Scoring consistently below 700 and have GMAT scheduled in a week, help

Question

Hello Experts, Need Help ! I have been preparing for GMAT for 3 months now. I started my preparation journey with the first GMAC test in which I got 650 ( Before that I casually gave a Veritas prep free mock in which I got a forgettable score

) After that I prepared from various sources, including this awesome forum. Once I was confident with basics and I felt that I am getting more than 80% of 600 level and more than 50% of 700 level questions correct I bought few mocks and took them in the following the order (With proper gaps, analysis and preparation in b/w): MGMAT CAT 1: 650 MGMAT CAT 2: 700 MGMAT CAT3: 730 GMAC Official test 2: 690 MGMAT CAT 4: 690 GMAC Official test 3: 690 I am getting a Q 50-51 score in all my tests but my verbal score is fluctuating V30-38. My concern is for last 3 mocks I am getting a dismal score which won't help me in getting into my target B Schools. Everything was going great and I was improving with every test and then thing got worse and never improved. Now I have my GMAT exam booked for 30th December and I badly want to score 720+. Can someone please please please suggest me what I can do in last 7 days to score at least V35 ( I know this sounds pretty desperate but I am desperate right now after getting 690 in GMAC 3 ) Problems I am facing in verbal section: > Speed is an issue: In last 3 mocks I could not complete the 36 questions in VA section (5-6 random attempts in the end) > Accuracy in SC questions is around 50% > CR questions take more than 2 mins each ( If I hurry with them I tend to make mistakes) Please help

Thanks in advance ! NA

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Spiddy,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) What type of study routine have you been following over the last 3 months? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates (or approximate 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)?
4) Are you taking the At-home GMAT or are you scheduled to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to? If it's sometime soon, then what specific application deadlines are you facing?

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

Naman_Agrawal · Answer

Hello EMPOWERgmatRichC

Thanks for responding. Let me try answer your questions

1) What type of study routine have you been following over the last 3 months? How many hours do you typically study each week?

> 4 hours on weekdays and 8+ hours on weekends
2) What study materials have you used so far?

> Mainly Aristotle books (All 3), Manhattan VA and OG

3) On what dates (or approximate 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)?

> Initially took it at a gap of 15 days, last 3 took at a gap of just 7 days

4) Are you taking the At-home GMAT or are you scheduled to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?

> Test center

5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to? If it's sometime soon, then what specific application deadlines are you facing?

> Only Indian business schools

Deadlines are 1st Jan, 4th jan and 10th jan ( Pretty tight there)

Please let me know if you need any other input from my end.

Really appreciate you taking out time and responding to my post

Thanks
N

Thanks N

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Spiddy,

Since SC and CR seem to be an issue for you. Here are two helpful articles:

GMAT Critical Reasoning: 8 Essential Tips

GMAT Sentence Correction: 8 Essential Tips

If you have any questions after reading these articles, feel free to reach out.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Spiddy,

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

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Spiddy,

I see that you are mostly struggling with verbal. If your scores are fluctuating, it means that your approach of solving questions is not consistent. To score well on verbal, you need to not only be very good with concepts but also use the right methods and strategies. Verbal questions can be very tricky. If you don't use the right methods to eliminate four answer choices, you will likely end up being stuck between two or more answer choices.

The right test taking strategy: 
Do not worry if you have less time for the last 5-6 questions. As long as you maintain good accuracy in the initial quarters, the last few questions do not matter much. All you have to do is carefully pick the questions which you can solve in the last quarter and guess the remaining. In fact, we have recently conducted a webinar on the test taking strategies, which you might find helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uURVseSlAVA

Accuracy in SC questions: 
If you are struggling with SC questions, it means that you are probably not approaching them from the meaning stand-point. The purpose of SC questions on GMAT is to test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect. So, you have to understand the intended meaning of the original sentence, identify errors if any and then eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM

CR questions take more than 2 mins each 
The same goes with CR questions as well. The approach is important. Once you read the question stem, it's important to identify the missing link before you jump into answer choices. And to identify the missing link, you need to understand the framework on which the CR questions are based and learn the guidelines to pre-think the missing link. Once you learn the framework and guidelines, the process so solving CR questions becomes really simple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZG-oIl09Rk

I hope it helped. All in all, I see that there are certain gaps on which you have to work on. So, focus on working on these areas. Learn the right methods instead of just practicing too many questions. If you still need any help with the study strategy, feel free to get in touch using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

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Scoring consistently below 700 and have GMAT scheduled in a week, help

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