sidhaa wrote:
I need some urgent guidance regarding my GMAT score - 560 (Q 44, V 24) I followed the veritas prep course and was scoring 620 , 630 and in other practice tests also i scored 640 as well. My aim was to score 700 plus but this low score has ruined all my dreams. There were couple of things that i believe i did wrong during the test . After the quant section i thought that i performed terribly which in a way made be more nervous.
You scored within 50/60 points of what you were scoring on your practice tests. This is not surprising - especially since you had a case of nerves on the test.
sidhaa wrote:
Secondly throughout the VERBAL section , i could not follow any strategy in SC section .which used to be my strong area so far the practice tests are concerned. I need to know is there any way through which i could differentiate which questions are hard , medium or easy . Many a times i get the hard questions right but the EASY ones wrong. Lastly i need some serious help in RC as even after doing lots of practice , my performance has not improved in it.
I think there are a few reasons for you to do this:
1. Did the source you studied from expect you to "remember" stuff? If you were just trying to "remember" the rules then yes memory can play truant. Else the technique that you learn should be one that helps you under pressure. Heck! It should work MORE under pressure. If you had a technique that helped you solve just questions from
OG then it is not a technique. There is a world of difference between solving isolated questions in practice and solving similar questions on a 4-hour test. The GMAT is not a sprint, it is a marathon.
2. Why would you want to differentiate the difficulty levels? How does it help you? How do you know you got the question you got right was "hard"? Or the question that you got wrong was "easy"? (<- sometimes a Q51 question are deceptively easy)? If you want to practice using tough questions, I would advice you to get the easier ones right i.e. the ones at the lower 600-range, which is where you were during practice. Once you are above the 650-mark you can take slightly tougher questions but till then I want you to NAIL the easier ones more consistently. Apart from the
OG and the Verbal Review, I strongly recommend the official GMATPrep questions available on GMATClub forum. You also have Brunel's practice questions
3. The biggest problem that I see in people with poor RC skills is that they focus more on understanding the passage. The technique that we teach in the class takes away all the power from the passage. You need to focus on the questions. You need to know just enough to answer the questions correctly. Once you get a hang of this, you will realize how little you actually need to know about the passage to answer most questions. GMAT is a thinker's test and the question will have devious options. You should focus completely on that and use the passage only as a crutch.
Hope this analysis helps,
Arun