Score Dropped from 640 to 620

You should be happy with a 640, it's quite an achievement. A 640 is nothing to sniff at, and many people would kill for that score!

If you are happy with your score, and it will allow you to accomplish the goals you've set for yourself, then I think you are making the right decision. Best of luck to you

Dear gmatpunjabi

My sympathy for what must be a frustrating situation for you. While it's true that, as GMATLA said, 640 is not a bad score, clearly you can do better, and understandably, you are eager to do so.

I believe Magoosh can help you. First of all, check out the free blog, https://magoosh.com/gmat/, with articles you may find helpful. In the Magoosh product, we have 200+ lesson videos designed to teach all the content and all the strategy you need for the GMAT. We also have 800+ practice questions, each with its own video explanation. We will answer any GMAT question from any test prep material, so no matter what materials you already have, joining Magoosh is like getting live support for it. We have a 50-point-increase guarantee (https://gmat.magoosh.com/score-guarantee). We also have a one-week money-back guarantee so you can sample our product for a week at no risk. Furthermore, see the "Magoosh GMAT reviews" link in the signature to my post.

Here, for free, is a sample lesson video on circle properties:

https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/297-circle-properties

Here's a sample CR question:

https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1284

When you submit your answer to that question, you will be led to the page with the video explanation.

I hope these suggestions and materials are helpful to you. Please let me know if you have any further questions, or anything else with which I can help you.

Mike

If you take GMAT on two consecutive days (theoretically), it is possible that you get 640 one day and 620 the next. What I mean to say is that even though you thought you were practicing, you were not going forward. The ability to answer questions correctly did not improve. There can be many reasons for it and before taking the next step you need to look back and see where you went wrong.
So you were practicing everyday, great. The question is 'how were you practicing?'

Did you analyze every wrong question? Did you jot down takeaways to apply in other questions? Can you now do that same question with different numbers? Can you do it if it is twisted a little?

Did you go through the solution of every question you answered correctly to figure out whether there is a better method? Did you ask your GMAT club friends to tell you a better method if you were not able to find one? Did you try to understand the concept used in the questions you practiced?

Practice does not improve your score until and unless you try and learn from every question. Doing 50 questions randomly every day will not do what doing 10 questions very well will do. You practice to learn new things and get more exposure to different concepts and different applications of the same concept. Improving your score is not hard but you have to put your heart into it. You have to understand (not learn) the concepts.

If you plan to re-take, first think about this: Are you comfortable with basics of all important topics? (including CR, RC and SC basics)
If not, check out specific books for the topics you are weak in.
Then start by practicing a few questions every day. Take half an hour to do the questions and then put in 2 hrs to analyze each and every one of those questions. Do not move on till you understand everything related to that question. I don't see why you should be stuck at 640 or in the 600s range for that matter. Strive to jump to the 700s.

Thanks for the reply. I literally redid every SC Question in the OG12. I analyzed every Answer Choice and why it was wrong. I also got through roughly 40 Verbal Review SC Questions using the same review method. I would do roughly 10 Questions a day and break them down piece by piece. I did the same for CR. Now I dont think OG Questions are of any use anymore Ive gone through nearly all of them. Ive burned up all the Manhattan matieral as well. The main question how do I prepare? my old strategy was completely worthless and what matieral do I practice on?

Crit Reasoning is LSAT Matieral Good?
SC What do I practice what and what book do I use?
Math I am completely done with OG Matieral?
Reading Comprehension - LSAT Matieral?

Books other than Manhattan? Maybe I need a new approach?

Hi gmatpunjabi,

I have been in the same boat, and when i posted to grow from 620 to 700 , almost 90% of experts suggested me the same thing -- one needs to practice to LEARN.

I have done the same mistake in the past of just practicing the problems, i do not know if this approach works for you or not, but i will share the approach that is working for me.

For example, since i am weak at verbal , i took Subject- Verb, i know almost all the fundamentals of SV by now, but still i decided to study SV for minimum 1.5/2 hrs -- concepts part.

Then, i took first 20 Qs from OG, i read each and every word of explanation... i believe this process has increased my recall time for solving the problem, in case of practice only.. i used to practice problems and then i used to just check if something is wrong or right... but believe me the recent approach of analyzing the problem has really helped me in terms of confidence to solve the problem.

@ Karishma,

I adopted the above mentioned approach of learning after you suggested me the same ( though on another thread i posted ) , do you think the same applies to CR or RC... i have not tried this approach on CR / RC, or you think i need to change or tweak the approach a bit.

thanks



thanks

If you did every question thoroughly, then you are on the right track. You need to compile your takeaways too so that the labor does not go in vain.
And you are right, no point re-doing the same questions. For CR, I wouldn't recommend LSAT material. Even though both exams have CR, LSAT CR is very different from GMAT CR. Just like you cannot prepare for GMAT using CAT material even though the basics are the same, similarly, you cannot prepare for GMAT using LSAT material.

Stick to GMAT material. You can check out the following Veritas books:

CR - It discusses a strategy called SWIMMER (basically to help you remember the various question types) and there is a 2-3 page write up on each question type. CR1 discusses the basic question types and CR2 discusses the advanced ones. Reading through the theory could help you understand what exactly you need to do in each question type. There are lots of questions for practice too in both the books (and some challenge questions at the end)

SC - We focus on identifying the most common error types and learning how to correct them. Of course there will be some Grammar but our approach is not 'rules based'. It is 'logic based'. SC1 discusses the basic error types and SC2 discusses the advanced ones. Again, there are lots of practice questions in each book.

Quant - There is a book called 'Advanced Word Problems'. You might want to check it out since it has level 45 and above questions. This book also discusses a lot of alternative solutions.

RC - We discuss the various question types and some strategies for attacking the passages. You can try and see what works for you. There are many practice passages; many of them are above 700 level and some are above 750 level. The passages are from varied topics e.g. Physics, Economics, Business, Astronomy, Biology, Social Sciences etc

In Verbal, analyzing the answer options thoroughly is very important because more often that not, you are not looking for the 'correct' answer but for the 'most suitable' or 'best' answer (especially in SC and RC). So you need to focus on all the options to find the 'best'. There will be some options which will outright not make any sense so you ignore them. But out of the rest, you have to ensure you understand why the answer is the best. Say, if you are looking for the main idea of a passage, you need to understand what makes option (B) incorrect and what makes option (C) correct. But mind you, this is what you do during practice to learn to differentiate on the small things - a single word, the choice of words etc... By the time you take the exam, your mind will be attuned to noticing the little things and once you figure the answer, you just move on.

See thats the interesting thing I have gone through every single answer choice and analyzed why each one is right or wrong. Thats why I am so botheered by score not improving. I took each and every OG SC question and wrote down why it was wrong and or right. I took the same approach for CR. For SC I focused on identifying errors that I learned about in Manhattan SC book. Maybe I did not review my notes enough before I did the questions. Its a good approach, but I just do not know anymore. I felt like I learned so much, but maybe my weakness was not in SC, but rather CR or RC. i have pretty much taken every single practice out there. DO you have any reccomendations for other practce tests?

@Karishma How does the Veritas CR matieral relate to the Powerscore CR Bible. I have used the CR Bible from the day I started studying for the GMAT. Also how do the SC Books differ from the SC Manhattan Books. The Manhattan book is great, but honestly there is so much in it thats just way over my head. Manhattan takes an approach where they assume you know certain things and fails to explain so many different things. I had to get the Verbal Foundations book in order to even get what happens. Thanks for taking times to answer my questions it means alot.

If you have truly exhausted the OG, there are other official GMAT sources. On the mba.com web site, you can download pdf files of the old paper tests. Each set of 3 tests is $30. Also, some people find it useful to purchase past editions of the OG. I recommend the 10th, as it has less overlap with the current edition than the 11th does.

If you aren't retaking too soon, you can also get the new 13th ed. OG when it comes out in April.

As for using LSAT material, many of my students have found success with this. It's true that the LSAT LR section has some problem types that you just won't see in GMAT CR, and the style can be somewhat different. However, if you concentrate on the questions that DO look GMAT-ish (e.g. asssumption, S/W, inference, w/ no weird formats), you will have a great source of difficult but well-written CR.

One other piece of advice--do *not* give in to thinking of your score as fixed. There is nothing magic about 640, or any other number. If you can get a 640, you can get a 660, and if you can get a 660 . . . Okay, I'm not saying anyone can get an 800, but there is no fixed upper limit for you! It is important that you go forward with the assumption that you can identify what's still challenging for you and work to improve those areas. If you have done the Manhattan CATs (or any other CATs with analysis tools), make sure to run a comprehensive assessment and use this to guide your practice. Fix a few areas at a time, and work in some mixed practice to maintain everything else.

Good luck!

THanks for the tips. It means a lot. Will LSAT RC provide a similar experience to GMAT RC? Also can I still use the Manhattan tests as an accurate measure if I have been through them several times?

LSAT RC is somewhat different. While the material can be more difficult, there can also be some more straightforward, fact-finding questions that you'd be unlikely to see on the GMAT. They're good for practicing your general reading comprehension skills, but they are not terribly representative of GMAT RC. You'd be better off with another edition of the OG, or passages from a quality test-prep book.

If you have done the CATs multiple times, their validity will certainly go down, especially on verbal. If you do happen to retake, make sure to take the proper time for each problem, even if you know the answer. Also, when you see a familiar question, try to answer what you think you would have answered, so that you don't inflate your score too much. However, at some point you will probably want another source of tests. You can easily buy a book from one of the other test prep companies and get access to around 5 more CATs.