No improvement in mock score

Question

Hi,

I have been preparing for the GMAT for the last six months. I have enrolled in the Top One Percent course, and after four months of prep (upon completing the entire course), I scored 575 on my first official mock. After dedicating an additional two months to preparation (with mocks from Egmat and Top One Percent) and attempting two more official mocks, I scored 555 on each of them. A more comprehensive report of my scores is as follows:

Mock 1 (official) - 18 Feb, 2024
575 Q80, V78, DI78
Mock 2 (official) - 18 Feb, 2024
555 Q79, V79, DI74
Mock 3 (E-gmat) - 7 April, 2024
555 Q81, V79, DI73
Mock 4 (Top One Percent) - 13 April, 2024
565 No section-wise score is available for the test
Mock 5 (Official) - 21 April, 2024
555 Q77, V82, DI73

After the first two mocks, I spent considerable time improving my Critical Reasoning as I was taking too much time per question, and then I started attempting mocks again.

Upon analyzing the mocks, I identified the following problem areas:

Quant - I usually get questions wrong from Equal/Unequal/ALG, Value/Order/factors, and Rates/Ratio/Percent. I manage to complete 18-19 questions and guess the last few. I probably make mistakes in calculation which sometimes results in getting even the easy questions wrong.

Verbal - Critical Reasoning timing is the main issue. I have now reduced the time spent from 3 minutes per question to 2:30 minutes per question. Assumption/Strengthen/Weaken-type hard questions on Critical Reasoning give me a hard time.
Reading Comprehension - Timing is good, but I'm slightly weak in Inference questions. Most of the time, I run out of time, meaning I have to guess almost every question from the last passage, reducing my accuracy in the Reading Comprehension questions.

DI - I struggle with Multi-Source Reasoning, Graphs, and Tables. Once again, timing is an issue. I have had to guess the last 4-5 questions in every mock test.

As I was working on improving my Critical Reasoning timing, I was happy to see progress. However, after taking the last mock, I was very disappointed. Now, I am lost and unsure how to further improve and what to study and what not to.

I plan to sit for the examination in two months (flexible) and can allocate around 2 hours on weekdays and around 4-5 hours on weekends to preparation. My target score is 655.

Can you please guide me on the right approach moving forward? If needed, I am ready to share screenshots of my score reports.Let me know if any more information is required.

prashi1503 · Answer

Hi Lets, connect over a DM

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Rave25,

I’m sorry to hear how things have been going with your GMAT prep. I’d like to address your situation with GMAT quant. The good news is that you have a very solid foundation but clearly have some holes that must be addressed to improve your score.

So, to improve your quant skills, you may find it helpful to engage in topical quant practice. 
For example, let’s say that you want to practice Number Properties. You can do so by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc.

After each problem set, thoroughly analyze your incorrect questions. For example, 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 fix your weaknesses efficiently and, in turn, improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

Rave25 · Answer

Thanks Scott for the reply. 
Should I practice those 50 questions timed or untimed? Should I do those questions in one sitting only? What source should I use for those questions? Do we have any pdf/source where we have set of questions for all quant topics? (for example- pdf/source for number properties which covers almost all the concepts related to number properties)

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Regarding which resource to use, you can check out my course TTP, as we have questions broken down by topic. For now, you can practice questions timed, but use around 3 minutes per question. Also, do not do them in one sitting. Do sets of around 10 to 15 questions each.

Rave25 · Answer

Hello, after following Scott's advice on topical practice for Quant and making minor adjustments to my Verbal test strategy, I took the official mock today and scored 645.

Here is the detailed breakdown of my score:

Quant - Q84

I got 4 questions wrong - 8, 11, 12, and 20. Only question 8 seemed unsolvable; questions 11-20 just didn't click at that time. Question 20 was wrong due to timing pressure. (Although I completed all questions, I think I fell short by a minute. One more minute could have helped me solve the 20th question.)

Verbal - V83

I got 4 CR questions wrong and 2 RC questions wrong. The RC questions were very difficult; I was not able to think through them and took calculated guesses. My major issue was that I was only able to complete 18 questions and guessed the last 5 questions. Surprisingly, I got 4 correct, which may have inflated the score.

DI - 78

I follow the strategy in which I guess MSR questions and complete 17 other questions in the allotted time. Graphs and tables seem to be a weakness, plus there was no additional time for doing MSR questions.

What should be the next steps? I know the DI section is weak, so I am planning to focus on DI in the upcoming week with occasional practice of Quant and Verbal. My target score is 665. I plan to buy official mock tests 3 & 4 and take a mock test every weekend to track my progress. Any suggestions for study plan for upcoming week would be really helpful.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

So, I have an important queston. Did you also engage in topical practice for Data Insights or just Quant and Verbal?

Rave25 · Answer

Thank you for the reply. No, I have not done topical practice for DI.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I suggest doing the same for DI as you did for quant and verbal.

No improvement in mock score

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