Guidance to Improve Verbal from V28 to V35+

Question

I took my first attempt yesterday and after almost a year of preparation, I scored 650(Q50/V28). I now need your guidance on how to proceed from here. I have got my ESR and am attaching the same for your reference. To provide some background context, I used the below mentioned materials for my preparation.

I started in June/July of 2020 and focussed majorly on quants till October (In September I started going through PowerScore for CR in parallel).

For quant I used the below-mentioned resources:
 1. TTP all modules and most of the practice tests
 2. All questions from OG 2020
 3. MGMAT guides - only for questions to have some variety
 4. GMATclub test - To keep track of areas, in which I was missing questions

Verbal:
 1. CR: In October, I had to take a break for a couple of months because of few personal reasons. When I resumed in Jan'21, I felt rusty in CR, so I revised PowerScope and referred LAST official questions for 
 practice, Once I completed CR I then moved on to practice CR from OG 2020. I kept practicing official LSAT questions for CR all along.

2. RC: I referred to OG and practiced 10-15 questions from it. Additionally, I referred to GMATNinja youtube videos, which helped in formulating strategies and techniques to go through the passage.

3. SC: Used the below-mentioned resources in the order listed
 a. MGMAT foundations for Verbal
 b. Aristotle Grail
 c. TTP Verbal - Covered 50% of modules

I started with SC theory around March and then around April/May started doing OG questions, after going through almost half of OG, I realized I am not able to eliminate the answer choices confidently and for the right reasons so I revisited all the questions for SC from start, hoping I would be able to understand the concepts more thoroughly during the second time, but by then I already knew the answer for most of the questions I had attempted earlier. During my mocks and practice, I always felt, I spent way too much time on SC questions, because of not knowing from where to start and how to approach the question, because of which I find less time in CR and RC.

To get a more firm grip on SC, I watched GmatNinja videos, in which he talks about how to deal with SC questions, but I have not been able to apply those strategies very well.

I am attaching my ESR from yesterdays' score, it would be appreciated and very helpful if experts can guide me on how to proceed.

MartyTargetTestPrep   VeritasKarishma   GMATNinja   chetan2u   ScottTargetTestPrep  your inputs would be appreciated

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Rohit

First off, a 650/Q50 is a solid Score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. There's certainly no harm in continuing to study though - and you have a great opportunity to pick up some serious points in the Verbal section. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

In addition, I would happy to analyze your ESR for you - but I need to see the FULL ESR (not just this 'half' of it). If you would rather not post it publicly, then you can feel free to PM it directly to me.

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) Over the last 3 months, how many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used over the course of ALL of your studies?
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)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) 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

RohitSaluja · Answer

Hi @EMPOWERgmat thank you so much for replying to my post, I have updated the above post and have uploaded the complete ESR. The average score for my target B-school is 690-710. Below are my responses to your queries

Studies:
1) Over the last 3 months, how many hours did you typically study each week? -  I have been studying 1/2 hours daily on weekdays in the morning, and 3/4 hours during weekends. 
 
2) What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used over the course of ALL of your studies? I have used the following mocks during my study
   a. Official GMAC mocks 1 till 3
 b. Veritas mocks 
 c. Kaplan free mock
 d. Manhattan free mock

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)?
   a. Official Mock 1: 620 (Q48/V27) April 17th 2021
 b. Veritas Mock 1: 670 (Q50/V32) May 22nd 2021
 c. Official Mock 2: 690 (Q50/V32) May 29th 2021
 c. Veritas Mock 2: 650 (Q47/V32) June 26th 2021
 d. Experts Global free mock: 700(Q50/V36) July 2nd 2021
 e. Kaplan free mock: 680 (Q49/V34) July 4th 2021
 f. Official Mock 3: 670(Q49/V31) July 10th 2021

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?  I am aiming for 710-720 
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?  I wanted to apply for R1 this year, but as the deadlines for most of the colleges are close, I think I will be able to apply for R2 now. I am mostly aiming at schools in Europe such as HEC, LBS, Cambridge, INSEAD, IMD, and ISB

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Rohit

I've sent you a PM with some additional notes.

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

KarishmaB · Answer

There are 2 issues you are facing - "Plan questions in CR (which shouldn't be hard to rectify)" and SC.

CR - Practice plan questions using specific tags. They are similar to strengthen/weaken etc. Instead of the conclusion, we focus on the plan of action in them. 
SC - Working through SC questions, reading up on grammar usage and making notes of new concepts you come across etc all will help. But most importantly, start reading quality publications very regularly. Spend at least 1-2 hrs every day doing just that.

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Your quant is great, I got nothing to tell you there. Keep it up, don't feel like you need to change a thing.

Verbal was a big hit on this test, and seems to be the weaker subject, generally. It looks like SC, broadly, and 'Plan' critical reasoning questions took up a bulk of the misses (and your misses seem to be lower difficulty, as well).

What can you tell me about your CR and SC processes and understanding? Have you diagnosed what kinds of mistakes you tend to make on these questions? Are there any patterns in verbal on the questions you get wrong?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Rohit, 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 .

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi RohitSaluja,

I'm happy to provide some advice. Can you please paste in a screenshot of your TTP analytics page, so I can see what is going on with your stats and progress in TTP?

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi RohitSaluja, First of all, a Q50 is a solid score to secure in Quant Section. You clearly have mastered this Section. However, I know it can be disappointing to not reach your target score after almost a year’s preparation. Let me help you. Looking at your individual break up of score, you are surely on the wrong path for verbal preparation. OG may be a great source for solving GMAT like questions, however, it is definitely not the ideal way to prepare in your case. Moreover, you may find that the OG is a good option as a question bank but lacks detailed explanations for you to use for improvement. It’s always better to prepare with a definitive resource to help you learn concepts while formulating a consistent strategy to solve questions before practicing them from the OG. This way, your preparation will be a lot more structured, and the chances of you leaving gaps in your learning will be significantly less. Focus on improving the method you follow to solve questions because that's what stops people from scoring 700+. Furthermore, you may find that the MGMAT guides aren’t very helpful as they’re targeted more towards native speakers of English. As such, following a resource which focuses on the right methodologies becomes even more crucial. Your verbal score clearly indicates there are many conceptual gaps and you may need to start from scratch, revisit the concepts and get a clear understanding of them before you solve the questions. Verbal questions on GMAT are very tricky. Let me help you with the right way to approach your Verbal Prep. How to Ace your Verbal Prep? For GMAT Verbal, it is very important that you follow the right methodology and the logical approach. Your focus has to be on eliminating four incorrect choices rather than choosing the right one. The key is to develop a solid understanding of the concepts that are typically tested on the GMAT and master the process skills that are required to solve GMAT questions. Only then, you will be able to smartly avoid the traps set by the test makers. Before you start learning, it's important to understand what is actually tested using the questions. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a different way. For example, before you start learning the concepts of SC, you need to understand that SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the process to approach SC questions is to: Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise) Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning You can go through the link below to understand the process in a better way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM Once you start solving SC questions using a systematic approach as detailed above, you will be able to avoid taking too much time in SC questions as there will be no confusion in your mind regarding the approach. Also, improving in SC alone won’t fetch you the desired score. You need to prepare for RC and CR as well in a structured and efficient manner. You have to follow a methodical and systematic approach while solving the questions in order to work on your accuracy and increase your score. For example, In CR, you have to understand the argument, identify the premise and the conclusion and then pre-think the answer before looking at the solutions. In RC, you need to have the right reading strategies to understand the inferences which are not directly stated in the passage. I’d recommend you to follow this order for the verbal part - SC->CR-RC. The reason for this is very specific. Each question type on the GMAT is testing a specific skill. SC tests your comprehension skills. CR tests comprehension & analytical skills. Finally, RC builds on the previous two skills and also tests your ability to be able to grasp the central point of the passage i.e. Your inferential skills. Thus, when you learn in this order, it's much more effective. The importance of using a standard resource: The only method to make sure that you invest your time, money and effort in an effective way is to use a standard resource which teaches you the concepts, strategies and also helps you work on your weaker areas. Studying using OG or a few random resources might help you to solve GMAT like questions but I’m afraid that they won’t be able to help you much from a strategy perspective. I would suggest you to go for some standard course for your Verbal preparation at least which can help you prepare in a structured and efficient manner thereby increasing your productivity. It’s always better to spare some more time on your preparation until you are ready instead of missing out on your dream colleges/ b-schools in hurry. GMATWhiz helps you with all these things as we follow a structured and methodical way of teaching things, which makes the learning process simpler and efficient. It also helps you to develop an understanding of the test maker’s intention behind asking the question. It uses an AI powered learning platform to provide you with real time improvement modules after every practice quiz. It provides you with additional concept videos and practise quizzes which helps you overcome your weaker areas in a specific topic right away without having to put in additional effort to identify your weaker areas. You can check out GMATWhiz and go for its Verbal Prep Course. Here’s a link to our free trial – https://learn.gmatwhiz.com/?page=signup Hope this helped and feel free to contact if you have any further queries. You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link. Click here to schedule a call

Guidance to Improve Verbal from V28 to V35+

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