Need verbal score improvement tips

Hi Tanisha_shasha,

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 long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your exact Test Date?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Hello Rich

Following is the info
Studies:
1) How long have you studied? I have been studying for over 1.5 months now.

2) What study materials have you used so far? I did the OG, Looked over Manhattan Guides and took an online course from E-gmat, solved the scholaranium and quite a lot of questions
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)? I took the free mocks from MBA.com my first mock was a 470 (i don't remember the sectional score), second mock 540 (Q43, V22), third mock 560 (Q45, V28)

Goals:
4) What is your exact Test Date? 3rd August 2018
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School? This November onwards for Fall 2019
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to? yet to prepare a final shortlist but the ones I am interested in for Masters would want a 700+gmat. I thought to let the score come once then I'd finally decide as to where I stand a chance.

Also, I have taken a month off to dedicate myself to GMAT. I am done with theory and basics. But I feel now I need to correctly apply the approach to medium and high-level questions. I will solve these first, with the sole intention of attaining accuracy, once I attain 90-100% accuracy I will start solving these in a timed environment.
Please guide me wrt the strategy. Especially RC. For quant i'll be solving as many different level questions as possible. My basics are clear. I am ready to work hard, but i don't want to labour and end up getting no improvement, for that, I need advice from experts like you to smartly work my way up on the scoreboard. I know some may say a month is too less to have such a high improvement, but i am not thinking of that. I am just eager to improve and learn the maximum.

Looking forward to your reply

Hi Tanisha_shasha,

Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so it's likely that you will continue to improve as you continue to study. That having been said, raising a 560 to a 700+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study (even though you've taken time off to devote to your studies) - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. As such, you might need to push back your Test Date. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

1) On what date did you take your last CAT?
2) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (with the Essay and IR sections)?
3) How many hours are you planning to study each week going forward?

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

Hi Tanisha,

Your determination to succeed in this attempt is commendable. Like you said, you must not worry about the duration but put in all the effort and reach your target score.
I saw that you have purchased our course for Verbal. I have gone through your data in Scholaranium and the other quizzes to identify what the issue may be. I would like you to share your sub-sectional ability scores from the latest mock test that you took. You would get the ability scores if you have purchased the Exam Pack 1. Your mock details will help me understand the problem areas better.

Findings from Course Dashboard & Scholaranium:

SC

Parallelism is a topic where you are faltering and improving it will boost up your SC scores greatly in SC. What I also saw was that you have not solved any OG quiz in Parallelism. It is essential that you do so as reviewing the solutions of old GMAT questions helps in cementing your understanding and ability to apply those concepts.

CR

Likewise, in CR, Assumption and Boldface seem to be the topics of concern for you. You must go through the application files again. Review the mistakes you’ve made and learn from them. You have attempted quite a few questions in both SC and CR and I hope that you’ve reviewed them well. If not, you are missing out on a very big opportunity to learn and improve. Solving more questions without having clarity on errors made previously will only increase your study time and slow down your progress.

RC

It is good to know that you are following the reading strategies in RC. But I see that you have not gone through most of the course videos and there are highest number of un-attempted questions. You must complete the RC course and then solve questions in Scholaranium to check your improvement. We are conducting a free RC webinar this weekend. You can join it to understand why the incorrect option choices are so and how to select the correct option choice. To attend the webinar register here.

Regards,
Aditee