Struggling with the GMAT Quant and Verbal Sections

Question

Hello GMAT pros,

I am quite discouraged.

I've officially finished the Kaplan Self-Paced tutorials and fully finished the GMAT Kaplan Premier book, learning all the strategies Kaplan has to offer and applied them to my testing.

This has been exactly a month ago now as I started studying on the 17/09/21. I had the following scores on my Diagnosis Tests:

Kaplan Diagnostic Exam: 510 (Q36/V23)

I studied quite hard, on an average of 5 hours a day for the last thirty days, reading about strategies and practicing on questions (Probably have done over 500 now.). I also read corrections when I got answers wrong and some corrections when I was right, but I just can't seem to really improve to my dream score of 700...

I took 2 more tests in the past week or so, getting:

MBA Practice Test: 530 (Q41 in the 37th percentile, and V23 in the 31th percentile)
Kaplan Practice test 2: 540 (Q38, V26)

My scores seem to go down and up and stagnate around 530ish...

Planning on taking the test at the start of January, I only less than 3 months left to get my dream score before the round of admissions closes.

I am worried about my future ambitions as I don't know how to improve my Verbal and Quant...

If some guidance could be given, I would really appreciate it..

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Julien2001,

Many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so if you have studied for just 1 month, then you should not expect to have mastered any of the concepts just yet. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. You still have plenty of time before early January too - which is good - but you will have to hone some specific skills in BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections to get to the point that you can consistently score at the 700+ level.

Going forward, you also have to be careful about confusing "quantity" of study with "quality" of study. I've never asked anyone to study 30+ hours a week - and while it's great that you might have the available time to study that much, with that number of study hours, you would run the risk of 'burning out' before Test Day (and that is something that might be happening right now - and that we want to avoid happening in the future). If you are going to try to study that much, then I suggest that you take one hour "off" for every two hours of study. For example, you could study for 2 hours, then stop for an hour, then study for another 2 hours, then take an hour off, etc.

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) Have you used any other study materials besides the book that you listed? 
2) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
3) 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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Julien2001,

I have two very helpful articles for you to check out:

How to Score a 700+ on the GMAT — A Mini Guide for Success

How to Learn More, Learn Faster, and Retain More Knowledge While Preparing for the GMAT

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

homersimpsons · Answer

Take up a good course.
Egmat/Gmatwhiz for Verbal.
And Target test prep for Quant.

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello Julien2001,

Welcome to the GMAT Club. It is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, etc.

Your current GMAT mock score is shaky. Don't be disappointed. You can surely do better.

You can schedule a Free Counseling(https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session) session for 20 mins with one of our experts to have detailed advice on your current study plans.

Many test aspirants are unhappy with their initial practice test scores. We have observed that this is due to the lack of a detailed study plan.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• Not detailed knowledge of GMAT Math patterns and Question types
• Inefficiency by using time-consuming Conventional method to tackle DS and PS questions still
• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Precisely, there has to be one end-to-end solution encompassing all the points mentioned above. We also want to understand your approach to solving PS and DS questions. You can try our free diagnostic test https://www.mathrevolution.com/diagnostic/dtExamMember and receive a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas.

The diagnostic test report will give us detailed insight into various topics and your performance. After an in-depth analysis, you will draw out the category of the topics you are already better at and those where you need more improvement.

Also, make a note of various possible combinations to achieve your target score. The possible scores will help you track your performance after taking the mock or practice test. It will also help you maintain balance in both the sections, and you will always be in a great position to allot the study hours to a specific area accordingly.

We recommend that you learn the Variable Approach for solving DS questions and the IVY approach to solve PS questions to improve your accuracy and save time while solving the question types. These approaches are the robust self-designed time-saving techniques that will help you learn efficiently, thus raising your score in the quick nick of time.

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-days on-demand course for free trial lessons.

700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too. Start with the learning of the concepts. Make a habit of taking notes during the initial learning of the concepts.

You may also connect with one of our experts to get one of the best tutoring supports, which will help you understand the topic(s) and solve questions and learn how to manage time and accuracy.

Below is the useful link we will recommend you visit on GMAT club to experience DS and IVY approaches' power.

Ultimate Q51 guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ultimate ... l#p1613600

Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

To prepare for Verbal, you can access many study materials from Crack Verbal, e-GMAT, and other test-prep experts for Verbal. You may also refer to Aristotle Grail for sentence correction and GMAT power bank for CR question types. There are also many free materials available in the GMAT Club.

In the end, make sure you have an error log for every day, and you may connect with one of our experts to learn the hard concept and approaches. Keep checking your performance by attempting as many mock tests as possible.

Regular tests will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and hence will be able to learn time management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

Julien2001 · Answer

Hey Rich! Thank you so much for this advice.

1) I haven't used any other materials, but I have an Adaptive Question Bank on the Kaplan Website with over 1800 questions, should I use that?
2) I'm planning to take it at a Test Facility, weirdly enough, I know that I've always done better on my tests when I'm sitting in a classroom.
3) I'd like to apply mid January at the latest.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Julien2001,

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

760+: What GMAT Assassins Do To Score at the Highest Levels

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

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

A few Verbal tips: https://www.gmatknight.com/post/5-verba ... gmat-tutor There are some other Verbal posts on that blog that may be helpful.

Anupom · Answer

You should try a good course.
Recently TTP released their RC module.Their both verbal & quant will take you to a healthy score.try their trial,you will know by own.
Just keep patience.

If you have any further query,ping me anytime

Posted from my mobile device

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Julien2001,

The key to scoring well on GMAT is to focusing on the right aspects. If your score doesn't improve even after devoting time religiously to your prep, then that means that there's something wrong with the preparation strategy. First let us understand the right way to prepare for GMAT.

How to prepare for GMAT in the right way?  
Before you start preparing for any test, it's important to understand the structure of the test, what is tested on it and then prepare accordingly. In this case, GMAT is a test which focuses on your application skills along with the conceptual knowledge. So, just learning the concepts and practicing questions without focusing on the right methodology will not do any good. So, I suggest you to first focus on the methodology to solve questions of a particular topic and only then move to practicing questions of that topic.

So, the right way to prepare would be to first

learn the concepts of a topic,  
 learn the right methodology to solve questions of that topic 
 practice a few questions of that topic to solidify your learning and then move to the nest topic 
 Repeat the process for all the topics

And working on weak areas is equally important. You move to the next topic only if you get a decent accuracy in the previous topic. If not, you revisit the concepts, fill the conceptual gaps and then move to the next topic only when you are 100% confident. There are a couple of articles which you might find helpful.

How to effectively plan your studies for GMAT

How to score 700+ on GMAT

How to start preparing for GMAT

And you can go through the recording below to understand how to strategize your GMAT prep in an effective way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65n8_LIbPIM

What might have gone wrong?  
As we have understood the right way to prepare, now let's analyze what could have gone wrong with your prep strategy. You must have learnt the concepts of the topics and you must have practiced questions as well.  But did you focus on the methodology part? Did you focus on working your weak areas?

These two could be the major reasons for you not scoring well. So, make sure you do your prep in the right way by focusing on all the above parameters. And regarding the resource, choose a resource which can help you with not only the concepts, but the methodology as well. And the questions to practice and their detailed solutions are equally important as the solutions help you understand where exactly you are making the mistake. And a study plan would be an added advantage as you will have clear deadlines.

You can check out the free trial of GMATWhiz course if you are looking for one. You may choose to go with Private tutoring (after requesting for a demo) as it is the best option if you feel you need a personal mentor to guide you through your preparation. Your performance will be constantly monitored by the mentor and based on the feedback you can prepare accordingly. This mostly works when students face difficulty in understanding concepts and require a one-on-one interaction with tutors.

And regarding how to proceed further and the study strategy, I think it would be better if we can get in touch over a call and discuss the same as I would like to ask a few questions about your current preparation strategy and your weak areas. You can use the below link to get in touch with me.

Click here to schedule a call

RetaketheGMAT · Answer

Hi Julien2001,

You need a clear picture of what's going wrong in testing conditions. Test Taking Skills are the usual cause of underperformance.

It's really difficult to assess that on your own -- it's like an athlete trying to figure out what's wrong with their game. That's what Performance Coaches are for.

Check out our FREE Testing Simulation Diagnostic, in which a coach assesses your Test Taking Skills in live GMAT practice test environment. .

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