Need help - stuck at 560

Question

I recently appeared for my GMAT and my scores were disappointing. This is my 2nd attempt at GMAT and I landed up with 560 (Q44, V23). My earlier attempt was also 560 (Q43,V25). I studied for a month concentrating on Verbal however my scores didn’t improve.

I’d like some guidance and insights on my areas of improvement and study plan for my next GMAT attempt. I plan to retake GMAT during September (29th), so I roughly have 2 months to do my preparation. History of my preparation:

Completed OG Quant, Verbal, Quant & Verbal Review
GMAT Club
GMAT official questions pack 1
Maintained error log for all questions
Gave mocks:
GMAT Prep CAT - 1: 540 (GMAT Prep)
Official GMAT #1 - 560
GMAT Prep CAT - 2: 610 (GMAT Prep)
GMAT Prep CAT - 3 :610 (GMAT Prep)
GMAT Prep CAT - 4: 610 (GMAT Prep)
Veritas Prep Mock-1: 650
Official GMAT #2 - 560

I have spent 3-4 hours during weekdays and 6-8 hours during weekends in the last month however none of them worked out for me apparently.

Also, during the exam I didn’t feel confident and my mind went blank when the verbal section started. I’d like some tips/tricks to maintain cool & calm during exams. Somehow I feel exam day pressure affected my scores as I was expecting at least 600 (based on my GMAT Prep CAT).

I have requested my ESR and I can share the same once available. Meanwhile, need help in understanding as to what might be going wrong with my exam attempts/prep?

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

"...when the verbal section started. I’d like some tips..."

Might be helpful:

5 Verbal tips from a GMAT tutor (Approx. 1 min read time)

https://gmatclub.com/forum/5-verbal-tip ... 63932.html

All the best.

carouselambra · Answer

I sincerely recommend TTP both for Quant and Verbal - the course is daunting but bears fruit in the end.
I am a TTP student and can vouch for the same. Give their 5 days free course a try and let me know if you've got any questions

Cheers.
For more details, you can PM ScottTargetTestPrep directly

Cheers. For more details, you can PM ScottTargetTestPrep directly

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi SaumyaMukh,

I have two great articles for you to check out:

The Best Way to Study for the GMAT

How to Eliminate GMAT Test-Day Anxiety

Feel free to reach out with additional questions.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi SaumyaMukh,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day did not turn out better. Since your 2 Official Scores are so similar to one another, it's likely that you developed some 'bad habits' during your earlier studies that are currently keeping you from scoring higher. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, 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 in total?
2) On what dates (or approximate 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:
3) What is your overall goal score?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). Once you have your ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you. Before you can include attachments with your posts/PMs, you need to have at least 5 posts in the forums (right now, you have just 2 posts). If you would rather not go through those extra steps at this point, then you can feel free to email me your ESR directly (at [email protected])

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi SaumyaMukh, I know it can be disappointing to not reach your target score after two attempts. Let me help you. OG may be a great source for solving GMAT like questions, however, it is definitely not the ideal way to prepare in your case. Moreover, you may find that the OG is a good option as a question bank but lacks detailed explanations for you to use for improvement. It’s always better to prepare with a definitive resource to help you learn concepts while formulating a consistent strategy to solve questions before practicing them from the OG. This way, your preparation will be a lot more structured, and the chances of you leaving gaps in your learning will be significantly less. Focus on improving the method you follow to solve questions because that's what stops people from scoring 700+. Your mock scores are consistently low. Also, you are stuck in a specific score range. Looking at your score break-up, you definitely have consistency issues. There are wild swings in your scores which implies that you haven’t followed a very structured approach. Especially for verbal. I would suggest that you need to start again for verbal and also work on the application of concepts. Also, I can see that you have maintained have an error log, but did you go through it to learn from your mistakes? It's the most important step! For Quant, identifying your weaker areas and working your weaker areas should ideally get you a score of 49/50. For this, you need to have a strong understanding of the concepts and also use the right methodology to solve the questions. The good thing about GMAT quant is it tests only specific types of questions from each topic. Knowing how to solve those types of questions will help you solidify your learning and score well on GMAT quant. Your verbal score clearly indicates there are many conceptual gaps and you may need to start from scratch, revisit the concepts and get a clear understanding of them before you solve the questions. Verbal questions on GMAT are very tricky. Let me help you with the right way to approach your Verbal Prep. How to Ace your Verbal Prep? For GMAT Verbal, it is very important that you follow the right methodology and the logical approach. Your focus has to be on eliminating four incorrect choices rather than choosing the right one . The key is to develop a solid understanding of the concepts that are typically tested on the GMAT and master the process skills that are required to solve GMAT questions. Only then, you will be able to smartly avoid the traps set by the test makers. Before you start learning, it's important to understand what is actually tested using the questions. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a different way. For example, before you start learning the concepts of SC, you need to understand that SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the process to approach SC questions is to: • Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence • Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise) • Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning You can go through the link below to understand the process in a better way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM Also, improving in SC alone won’t fetch you the desired score. You need to prepare for RC and CR as well in a structured and efficient manner. You have to follow a methodical and systematic approach while solving the questions in order to work on your accuracy and increase your score. For example, • In CR, you have to understand the argument, identify the premise and the conclusion and then pre-think the answer before looking at the solutions. • In RC, you need to have the right reading strategies to understand the inferences which are not directly stated in the passage. I’d recommend you to follow this order for the verbal part - SC->CR-RC . The reason for this is very specific. Each question type on the GMAT is testing a specific skill. SC tests your comprehension skills. CR tests comprehension & analytical skills. Finally, RC builds on the previous two skills and also tests your ability to be able to grasp the central point of the passage i.e. Your inferential skills. Thus, when you learn in this order, it's much more effective. The importance of using a standard resource: The only method to make sure that you invest your time, money and effort in an effective way is to use a standard resource which teaches you the concepts, strategies and also helps you work on your weaker areas. Studying using OG or a few random resources might help you to solve GMAT like questions but I’m afraid that they won’t be able to help you much from a strategy perspective. Also, when you are exam ready, your confidence boosts and hence, it will help you perform better. I would suggest you to go for some standard course for your Verbal preparation at least which can help you prepare in a structured and efficient manner thereby increasing your productivity. GMATWhiz helps you with all these things as we follow a structured and methodical way of teaching things , which makes the learning process simpler and efficient. It also helps you to develop an understanding of the test maker’s intention behind asking the question. It uses an AI powered learning platform to provide you with real time improvement modules after every practice quiz. It provides you with additional concept videos and practise quizzes which helps you overcome your weaker areas in a specific topic right away without having to put in additional effort to identify your weaker areas. You can check out GMATWhiz and go for its Verbal Prep Course. Here’s a link to our free trial – https://learn.gmatwhiz.com/?page=signup Hope this helped and feel free to contact if you have any further queries. You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a detailed discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link. Click here to schedule a call

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