2nd attempt V30. Need V40 !!!

Question

Hello everyone, I just gave my second GMAT attempt after a month of rigorous preparation after my first attempt and scored an abysmal V30 (even lower than my first attempt V32). I am in desperate need of help. During my verbal section, I felt very comfortable unlike my previous attempt where I felt that verbal just flashed before my eyes(I was very anxious I probably was reading every sentence thrice since my brain stopped working). I am actually quite shocked to receive V30 considering the fact that in my last two practice tests I aced the verbal part (Expert global - V43, Kaplan - V39). I was also feeling very confident this time around as I had practiced good amount of LSAT questions, my accuracy was pretty good in 700 level questions and I had worked on my CR weak sub-topics pretty well. I want to re-appear for the exam but I have no clue how to go about it. I have exhausted all my official prep mocks, official material also (90% done). I know my potential and I know I can achieve my target 720 but I have just lost hope after this second attempt. While clicking next I had a feeling I nailed it this time but as it turns out, I was wrong. Also, in GMAT prep mocks and GMAT club mocks, majority times I received Q50. However, this time I got a Q48. I was honestly quite stumped at the amount of lengthy word problems I got. In my third section I got back to back 5-6 word problems (lines 8-9) with so much fluff. I was acing the quant until here and I attribute that loss on quant score to my reading abilities as well. I do get stumped when I see so much fluff and bla bla written.

Experts: Could you please help me in improving my verbal score ? Considering the fact that all my official material is exhausted, I have no mocks, and honestly this time around I have no clue how to go about it.

Please find all my mock scores till date: ____________ Q V GMAT prep 1 -- 50 20 - 590 (given before any prep - to see my pre-prep level) Manhattan 1 -- 45 36 - 670 GMAT prep 2 -- 49 39 - 720 (a month of prep - SC was weak) GMAT prep 3 -- 50 34 - 700 (elated

- SC was weak ) GMAT prep 4 -- 45 36 - 660 - RC was weak(didn't pay much attention to it as during quant I had a lot of disturbance in my house. But I was happy with verbal, nailed SC) GMAT prep 5 -- 48 31 - 640 - RC was weak(devastated, nailed SC) GMAT prep 6 -- 49 29 - 640 - CR was weak (heart-broken, but positive , nailed SC ) Veritas 1 -- 50 34 - 680 - CR was weak (nailed SC) Veritas 2 -- 50 37 - 710 Gave my first attempt, got a V32. And after a month of serious CR prep : GMAT prep 1(Reattempt) - Q50, V48 - 780 (I got around 14 questions repeat, but I took it as a good sign as I had only 3 questions wrong out of 22 new questions) GMAT prep 6(Reattempt) - Q51, V40 - 750 Kaplan Free -- 49 39 - 710 (happy) Manhattan 2 -- 42 35 - 650 (happy, quant well, I was tired, I chose to skip questions and go straight for verbal) Experts Global -- 49 43 - 750 ( a week before my second attempt, ecstatic

) Along with this, on GMAT club forum, I was practicing sets of CR, SC, RC and had a pretty good accuracy. I am simply clueless as to "what went wrong". My goal earlier was to reach V36 somehow, as with my QA I felt confident that I could achieve Q50 seeing my trend. Also I was consistently scoring Q49/Q50 on GMAT clubs tests. However, now I don't want to take a risk (seeing the unpredictable quant section in my second attempt) and considering my QA score as 48, I want to stretch my VA score to 40. I realize my verbal scores have been quite flaky, ranging from V29 - 43, I see no pattern, unlike the pattern and consistency in my quant scores. And, this time around I want to be sure before I enter the test room that I am getting out with a V40.

My target b-schools are HEC paris, oxford, cambridge, rotman. I need a 720 minimum for my dream school hec paris, considering my workex is on lower side (2.5 years). I wanted to apply for Nov 16th deadline to HEC paris, but as it turns out, that's not happening

So I have quite some time to put for my next attempt. I would appreciate some help and guidance experts ScottTargetTestPrep EMPOWERgmatRichC GMATinsight egmat mikemcgarry @GMATPrepNow souvik101990 GMATNinja . I have purchased my ESR in case someone can help me analyze it for further improvement. (attached, ashamed though

) Thank you. Best Regards, Saakhi

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Saakhi, I understand you have been  practicing  a lot, but could you let us know what  resources  have you been using for your preparation (to build concepts)?

Saasingh · Answer

Hello, thanks for your time. Please find below my resources

Material for quant : Didn't study much per se, had appeared for CAT in 2017 so my concepts were already clear, i just dived into questions.
1. GMAT club tests
2. Official mock prep tests
3. GMAT club forum (bunuels posts, random questions, the ultimate quant thread for weak areas like combination, probability, stats, number theory)

Material for Verbal:
A. SC : completed manhattan sentence correction book,  official questions only , the great RON and  GMATNinja  videos
B. CR : powerscore bible,  official questions, lsat questions  ,  GMATNinja  videos
C. RC :  official OG questions  on gmat club forum (using filters), started LSAT too for my second attempt

GMATinsight · Answer

Hi Saasingh

The way I see your progress, it doesn't look as disappointing as you seem at this time. GMAT Prep usually give inflated scores so they can NOT be taken as representative of what we are probable to get at that point of time. The reason is simple. Most test prep companies make questions on concepts used in and inferred from the official questions and hence those questions become predictable giving us an inflated score.

Now, Veritas usually gives a very apt score prediction. The average score of your two veritas tests is 690 which should have been your score but you have taken only two tests and therefore average is not good predictor because the sample is small. However, now that you have practiced almost every official material, I see that you have less good material to refer to.

WHen it comes to verbal, the only reliable source of practice is Manhattan after official material. No offense to others because I know they have tried their best but in my humble opinion, I find most othr material waste of time and an opportunity to digress from relevant practice.

The summary of your observation supports that you find yourself weak at CR and strong at SC.

Good news is "SC and CR are the questions that can give you a 100% accuracy if learnt well"

Now, coming to your ESR report

Verbal:

1) It is clearly visible that you have lost on all three units (CR, Sc and RC). At this time, i would like to avoid commenting on RC because the accuracy there doesn't increase quickly therefore my major objection is on your accuracy in CR and SC.
Work on them because you only need 20 days to get almost a 100% accuracy in these two types of questions.

2) Lower accuracy in Highest average time per question in CR is clearly a sign of your slow reading/slower comprehension of options and premise leading to repeat reading of option. I believe that you need to work on fundamentals of CR to get better there. ALso, it seems that Inference and Assumption are the major weak area for you.

3) Perhaps, you time got consumed more in CR and hence you had to answer SC questions in rish OR you were overconfident answering SC questions which led these numbers which hint at lowest average time per question and hence lower accuracy

4) your test taking strategy can NOT be criticized much except that you have undermined the importance of higher accuracy in first quarter of teh section (i.e. first 8 question) in which you have got 3 incorrect which didn't give your score a positive slop that you needed in difficulty level of questions based on adaptive algorithm of the test.

Quant:

SInce you were consistently getting a 49 or 50 so I will not write much detail.

1) Your problem solving score is lower than your DS which means you have not practiced enough and perhaps that is teh reason why you make more silly error/careless error while getting on to final answer.

2) ESR says that your fundamental of Quant are good therefore you have got a score of 50 in DS and score of 46 in PS.

Just do more solving of problems using your pen and paper while practicing. Silly errors are hardest to get rid of so do NOT take it lghtly.

In case you wish to take a FREE demo class with our expert verbal faculty Dr.Sushma Jha then I can arrange that. You can discuss all those areas and perhaps plan to subscribe a few sessions specially on CR for which she is one of the best teachers in the world.

Get in touch with me. you have my number in signature to contact.

all the best!!!

Saasingh · Answer

Thanks a lot for your recommendation. I appreciate your help.

Regards, 
Saakhi

Posted from my mobile device

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Saakhi,

Sorry to hear about how things went with your GMAT. An improvement is always possible provided you focus on the right parameters. As you have more than a month to prepare, you don't have to stress yourself. Let me guide you on the right path.

The inconsistency in your verbal scores reflects the lack of proper application skills. You might be well versed with the concepts but to solve verbal questions with ease, you need to use the right strategies. You might have often come across close answer choices which are very closely worded. To eliminate these incorrect answer choices and choose the right one, it is important that you have a strong conceptual knowledge and use the right methodologies.

I understand that you solved many questions to overcome your weaknesses. But that is not how it works. Between learning the concepts and jumping into solving questions, there is a very important step which most students miss. That is learning the right methodology to solve questions. Below is the difference between solving a CR question using a general strategy and solving a question using the right methodology.

General strategy    Methodical approach   
  Read the argument   Read the argument and identify the premise and conclusion  
  Read the question stem  Read the questions stem and start pre-thinking  
  Jump into statements and evaluate each option  Start eliminating answer choices which do not match the pre-thought assumption

Now, as you have ESR, we can use it to identify your weaker areas. Instead of explaining it here, I would prefer to discuss it over a call because that way you can understand clearly where you went wrong.  And during our interaction we can solve a few questions together, a process which will help you understand the difference between your approach and the right approach . In my journey, I have helped many students improve their score considerably. So, I'll be more than happy to help you. You can use the below link to schedule a free consultation call.

Click here to schedule a call

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

One thing that may help (which is free) is to regularly read articles from The Economist.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Saasingh,

Are you still looking for advice on how to improve our verbal skills?

Lazybum · Answer

any type of LSAT to ignore? parallel reasoning or conditional reasoning?

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2nd attempt V30. Need V40 !!!

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General strategy	Methodical approach
Read the argument	Read the argument and identify the premise and conclusion
Read the question stem	Read the questions stem and start pre-thinking
Jump into statements and evaluate each option	Start eliminating answer choices which do not match the pre-thought assumption