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dersven
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significant drop 630 -> 600 -> 540 (GMATPrep) 04 May 2013, 09:13
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Hi Experts,

I need your advice regarding my verbal scores. Today i took my first gmatprep exam (after about 1.5 months of studying) and scored only a 540 !!!
This means a significant drop compared to my past exams:

1. MGMAT 630 (44Q, 32V) percentile: 63(Q) and 64(V) Mistakes: 17Q, 20V
2. Kaplan 600 (?Q, ?V) percentile: 80??(Q) and 27??(V) Mistakes: 15Q, 20V
3. GMATPrep 540 (44Q, 21V) percentile: 63(Q) and 24(V) Mistakes: 12Q, 18V

Despite an improvment in the amount of correct answers in both quant and verbal my scores dropped.
I know that the score calculation considers not only the total mistakes but also the diffculty of the questions.

How would you rate my scores and could you give me advice on my situation and my final preparation. I need at least 650 and my exam is in 3 weeks.

Thank you!
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significant drop 630 -> 600 -> 540 (GMATPrep) 04 May 2013, 09:19
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You definitely need to work on your Verbal, the results are a huge problem so you should leave Quant for a bit and really enhance your V score significantly! What about TOEFL, what is your score there?
What study material did you use for the GMAT?

BTW: to also answer your question: don't give a dime about the negative trend, improve on your error rate and Verbal! The calculation of the total score should be irrelevant to you at the moment.
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dersven
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significant drop 630 -> 600 -> 540 (GMATPrep) 04 May 2013, 11:22
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I think there are two main problems i face in the verbal section;
1. my understanding of the passages (RC) and Arguments (CR) and as well sometimes the answer choices.
2. my timing: I have definitly timing problems on the verbal part,
Usually it takes me more than two minutes to answer CR question and as well i am not able to read a passage (RC) and make notes in less than 4-5 minutes. If I rush my understanding and consequently my accuracy gets even worse. I have to guess 3 or 4 questions in the verbal part to make up time...

Fortunately I just started with my verbal practicing; Just today i touched the first SC questions. So hopefully I am able to improve in accuracy and timing the next 3 weeks.Is it enough to practice in order to get faster (and better) in Verbal?
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significant drop 630 -> 600 -> 540 (GMATPrep) 04 May 2013, 18:41
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dersven
Hi Experts,

I need your advice regarding my verbal scores. Today i took my first gmatprep exam (after about 1.5 months of studying) and scored only a 540 !!!
This means a significant drop compared to my past exams:

1. MGMAT 630 (44Q, 32V) percentile: 63(Q) and 64(V) Mistakes: 17Q, 20V
2. Kaplan 600 (?Q, ?V) percentile: 80??(Q) and 27??(V) Mistakes: 15Q, 20V
3. GMATPrep 540 (44Q, 21V) percentile: 63(Q) and 24(V) Mistakes: 12Q, 18V

Despite an improvment in the amount of correct answers in both quant and verbal my scores dropped.
I know that the score calculation considers not only the total mistakes but also the diffculty of the questions.

How would you rate my scores and could you give me advice on my situation and my final preparation. I need at least 650 and my exam is in 3 weeks.

Thank you!
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Unfortunately, you need to worry only about the GMAT prep test scores since only they have some predictive power - not very much but some. Study for a week and take another GMAT prep test. Hopefully 540 is just an aberration. If you still get about the same score, you might need to think about postponing your test.
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significant drop 630 -> 600 -> 540 (GMATPrep) 05 May 2013, 04:27
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Thank you for the advice. I will concentrate on verbal the upcoming week and do the second gmatprep test.
Actually my hit-rate in CR and RC in the first 50 (easy) questions of the OG were quite okay with over 70% both.
CR was okay in the test as well with only 2 mistakes. But i think rushing trough the RC ruined it and as i said before i just started with SC, so there is space for improvement! If I can get more confident (and faster) on SC this will free up some time for RC.
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dersven
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significant drop 630 -> 600 -> 540 (GMATPrep) 10 May 2013, 03:57
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Today i took my 2nd gmatprep test and scored 610 (Q47, V27) with 12 and 17 mistakes respectively.
As I had serious timing problems on the Verbal Part i decided to skip one (the last) complete RC-passage to free up some needed time for the other questions.
I was able to reduce my total mistakes to 17 (3 mistakes came from RC-guessing) and 7 of those mistakes came from SC...

My plan is now to concentrate on SC to make fewer mistakes there and additionally get a bit faster. I feel quite comfortable with CR and RC, if i dont need to rush through the passage. What do you think?
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significant drop 630 -> 600 -> 540 (GMATPrep) 10 May 2013, 08:00
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dersven
Today i took my 2nd gmatprep test and scored 610 (Q47, V27) with 12 and 17 mistakes respectively.
As I had serious timing problems on the Verbal Part i decided to skip one (the last) complete RC-passage to free up some needed time for the other questions.
I was able to reduce my total mistakes to 17 (3 mistakes came from RC-guessing) and 7 of those mistakes came from SC...

My plan is now to concentrate on SC to make fewer mistakes there and additionally get a bit faster. I feel quite comfortable with CR and RC, if i dont need to rush through the passage. What do you think?
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SC questions don't take much time so being good at them is a big advantage if you face timing issues. Also, guessing on questions you are good at (RC) is not a good strategy. If you do the question, you will probably get it right. Think about these things before you decide your strategy.