ESR ANALYSIS FOR GMAT :640

Question

Dear Folks,
I got GMAT 640 on 10.09.2018
Q49, V27
Please guide me to improve my Verbal score.
I am targeting atleast GMAT 710.

pushpitkc · Answer

Hi swapnilce.nitdgp

Welcome to GMATClub!

As such, it is very difficult to give you any advice regarding improving your scores. An ESR,
which can help you understand your weak areas. Once you have found out which of your
sub-sections need work, you can work on the specific topics. To build the basic strategy to
tackle GMAT, you could use the Manhattan Strategy Guides. It makes sense to clear your
concepts for every topic and then follow it up with some practice. For CR, you should use
the PowerScore CR bible in order to build your concepts.

For RC, you could refer to the below-given links
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-s- ... 83101.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/guide-to-rea ... 21112.html
After reading this and formulating a basic strategy, you must work on at least 2-3 passages a
day and carefully analyze the reason for your mistakes.

For practice, you can find all the questions at GMATClub. You should use the Timer feature to
time yourself once you are familiar with the concepts. Some links you might find useful

SC: https://gmatclub.com/forum/sentence-cor ... 29750.html
CR: https://gmatclub.com/forum/critical-rea ... 28861.html
RC: https://gmatclub.com/forum/reading-comp ... 29341.html

Last but not the least, this post will help you improve your score as far as Verbal is concerned
https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-impro ... 42361.html

Hope this helps you!

souvonik2k · Answer

Hi Please refer to the following post for improvement in Verbal: https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-to-the-v ... 19866.html Regarding your analysis of ESR you can refer the following posts: https://gmatclub.com/forum/information- ... 1-120.html https://e-gmat.com/blogs/3-steps-how-to ... _p115_ESR2 Hope it helps.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi swapnilce.nitdgp,

First off, a 640/Q49 is a strong score (it's just a bit shy of the 75th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. There's certainly no harm in retesting though, but before we can discuss how best to prepare for another attempt, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

NandishSS · Answer

swapnilce.nitdgp  Seems like you missed to attach the ESR!!!

egmat · Answer

Hi swapnilce.nitdgp , It will be very difficult to give you a very precise input without any more data points. Since you have titled this post as ESR Analysis I am assuming you have the ESR and missed uploading it here. You will find this article on 3 steps to analyze your ESR to be helpful in getting insights about your performance. In addition to that you can refer to this article on Personalized Study Plan for 100+ points Score Improvement to create a study plan for yourself to reach your target score. Hope this helps. If you have any further queries regarding ESR Analysis or creating a Personalized Study Plan feel free to write to us at support@e-gmat.com and we will be happy to help. Regards, Aditee

swapnilce.nitdgp · Answer

Dear Rick,
1) How long have you studied? : Since Jan 2018
2) What study materials have you used so far? eGmat Course, Manhattan books
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)? : Consistent 720 on GMAT Prep 3,4,5,6 test

Goals:
4) When are you planning to take the GMAT? Within a month again
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School? Insead 2019
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

swapnilce.nitdgp · Answer

Dear all,
I am unable to post the ESR because the club's policy doesn't allow me. I must reply to atleast 5 posts so that i can attach docs on my posts.

egmat · Answer

Hi swapnilce.nitdgp , Please mail your ESR to us at support@e-gmat.com using your registered email id. ESR along with your course and Scholaranium data will help us give you a more precise plan of action to reach your target score. Looking forward to your email. Regards, Aditee

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Swapnil, looks like you missed attaching your ESR.

Which area in Verbal, do you see as your  pain  area?

swapnilce.nitdgp · Answer

Dear all,
Attached is my ESR.
I request the experts to guide me in my verbal journey.

EducationAisle · Answer

CR obviously emerges as an area of big concern. Also, you spent relatively lesser time per CR question.

Was this a concern in you preparation as well?

swapnilce.nitdgp · Answer

in fact...it was a very big concern in my preparation days.
Is there any concern in my SC ?
I found the same scoring of sc even in 750 scores of gmat ?(random gmat esr enclosed)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi swapnilce.nitdgp,

I've sent you a PM with some notes and additional questions.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi swapnilce.nitdgp,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Since you scored a V27, it’s clear that you lack certain GMAT verbal fundamentals that are necessary for a high score. To improve your skills in order to score a 710, you will want to follow a study plan that allows you to learn linearly, such that you can slowly build GMAT mastery of one topic prior to moving on to the next. Within each topic, begin with the foundations and progress toward more advanced concepts.

For example, when studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various Critical Reasoning question types. Do you know the importance of an assumption within an argument? Can you easily spot a conclusion? Do you know how to resolve a paradox? Do you know how to properly evaluate cause and effect? Do you know how to properly weaken or strengthen an argument? These are just a few examples; you really need to take a deep dive into the individual Critical Reasoning topics to develop the necessary skills to properly attack any Critical Reasoning questions that you encounter.

As you learn each Critical Reasoning problem type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type of question. If, for example, you incorrectly answered a Weaken the Argument question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be stimulating. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such bland passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.
 
Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. 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 under 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 in the sentence clearly refer to nouns in the sentence? 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 those reasons are not 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 answer were always the one 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. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences 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 that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order 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 have done differently to extend your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your Sentence Correction skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with SC questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
 
If you are unable to learn and practice in the manner described above, you may consider looking for additional verbal prep resources. If you are unsure of which resources to choose, check out some reviews here on GMAT Club.

You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

swapnilce.nitdgp · Answer

Many Thanks...I'm your fan already.

Though haven't recieved the notes :/

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