EMPOWERgmatRichC wrote:
Hi Vinodhini1803,
A CAT/mock is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. If you are inconsistent in your Verbal performances (and/or scoring significantly lower than you want to be scoring), then you need to focus on learning and practicing the proper Verbal Tactics.
Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, 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? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates (or approximate 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?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Hi Rich,
How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week? - Its been 4 months only for verbal.. For gmat its been 8 months and consistently 4 months.
I was consistently scoring Q50 but scored Q49 in actual exam. Again have problem of running out of time in last 4-5 questions
I have studied at least 4 hours consistently from past from four months.
Material used.
1. I first used Manhattan SC and SC grail Aristotle and Manhattan CR. Got V26 in online gmat
2. Second attempt - I used
ttp 10 days access. I was able to finish entire entire SC and CR assumptions. To be honest I understood so much better. The course really helped me to understand verbal better.
3. For idioms, I used SC grail,
Magoosh word list and
Empowergmat SC book idioms.
4. For practice, I initially started with 500 level questions. Solved close to 150. Was able to solve them in 1:15 min. Once I got good accuracy here. I moved to 600- level. These again I got good accuracy. I was able to solve them in 1:45 min to sometimes 2:15 min
5. Then didn't solve 700 level questions. Instead I used advanced
OG in last one week. Here I got 17 wrong out of 51 questions. Average time for questions was 2 min.
6. The approach I used for understand the meaning of the sentence. Then scan the options for obvious errors. and then replace the option chosen back into the question.
7. For CR, the approach I used is understand the argument completely and keep in mind the conclusion. and then weaken, strengthen according to the question.
8. For CR the only questions practiced was advanced
OG. I got 14 questions wrong out of 49. For plan based question, the timing was 3:23 average. For critique based question, the time I took was 2:23 min.
9. I solved mocks of 800 score, and official. The only thing I didn't do is solve lot of CR questions and practice a lot of mocks.
10. For RC, I read each and every word in passage carefully. understand meaning completely. this took me around 4-6 min. and then answer questions. each question 1min around. In actual exam I didn understand one RC which was related to economics and GDP. But Still I was able to guess answers.
TO be honest I wasnt expecting a V40. But I didnt expect a V22 also. Since last exam my preparation wasnt great yet I scored V26. Between my last exam and this exam, I had put considerable effort. SO I atleast expected a V35. I wrote a
kaplan mock yesterday. Questions were difficult. I got V32 in that. With 4 sentence correction question wrong out of 13. 4 CR question wrong out of 9. 11 RC questions wrong out of 14. In the last I skipped a passage and 2 CR and 1SC since I ran out of time.
I am not sure how to start studying for my next retake in a month. Request your help.