5hawne3 wrote:
Greetings,
I've just finished my first CAT mock test with a score of 570 (Q42, V27). My target score is 670, i'd aim to give it another try in next 3 months.
Before this mock test, I actually spent around 40 hours in the past 2 months to review abit of fundamental concepts (the routine was abit messy since I only have free time at night, after work). I'm aware that weighted score relied on the difficulty level, but still I was quite disappointed with my Verbal performance (I got 21/36 correct answers for Verbal compared to just 15/31 correct ones for Quant). Anyway, thanks to this mock test which helped me realized my reading comprehension was interrupted under timiming pressure. So is it reasonable to try more mock tests in order to get acquainted with timing pressure or just focus more on practicing and studying fundamentals? Since I don't want to waste free test attempt from GMAC.
Here's my first thoughts on which to focus during the next 3 months:
- Quant focus: Q49, V33
- Verbal focus: Q47, V35. I prefer this one though you guys will probably think it's less feasible than the above.
My current study materials for both quant & vebal is
OG 2018 questions, but considering these as well:
- Quant: Math book from Gmatclub
- Verbal: Manhattan Review for SC, Powerscore for CR.
Also, I'm a non-native English speaker and I found it's more challenging to improve my reading speed. Any tactics to improve this?
All advice is appreciated.
Thanks & have a nice day!
Hi 5hawne3,
A significant improvement of arounds 100 points is challenging but possible with hardwork and consistent efforts directed in the right direction.
Let us first understand the purpose of mocks:
WHAT MOCKS ARE NOT MEANT FOR
Scoring well on GMAT requires you to do well on hard and very hard questions. Taking one mock after the other won’t improve your score magically. For that to happen you need to strengthen your weak areas. So, take timed sectional tests in specific areas such as SC, CR, RC, Algebra etc. By doing so, you prepare yourself for all topics that you can come across and not just limited topics that you get in a mock.
So, the approach is simple.
1.Learn the basics first, then
2.Take up one section at a time in a sectional test. Find your weaknesses. Revise the concepts if needed, then
3.Take medium questions on them and master them. Move to mastering difficult questions. Remember, proceed one step at a time.
4.Once you have gained confidence then you should start taking mocks.
WHAT MOCKS ARE MEANT FOR
Mocks should be given to get used to a 3 hr test format, understand how the adaptive test works and identify which section order suits you the most. That’s why I suggest taking 3-6 mocks with gaps of 2-3 days between each attempt. Make sure you try different section orders and see which one suits you the most.
Mocks are not meant to be given for practice. In fact, don’t waste GMAT Prep mocks for practice. They are the closest to the real GMAT, and hence should be saved till the end to gauge where you stand after completing preparation. Don't waste them when you're in your early stages of prep.
Coming to your biggest foe, time management is one of the most important skills for competitive exams that most students struggle with. There is a significant penalty for failing to complete any section of the GMAT exam, so it is also important to develop pacing skills. Once you hone your time management skills strategically, you will be confident about not missing out on any questions on the test day.
The possible reason for struggling with time management:
There is one fundamental mistake that most students do, that is trying to read the passage fast.
Talking about the reason behind struggling with time management, you are likely taking more time to solve RC questions. The reason for this might be you are taking too long to read a passage or you might be going back and forth to the passage for every question. This happens when you don’t use the right reading strategies. Students often read the passage from a detail perspective and stuff themselves with the details. And once they come across an inferential question or a main point question, they cannot answer it and they read the passage again to find the answer. This would often lead to the wastage of time.
The trick to ace RC is not to understand WHAT is written, but to understand WHY it is written.Important Tip – Don’t practice tons of questions directly. First focus on learning the right methods for each question. That plays a significant role in getting hard questions correct within 2 mins.
Your individual score breakup suggests that you have a good hold over concepts in Quant. Just a little focus on application of concepts should help. However, your Verbal score is an area of concern. You are surely not on the right path for Verbal prep. Verbal questions on GMAT are very tricky. Your verbal score clearly indicates there are many conceptual gaps and you may need to start from scratch, revisit the concepts and get a clear understanding of them before you solve the questions.
The importance of using a standard resource:
The only method to make sure that you invest your time, money and effort in an effective way is to use a standard resource which teaches you the concepts, strategies and also helps you work on your weaker areas. Studying using
OG or a few random resources might help you to solve GMAT like questions but I’m afraid that they won’t be able to help you much from a strategy perspective.
As you still have time for your GMAT prep, it would be better to prepare using a standard course which can help you with your overall preparation. A resource which can provide you all the things on a single platform will help you save your time and energy and prevent your chances of being unstructured in your approach. Also, as you are a working professional, creating a study plan may be a tedious task for you.
GMATWhiz helps you to create one. Moreover,
GMATWhiz is one such unique course which teaches you a
methodical approach to solve each question type. The
concept booster and
practise quizzes help you to solve the GMAT like questions by using the right methodology. It
uses an AI powered platform to provide you with real time improvement modules after every practice quiz .It provides you with additional concept videos and practise quizzes to help you improve. This way working on your weak areas in a specific topic becomes easy right away without having to put in additional effort to identify your weaker areas.
There is a free trial of
GMATWhiz available for which you can register and check out its features.
Hope this helped and feel free to contact if you have any further queries.
You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.
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