GMAT 640 - Enhanced score report attached

Question

Hi Friends

After my poor performance yesterday, I got my ESR. Please help me to improve from 640 to 700 ( i have scheduled my retake 45 days from today).

SUMMARY : CR - 21 (never have i scored so low), SC- 31, RC - 29 , DS - 51, PS - 48.

In verbal I have got 8 out of first 10 correct. Somehow I have lost track in the middle

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arun@crackverbal · Answer

Hey Balaji,

Your ESR tells WHAT happened - but it doesn't answer the more important question WHY it happened.

Here are some common issues (let me know if you faced any of them on the test-day)

1) Mental stamina is a HUGE thing. People don't realise it while taking practice tests but on the real test you might find yourself zoning out on tougher questions (which is what you got in the middle of the test). There are various reasons: the fact that we try too hard on the day of test, or even the fact you you had put in extra effort for AWA & IR - all of it adds up.

2) The technique you are using could also be the culprit here. A lot of times I have seen students who try to memorise stuff for GMAT (esp CR) and on the day of the test, realise that none of it comes to you easily. GMAT requires you to see the underlying patten on questions - were you able to do that? This could happen also if you don't practice using Official GMAT questions.

Having said all of this, what is important for you is to figure out the change in your strategy. Sometimes re-takers ends up doing more of the same thing. A recipe for disaster (the second time) because whatever you did the first time, evidently did not work.

So if you can tell me how you went about preparing - I could possibly give you some specific tips.

Arun

Balajikarthick1990 · Answer

Hi Arun

Thanks for your reply. My preparation materials included OG16,12, VR2 and Gmat prep questions. My accuracy in all the 3 sections of verbal improved to a decent level (>75%). I made a 500 pager notebook with all the Sc, Rc and Cr patterns.

I didnot memorize anything,and I have been preparing for more than 7 months and eventually in most of the questions, I could spot the 3-2 split.

To give you an example: in CR, if there is a question that tells about the increase in revenue of a particular city A and it is a strengthen question : I would prethink without looking the choices and definitely there would be options such as increase in revenue in city B (other cities followed a similar pattern), Increase in profit in city A, decrease in labour costs(No where this is mentioned in the argument) etc.

I am very sure in my GMAT prep`s , my CR score`s were ranging from 35 to 42. In my actual exam, I got 8 out of 10 questions correct (as per ESR), and I vividly remember that I got 2 bold faced CR, 1 long 4 paragraph convoluted RC (it definitely drained a lot of energy from me) - Eventhough I made quick notes/maps, It still was kind of difficult (3 out of 4 questions in that RC were detailed based specific questions).

Coming to SC, My accuracy in GMAT prep was ranging from 30 - 40, and in most of the questions, I lose in the 3-2 split. In questions where native speakers claim "Awkwardness or concise" in deciding between the 2 choices, I somehow fall into the trap and lose the battle.

Timing was not a major issue for me. I guessed the last question in quant and in verbal. I watched one of your videos in which you have mentioned that retaking GMAT prep is definitely a worthy measure. 
You were 100% correct, as I started performing well, I saw a lot of new questions. I started with a 560 (7 months back - diagnostic), averaged between 660 and 700 (preparation phase) . In my last 3 exams (mostly retakes), I scored between 700 and 720.

So that`s the story. Quant - after exhausting OG, I solved mainly the 1000+ questions on the gmat club tests. I scored a DS-51 and PS-48 in actual GMAT. Verbal - I used manhattan SC, GMAT CLUB notes and Powerscore for CR.

Your tips would be highly valuable.

Thanks

arun@crackverbal · Answer

Accuracy is an incorrect measure because we don't know the difficulty level of those questions. Decent accuracy on tough questions is tougher than high accuracy in easy questions. Also 500-pager notebook with "patterns" is interesting. What did you note down here? I cannot imagine anyone writing 500-pages so

Okay I am just hypothesising with this data. Did you feel you were sometimes on a tightrope walk between: (a) Assuming too much (b) Taking everything out of scope? For example, do you have trouble with these kind of questions: guidebook-writer-have-visited-hotels-throughout-the-country-80358.html The reason is I just want to ensure that AFTER the 3-2 split you are still equipped to find out the right answer. Because, at the end of the day, going from 20% to 50% probability isn't the deal - it is getting to 100% that matters i.e. getting the right answer. See if you are having issues with this "last mile" issue. A 29th %ile tells us that something is clearly wrong. Some tips on SC based on what you have written: 1) "Awkwardness and concision" are the worst reasons to pick an answer. There is ALWAYS a grammatical / logical reason to pick the right answer. Are you in a position to confidently explain ANY SC question - once you know what the correct answer is? Without looking up forums / explanatory answers. 2) A lot of 35+ V questions deal with logic (honestly the gmat test setter's job these days is terribly tough!). So what would you do when you see a question like this one: as-the-former-chair-of-the-planning-board-for-18-consecutive-69993.html (again like the previous example - don't solve this question - just get a sense of WHAT you would do when you see a similar problem) 3) Don't rely on things like active > passive, and idioms in the first pass - they should be your last resort. Were you tripping on these things? Again you are saying you were between the last 2 - but you don't mention whether you got them correct. Also on how many questions did you get till this stage? I see that you were averaging around 680 but in your final prep tests got to only 710. Given you spent 7 months - why such a low increase in the scores? Also if you were seeing repeat questions, I assume the final few GMATPrep scores were inflated. In that case, why would you be disappointed with a 640 because you are real range was probably around 680. If I were you - I would go back and check my GMATPrep tests and try to analyse why I got the"new" questions (<- once I had not seen before) wrong. That is really the biggest challenge and that is where the real learning would lie.

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GMAT 640 - Enhanced score report attached

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