Scored a 590 from 460 after 4 months of preparation!

Question

I gave my first mock after Preparation today and I scored a disappointing 590 v30 q39(a bit happy). I have come along way from 460. In today's mock test I had a timing mishap where I had to guess 6 quant questions and guessed nearly 10 verbal questions(2 RC's included). I have 21 out of 41 incorrect in Verbal whereas 19 out of 37 incorrect in Quant.I made only 4 mistakes in the first 10 questions in each section but messed up big time towards the end due to panic and anxiety(particularly in verbal). I must say practicing with a timer is way different than than writing a CAT specially for Verbal.I made numerous silly mistakes in SC and Quant under timing pressure. A part of me feels that I am capable of to reach at least 650 by March. I request you to help me reach my goals.
P.S:- I have my exam on April 30(50 days from now)
Thanks in Advance

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sahilsnpt,

Raising a 460 to a 590 is a significant achievement - and you're closer to a 650 than you probably realize.

After taking each CAT, it's important to do a full review of your performance (with the goal of defining WHY you got questions wrong). While a full Mistake Tracker or CAT Analyzer would provide more detail, there are some basic questions that you should look to answer after you take each CAT (and the more specific you can be with your answers, the better).

After reviewing each section of this CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) In the Verbal section, how many questions did you "narrow down to 2 choices" but still get wrong?

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

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi sahilsnpt, You should dedicate around 3 months to Improve your Score. It's a good thing you have taken GMAT PREP practice test. You now know your weaknesses and can work on them. If you are willing to study dedicatedly for that period, you are sure to achieve your goal. Before taking a lot of practice tests I would encourage you to solidfy your base first. Only after you feel you are at a certain level you can start doing practice test. I believe you may benefit from taking a GMATPREP course. If you are willing, there are some great GMAT prep companies that can help you with your preparation. In order to make an informed decision I would highly encourage you to go to their websites and try on their free trial and decide for yourself which one do you like better. You try out free access to EmpowerGMAT, Magoosh and Optimus Prep as they have great reviews on GMATCLUB. Also I would highly encourage you to consider e-gmat verbal online or the e-gmat verbal live course. They are both amazing courses especially designed for non-natives and they are both within your budget. They offer almost 25% of their courses for free so you can try out their free trial to decide which one you want to go for. Plus the e-gmat Scholaranium which is included in both the courses is one of the best verbal practice tools in the market. You can easily track your progress in that you can identify your strengths and analyze and improve on your weak areas. You can also try out the MGMAT guides they are phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus well. I must add that if you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in quant; a subscription to GMATCLUB tests is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them. Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas. Further another advantage of taking many mocks is to build up your stamina. Apart from the GMATPREP tests, taking practise tests of any major GMATPREP company ought to do that. I would also encourage you to purchase the latest version of OG and the verbal review for some great additional practice. Here is a link that will help you with your decision. https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-ve ... ml?fl=menu Lastly, you can check out a very interesting article by Mike McGarry from Magoosh detailing a 3 month study plan https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/3-month-g ... -students/. You will find it very helpful as it gives out a study plan as per your needs. Hope this helps. All the best.

sahilsnpt · Answer

Thank you rich for the response! I have analyzed my CAT and found the following:-
Total Number of Questions I got in Quant is 19 and Verbal is 21.
Coming to your questions:-
1)Because of a silly mistake:-
Quant:- In this section 12 out of 19 were mistakes due to silly errors i.e Misreading the question, Overthinking about the solution led me to take the wrong approach, Calculation mistakes. I tried all those questions after the test and I got most of them correct within seconds.
Verbal :- I found only 1 question wrong due to silly mistake.
2) Because there was some Verbal/Math that I could not remember how to do?:-
Quant:- Nil
Verbal:- yes, there were some evaluate, reasoning CR questions which I failed to do.In fact, when I tried them after the test I made mistakes.To my surprise in the Verbal Part I don't know why most of the questions for CR came from Evaluate and BF section which is unusual(what i've read online)
3)Because the question was too hard:-
Quant:- 2 questions were a bit tricky for me (Functions chapter,A.P)
Verbal:- I found 8 questions from SC and CR and 1 RC passage difficult. It took me a whole lot of time to understand and Answer the RC. 
4)Because of Low time:-
Quant:- I marked 6 questions randomly 
Verbal:- In the end I panicked because I had 10 questions left to do in the last 9 minutes which made me guess a whole RC and the some other CR and SC questions.
5)Narrowed down to 2 questions:-
There are 3 questions in which I had narrowed down to 2 choices and I messed up in the end.
Summary:-
I overestimated the quant section which made me complicate things and diverted me from following simple logic and tactics. 
Verbal section was full of panic and anxiety mostly due to timing and RC.
Sir, I am freaking out as hell. I have spent nearly 4-5 months in my preparation and till now I haven't even crossed 600.
I am just 6 weeks away from my test and I want to score as high as possible. 
I would love to hear your opinion about my performance and I need urgent advise for my further preparation.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sahilsnpt,

Based on the information that you've provided, your immediate 'issue' is the number of little mistakes that you're making. If you could eliminate those mistakes from your work, then you would almost certainly score above your Score Goal. Since this is your first CAT, I suggest that you study as you like for the next week (with an emphasis on doing proper work - on the pad, NOT "in your head") and then take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT. That next result will help to show whether you're able to fix these little errors on your own or not. Once you have that score result, you should post back here and we can discuss how best to proceed.

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

sahilsnpt · Answer

Hi rich ,
I wrote a MGMAT mock today and scored 630(v37 and q38). I am totally disappointed with my quant score . It has been stagnant since the past 3 mocks. Today, My performance was not satisfactory because I messed up my timing and I had to guess 6-7 questions of both quant and verbal sections. Please guide me !

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sahilsnpt,

Yesterday, GMAC announced that some changes are going to be made to the format of the Exam - there's a discussion thread about that here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-is-chan ... 62569.html

Since you're currently scheduled to take your Official GMAT on April 30th, you will be taking this 'shorter' GMAT. Since some of the specifics are not yet known, it's going to take a bit of time for all of the available practice resources (including the available practice CATs) to reflect these changes to the Exam. Thus, while the question types, content tested and Tactics will all be the same, everyone's probably going to need some time to properly adjust to the new format and 'feel' of the Exam. As such, you might want to consider pushing back your Test Date.

Based on everything that you've described (and with a Score Goal of 650+), I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Quant Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients complete that Study Plan in under a month, so the time commitment wouldn't be too intense. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an account.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

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

MathRevolution · Answer

Hi, Sahilsnpt,
If your target score is 650, it can be a mix of Q48/V32 or Q45/V35. Whatever the combined score (Q+V) reaches 79-80, you will achieve 650.

We are specialized in math only, we can just give you advice on math.
Knowing your exact math skill is important. Please click the link to take our diagnostic test and receive comprehensive assessments and study guide to hit your target score in a short period of time. click
After that, you can set your own target for math.

"Timing" is always challenging for both quant and verbal.
GMAT math is a logic test, not a general math test. Hence, you need to learn logic to tackle GMAT math questions. With the conventional methods, you can still have a hard time in solving all the questions in 75 minutes, which is very time-consuming and inefficient.

For 18 years, we offer the world's first Variable Approach for DS and IVY Approach for PS that allow anyone to easily solve GMAT math questions. These methods have helped students dramatically reduce their time spent per question with speed and accuracy regardless of their math skills. In fact, students who have studied with Math Revolution lectures often report having 10-15 minutes to spare before the exam ends.

If you would like to try our approaches, Please try Trial Pack (4 hour lesson) that reveal our secret approaches of DS+PS core theory. You can test whether you like them or not before you enroll.

Lastly, to improve math score, please always remember the principle of "Slow, Hand, Detail".

☞ Solve "slowly" when you study and practice.
☞ Solve the problems by "hand" as a rule. Understanding how the problems are solved in videos is very different from actually
☞ Solve them on paper yourself. So, practice by solving the problems by hand-writing them is very important after you have studied with the videos.When you solve them, write a "detailed" calculation process without skipping any steps. This is also important.
☞ If you don’t follow the above advice, you will have a difficult time improving your GMAT math skills and scores. If you are not strong in basic math skills, your PS won’t be good. If your PS isn't good, you will have a difficult time in establishing equations in DS. So, your DS would not be good either.

For any inquiries, please send us an email at [email protected]
Happy to assist you!
Jin

GeneralEducation · Answer

Hey Congralatutions,

You are improving really good and you will have to work a bit on your time frame.
You have come a long way on your own but to scoring 650+ is challenging and in order for the attainment of your goal I would suggest you practice with an expertise GMAT instructor who will help you to strategize your preparation, train you and will tell you the hacks for optimum utilization of time, One who will give you a full explanation of the exercises and cases to solve.

General Education has a team of best GMAT instructors who can help you prepare for your GMAT and at the same time will help you shortlist best B-Schools for you considering your long-term and short-term goals.

Click on the below mentioned link to know about the GMAT in detail.
https://www.gmat.genedmba.com

sahilsnpt · Answer

Thank you for the response and encouragement guys. I am thinking about what course should I take. Just to be clear, My target GMAT score is 700+ .And 650 was my target to reach before march but looks I have been unsuccessful!

Scored a 590 from 460 after 4 months of preparation!

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