GMAT score from 700 to 660 to 630..giving a final 4th attempt

Question

Hello people,

My GMAT scores have been dropping and despite preparing more for each attempt im going further and further from my target score of 730

Following are my scores:
GMAT1:700 V39 Q47
GMAT2:660 V33 Q48
GMAT1:630 V25 Q50( attempted quant first here thinking will go into verbal with full confidence but to no avail)

I plan to give one more attempt and feel i have Quant under control but struggling with verbal section in the exam.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Karan

Navski · Answer

Hey Karan,

It's hard to give you any specific advice without understanding why your verbal scores have come down so much and seeing where you are struggling. I would suggest purchasing an ESR for each of these exams so you can identify which verbal subsections you are consistently performing well in and where your weaknesses lie. Then use this forum and external resources to come up with a game plan of how you can improve in each subsection.

In general though it is very difficult to improve in verbal just by attempting a high volume of questions not to mention you are also wasting a very valuable resource. Each question is an opportunity to learn, make sure you truly understand why the official answer is right and why each of the other options are incorrect. I've also struggled with verbal but slowing down and being methodical with each question has helped me in the long run. Read each word slowly and make sure you understand what the sentence or passage is saying. Don't worry about timing at first, its okay to spend 30 to 45 minutes on a set of 5 questions. This will help you fully analyze each question, and you'll be able to speed up the process by the time test day comes around.

If you haven't tried them before I highly recommend E-GMAT; they really helped shaped the way I study and approach different question types. Studying the concepts, and practicing questions definitely helps, but the biggest game changer is truly understanding why an answer choice is right or wrong.

Hope this was helpful for you and best of luck on your next exam, you can do it!

KaranSharma07 · Answer

Thanks for the response Navski

Before my third attempt i had enrolled for E-gmat and felt their SC modules were quite good.
Ironically i got my highest in verbal in first attempt(V39) when i had only attempted the OG and no other course.I feel the more i go in depth in verbal the more mirkier it becomes.Ill be more than happy to even replicate my verbal score from 1st attempt.The frustrating part is i got that and am unable to somehow replicate it even knowing that i can very well achieve that score and above.

I agree that solving each question in depth is much more imporatant than the numebr of questions solved and plan to focus on each mistake i made previously..during this final attempt of mine.

Open to suggestions and tips to improve further.
Thanks

Navski · Answer

So I think it could be two things, either you don't have as strong a grasp of concepts as you thought or the additional level of detail in the material you used after your first exam is causing you to overthinking and get lost in the detail.

If it is the later that something you could fix rather quickly. You need to find a consistent strategy of what works best for you.

Personally on SC I really try to focus on the meaning the sentence and find answer choices that logically convey the intended meaning. After that I further eliminate based on grammar. This method keeps me from getting lost in the detail.

For CR it becomes a lot simpler when you understand what logic the Author is using to prove his/her conclusion. Before I read the answer choices I say "The right answer will strengthen/weaken Logic X or connect Logic X to Assumption Y". This approach really stream lines the process.

RC luckily has always been my best section, time permitted. I usually take my sweet time and carefully read the passage and then find answering the questions really straightforward.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi KaranSharma07,

I'm sorry to hear how things have been going with your GMAT. Since your verbal score has been decreasing with each GMAT, here is some general advice you can follow to improve your GMAT verbal skills. I'll start with CR.

When studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various question types. Do you know the importance of an assumption within an argument? Can you easily spot a conclusion? Do you know how to resolve a paradox? Do you know how to properly evaluate cause and effect? Do you know how to properly weaken or strengthen an argument? These are just a few examples; you really need to take a deep dive into the individual Critical Reasoning topics to develop the necessary skills to properly attack any Critical Reasoning questions that you encounter.

As you learn each Critical Reasoning problem type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you incorrectly answered a Weaken the Argument question, 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 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 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 answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be stimulating. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such bland 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, 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.

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 skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
 
Ultimately, if you are unable to learn and practice in the manner described above, you may consider looking for additional verbal prep resources. If you are unsure of which resources to choose, check out some reviews here on GMAT Club.

Here are also some helpful articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

GMAT Sentence Correction: 8 Essential Tips

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Karan,

First off, your initial 700/Q47 is an outstanding Score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, another retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

I'm sorry to hear that this recent attempt did not go as well as hoped.. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied in total? For the 5 weeks before your 3rd attempt, how many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used over the course of ALL of your studies?
3) Over the last 3 months, 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)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

If you took your 3rd attempt at a Test Center, then you might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

KaranSharma07 · Answer

Hi everyone, I logged in here after 2 years (completed my MBA

) to help a friend of mine with the GMAT Club resources, but to my pleasant surprise my inbox had many unread messages from people within the GMAT Club community, helping and giving me tips for my final attempt back then in 2020.

Here's an update: Despite an intensive preparation, in my final GMAT attempt I scored 680( don't remember the breakup) I did manage to get a call from ISB with my initial score of 700, but could not convert the interview. Fortunately, I did manage to convert my dream college of SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) for their flagship PGDM course, via the CAT exam. To all the aspirants out there, Never ever give up!! Good things will surely come your way, just be patient and keep working towards your goal.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Gratz on the MBA. All the best going forward.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Congrats! Thank you for sharing!

	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

GMAT score from 700 to 660 to 630..giving a final 4th attempt

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards