Need help in analysing ESR

Question

Hi,

I need your help in analysing my ESR. My gmat score is 660 - V33, Q48, IR 2, AWA 4.45. This was my second attempt. I scored 540 exactly one year ago. I think that I can still improve my score.

I need your expert advice in understanding my weak areas and finding ways to remedy those issues. I cannot interpret information very well from the data given in the ESR. For instance, in SC section I scored low in Communication. I am not sure what type of SC questions tests this skill.

I am ready to put in effort and improve my score in around 30 days. As admissions are going on in many colleges, I don't think that I should spend time on elaborate study plan once again.

Please help me.

Thanks in advance.

logro · Answer

Hey Chillbrorelax - If you can upload your ESR that would be really helpful for the experts to guide you

chillbrorelax · Answer

Thanks for reminding me. I have uploaded my ESR in the post.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Parth,

First off, a 660/Q48 is a strong 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/

There's certainly no harm in retesting though - and you have the potential to pick up points in both the Quant and Verbal sections. Before we get to the data in your ESR, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied for this attempt? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) 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)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to and what specific application deadlines are you facing?

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Parth,

Looking at your ESR, I feel that you need to work on improving your Verbal skills. Quant score is decent and you just have to brush up a few things. Having said that, in Verbal I see a scope for improvement in all the three modules. The main focus has to be on RC.

To answer your question regarding SC, your knowledge on grammar rules is good. But unfortunately, GMAT SC questions don't just test your grammar knowledge. It focuses mainly on your ability to convey a logical meaning without any ambiguity. You are likely approaching the SC questions from a grammar stand-point. This process is not the right way. You might have often come across answer choices which are grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect. So, it is important to understand the intended meaning of the original sentence and then eliminate answer choices which are grammatically incorrect or which do not convey a logical meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM

And as I delve deeper into your ESR, the main reason you couldn't score well on Verbal is because you have made recurring mistakes in all the quarters. When you keep making mistakes that is when you don't get a string of questions right, there are high chances that the algorithm won't serve you difficult questions that is 700 level questions. And there might be many reasons for that. You might have a few conceptual gaps or might be lacking application skills.

The path forward: 
Having said that, I believe that your conceptual knowledge is good but you are lacking the application skills. I can say this because you are not aware of approaching SC questions from a meaning stand-point. This might be the case with CR and RC as well. So, I suggest you to work on improving your methodology to solve verbal questions. You can get to know the methodology briefly by checking out our Youtube videos.

And I understand that a month is very less but an improvement is definitely possible, provided that you have a proper study plan with clear deadlines and you focus on the right areas.  If you need any help in making a study plan, you can get in touch with me over a call or sign up for a free trial of GMATWhiz and get your personalized study plan for free . Feel free to contact if you have any more queries.

Click here to schedule a call

chillbrorelax · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for helping me in analysing my weaknesses, specially those in SC. I admit that I may have made recurring mistakes in the verbal section. I definitely think that in many questions I was not able to apply the strategy properly. I was a little nervous and less confident in the beginning of the section.

I have had watched this video that you shared. This video was really helpful in understanding a different meaning based approach. I have even tried this approach on several questions. I am finding this approach helpful.

I am interested to learn a better approach to tackle RC. Before taking the real test, I learned how to read the passages, to find the simple story in the passage. During the test, I felt that I lost my pace a little bit in the first quarter, so I rushed on the RC. In that moment, I was not so much focused on my strategy.

Looking forward to improve in all these areas, I have taken these points into consideration. Having a proper study plan at this point is a sensible idea. I will have to create such a plan for myself, since I am not planning to add more resources. I have got some resources left to exhaust. I will use them. Apart from those, I will definitely watch your other YouTube videos to gain insight on other areas as well.

Thanks again for taking a moment to analyse my ESR and sharing your expert views with me. These points are invaluable for me to plan ahead.

chillbrorelax · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for sharing your views about my scores. I agree my scores are decent and I can start applying to colleges with these score. However, since I think that I do not have a very strong profile to present in my applications and Indian applicants like me are well represented, improving my scores will be rather helpful to balance these weakness out. Indeed, a good gmat score is one of the factors to count while applying for financial aid. Therefore, I want to retake the test. My goal is to achieve a score in 700s. Not that I am not considering applying to colleges. I have discussed my chances with a consultant. I have listed some colleges that I am planning to apply with my current score. I have attached the list.

I will give you an idea about my preparation. I took my first gmat last year, same day, scoring a sub-600 score. I cancelled that score. For that attempt I had studied for about 6 months with an online prep resource, Expert's Global. I scored 690 Q47 V38 in the last test I took on its portal.

After that attempt, I studied for one year. I subscribed to Jamboree's Gmat course. I attended classes and studied from the material it provided. I took 12 practice tests on its portal. I got various scores ranging from 630 (V26, Q43) to 720 (V38, Q49). Once I exhausted those resources, I realised that I was not comfortable in scoring over 700. So I continued practising questions from Kaplan Online Question Bank and practice tests on several other portals.

Here are some of those test scores of those tests.
Veritas Prep: Aug 13 - 670 (V34, Q48), Sep 14 - 680 (V33, Q50), Oct 10 - 690 (V37, Q48).
Kaplan: Sep 21 - 660 (V34, Q47)
Princeton Review: Oct 13 - 720 (V39, Q51)
GmatPrep Test 2: Retake, Oct 1 - 740 (V41, Q49)
GmatPrep Software Test 5: Oct 4 - 740 (V40, Q50)

Of course these are not all the practice tests I have taken so far. I have taken some gmatclub tests too, and several other tests before my first attempt. One month before the test, my basic routine was taking a test on every third day. With all this information, I hope that you may have got a rough idea about my preparation.

I am interested to know your views and suggestions that may help me improve my overall score henceforth.

Thanks.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi chillbrorelax.

First off, great job with quant. Q48 is a very solid quant score! Regarding verbal and your ESR, honestly, I would avoid getting bogged down in the minutia of some of the details of your report. The truth is that I am not sure how you could study just "communication" in SC or just "Construction/Plan" in RC. Furthermore, what is important is that you scored V33, and in order to improve your overall GMAT score, you really will need to improve in all aspects of verbal (SC, CR, and RC). With all that in mind, would you like some general advice on how to improve your verbal skills?

chillbrorelax · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for taking a look at my ESR. Yes, I would like to know your advice. I would like to know the strategies that I must follow to improve my score from 33 to 38-40.

I found following proper strategies very effective. For instance, just a few weeks before the real test, I understood how to break any CR argument and look for gaps. Although I did not master this strategy very well, following it in CR questions definitely showed results. I am facing difficulties in some of those infer questions in which applying this strategy does not works well.

There must be strategies for RC as well. In SC, I am already learning to approach questions with their intended meaning.

Now that I am really trusting on strategies and approach, I am eager to know your suggestions. Please let me know what you have in mind for me.

Thanks.

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

So happy that you find it helpful. If you need a study plan, you can sign up for the free trial and get it for free. I think the personalized study plan will be better because you have all the concepts organized. Just give it a try if you feel like. All the best

chillbrorelax · Answer

Hi  ScottTargetTestPrep  any response to this?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Parth,

I've sent you a PM with an analysis of your ESR and some additional notes and questions.

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

chillbrorelax · Answer

Hi, thanks for responding to my post.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

To improve in Reading Comprehension, you need to focus on understanding what you are reading. When you incorrectly answer Reading Comprehension questions, it’s partly because you didn’t truly understand what you read, right? Thus, you likely have to slow down in order to (eventually) speed up. At this point, your best bet is to focus on getting the correct answers to questions, taking as much time as you need to see key details and understand the logic of what you are reading. You have to learn to comprehend what you read, keep it all straight, and use what you are reading to arrive at correct answers. If you don't understand something, go back and read it one sentence at a time, even one word at a time, not moving on until you understand what you have just read. There is no way around this work. Your goal should be to take all the time you need to understand exactly what is being said and arrive at the correct answer. If you can learn to get answers taking your time, you can learn to speed up. Answering questions is like any task: The more times you do it carefully and successfully, the faster you become at doing it carefully and successfully.

Another component of understanding what you are reading is being “present” when reading. Don’t worry about how things are going at work, or what you will eat for dinner, or even how long you are taking to read through the passage. Just focus on what is in front of you, word by word, line by line. Furthermore, try to make reading fun. For example, even if you are reading about a topic that bores you, pretend that you are the person making the argument. By doing so, you will make the passage more relatable to YOU, and ultimately you should be able to read with greater focus.

One final component of Reading Comprehension that may be tripping you up is that RC questions contain one or more trap answers that seem to answer the question but don't really. So, a key part of training to correctly answer RC questions is learning to notice the differences between trap answers and correct answers. You have to learn to see how trap answers seem to follow from what the passages say, but don't really, while correct answers fit what the passages say exactly.

chillbrorelax · Answer

Hi Scott,

Thanks for telling me the key points to focus on in breaking down RC passages well. I am going to work in this direction. Thanks for responding.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

My pleasure.

Need help in analysing ESR

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