Verbal study plan...please advise

Sorry to hear that you had such a bad testing experience, GMATer! Sadly, I think that this is the key line from your original post:

That's definitely the culprit -- or at least the thing that caused the drop from, say, V33 to V21.

In some sense, I think you have two different issues here. First, you're asking about study materials... so let's deal with that part first. You haven't left a ton of official verbal questions left untouched, but you'll definitely want to get a copy of the Official GMAT Verbal Guide if you don't already have one. Another option is to get an older edition of the official guide: if you're using, say, the 2017 edition, you could try to track down a used copy of the 12th edition, and about half of the questions would be unfamiliar to you. That'll stretch your materials a little bit further. I'm also a big fan of using LSATs if you need more CR and RC practice.

It sounds like the second issue is the nervousness. There are a million things that you could do to work on this -- and it's absolutely a conquerable thing. It's possible that you'll feel much less stressed with more practice, particularly if you concentrate on making sure that your verbal pacing and strategies are 100% consistent. It's possible that you'll feel MUCH better on your second attempt at the test; GMAT testing centers are an odd environment, so a lot of people perform better once they've been in there once or twice. And sometimes small things can worsen the nervousness: letting your blood sugar get too low, or too much caffeine, or not enough sleep.

Obviously, I have no idea which of these actually apply to you, or the problem could be something else entirely. But my hunch is that if you concentrate on making sure that your approach to each verbal question type is mind-numbingly consistent, things will go better for you. And sometimes plain old experience in the testing center makes all the difference.

Let me know how it goes for you!

Hi AnotherGmater,

From your prior post, there were a number of 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we talk about any of those details though, I have a few additional questions about the lead-up to Test Day and Test Day itself:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?

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

Thanks a lot for your time and patience in explaining. I did not know too caffeine can make you worse. In fact, I had too much coffee on the day. One full cup before the exam and another full cup during the exam(I mean during breaks). Thanks for suggesting the practice materail. Do you know where I can find those LSAT stuff?
Thanks!

Thank you for helping me out. I really appreciate it.

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?
Usual routine. Went to work and study for two hours after work. But last day before exam, i took a full length test at my real test timings.
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?
I had a very good sleep before the exam, at least 9 hours.
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
a 30 min ride.
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
No, except the computer desk height. At my home my computer is about my eyes high, but at test center I had to raise my head up to see the computer.
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?
Had chocolate cookies and coffee.

Hi AnotherGmater,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become - and that's what happened here. By skipping sections, taking the CATs at home, retaking CATs that you had already taking, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

In addition, taking a CAT the day before your Official GMAT was NOT a good idea. It takes a significant amount of effort and energy to take (and review) a CAT - and it takes time to 'recover' from those tasks. This is one of the big reasons why you should take just 1 CAT per week. By taking that last CAT so close to Test Day, you likely experienced some 'burn out' on Test Day itself (especially in the Verbal section, when you would be at your most tired and you wouldn't realize if you were making little mistakes).

1) When are you planning to retake the GMAT?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

1) When are you planning to retake the GMAT?
In a month. I have not booked the date yet. As I said, now I want to dedicate a week for each of those sections and will give the test again, but now I'm trying to figure out which material that I need to be using for my preparation and what would be a better approach.
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
In 2017. Particularly which batch? That I will have to see when I can finish the GMAT and achieve my target score.
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
My target score is 700, and I'm planning to apply to top 10 Business school. Also, I'm looking for a part-time MBA, as I'm a working professional and will continue to do so while doing MBA.

Hi AnotherGmater,

Given your score goal and timeline, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Verbal Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients finish that Study Plan in under a month, so it would fit your schedule perfectly. During that time, you'll also be able to access any of the Quant resources that interest you. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an account.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

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

Hi AnotherGmater,

The SC section is the easiest verbal section to make improvements on. Once you understand how to think and approach this question type, there are only so many ways you can be tested. Here at GMAT Pill we developed the 10 core frameworks which detail the 10 ways to approach GMAT sentence corrections.

Here is a sample video detailing one of the core frameworks: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... stion/2184

The RC score could definitely use some improvement. To improve RC - you really need visual guidance. Don't read articles about how to improve reading. You improve by actually doing or watching someone else do.

That's why you might find these video walkthroughs helpful: https://www.gmatpill.com/practicequestio ... tions.html

For CR, we recommend a visual framework approach to help you understand the complex short passages and how each item relates to each other.

Here is a video describing the visual framework approach: https://www.gmatpill.com/criticalreasoni ... Estate.mp4

Best of luck on your studies!