Seeking help to overcome a score plateau

Question

Hi everyone – my best wishes for 2021!

I am reaching out to this group to seek help related to my GMAT prep. I am specifically looking to speak with someone who went from mid/high 600s to 740 and above. Below is a summary of my prep so far.

After ~ 6 months of prep (4 months on and off and a couple of months of consistent and serious study), I am still stuck in the 650-670 range (Quant is consistent at 48 and verbal is between low to mid 30s). These scores are based on the official mock practice exams.

Material I have used so far – Manhattan prep guides, OG 20, OG 18, OG 11th Edition (this one is quite old), Quant Review 16, Verbal Review 16, Manhattan Advanced Quant (all the chapters but not the practice tests at the end), and I am presently going through the advanced OG. I also occasionally solve questions on this forum.

I am looking for some guidance on a study schedule, study material selection, and revision and mock strategies. Additionally, any tips on how to stay motivated will be immensely helpful! Look forward to hearing back from some kind and helpful souls. Thanks a lot

bb · Answer

FYI I don't recommend using OG 11 unless you have exhausted all of the GMAT Prep tests. There is an overlap with GMAT Prep and old OG's.
Take a look at the testimonials from those who perhaps had a retake and a high GMAT Score - you can filter it by tags in Share GMAT Experience Forum: https://gmatclub.com/forum/search.php

You can also consider these 2 topics:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-impro ... 41670.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/v30s-to-v40s ... 20099.html

akadiyan · Answer

ruhpal07

To add , consistent practice adds more value to your prep. I advise you to visit Project Butler for each section and try to answer daily questions posted in the forums.

1. Project PS Butler 
2. Project DS Butler 
3. Project SC Butler 
4. Project CR Butler 
5. Project RC Butler

Try to post your explanation for questions and also look out for expert replies from which we can learn a great deal.

All the best

homersimpsons · Answer

Go for a course. There is only so much books can help.
Try Gmatwhiz or Egmat for verbal prep.
And TTp for Quant.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

If you do not have one already consider creating an error log.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ruhpal07,

From what you've described, your studies so far have been "book heavy"; unfortunately, many GMATers who study in that way end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. Even the best books are limited in what they can teach you; they also can't force you to approach questions in a certain way and their explanations are often one-sided. As such, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in some new, non-book study materials for this next phase of your studies.

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:

Studies:
1) Over the last 2 months, how many hours did you typically study each week?
2) 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)?

Goals:
3) What is your overall goal score?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

ruhpal07 · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC

Thanks a lot for your response and apologies for a very late reply from my end to your post. I am writing to you to seek help after a very disappointing performance on my exam that I took recently. 
I took the OnlineGMAT on March 19 2021 and got my score this morning. 
Scored a 640 (Q44, V35) and IR 5.
Answering your questions below:
Studies:
1) Approximately 20 hrs a week - around 2 hrs on weekdays and 4-5 hrs on weekends. 
2) Break-up of my official full-length GMAT pratice tests is:

Test 1 - Oct 31, 2020: 650 (Q48,V31)
Test 2 - Nov 15, 2020: 670 (Q47, V35)
Test 1.1 (Retake of Test 1) - Dec 12, 2020: 760 (Q50,44)
Test 2.1 (Retake of Test 2) - Dec 19, 2020: 740 (Q48, V44)
Test 3 - Dec 28, 2020: 660 (Q48,V34)
Test 4 - Feb 7, 2021: 710 (Q49,V38)
OnlineGMAT - March 19, 2021: 640 (Q44, V35)

Goals:
3) My goal score is 740. I am an Indian female non-engineer applicant. 
4) I am planning to apply to business schools in US in R1 in 2021. I am looking at Fuqua, Kellogg, Booth, and, Ross to begin with.

Some thoughts on my performance:
In the month leading to the test day, I did not take any more official mocks. I did buy the GMAT Official Practice Questions 1 and gave tests for both the sections replicating the exam conditions (same no. of questions and same time constraints). On average, I got 5-6 questions wrong on each verbal and quant test. 
While writing the exam, I sensed that I was taking longer than usual on questions in the quant section. I remember I took 30 mins for the first 10/11 questions and consequently, had to rush through the rest of the section. I felt more confident in the verbal section and my time management was better in this section. 
I am quite disappointed with my score, especially in the quant section since I scored in the 47-49 range in the official mocks.

Would sincerely appreciate any tips that you could share. I am considering buying the EmpowerGmat course and looking to retake the exam end of April. The reason for this is that I am nearing a major burnout and would like to close this part of application before I completely tire myself out.

Look forward to hearing from you. Many thanks!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ruhpal07,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT. Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than 640. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find it helpful to read the following articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

RetaketheGMAT · Answer

Hi ruhpal07,

I focus heavily on GMAT retake coaching (hence the name) and I can tell you score plateaus are about one thing: process.

Doing more practice questions is a real waste of time unless you can specifically answer the question: WHY? (Why did you get specific questions wrong?) The ESR is good for finding out WHAT questions you got wrong but WHY is the more important question.

In quant: Was it your capture / preprocessing of the prompt or statements (DS)? Did you visualize well? How about your equation setups and calculation execution?

In verbal: Were you reading vertically in SC? Did you do paragraph based note taking in RC? Define the core argument before looking at answers in CR?

These are just examples of process gaps that lock people at their score plateaus.

It's important to remember that the GMAT is a test of Executive Reasoning (not a typical math and English test). Unless your in-test process involves the key steps to strong reasoning methods, you'll always fall short of your score potential.

Happy to discuss more specifically on a call or we offer a FREE diagnostic session with a GMAT performance coach (no obligation) that will clearly answer the WHY question and clarify your path to your target score. Let me know if you're interested.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ruhpal07,

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

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

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