ESR Analysis and the most effective 3-week study plan

Question

Hopefully any of the experts can help me provide further details on my analysis of the ESR and help me create a study plan.

I've studied for 7-8 weeks, of which the last 4 where pretty intense studying, before I sat for my GMAT (1st attempt) last week, I scored a disappointing 530 Q34 V28. I want to challenge myself a little bit and I'm aiming for a score of at least 600, although I only need a score of 550 to get into the first Dutch University (others in Holland ask for a minimum score of 600).

Verbal:
I'm not a native English speaker since I'm Dutch, but I've always had a feeling for the English language. Although I haven't studied too much on the Verbal side, in practice and on the GMAT I had some decent Verbal scores. With my weakness clearly coming from the Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction parts. On the GMAT (as well as with practicing) I took way to much time reading the RC passage questions, I eventually made this time up by quickly scanning through the last RC and SC questions and choosing the answer choices that feel correct after eliminating 2-3 possible answers. I know this doesn't seem like a very effective strategy but I feel like there is not much more in there with just the basic knowledge that I have at this moment.

I'd like to aim for a score V32-34. 
1) To get a higher Verbal score the most important thing is to increase my speed whilst reading RC passages and make RC questions in general, the problem is is that I don't see how to attack these kind of questions as quickly and efficiently as possible.
2) The second area to improve on are the SC questions. I know the fundamentals of the grammar rules and I'm lucky to come fairly far with my instincts. I'm studying from the GMAT Official Guide and extra GMAT Official Verbal Guide but I don't seem to get the hang of the grammar rules and where to look in the question (to determine which rules I should apply). Do you have any tips on this?

Quant: 
I've always been kind of bad at Quant. I never understood the more 'in-depth' concepts and it took me a long time to understand all the basics in Secondary/High school. I've taken a 4-week Quantitative course where I learned all the basic concepts again. Although I felt a lot more confident during training and also during practicing, my GMAT Quant-score was abysmal. Although my practice CAT scores on Quant weren't great either (Q39-Q42) the biggest problem is that I didn't feel rushed on the GMAT, I had enough time to answer every question, and it felt like I was answering a big portion of the question correct. The biggest problem was with algebra (Equal./Inequal.) and factors which gives me some comfort, since these where the subjects I scored the lowest on my practices.

I'd like to aim for a score Q42-44. 
1) The problem is, is that I'm not sure which subject needs the most of my time. Geometry isn't my strongest subject but I've mastered the difficulty that I can handle and I know which question I can answer and which I can't. For the other subjects, this has proven to be fairly hard (especially for equality and factor questions).
2) When analyzing my ESR, there is a big difference between PS questions and DS questions. Are there any suggestions on test-taking strategies for PS questions?

My next attempt is in 3 weeks. Since I'm not able to study anymore after this period because of other commitments that I have until the application deadlines, I'd like to at least get a score of 550 but want to aim for 600+. Although this sounds like a short time and I work full time, I've taken some vacation days and have about 60-80 full hours of studying available before retaking the GMAT.

Hopefully you have some suggestions regarding my study plan after the above stated information and a look at my ESR I attached to the message. I'm really wondering what my most effective 'battle-plan' is so that I can get the most out of my GMAT-score, since I know I have a pretty good score in me.

Thanks!

EDIT: I’m not able to upload my ESR. If you’re willing to help me I’ll be sure to send my PDF-file in a direct message!

TimmyW13 · Answer

EDIT: I’m not able to upload my ESR. If you’re willing to help me I’ll be sure to send my PDF-file in a direct message!

Posted from my mobile device

kyro · Answer

Hey Timmy,

Overall, I think you should pick the lowest hanging fruits first. Which are the areas you feel comfortable where you can improve your score a little bit? Work on those first to get a good increase in score.

- This link gives a good idea of how to push your quant score above 40. (I especially liked this part - Your first priority should be Arithmetic. Second – Algebra. Third – Word Problems. Fourth – Geometry. Do not get into Probability, combinations, statistics, or coordinate geometry. Those are fancy subjects but you stand a very little chance of encountering them right now.) https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-impro ... 42810.html

- I love GMAT Club's grammer book. https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gma ... 33952.html Use this for your SC.

- https://gmatclub.com/forum/search.php?view=search_tags Use this to find questions for you to solve. Set it to sub 600 or 600 level and go for Official Guide questions first.

Good luck.

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

TimmyW13  - Per the forum rules, you will have to make at least 5 posts to become eligible to attach files. That said, I believe the experts would need to see your ESR. Therefore, could you try sending me the ESR over a direct message? Alternately, you can reach the 5 posts marks and then attach the file yourself. Make sure to mask your name and GMAT ID.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi TimmyW13,

Since you are unable to post your ESR, I can provide some general advice on how to improve both your verbal and quant skills. Keep in mind, improving from 520 to 600 in just 3 weeks, is a pretty tall order, so you may consider pushing your GMAT to a later date and taking it when you are truly ready. That said, here is some advice you can follow to improve your Quant, Sentence Correction, and Reading Comprehension skills. Let’s start with Reading Comprehension

To improve in Reading Comprehension, you need to focus on understanding what you are reading. When you are incorrectly answering Reading Comprehension questions, it’s partly because you do not truly understand what you have just read, right? Thus, you likely have to slow down in order to (eventually) speed up. At this point, your best bet is to focus on getting the correct answers to questions, taking as much time as you need to see key details and understand the logic of what you are reading. You have to learn to comprehend what you read, keep it all straight, and use what you are reading to arrive at correct answers. If you don't understand something, go back and read it one sentence at a time, even one word at a time, not moving on until you understand what you have just read. There is no way around this work. Your goal should be to take all the time you need to understand exactly what is being said and arrive at the correct answer. If you can learn to get answers taking your time, you can learn to speed up. Answering questions is like any task: The more times you do it carefully and successfully, the faster you become at doing it carefully and successfully.

Another component of understanding what you are reading is being “present” when reading. Don’t worry about how things are going at work, or what you will eat for dinner, or even how long you are taking to read through the passage. Just focus on what is in front of you, word by word, line by line. Furthermore, try to make reading fun. For example, even if you are reading about a topic that bores you, pretend that you are the person making the argument. By doing so, you will make the passage more relatable to YOU, and ultimately you should be able to read with greater focus.

One final component of Reading Comprehension that may be tripping you up is that RC questions contain one or more trap answers that seem to answer the question but don't really. So, a key part of training to correctly answer RC questions is learning to notice the differences between trap answers and correct answers. You have to learn to see how trap answers seem to follow from what the passages say, but don't really, while correct answers fit what the passages say exactly.

Regarding Sentence Correction, 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, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, 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 less than 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 none of those reasons are 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. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to put in the necessary time to see the differences between answers 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 to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently 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 do differently to extend your streak.

After learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
.
Finally, when it comes to improving your quant skills, you need to ensure that you are following a linear and structured approach, so that you are able to learn each GMAT quant topic and then practice each topic until you’ve gained mastery. Let me expand on this idea further.

For example, if you are learning about Number Properties, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.

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 article about  The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT .

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

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi TimmyW13,

To start, with a 530, you're closer to a 550+ than you probably realize. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). You can feel free to email me your ESR and I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

Beyond that data, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How many hours have you typically studied each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
4) How do you know that you only "need" a 550? Would that Score 'guarantee' you entry into that Program or is that just the minimum Score needed to apply (meaning that you would still need a strong-enough overall profile to receive an invite)?

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

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