Suggestions on strategy to improve Verbal Score

Question

Hi,

I am a MBA aspirant located in India. I have started my GMAT journey about 4 months back. In February 2020, I came across this wonderful platform of GMAT club, which with its plethora of question banks and study materials, provided me a excellent platform for practise. I have appeared for a few practice tests from official website, Veritas Prep, Kaplan free test. After appearing in about 9-10 mock tests, I find my score to be very fluctuating which ranges from 610 to 700 with no consistency in trend. Although, I am somewhat comfortable in Quantitative, the Verbal section seems to be a matter of worry for me. My weakest area is RC, which exhausts most of my time with no significant gain in terms of correctness of answers.

Although I am aware that we don't have the flexibility of shuffling among the questions, still just to clarify I would like to know that is there an option in GMAT to skip a particular question and come back to it later

!

Also I seek suggestions from experts and to how can I improve my Verbal score.

Thanks a ton in advance

Good luck to all fellow aspirants.

Regards
Tripti

! Also I seek suggestions from experts and to how can I improve my Verbal score. Thanks a ton in advance Good luck to all fellow aspirants. Regards Tripti

Rashed12 · Answer

Though your fluctuation is high (610 - 700), your benchmark is quiet good. As you are weak in reading section, first you have to read more and read different difficult topics that you do not like to read ( may take taste of editorial page of Newyork times newspaper or book review of newyork times newspaper. At this time, you do practice two or three gmat RC. First you will emphasize that at first time reading, you will be able to understand main point of the passage - what the author has tried to present and what the tone of the author - positive, negative or neutral. While you read, be careful when you will get contrast words and try to mind the information. Do not try to keep in all information of the passage in your head, just put your concentrate in which portion you will get particular information. So when you go to questions, just go to the particular portion from where you will get the information for the question. For summary type question, do not go to passage, just give answer based on what you have learned from the passage at first time reading. By doing so , you can improve RC section.

Finally best of luck for your endeavor and wish you will able to get an outstanding score in real GMAT exam.

If the comment helps you what you are looking for, do not leave without giving +1 kudos.

Tripti22 · Answer

Thanks Rashed12 for your insights on improving RC

Please also let me know if I can skip a particular question in the exam and move to the next question without answering a question.

Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Tripti22 Improving in verbal is all about the dedication and need topic-by-topic study. Clear all the concept from unofficial source (e.g., manhattanprep, veritasprep, etc,..) and apply the learning to the official question. This is the best way to increase both verbal and quant score. It is also the matter of using perfect materials. You must be a good reader, otherwise it is totally impossible to get top score. you can use the following link for the topic-by-topic study. https://gmatclub.com/forum/search.php?view=search_tags Thanks__

akela · Answer

Hi Tripti22 , No, you can't return to a question. There are many posts on what GMAT is and how to improve quant/verbal. There are many fantastic posts on gmatclub, but you have do your part and search for them How to start: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-study-p ... 80727.html Just a few threads on how to improve verbal: https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-impro ... 13013.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-impro ... 42361.html Hope this helps

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Tripti,

On the Official GMAT, you are NOT allowed to 'skip' a question and you cannot come back later to change your answer. This means that part of your training has to include how to handle situations in which you don't know how to answer the question that is in front of you (re: learning how to properly define when that's the case and then quickly guess and move on).

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 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 take the GMAT?
6) 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

Tripti22 · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC

Thanks for your guidance. In this regard, please find the required details below:

I have started my preparation in Jan 2020 with approx 10 -12 hrs study per week. Since April 2020, I have been studying for 16-18 hrs per week. I am aiming to appear in GMAT exam in the 3rd week of May 2020 if lock-down is removed in India (I am not very much comfortable with Online GMAT). Regarding my performance in mock CATS, details are as follows:

1. 22.02.2020- experts global- Score 700- V35, Q49
2. 01.03.2020- official site- Score 610- V27, Q48
3. 19.03.2020- veritasprep- Score 620- V26, Q50
4. 01.04.2020- Kaplan- Score 700- V37, Q49
5. 05.04.2020- veritasprep- Score 680- V33, Q50
6. 10.04.2020- veritasprep- Score 620- V26, Q50
7. 19.04.2020- veritasprep- Score 650- V29, Q50
8. 22.04.2020- veritasprep- Score 680- V34, Q49
9. 24.04.2020- manhattanprep- Score 620- V29, Q47

I am aiming for a 710+ score. My observations in the Mock CAT are are as follow:
I am spending about 30-35 min in attempting 4 RC passages (12 questions). So for rest 24 questions of SC and CR, I am left with 30 min (an average of 48 sec per question). As a result, either I have to rush through the questions or am being unable to attempt all the questions. My avg time taken in answering a SC or CR question on GMAT club timer is 60-90 sec. If you could provide me with some strategy to tackle this, it would be of great help.

My background is as indicated below:
I am a Chemical Engineer from a premier institute in India, with CGPA 8.51/10. Thereafter I joined an Engineering Consultancy firm and worked as an Engineer in Steel Industry design and Engineering. After working for 4.5 years, I switched to Finance sector and presently am working as a Manager (Credit) in a retail branch. I have been working in this sector for the last 3+ years. Presently, I have an experience of more than 7.5 years. I aspire to pursue 1 year MBA from India or abroad. Keeping in view my work experience, it would be great if you could suggest me some premier b-schools in USA/Canada/UK which will be suitable for me considering my work experience.

Thanks a ton

Regards
Tripti

Regards Tripti

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Tripti,

To start, a practice 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. In addition, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically shouldn't take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. From the information you provided, you took 6 CATs in the last 3.5 weeks - and that's far too many. By extension, you might be getting close to "burning out" (and that is something that we want to avoid).

Many GMATers face pacing issues in the Quant section, the Verbal section or both – so you are not alone. However, it's important to remember that pacing problems do NOT exist on their own - they're the results of OTHER problems. While your Quant skills are clearly really strong, your Verbal issues imply that you do not have a consistent set of Tactics for when you deal with the Verbal section (meaning that you're often simply reading the prompt and choosing an answer that "sounds good" - without having consistent methods to prove which of the 5 choices is the correct one. In that way, the variations in your Verbal Scaled Scores are likely do a mix of lucky/unlucky guesses and little mistakes that you either make or don't make; this is also leading to your pacing problem. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

While it's unclear when the GMAT Test Facilities around the world will reopen, you will likely need more than 3 weeks before you can get to the point that you can consistently score 710+.

1) Are you planning to apply to Business School this year (re: Round 1 or Round 2 later on in 2020) or later on?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Tripti22,

You cannot skip questions on the GMAT and come back to them at a later time. So, if you do not have an answer or are running out of time on a question, you need to take a guess and move on.

Given your practice test scores, you certainly are very solid in quant, so nice work there. To improve to your 710+ goal score, you clearly need to improve in verbal. I know that RC seems to be a weakness; however, I’m willing to bet that you could use some help in all aspects of verbal. Would you like some general advice on how to improve your verbal skills? Also, you may find it helpful to read the following article:

How to Score a 700+ on the GMAT — A Mini Guide for Success

Russ19 · Answer

I have found LSAT PowerScore Reading Bible very useful to understand how to deal with RC. You can give it a try.

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