Need help with retake to improve from 600 to 700

Question

Hello experts and fellow GMATclubbers,
I have been preparing for the GMAT for the past 4months, devoting 5-6hrs every day to get a score of 670-700.
I finally gave my first attempt yesterday and scored 600(Q48, V25, IR6). Verbal has always been my weak point throughout the preparation, even though I spent more than 3months on verbal, but I never scored this low on any of the mocks. I finished my Quant section 4minutes early, could have better used my time to push to Q49 but that really doesn't matter when you have a V25.

Mock Performance:
GmatPrep 1- 620(Q49, V27)
MGMAT- 580(Q42, V28)
Kaplan- 680(Q49, V35)
Veritas- 620(Q46, V30)
I kept the second free Gmatprep to give 3 days before the actual test but I got sick (high fever) and was unable to concentrate on anything.

Material used:
SC- MGMAT, Aristotle, OG for questions
CR & RC- OG questions only, didn't study any CR or RC concepts from any resources
gmatclub- would solve random q&v questions every day, verbal and quant tests

Right now I am in a very difficult position as I wanted to apply with the score I get for MIM or equivalent courses in France and UK. But as the score is very low I want to give GMAT another try (can't give up, won't give up) in  a month . I want to work on my verbal as I was unable to even comprehend the questions on the real exam. 
I would be really grateful if anyone can help me with the following:
1. how should I go ahead with my retake?
2. I am also looking for some Verbal online courses (with active support and study plans) that could help improve my inferior verbal scores, any leads/reviews in this matter will be highly appreciated.
3. how to analyze and correct my errors?
4. Any mock test I should buy?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi flash007,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function, most of your CAT/mock score results - along with your Official Score - show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 600 +/- a few points). The 680 is an interesting 'outlier' (since you scored considerably higher on the Verbal section of this CAT), meaning that we have to be careful about assuming how accurate this result was. You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes.

In addition, you 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 may have already happened - and it's something that we want to avoid going forward). 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 we discuss how you might best proceed with your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks?
2) Is your overall goal score 670 or 700? If you were to score 670 in a month, would you stop studying or continue studying?
3) For your next attempt, are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
4) What application deadlines are you facing?

If you took your GMAT 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

flash007 · Answer

Hi Rich,

1.The dates of my mocks were:
Official GmatPrep-January 25,2021
MGMAT- March 1,2021
Kaplan- March 3, 2021
Veritas- March 5, 2021

2.I would be happy if I could score 670+ as that would help me get an admit to a top MIM course (ESSEC, ESCP, LSE).
(I limit my expectation to 700 as that would require a lot of time which I don't have because of fast-approaching deadlines)

3.I will give the exam at a test center.

4.I am planning to give my GMAT by the 1st week of April.
Deadlines for the majority of colleges I am targeting are in 2nd-3rd week of April.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  flash007 , generally, a 100 point jump that you are looking for, requires more than a month.

Nevertheless, since you are considering a reattempt,  this article  will help.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi flash007.

While I agree that you likely will need more than 1 month to improve your GMAT score, here is some helpful advice you can follow to improve your GMAT verbal skills.

Moving forward, you need to follow a study plan that allows you to individually learn each GMAT verbal topic, starting with the foundations and progressing to more advanced concepts.

For example, 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.

You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi flash007,

Let me answer your questions and there by help you in the process of improving your score.

How to go about your retake? 
GMAT Verbal is mostly about the application and the logical approach. For example, to solve SC questions, you don't have to learn a lot of grammatical rules. SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, you have to approach them from the meaning stand-point. And GMAT Verbal is mostly about eliminating four incorrect answer choices rather than choosing the right one. So, once you understand the intended meaning the original sentence is trying to convey, it's all about eliminating answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning.

I know it's not that easy as it sounds. But if you prepare in the right way, then you can definitely improve your score. Just focus on the right things and do your preparation in a more structured way. Go through the recording below to understand the right way to improve your Verbal score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sD35ZuGgD4

How to choose the right resource: 
Always choose a course which can help you with the application part along with the concepts. Because, the better your application skills are, the better your performance is going to be.  And one important aspect in the process of working on your weak areas is analyzing solutions. You need to analyze the solutions in depth to understand the exact step at which you are making the mistake . This is one of the most effective ways to learn the right methodology and to nullify your gaps. So, choose the course which can provide you with standard questions and their detailed solutions. All in all, make sure the course you choose provides you with the below factors.

Concepts 
 Methodology (Most important) 
 Standard questions 
 Their detailed solutions 
 Study plan (Makes the process more structured)

The best thing to do would be to check out the free trials of the online courses out there and choose the one which suits you the most. But make sure you choose the one which can help you with the above factors. You can check out the below article to know more about the factors to consider while evaluating an online course.

Key factors to consider while evaluating an online course

And I would suggest you to check out the free trial of GMATWhiz before taking a decision. It provides you with a  personalized study plan  which is integrated with the course and focuses on the application part.

How to identify errors and correct errors? 
 
 Identify if it's the concepts or the application of the topic in which you are struggling 
 If it's the concept, then revisit the concepts of that topic and make sure you understand perfectly this time 
 If it's the methodology, then analyze the solutions of the questions of that topic in depth

This is how you should work on your weak areas. Having said that, working on your weak areas becomes really easy using GMATWhiz. The AI driven course automatically provides you with additional improvement modules for a topic in which your performance is not very great. This way you can work on your weak areas right away without any delay. And the dashboard will always help you identify your weak areas in case you want to work on them again.

Mock tests: 
If you haven't exhausted all the official mocks, then I would suggest you to stick with them. But I suggest you to not to take any mock now. Wait till you feel confident and see an improvement.

Hope this helped. If you wish to connect with me to discuss more about the study strategy, you can use the below link to do so.

Click here to schedule a call

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi flash007,

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

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

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

egmat · Answer

Hi  flash007 ,

The way to find the right course that suits you is to take  free trial  from all and see which suits you the best. You can also check out the  reviews on GMAT Club  for the various courses to know more about the services.

You can talk to our team regarding your preparation from  here .

Regards,
Aditee

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