ESR analysis- 3 months to 740

Question

Hello experts,

I gave my GMAT exam last year in October and scored a 610
Q-44 V-29 IR-5 AWA- 6

I was well on my preparation till august and had my test in august end, however, due to the pandemic my final year exams got scheduled during that time and I had to postpone my exam to october, till august my mocks went decent
I used 5 mocks

GMAT Prep - 600
GMAT Prep 2 - 650
800 Score 1 - 660
800 Score 2 - 660
800 score 3 - 700

All these mocks were given in July/ August 2020 and I couldn't give any more, nor could I put in enough time in my prep for the October exam, I got a disappointing result and never looked back.
Now I have 3months in hand to give the exam in April end and I clearly need to start with the basics again.
I would be grateful if one of the experts on the forum could help me understand the ESR better and suggest a future plan that might help me get a target score of 740 or above.
If you could also suggest a basic study plan,that would be great too!

Thank you!
Looking forward for some helpful advice.

ayushkumar22941 · Answer

as you are an Indian and for us Indian GMAT quant is similar to stuff we used to do in our school days, so I would suggest you to start working on quants first, for 740 you need q50 v40 or q49 v42 . for quant you should try TTP .in verbal section, you should work on RC , as marks are free in RC section. for sc, I would suggest taking the eGMAT course. Your cr is good so you will easily get a high score in RC.

HiteshSingh · Answer

egmat   CrackVerbal   Magoosh   gmatwhiz   GMATNinja   ScottTargetTestPrep 
 EMPOWERgmatRichC

Kindly help me out.

GMATinsight · Answer

HiteshSingh

Point 1: You need as much emphasis on Quant as much on verbal and you are too far away from the 740 mark so I believe you need to work on everything.

Point 2: 800score test scores are not trustworthy so might wanna use Manhattan or Veritas tests for a fair assessment of your expected score.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Hitesh,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day did not go as well as planned. From what you describe, there was likely too much 'down time' between when you were initially scheduled to take your GMAT and when you actually took it. That having been said, we have to be careful about assuming that that was the only reason why your Official Score was lower than your CAT/mock Scores. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though - and the data in your ESR - it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How long did you study before last August? How many hours did 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)?
4) 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

HiteshSingh · Answer

Hi,

Thank you for your reply

1. I studied from mid May till mid August, had my exams in September, thus couldn't really put in effort into studying for GMAT in September. On average, I studied for 5 hours a day everyday

2.I have used up all the official material available, OG 2020, verbal and quant review and the MBA.com extra questions.

3. These are the approximate dates for all my mocks

Before prep 16th May GMAT prep 1 - Q44 V28 - 600

20th June - GMAT prep 2 - Q47 V32- 650

25th July - 800 score 1 - Q47 V33 - 660

1st August- 800 score 2 - Q47 V33 - 660

19th August - 800 score 3 - Q49 V37 
- 700

4. I'm targeting the top B schools, plan on applying in round 1 this year.

For me personally, SC is the toughest, i learnt all the rules and still couldn't apply them properly. I have started with basics again and plan on having no gaps in my study period this time around.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi HiteshSingh,

I'm sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT. Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than 570. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find it helpful to read the following articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Hitesh,

I've sent you an analysis of your ESR and some additional notes and questions.

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Hitesh,

I can definitely help you in the analysis of your ESR. We can get in touch over a call and analyze it together. Having said that, the focus this time would be to finish off your prep in a single go. A gap can have a very significant effect on your prep and the score. So, make sure you dedicate yourself completely this time for GMAT Prep.

Regarding the study plan, I think it would be better if we discuss it after analyzing your ESR because that would give us a lot more insights on which areas to work and how to approach. And I would like to know a few more details such as the number of hours you can dedicate and the way you prepared till now. This information will help me understand your concerns and guide you in a better way. You can get in touch with me using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Hitesh, since you mention SC as your specific area of concern, thought I would mention that our sentence correction book  Sentence Correction Nirvana  is perhaps the  only  book that offers a score improvement  guarantee , and is especially designed for  non-native  speakers.

After reading the book  twice  (yes! it's an  academic  book, and so must be read twice in all seriousness, to  reinforce  the concepts), you will start looking forward to solving SC questions!

The book is available on  Flipkart  and  Amazon.in . You might want to refer to these sites, to also read testimonials of how readers have benefited.

You can als go thru  this post  on how  Soubhik , who scored V51 (overall score 780), vouches for our book.

If you want to  sample  a chapter before deciding to go ahead with our book, please PM me your mail-id (along with the chapter that you would like to sample) and I will be happy to send that chapter to you by mail. In addition, the entire Grammar section of the book is also available for free preview at  pothi ..

egmat · Answer

Hi HiteshSingh , From the ESR it is apparent that SC and RC in Verbal and all of Quant is where you need to spend the most time. However, since your last attempt was ~5 months ago, I would recommend that you take a mock test to determine your current skill level. I invite you to take a SIGma-X mock test. These tests are designed to give you not only an accurate assessment of your potential GMAT score but also a very detailed report of your performance. You will be able to pin-point your strengths and weaknesses and make a precise plan for the remaining of your preparation. Follow the steps mentioned below to take SIGma-X mock test: 1. Register for free trial on e-GMAT portal 2. After registering, click here to navigate to mock page Once you take the test, you can write to our team at support@e-gmat.com for a detailed analysis of your performance and a plan to reach your target GMAT score. Regards, Aditee

joseset1234 · Answer

thank you for sharing! i had a similar experience

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