Please analyse my ESR and help!

Question

Hello GMAT warriors,
 
I took my first shot at GMAT recently, with around 4 months of dedicated efforts and landed up at a mere 560 (Q34, V34). This is the worst that could’ve happened to me. I need realistic help to be able to reach a range of 680-710. 
 
A little background, I’ve never been good at Quant (scored Q19 in my first diagnostic test) and I worked really hard to improve this. I was consistently scoring in a range of 650-680 in my mocks with quant fluctuating between 42-46 and verbal 32-36. 
 
Some more details according to my ESR:
Verbal -
CR - 70th (ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE 100%, CONSTRUCTION/PLAN 60%)
RC - 88th (IDENTIFY INFERRED IDEA 100%, IDENTIFY STATED IDEA 83%)
SC - 33th ( GRAMMAR 16%, COMMUNICATION 83%)
Quant -
PS - 18th
DS - 44th
Geometry : 25%
Rates, Ratio, Percent : 33%
Values, Orders, Factors : 77%
Equalities, Inequalities, Algebra : 75%
Counting, Sets, Series : 40%
 
I’m completely bogged down and I need your help to gather the strength to pick myself up and try again!

Thanks in advance!

Kritika2020 · Answer

GMATinsight · Answer

HI Kritika2020 You don't need to panic at this time while you have invested hard work of 4 months and much more than that. Its the time that you get back again and with the reasons available that led to this fiasco, you start working on your weak area. The score of Verbal is quite decent which I see because an ideal score expected from an Indian candidate for a score requirement of 700 is Q-49 and V-35 You are close, except that something really went wrong in your quant section. If you need to check whether you current level of understanding is at par and whether some help can boost your score to the level needed, you may consider taking a FREE demo class with me. (Detail to contact are in signature) However, If you wish to work on your weak area then I suggest that prepare a log of your performance so that the test day doesn't disappoint you with lack of further direction. There is a possibility that you took the test on a day which wasn't yours but you need to be alert next time you plan it. Hope to see you do well again and post a success story ...

Kritika2020 · Answer

Thank you so much for your kind words!

Yes, I'm now analysing my quant performance even while practicing questions. Closing observing where exactly my thought process is faltering and what more can I do to make sure I don't repeat the same mistake twice.

GMATinsight · Answer

42-46 in Quant can be easily worked to attain a level of 48 so if you work in right direction then it should happen for sure. Tag me for any further query or assistance you need in your prep.

Remember the target Q-49, V-35 to get a 700

Kritika2020 · Answer

Definitely! Thanks, once again. 
My basic concepts in quant are extremely poor. Coming from a non-math academic background, I make loads of silly mistakes while solving. I've done all the theory one can know in any given topic, however, I'm hardly able to apply those. I've seem to have tried every possible way but I keep coming back to my usual range. To sum it up, I stumble at the medium level questions, making silly basic conceptual errors, which does not let my score move upwards.

Any advice on this specific problem?

GMATinsight · Answer

Hi  Kritika2020

1) The silly errors can NOT be helped by any person other than the test taker himself/herself.
2) The silly errors go away once to take cognizance of them and are cautious while answering the questions. Knwoing the kind of errors we make and taking precation while solving tests decreases our speed and puts pressure on out time management but it improves accuracy and with practice time management gets better again.

e.g. The first PREP test of GMAT when I solved, I made 7 errors out of 37 questions in overconfidence of my serial 99.99 percentile in CAT quant then. But when I realized that I was making mistakes of careless reading and was ignoring critical words such "Integer", "Positive" etc or worse, I was ignoring the absence of words such as Integers and assumed variables integers then I realized this mistake and took more care. I never repeated those mistakes again with trade off of some speed due to cross checking. Even today I look at question once again after getting the answer about any possible wrong assumption and cross-check but I have gained speed with new strategy again.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Krititka2020,
 
I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT. Try to hang in there, my friend. You’ve been working hard up to this point, so you really just need to get back on the horse and keep moving forward. To hit your score goal, it seems clear that you need to improve in SC and pretty much all aspects of GMAT quant. Would you like some general advice on how to do so? In the meantime, you may find it helpful to read the following articles:
 
 The Surprising Factor that is the Key to Hitting Your GMAT Score Goal: Grit 
 
 The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT

Kritika2020 · Answer

Thank you so much for your reply, Scott. I would surely need some advice on how to do so.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Great! I'll start with quant.

Let’s say, for example, you are learning about Number Properties. First, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.

Regarding SC, there are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
 
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending less than two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
 
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and none of those reasons are that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
 
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to put in the necessary time to see the differences between answers and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
 
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could do differently to extend your streak.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Kritika2020,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) 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 apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). Since you purchased the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you. If you would rather not post it publicly, then you can feel free to email it directly to me.

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

Please analyse my ESR and help!

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