I need to improve from V35-38 to V44. Please help me experts.

Question

Hello Experts, 
-My name is Ganesh Prasad and I'm from India. I'm planning to write the GMAT (1st attempt) on Aug 26. (one month left from when this post is made)
-I have been taking GMAT mocks from a variety of sources and I am consistently scoring Q49-51 , V35-38 from 5 mock tests (3 gmatprep, 1 veritas prep, 1 manhattan ). 
-I aim to score at least V44, yet no matter how much effort I put in, I keep getting the same V35-V38. 
-CR is fine for me. The Number of mistakes I do in SC and RC varies a lot among the tests.

-I learned basics from the veritas prep videos (iOS app). After that, I used the complete set of Manhattan books. I am skeptical about shifting to other sources and getting more confused. (Advise me about this too please)

Please suggest me some way to improve from V35-38 to >v44 in a month.
 
Thanks for taking your valuable time, 
Ganesh Prasad

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi GaneshPrasad,

Before I can offer any advice, I'd like to know a bit more about how you took your CATs:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, listen to music, etc.)? 
5) Have you taken any of these CATs more than once?

How long have you been studying for the GMAT and how long have you been focused on the Verbal section? If you're 'stuck' in the V35-38 range after 5 CATs, it's likely that the material you've used and 'your way' of handling the section are WHY you're not scoring higher. As such, you will might actually need to invest in some NEW GMAT materials (so that you can learn some new tactics and make the necessary changes/improvements to how you handle the Verbal section).

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

GaneshPrasad · Answer

Hey, thank you for taking your time to help me out :-D

1. Yes, I took the entire CAT each time including IR and AWA. 2. Yes i did take them at home. The only thing that I could do was set an exact date and time for the mocks and start them at that specific time, so that I don't feel relaxed before taking it. (I've taken other competitive exams before so I do know about the exam day pressure you are implying about) 3. I've not taken my official GMAT yet, and I've still got a month left. Its on 26th of August 2015. 4. No, in all the CATs I only took the optional 8 min breaks (mostly only 5 mins as i felt comfortable). 5. I took - gmatprep tests thrice - (680 q49 v35 , 710 q49 v41 , 690 q51 v37), but in only the third test i remember seeing questions repeated as i took the second one many weeks after the first one (after going through veritas videos and MGMAT). - veritas practise test - 670 q48 v36 - manhattan - 640 q44 v35 I've been preparing for 8 weeks now. I found MGMAT sentence correction a bit too complicated to remember things and I have read the book 3 times. The problems i found in myself are : 1. I come down to 2 or 3 answer choices and end up choosing the wrong answer. 2. The English that i have learned right from school is British English, which kind of confuses my ear to the sentences at times. 3. I know all sorts of grammatical terms and rules, yet I do not have a clear strategy to face sentence correction questions as there are strategies for CR (strategies for inference qns, strengthen ,weaken and such) And yes you are absolutely right. I've been feeling that I have learned it in a wrong way as well. Is it fine to switch materials considering I got only a month left? and if so, Which GMAT material do you suggest for verbal that can help me within a month? Again, thank you for your time :-D

Ganesh Prasad.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi GaneshPrasad,

The improvements that you're looking to make in your Verbal scores will require 'adjustments' to how you face the overall Verbal section. By extension, you'll have to learn some new tactics and work with some new materials - thankfully, this shouldn't confuse you (since you're already scoring at a fairly high level already) - instead, you're just going to deal with the prompts in a slightly different way.

Given your timeframe and goals, I recommend the EMPOWERgmat Verbal Score Booster. Most of our clients finish that Study Plan in under a month, so it should 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 at out site (www.empowergmat.com) that you can use to 'test out' the Course before you set up an account.

If you have any additional questions, then just let me know.

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

GMATPILLBILL · Answer

Hey Ganesh, Sounds like you did several hundred questions but are still not getting past the V38 mark. At this point, I would recommend that you focus more on review --- rather than on taking on additional questions. For questions that you have seen before --- would you be able to answer them quickly with 100% accuracy? If not, then there is work to be done in terms of actually making improvement and learning from your mistakes. 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 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 Best of luck on your studies!

I need to improve from V35-38 to V44. Please help me experts.

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