Need expert's suggestions for verbal

Question

Hello EMPOWERgmatRichC , Can you help me with a better strategy, please... Studies: 1) I have studied for almost 10 months ( excluding two breaks, each lasted 1 month) 2) For Quant i studied manhattan series, gmatclub math book, official guides (10, 12, 13, and16) For verbal: SC: i studied Mnahattan SC guide, power score Sc bible, gmat club grammar book + officials Cr : power score critical reasoning bible + officials Rc: I studied only official I also practiced from GMATCLUB, but i think that was a bad idea, as there are many unofficial and complicated/debatable issues. I also practiced quant from gmat club tests. 3) I took official tests 2 times each, i only can remember my last attempt (3 moths ago). 700 (Q50, V32) I took 1 free test from Manhattan a few days ago 670 (Q 45, V 36) I free test from veritas prep 670 (Q 50, V 32) I have taken many tests from GMAT Club, Quant scores range from 46 to 51, verbal from 26 to 31. I took my 1st GMAT on 25th October,a few days after i got 700, and scored shaming 550 (Q47, V20) My weakest section is RC, whenever I take a little more time on the 1st RC, my score falls rapidly. I am giving you an screen-shot. Goals: 1)my goal score is 720+ 2) I am planning to take gmat again on 1 week of MAy, 2017. 3) July august I guess ( I am not well informed/I know little about the perfect time of applying) 4) Babson college, Boston, University of Oklahoma (Price), University of Texas--Dallas. Now I have included LSAT CR and RC on my study list. I have planned to cover 600-700 CR questions and 80-100 Rc from LSAT questions. I am trying to follow RC strategy suggested by GMATPREPNOW, and by veritas prep. For CR i have included manhattan in my list. OG 17 (including review) has also been included. I have also collected GMAT prep question (previous questions I guess) I lack RC skills. i take too much time understanding a sentence, or relating to sentences together. I was very weak at verbal, now I think i am improving but very slowly. Hope you can help me improve my score with a better strategy. Thanks in advance. Best wishes

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EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi nahid007,

Based on what you've described, there are a variety of things to discuss, but I want to start with your Official GMAT Score. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

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

nahid007 · Answer

1) No i avoided Essay and IR
2) Yes at home
3) No, not same time. I used to take test at late night, when everything is silent, but i took my official exam at noon because i was not sure whether i could get up at the morning.
4) Not much, but yes
5) Yes some questions, but i made comparatively more mistakes on familiar questions- almost every of them. (I did not review tests questions)

Seems like everything i did was wrong.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi nahid007,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become - and that's what happened here. By skipping sections, taking the CATs at home, taking them at a different time of day (from when you took the Official GMAT), etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.' As such, none of these scores was accurate, so you had a false sense of how ready you actually were to face the Official GMAT.

Thankfully, this is a relatively easy set of problems to fix. The big question now is "how long will it take you to properly get 'used to' taking the full GMAT?" You'll certainly need a new set of practice CATs to work with and you have to put in the necessary time to train your brain (and body) for the FULL GMAT. You might also need to invest in some new GMAT training materials.

Beyond the changes you'll have to make when it comes to taking your CATs, there are some broader issues to your studies that you should also consider:

1) Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. Your prior studies were really book-heavy, so you'll likely end up needing to invest in some non-book resources.

2) While there are some Test Takers and Experts who believe that using LSAT materials during their studies is a good idea, I am NOT one of them. While LSAT LR has a lot in common with GMAT CR (and LSAT RC has a lot in common with GMAT RC), there are enough differences to make those LSAT resources less than ideal. To start, the LSAT includes a wider range of question types and 'design logic' than the GMAT does, so you'd be learning/practicing ideas that you will NOT face on the Official GMAT. To be clear, that doesn't necessarily mean that LSAT LR/RC is 'harder' - you'll just be wasting your time on concepts that you won't be tested on during the GMAT. In addition, most LSAT prompts are presented in print (and you can solve them with pencil-and-paper) - NEITHER of those aspects is realistic relative to how you have to deal with the Official GMAT. Finally, there are plenty of useful GMAT resources to be had, so there's no good reason to be using LSAT resources during your GMAT studies.

3) If we assume that your 550 is your current ability level, then you'll likely need at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study to get to a 720+. That score was from back in October though, so it's possible that your current ability level is actually higher than that. To clarify that point, you should plan to take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections) in a realistic fashion (away from your home, at the same time of day as when you will retake the GMAT, etc.). Once you have that score, you should report back here and we can discuss how best to proceed with your studies.

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

nahid007 · Answer

Hello  EMPOWERgmatRichC , 
how are you?
This is my recent test's result. (EXAM pack 1, EXAM 3)
I took the full test, at the exact time i am planning to take my final test. (Although I didn't take my breakfast, as i got up late)
These are the results. I was careful about IR, but I saw that I had made a lot of careful mistakes.
At the end of the verbal parts I hade only 9-10 minutes left to answer last 10-11 questions. 
I hope these information will help you understand my situation and help me.

Thanks in advance.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi nahid007,

This recent score result is a good sign - scoring at this level while taking the CAT under more realistic conditions means that you've likely trained more effectively over the last couple of months. That having been said, based on the pacing issue that you described in the Verbal section, I suspect that there are two specific areas that you need to work on:

1) You're likely not taking enough notes when you work through RC and CR prompts, so you're left to narrow down the answer choices and choose the one that "sounds good" (instead of knowing which answer is correct). You cannot score at a high level in the Verbal section by working this way.
2) You're likely spending too much time on your SCs (on average). While you're getting a high percentage of those questions correct, it's costing you so much time that you don't have enough time to properly deal with all of the other prompts.

Beyond those two points, skipping breakfast was NOT a good idea (even if you didn't have a 'choice' in the matter). Breakfast is essential on Test Day (and making sure that you eat/drink during the two 8-minute breaks is also important). With an early May Test Date, you have plenty of time to continue studying - which is good. With a proper month of guided study and the proper study materials, you could conceivably take the GMAT and hit your goal score, so you have to decide how you want to proceed.

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

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