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Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG

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SHATAKSHI
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Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   07 Oct 2015, 11:44
Hi,

It's been a month with the GMAT preparation. I have finished Manhattan's SC and OG meticulously (taking proper time in formulating error log in tabular format with concept, question no. and error explanation in 3 columns.)

However, my verbal score has dropped.

1. 1st test,Manhattan free test, without preparation: 540, Verbal:27, Quant: 37
2. 2nd test, Economist free test, with some maths concept revision,570 Verbal: 27, Quant: 41
3. 3rd test, Veritas free test, finished Manhattan's verbal concepts, 520, Verbal:21, Quant:43
4. 4th test,Kaplan free test, finished half verbal OG and diagnostic maths test, 570: Verbal: 19, Quant: 45 ( missed 9 questions in quant)
5. 5th test, Economist free test, break of one week without any preparation, 420, Verbal: 19 and Quant:37 ( missed 6 quant questions)
6. 6th test, Gmat prep, finished verbal OG, 550, Verbal: 19, Quant: 48 ( all questions attempted)

Problem at 1st glance: My verbal just fails to improve, while I am pretty strong with quant.
I have almost 45 days left for GMAT. I kind of feel that I am missing something important in verbal.

Here is the deep dive analysis for verbal of my last test : 18 out of 41 incorrect (out of which 5 were the first 10 questions, 7 were continuous 29th till 35th questions).

My weakest area is sentence correction, I just fail to recognize the error by shortlisting last 2 options. The test questions seem so different from OG. I am trying the meaning approach as a starter to all questions.

Any directional help will be really appreciated.
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   07 Oct 2015, 19:55
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Hi SHATAKSHI,

The range of your scores indicate that there are problems in other areas too apart from SC.
I would recommend you to go back to your notes again and then try to solve the OG again.
You can go for Question Pack1 and Verbal review if you need additional practice.

For SC, try to figure out the subject and the verb first, pay attention to the modifies and parallelism. This should help you

Also, getting 5 questions wrong in the first 10 will hurt your score badly and that is what is happening.
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   07 Oct 2015, 20:35
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Hi SHATAKSHI,

Since you've posted this in another Forum, I thought that it would be best to repost my most recent response to your last post here.

In that thread, when you refer to taking 'sectional tests of verbal', if you're thinking about just working through 41-question 'sets' or 'half-CATs', then neither of those is likely to be the solution to your current Verbal 'issues.' With your 730 score goal, you're also going to have to make some serious improvements to how you handle the Quant section.

All of this is meant to say that you need to learn/practice Tactics and that is probably going to require investing in a GMAT Course of some type. Raising your score 160+ points above your highest CAT score will probably take more time than you've given yourself, so while you can take the GMAT on November 20th as planned, you'll likely need to take it again after that attempt.

1) How much time do you think you can spend on your studies during a typical week?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   07 Oct 2015, 22:39
Hi Janielle,

Thanks for the response.
I will work start working on Powerscore's CR and LSAT's RC concepts ( RC is another weaker area) and quant ( OG is still left) in parallel.

However, like mentioned my weakest is SC ( 60% incorrect question in verbal from SC) , which is the lowest hanging fruit for me and hasn't improved post OG also, clearly indicating poor grasp on concepts. I plan to start Manhattan's SC again and look up to SC forum on Gmat club , where reasons for correct answer in mentioned, post which I will start with Verbal Only OG.

Usually, this is how I attack an SC question:
I understand the meaning of sentence first.Then ,I look out for Sub-verb agreement, dangling modifiers, parallelism , ambiguous pronoun's antecedent and similarly ambiguous modifiers, use of comma and "and" in the underlined part.

Yet, I am stuck with 2 close options and end up selecting the incorrect one.

rich: Thanks for the reply again.
I understand that there is a concept gap in my knowledge. For that, like mentioned I will brush up Manhattan's SC again, I had read Manhattan SC before starting OG, may be now, I will be able to grasp more or may be understand more.

I can easily pull 10 hours a day like I have been since last 1 month ( 70% for Verbal and 30% for Quant).
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   10 Oct 2015, 14:07
SHATAKSHI wrote:
Hi,

It's been a month with the GMAT preparation. I have finished Manhattan's SC and OG meticulously (taking proper time in formulating error log in tabular format with concept, question no. and error explanation in 3 columns.)

However, my verbal score has dropped.

1. 1st test,Manhattan free test, without preparation: 540, Verbal:27, Quant: 37
2. 2nd test, Economist free test, with some maths concept revision,570 Verbal: 27, Quant: 41
3. 3rd test, Veritas free test, finished Manhattan's verbal concepts, 520, Verbal:21, Quant:43
4. 4th test,Kaplan free test, finished half verbal OG and diagnostic maths test, 570: Verbal: 19, Quant: 45 ( missed 9 questions in quant)
5. 5th test, Economist free test, break of one week without any preparation, 420, Verbal: 19 and Quant:37 ( missed 6 quant questions)
6. 6th test, Gmat prep, finished verbal OG, 550, Verbal: 19, Quant: 48 ( all questions attempted)

Problem at 1st glance: My verbal just fails to improve, while I am pretty strong with quant.
I have almost 45 days left for GMAT. I kind of feel that I am missing something important in verbal.

Here is the deep dive analysis for verbal of my last test : 18 out of 41 incorrect (out of which 5 were the first 10 questions, 7 were continuous 29th till 35th questions).

My weakest area is sentence correction, I just fail to recognize the error by shortlisting last 2 options. The test questions seem so different from OG. I am trying the meaning approach as a starter to all questions.

Any directional help will be really appreciated.


Hey SHATAKSHI

The SC section is the easiest verbal section to make improvements on. Once you understand how to think and approach this question type, there are only so many ways you can be tested. Here at GMAT Pill we developed the 10 core frameworks which detail the 10 ways to approach GMAT sentence corrections.

Here is a sample video detailing one of the core frameworks: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... stion/2184

For CR, we recommend a visual framework approach to help you understand the complex short passages and how each item relates to each other.

Here is a video describing the visual framework approach: https://www.gmatpill.com/criticalreasoni ... Estate.mp4

To improve RC - you really need visual guidance. Don't read articles about how to improve reading. You improve by actually doing or watching someone else do.

That's why you might find these video walkthroughs helpful: https://www.gmatpill.com/practicequestio ... tions.html

Best of luck on your studies!
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   12 Oct 2015, 17:26
It sounds to me that you are treating GMAT like memorization repetition task. GMAT tests logic skill. Work to sharpen your skill. That has been helpful for me.
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Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   13 Oct 2015, 06:32
Thanks Saurabh and others for guidance.

I took another test MGMAT today and got 620: Verbal (32) and Quant (43).

1. Referred the foll. in the week:read advanced chapters from SC, started CR and RC bible ( Powerscore), finished 1/3rd of GMAC's verbal review.
2. Focused on reasoning and understanding the actual meaning on SC questions.
3. Made sure I devoted time for last 10 questions, rather than guessing.

The quant in Mgmat test looked way harder than practice Gmatprep test.

The journey to 700 still remains :-D . Any other guidance will be appreciated.
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Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   13 Oct 2015, 06:48
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I've had a problem with getting down to two SC choices as well and then not knowing which to pick. The issue? Idioms! Idioms are still tested and important, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. On my official GMAT, I had one question in which the only difference between two choices was believe and believe that. I couldn't remember the idiom to use - sometimes it's believe X and other times it's believe that X.

Magoosh has a free eBook on Idioms you can go through:

https://magoosh.resources.s3.amazonaws.c ... _eBook.pdf

Also try the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction book.
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   13 Oct 2015, 11:08
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SHATAKSHI wrote:
However, like mentioned my weakest is SC ( 60% incorrect question in verbal from SC)

Hi SHATAKSHI! Since you specifically mention SC, thought I would mention that our sentence correction book Sentence Correction Nirvana is perhaps the only book that offers a score improvement guarantee, and is especially designed for non-native speakers.

After reading the book twice (yes! it's an academic book, and so must be read twice in all seriousness, to reinforce the concepts), you will start looking forward to solving SC questions!

The book is available on Flipkart and Amazon.in. You might want to refer to these sites, to also read testimonials of how readers have benefited.

If you want to sample a chapter before deciding to go ahead with our book, please PM me your mail-id (along with the chapter that you would like to sample) and I will be happy to send that chapter to you by mail. In addition, the entire Grammar section of the book is also available for free preview at pothi.
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   01 Nov 2015, 23:17
Hi All,

It will be wonderful if you can help me guide on one more important aspect, kind of a deal breaker for me right now.

I am able to solve first 15/20 questions right in Verbal test, post which my accuracy just drops to 5/21 correct questions in last 20 set, leading to a drop of score 28. Breakup of 15 incorrect in last 21 set: 8 SC, 4 CR and 3 RC
This is happening repetitively.

Clearly, I am not able to handle pressure of last minute clock and difficult level questions.
However, I am able to solve most of the hard level questions without the pressure of clock.

Any form of guidance and perception will be really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   02 Nov 2015, 06:49
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SHATAKSHI wrote:
I am able to solve first 15/20 questions right in Verbal test, post which my accuracy just drops to 5/21 correct questions in last 20 set, leading to a drop of score 28. Breakup of 15 incorrect in last 21 set: 8 SC, 4 CR and 3 RC
Running out of time is a very common reason for such a sharp drop in accuracy. There are two things that you should definitely work on:
(a) Developing and executing a timing strategy (involves a lot of timed practice)
(b) Being comfortable with guessing and knowing when to move on

You've got to do well over the entire test. Doing exceptionally well on the first 20 and then getting most of the remaining questions incorrect is never going to work out in your favor.
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   02 Nov 2015, 07:19
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SHATAKSHI wrote:
Hi All,

It will be wonderful if you can help me guide on one more important aspect, kind of a deal breaker for me right now.

I am able to solve first 15/20 questions right in Verbal test, post which my accuracy just drops to 5/21 correct questions in last 20 set, leading to a drop of score 28. Breakup of 15 incorrect in last 21 set: 8 SC, 4 CR and 3 RC
This is happening repetitively.

Clearly, I am not able to handle pressure of last minute clock and difficult level questions.
However, I am able to solve most of the hard level questions without the pressure of clock.

Any form of guidance and perception will be really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.


Hi
Use your error log to ensure that in SC you do not repeat similar mistakes.
SC is the area where you can reduce mistakes.
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink] New post   14 Nov 2015, 23:20
SHATAKSHI wrote:
Hi,

It's been a month with the GMAT preparation. I have finished Manhattan's SC and OG meticulously (taking proper time in formulating error log in tabular format with concept, question no. and error explanation in 3 columns.)

However, my verbal score has dropped.

1. 1st test,Manhattan free test, without preparation: 540, Verbal:27, Quant: 37
2. 2nd test, Economist free test, with some maths concept revision,570 Verbal: 27, Quant: 41
3. 3rd test, Veritas free test, finished Manhattan's verbal concepts, 520, Verbal:21, Quant:43
4. 4th test,Kaplan free test, finished half verbal OG and diagnostic maths test, 570: Verbal: 19, Quant: 45 ( missed 9 questions in quant)
5. 5th test, Economist free test, break of one week without any preparation, 420, Verbal: 19 and Quant:37 ( missed 6 quant questions)
6. 6th test, Gmat prep, finished verbal OG, 550, Verbal: 19, Quant: 48 ( all questions attempted)

Problem at 1st glance: My verbal just fails to improve, while I am pretty strong with quant.
I have almost 45 days left for GMAT. I kind of feel that I am missing something important in verbal.

Here is the deep dive analysis for verbal of my last test : 18 out of 41 incorrect (out of which 5 were the first 10 questions, 7 were continuous 29th till 35th questions).

My weakest area is sentence correction, I just fail to recognize the error by shortlisting last 2 options. The test questions seem so different from OG. I am trying the meaning approach as a starter to all questions.

Any directional help will be really appreciated.


Hey Statakshi,

The SC section is the easiest verbal section to make improvements on. Once you understand how to think and approach this question type, there are only so many ways you can be tested. Here at GMAT Pill we developed the 10 core frameworks which detail the 10 ways to approach GMAT sentence corrections.

Here is a sample video detailing one of the core frameworks: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... stion/2184

For CR, we recommend a visual framework approach to help you understand the complex short passages and how each item relates to each other.

Here is a video describing the visual framework approach: https://www.gmatpill.com/criticalreasoni ... Estate.mp4

To improve RC - you really need visual guidance. Don't read articles about how to improve reading. You improve by actually doing or watching someone else do.

That's why you might find these video walkthroughs helpful: https://www.gmatpill.com/practicequestio ... tions.html

Best of luck on your studies!
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Re: Not able to improve Verbal score post finishing OG [#permalink]
14 Nov 2015, 23:20

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