Retaking GMAT -searching for mock tests

Question

Hi everyone

I took GMAT in the middle of March this year and got 580 with Q49/V22. Since I am aiming to get 600, I am retaking the GMAT in the middle of May. The reason why I got 22 on verbal was losing 5 minutes because of late entry after the break and panicking. (English is not my native language and before my official GMAT, I was usually getting V25-V30 on various mock tests.) I have been studying for verbal again for a couple of weeks. I recently took 4 Gmatclub Verbal CAT's and got 35-23-31-32 in order. 1. Do you have any suggestions for me to increase my verbal score? 2. I have also taken all the most known free mock tests (MBA , Kaplan, Veritas, ManhattanPrep, Hult, etc.) 2 months ago and now I am looking for new mock tests. Do you have good mock test suggestions for free or goof price/performance ratio? 3. Since I reschedule for another GMAT exam, will the 2 MBA free tests be renewed? Can I take the 2 test without encountering repeated questions? Thank you in advance

LeoN88 · Answer

Welcome to the Club

Check this: 23 ONLINE FREE (FULL LENGTH) GMAT CAT (PRACTICE TESTS) LINK & Overview of All Available GMAT Practice Tests

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Consider checking out the free gmatclub grammar guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-grammar ... 02387.html Also Thursdays with Ron

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

s364299  - Congratulations on getting a 580 on the GMAT. You could very well aim for a higher score on the retake. Please take a few moments to review GMAT Club's Retake plan:  Retaking GMAT Strategies!

Answering your original query, I found the Experts' Global practice tests very similar to the official practice tests offered by GMAT Prep and the predictive algorithm works effectively. Importantly, the striking resemblance of the testing interface with real-GMAT helps in creating an ideal testing condition. Purchasing 15 practice tests at $50 is absolutely incredible. For more information, please feel free to reach out to  Maxximus .

StaySafe · Answer

Stick with Official Mock, Manhattanprep mock and gmatclub test (for quant). These are more than enough. If you complete first 2 official mock go for 3,4,5,6.

s364299 · Answer

What do you think about gmatclub tests for verbal? Is is too easy compared to the actual gmat? Are gmatclub verbal scores trustable?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi s364299,

From what you describe, it's certainly possible that the 'panic response' that you felt about the Verbal section was enough to throw off your performance and cost you some points. If that's the case, then you likely have the necessary skills to score 600+ right now. That having been said, the at-home GMAT involves a number of different parameters (including the online note-pad) from what you faced when you took your 1st Official GMAT - so you should set aside enough time to take some new CATs under those testing conditions (and you might want to take one this week, so that we can see how well you have maintained your GMAT skills from when you took your prior Official GMAT).

While the most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills - since you will likely see some 'repeat' questions that you have already faced. Unfortunately, seeing even a couple of repeats can 'throw off' the Scoring Algorithm and impact your pacing, energy levels, fatigue, etc. (meaning that they would likely all appear to be better than they actually are). Thankfully, the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion) - so you can use any NEW CATs from any of those sources next.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi s364299,

To answer questions 2 and 3, you should repeat the two free GMAC practice exams and also purchase GMAC exams 3, 4, 5, and 6. Those practice tests will be more than enough for you to take prior to your actual GMAT. Regarding verbal, here is some general advice you can follow to improve your skills. I’ll start with CR.

When studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various 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. 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 New York Times, 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 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.

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 skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
 
Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

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