Three Attempts - 610 to 640. How to improve further ?

Thank you Hovkial for the response. Now, I've started to study the basics again.
Here is the list of study material that I have/ I'm going to study:

1. Sentence Correction - Manhattan SC and Aristotle SC
2. Critical Reasoning - Powerscore CR
3. Reading Comprehension - Will continue to doing from Official Guide.
4. Quants - Official Guide for Practice and Basics from Manhattan

If possible, please suggest any additional material that I should supplement. Also, as I have already exhausted my GMAT Prep exams, which mock tests should I consider doing?

Many thanks again

Thank you for the response EMPOWERgmatRichC.
Please find below the responses to your queries :

Studies:

1) Over the last 3 months, how many hours did you typically study each week? -
Average - 2 to 3 hours on weekdays, 5-6 hours on Saturday, Mock (3 hours) on Sunday.

2) What study materials have you used over the course of ALL of your studies?
a. SC - Manhattan and Aristotle
b. CR - Manhattan and Powerscore
c. RC - Manhattan and Free Webinars from companies such as crack verbal, veritas prep.
d. Quants - Manhattan and Official Guide Practice
e. Practice - OG 2020 and Advanced OG
f. Mocks - GMAT Prep (all six), Expert Global

3) On what 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)?

4th September, 2019 - 610 (Q48 V26), IR -6
5th November, 2019- 630 (Q45, V32), IR -6
26th November, 2019 - 640 (Q48, 29), IR -7

Goals:

4) What is your overall goal score?
Total - 720
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
Since, I have missed the deadlines, I'll be applying next year in August, 2020.
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
- NUS
- NTU
- London Business School
- Imperial College
- India School of Business

Hi vkhosla001,

I’m sorry to hear how things have been going with your GMAT. Given that you have taken the GMAT 3 times aND still have not broken V29, I think you likely need more time than just a month or two to improve your verbal score to 38+. Thus, I would hold off scheduling your GMAT, continue to study, and then take the GMAT once you are truly ready to do so. In any case, here is some specific advice you can follow to improve your verbal skills. I’ll start with CR.

When studying Critical Reasoning, your first goal is to fully master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each Critical Reasoning question type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type of question. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. Keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to analyze such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the New York Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.

Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, it is likely that you will have to work on all three of those aspects.

Regarding what you know, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.

This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.

There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.

As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.

To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently to extend your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your Sentence Correction skills improve, you will then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.

Lastly, regarding materials for both quant and verbal, 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 article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!

Hi vkhosla001

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.

In addition, while the most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills - since you will likely see some 'repeat' questions that you have already faced. Unfortunately, seeing even a couple of repeats can 'throw off' the Scoring Algorithm and impact your pacing, energy levels, fatigue, etc. (meaning that they would likely all appear to be better than they actually are). Thankfully, the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion) - so you can use new CATs from any of those sources next.

In my prior message, I asked about your PRACTICE CATs/mocks - but you listed your 3 Official Scores. Your prior practice Scores are relevant - and they can help to define patterns in your performances, so I'd like to see that data. On what 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)?

Raising a 640 to the point that you can consistently score 720+ will likely require at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. You've also given yourself plenty of time to continue studying - so now we just need to make sure that you have a Study Plan that focuses on the proper Quant and Verbal Tactics.

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

Hi! I do think that the gap between your second and third attempts was just too little, to really move the needle.

You are looking at 8+ point jump in Verbal. That cannot be achieved by doing more of the same thing (that you did in your three attempts). Critically take a look at your preparation in the past and look for areas that you could approach differently.

With three attempts behind you, are you a veteran yourself and will be the best judge of what should change in your fourth (and hopefully final) attempt.

All the best!

Thank you so much ScottTargetTestPrep. I have taken a note of each and every suggestion provided by you.

You are absolutely correct EducationAisle, I have now started analyzing my preparation section by section and soon I'll begin with my preparation. Thank you !

My pleasure!

Those are all good resources. However, they may not be sufficient for high scores.

To become comfortable with concepts, it is useful to supplement with textbooks, practice, videos, creating your own problems and solutions, reviewing, etc.

For verbal: There are many good grammar books available for low prices. Pick up a few and study the topics. Similarly for CR, pick up reasoning books. For RC which is similar to CR is some aspects, read widely and practice.

For quant: Again, pick up books on high school-level math concepts. There are plenty out there.

Use official sources for practice, especially for verbal. For quant, you can practice from sources here and elsewhere.

Do a few mock exams, but not too many. This site has links to "marketplace" for mock exams.

Most important will be to focus on learning and practicing. The end result will be positive if you do these things diligently. GL!

Thank you Hovkial!