stuck at 590 ...need help desperately!!

Question

Hi all,
My first GMAT attempt 480 (q42,V09)
It was terrible.
Now am trying again , but my score in practice test getting stuck at 590 only in MGMAT tests.
i have appeared 10 tests and it is 590 for last 7 times.Am really worried.
Please help me..how should i improve my score and accuracy....

Archit143 · Answer

Can u be a little descriptive. Its difficult to infer and predict anything without knwn ...what material u been following and what was ur gmat prep score......Also pls mention ur break ups on each test......

Archit

daviesj · Answer

yeh, Archit is right, until n unless you provide info regarding your tests and the materials you have been using, it is difficult to recommend you anything.

Posted from my mobile device

soumyaranjandash · Answer

Hi Archit143,Davisej,Rakeshd
Sorry guyz i was not descriptive.....
I am following Manhattan official guides, GMAT OG 13,Power score gmat CR guide,SC grail, topic wise RC,CR and SC question sets from GMAT CLUB site,
For quant ,am following Arihant CAT guide.
So over all i have followed all guides those are prescribed in different forums and also by all 700 + achievers , but am still stuck at 590.
For exams i have enrolled Manhattan question bank . I have appeared 10 exams n out of them 7 has 590 constant.
Please guys help me....how should i approach so that i can improve my score.

Archit143 · Answer

Hi der I would request you to stop following tons of materials. Select books area wise and material that is universally accepted. I believe Arihant is sthn that is nt universally accepted. For Cr

owerscore is really an extensive book...but negative is that it lacks practice questions. If you want concise materaila go fr Aristotle CR grail. But if u r Ok with powerscore, do not change it. For SC: I think its ok. For RC; : there is no such material. Explores which methods suits u. Fr Quants I strongly believe MGMAT guides are the best. But der r topics which needs to be covered extensively , bt is nt. Such as Probability...I think Veritas guides has filled up dat gap. Regarding GMAT club material: Do not rely too much on it. Its nt universally accepted. Yes If u r scorn V 45 or close to it....take its Quant CAT...awesome, also, if u r already in that bracket..I strongly ....i repeat strongly....suggest Advanced MGMAT guide. u Ll see the improvement. One more thn i suggest is that, go thru CATS, note dwn ur weak areas .......frm all 10 CAT's nd go over those areas agin and again. Consider Kudos If my post Helps!! Archit

KarishmaB · Answer

One more suggestion - stop taking practice tests. You are wasting your time by taking tests at this stage. Work on your verbal basics and get your verbal score up to an acceptable level. Also, it seems like you don't read much (books and magazines). Develop the habit. Check out the Books to read link on the verbal forum.

Once your verbal score is up, practice tests can add value. They can help you tweak your performance in areas such as time management, strategy identification and performance under pressure.

soumyaranjandash · Answer

Hi Karishma , Archit , Rakseh ....
thank you all for your valuable inputs ...then i will do one thing..will go through all 10 cats that i have appeared and will filter out where am I lagging behind exactly.....
so that i will follow those parts.
I will stop taking cats for some time now and will sweat out on verbal..........
I will seek your advices.....moving forward......thnk you all again...

soumyaranjandash · Answer

Hi Rakeshd347,
am not able to access the link ..can you please paste the link again mate...

Archit143 · Answer

Hi 
I do not think sweating will earn u better rewards. Point out Area where u r lagging, than find out where it is a fundamental prob or just a mistake under time prsr. Next is fix a goal ie..the score that u want and accordingly approach. Say if u want to score 650...Taking that u can easily score Q 45...but in Verbal u must score V 30+ so u need 21 points improvement from u r last gmat ........i do not know ur recent break up...if its close to V 35...dnt try to dismantle wat u have been following...just polish the skills.
Be very sensitive while approaching ur tgt break up....as soon as u feel u r score is going dwn.....abandon the strategy .....
it all depends on how much u need to score n wats ur current score.

Consider Kudos If my post helps!!!!

Archit

soumyaranjandash · Answer

Hi all,
Thank you for the suggestions.And expecting more.........................................
Now i have planned to take the test around August, so can you please suggest which material should i follow for a sound and confident practice and one remarkable score.
Yes as per weakness and strength we should pick up materials but i need suggestions.

thnks in advance.The help will be much appreciated.

Zarrolou · Answer

I read all the thread, lets see if I can add my 2 cents

You Q looks good, work hard on verbal.

1)Focus on SC first.
If you can improve and speed up on SC questions you'll have more time to read long CR and RC and to think on those. This is directly from my personal experience. This worked for me, hope it'll work for you too.

2)Focus on CR second.
There are 4 types of CR question: SWIM (Strenghten, Weaken, Inference, Method of reasoning). Take one at a time and learn how to deal with it

3)Leave RC for last.
If you learn to think critically on CR, this ability should translate also on RC. Leave it for last.

You have huge margins of improvement on Verbal.

Hope for the best

daviesj · Answer

Replying to your PM.
Dude your quant is awesome, work on verbal. I have no idea about your target gmat score, but I guess aiming 650+ would be realistic one.
To achieve 650 you got to get either of the following scores:
Q42 V37 
Q46 V34
Q47 V32
Q48 V31
Q49 V30
Q50 V29
Considering your present quant score, I guess you'll need 37 in verbal to achieve 650 GMAT score.
Your current GMAT verbal score is 9, that means 28 points jump is needed.

Few points I would like to suggest:
 1 .As you are scoring in 590 range (don't have splits), for verbal you must not have faced questions of difficulty level 650+ to 700+. The questions you have faced till now are of difficulty level 500-600. So even if you analyze your tests, you won't be able to decipher what you are going to face in 650-700+ questions.
 2 .You are exhausting your tests, that's bad idea. One test can show your progress. 1st diagnostic test gave you 590, you should have analysed the questions and then made concepts clear before facing next test. This way the next test you could have faced with 600+to 650+ questions. and so on, till you face 650+ to 700+ questions.
 3 .Retest is best idea, let me tell you why. If you retest 590 test, you know the answers of the questions you have faced already so automatically you start performing good and test starts throwing you with high difficulty level question, which you have not encountered in earlier effort. This way you get access to 650-700-750+ questions. 
 4 . You are good at quant, you know what it takes to be at Q42. Have you ever faced any quant question, where only one concept is tested at a time. Such as,  A circle has radius of 5, what is its Area?   . Anyone who knows the formula can solve this problem. 
but if same question is presented like this,   Rectangle ABCD is inscribed in circle and has sides as 3 and 5, what is the area of circle?   can you tell me now, by knowing just formula will you ever be able to solve this problem? The answer is straight no, cause more than one concepts are tested in one problem. 
 As difficulty level increases, number of concepts tested per problem increases. Same is with verbal, more that one grammar rules are tested at once, so just by knowing rule you will not be able to arrive at the answer. In real GMAT SC, I bet you if you find any question which tests only one concept. Most of the time you find one issue such as in 'Not only..but also', you find that 'not only' is given but 'but also' is missing, so you try to find the answer which has both phrases and mark the answer, and you get it right too. but you miss which other concept other that 'not only...but also' is tested. So while analyzing any question analyze the ones which are right as well.
 5 . Don't go for much material, use legitimate sources. The ones you r using right now stick to them.
 6 . I used to solve only 10 SC question a day, analyzing each over n out. even if you do this for 30 days, you would've solved 300 questions by then. makes sense, doesn't it? OE overlooked is concept missed. No point in solving 50 SC questions in one day, its equivalent to doing nothing.
 7 . Don't stress too much, read interesting material from published magazines, from hollywood gossips to sports to politics. Reading helps a lot in improving verbal, I have experienced it. Keep in mind, Smart practice makes perfect.

Will be happy to help always.
I am not here for kudo, but to help.

KarishmaB · Answer

First and foremost, you need to start reading seriously - a good national daily and a magazine, 2 hrs everyday - find time before you sleep, on your commute, during lunch - whatever. Most people in their early 20s can easily save 1 hr every day if they stop going on FB/twitter. This is a passive learning strategy and doesn't pay off in the short term but till August you have enough time for it to pay off.
Next, start off with a complete set of books. I teach from the Veritas books and I think they are excellent. You can take a look inside them on Amazon.
And yes, as Zarrolou says, focus first on CR and then RC. Anyway, when you are reading, you are preparing automatically for RC too. Once you are comfortable with the logic of CR, many RC questions will be more intuitive.

The good thing is that you have to start from the beginning. There is a lot of scope of quick improvement.

stuck at 590 ...need help desperately!!

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