused pointers so that I can inculcate those  crucial  suggestions right away with my preparation.
Doing so will definitely give me a headstart and condition my preparation with finer insights - the CORRECT structured approach to aptly handle the weaker sections.

Meanwhile, I can parallelly work on the defined areas in the Verbal section.

Rich, I would really appreciate those  vital  suggestions!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Xylan,

Based on everything that you have described, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Verbal Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients finish that Study Plan in under a month, so it would fit your schedule perfectly. During that time, you'll also be able to access any of the Quant resources that interest you. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an account. Keep in mind that no GMAT product is a 'magic wand' - you'll have to make some significant adjustments to how you 'see' (and respond to) the Verbal section; that will include attacking SCs in a new way and properly taking notes on all of the RC and CR prompts the tyou face.

If you have any additional questions, then just let me know.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Xylan,

First off, great work on quant! Q49 is a fantastic quant score. Given that your score goal is 720 and you scored V32, you clearly need to make some major improvements in verbal. Are you looking for general advice on how to improve your verbal skills?

XyLan · Answer

Thanks, Rich. Will explore the course and give it a shot.

XyLan · Answer

Hi Scott,
Would love to hear an expert's take on how to improve the verbal skills.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Of course. Let’s start with Critical Reasoning.

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, 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 Economist, 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, 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. You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.
Feel free to reach out with any questions. Good luck!

	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $79 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $325 $200 Discount + $79 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

Need corrective guidance | Plan of attack

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