Sergio Widjanarko wrote:
Hi all,
I've been studying on and off.. I took 2 times GMAT exam (once in 2018 and again just yesterday), scored poorly low 500.
1st exam I got 530 (cant remember the detail breakdown), 2nd exam I got 520 (Q41 V21 IR5), and I cancelled both scores. Mostly I studied for 1 month intense, 4 hours a day 6ish hours weekend, 1 day break per week. Every time I took official mock exam, I am able to score around 640-700, but when it comes to the exam always went down, especially on the Verbal section.
As I believe my problem in verbal, can anyone suggest to me what should I do to improve my score? I am trying to be realistic, target score 600-650 is good enough for me.
Thanks!
Hi Sergio Widjanarko,
If you are just learning the concepts and jumping directly into practicing questions, then yes that's a wrong study strategy.
You might be missing out the most important step which is learning the right methodology to solve questions. The inconsistency in your scores (mock and the actual ones) is most likely because of the same reason. You might be getting lucky in the mock exams but when it comes to the official test, you are faltering when you come across close answer choices. So, it is important to learn the right methodology before solving questions.
The ideal way to prepare is to:
- Learn the concepts (Start with your weak area)
- Learn the right methodology
- Take sectional quizzes of that topic
- Make sure you apply the methodology learnt
- Move to the next topic only if you get at least 80% accuracy
What do I mean my the right methodology?
If you are wondering what is this methodology, let me explain it to you by taking the example of SC questions. There is a common misconception that knowing grammatical rules will help you solve SC questions. But SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the intended meaning without any ambiguity. So, it is important to
approach SC questions from a meaning stand-point. Because you will often come across answer choices which are grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect. So, it is important to understand the intended meaning the original sentence is trying to convey and then eliminate choices which do not convey the intended meaning or which are grammatically incorrect.
I hope you got an idea of what do I mean by the right methodology. You need to follow specific approaches while solving Verbal questions - SC, CR and RC. Verbal questions can be very tricky because test makers often confuse students by using close words in the answer choices. You need to have a thorough understanding of the concepts and use the right strategies to eliminate the incorrect answer choices.
Why don't we connect over a zoom conference call and discuss the further study plan? We can also solve a few questions so that you can understand where exactly you're going wrong and at the same time understand how to solve them in the right way. The call will be really informative and will help you understand what should be done next. If you wish to connect, you can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.
Click here to schedule a call