No Improvement in RC

Question

Hi,

I have been preparing for last 3-4 months in apparently effective mode, though i am still working and remote work has helped me in focussed prep. Since, my verbal was weak, I initially focused on reading and thus tried reading through books, articles from NewYorkTimes, The Economist, ProjectSyndicate, and History.com. And I can feel the difference or improvement while reading those articles, and recently, I have also completed through the basic/fundamental understanding of SC and CR. But I have given around 2 tests on Veritas Prep maintaining a gap of 10 days, and still found my verbal score stuck at 27 from the beginning.

I do see improvement and confidence in tackling SC and CR, and further I do see it to become better with more practice, but either my accuracy somehow has dropped in RC or I am making some mistake in approaching it, or probably the evaluation is not happening correct. The one thing which I am doubting is that the professionalism of Veritas RC with GMAT RC, but even that should not be a big issue. I am not sure what exactly is wrong here. Within my recent test, I have got around 2 RC's completely wrong and skipped reading 1 RC as I was out of time.

Just to note here, that 2 of the RCs, which went completely wrong even when I made the aproper attempt, within the test were those where I was able to deduce the structure but almost all of the questions were inference and going into specific details.

Thus, I am reaching out for help in the following:
1. How to figure out the right problem with RC? 
2. How can I solve those issues? Are these some strategies or there is actual problem with my reading?
3. Anything else please which I might have missed here.

I am planning to give GMAT mid of August.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi thecoronafever,

To start, many GMATers are concerned about their reading pace, but you do NOT need to be a 'fast' reader to score at a high level on the GMAT. You do have to work at a reasonable pace, 'attack' each prompt that you face (re: actively read, look for patterns, etc.) and take a reasonable amount of notes. Many GMATers end up losing points in the Verbal section because they try to read too fast (or "skim" text, which is also not a good idea) - and that actually leads to additional problems (re: they almost always have to reread the entire prompt - sometimes multiple times - which is the actual CAUSE of their pacing problems).

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? 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) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

thecoronafever · Answer

Hey EMPOWERgmatRichC,

Thanks for your response. Here are the details:
1. I have been studying for continuous 3.5 months, where initial 2 months were focussed on unofficial GMAT reading, and later I added GMAT materials. I am typically studying 25 hours/week (including tests). I believe I have gained the basic knowledge to solve the problems and thus, these days I am more focused on OG questions and tests and reviewing my mistakes.
2. MGMAT SC and PowerScore LR.
3. VeritasPrep. My Quant score is 51, and my verbal score is 27 in both the tests. Dates - 21st June, and 2nd July.
 Verbal Scores for 21st June: 64% CR, 80% SC, 58% RC. Attempted 33 questions.
 Verbal Scores for 2nd July: 67% CR, 58% SC, 25% RC. Attempted 36 questions and skipped 1 RC passage (guesswork).

Goals:
4. 730+
5. 15th August
6. I will be giving try once this year, and once next year. Because of the covid situation, I am thinking of Fall 2021 or 2022. The reason I want to try this year is that I want to experience the interview and if all goes well, I will get the admission deferred.

I want to mention more details from my analysis:
1. I feel that my score is down not because of the knowledge or application of skills but because of some exhaustion and fear of loosing time.
2. Within RC, if there's a question about structure and main point of the passage, I crack it easily. But I end up missing the following questions:
 a. Inference questions - whose answers are spanned across the passage.
 b. Inference questions or understanding question which talks about specific detail - Here I figured out that I am able to pin-point where I can find the answer but still picking up the wrong one as my focus tends to distort while selecting the answer.
3. I am not skimming the passage but reading it properly taking around 4 minutes to read a passage. My accuracy for RC turns out to be good even for difficult passage if I am doing it from OG, but I am sure that while giving test, it is altogether a different experience and since, I have also speeded a bit in answering, I believe that more factors are coming in play.
4. You might see SC score down in the latest test, but that is all because there were more advanced details tested or new mistakes made which I believe not happen again.

I hope all the above should help you out in guiding me properly.

Thanks

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi thecoronafever,

Depending on the specific Schools that you plan to apply to, you might find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement.

There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

From what you described, it's not clear what you were working on for the first couple of months of your studies (what is "unofficial GMAT reading" exactly?), but if you have only been working with GMAT materials for about 1.5 months, then you should not expect to have mastered any of the content or concepts just yet (many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores).

On your most recent CAT:
1) On how many questions were low on time and had to guess?
2) How many questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

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

thecoronafever · Answer

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC,

The school I am looking to apply too has an avg score of 720, and thus I am targetting 730+. Since, I lacked in reading, I went through reading books as per recommended in one of the posts by bb, some Economist articles, NY Times articles. Considering that I am planning to give it in next 1.5 months, the total will be around 3 months of prep and everything when I might see myself hitting the high score. As I have mentioned, I have seen improvements in SC and CR section, and continued practice will make me better in them. But what worries me is the RC section as I do understand the big picture but incorrectly marking answers for some questions but that does not happen with all the RC passages. I am also having mental exhaustion or probably stress which I believe is impacting my score.

On the most recent CAT
1) I was out of time for around 6-7 questions. In which 3 questions belonged to RC, 3 belonged to CR.
2) In around 8-10 questions, I was down to 2 choices and incorrectly picked the wrong one. 
 3-4 of them in SC, where the concepts were new to me. 
 1 of them in CR. 
 Rest were in RC.

In CR, questions were wrong because I did not understand the stimulus correctly for 1. and for 2 questions, I was out of time.

Average timing:
Critical Reasoning 01m 53s. 
Reading Comprehension 02m 10s
Sentence Correction 01m 21s

Where all I am loosing time:
1. At times during test, I loose focus and do a bit of re-reading (20-25% of the time). But I will blame it to my focus completely.
2. Sometimes, I re-evaluate my originally picked answer which is also eating up my valuable time.
3. I can also cut more time in Sentence Correction. I am trying to understand what should be picked as decision logic to select the right answer faster. I have found that if I know what might be tested, I can solve it faster and more correctly.
4. Within RC, I have found difficulty in understanding the question itself. I am going through material to understand the types of questions which I see will help me direct to the correct answer.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi thecoronafever,

With a V27, you would have lost significant points in at least 2 of the 3 major Verbal categories (RC, SC and CR). In addition, the RC skills that you are looking to develop are actually tied into how you handle certain other aspects of the Verbal section and some areas of the Quant section - so you will have to work on a number of different areas beyond RC to hit your Score Goal. By extension, you'll need more than just some 'tips' to improve in RC - you need to train to 'see' (and respond to) the GMAT in new ways (and that training will take time).

1) Are you currently still working through any of the books that you mentioned or have you completed them?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

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