Need help making a new study plan after a 90 points drop from mock

Question

Hello gmatclub

Today I took my first ever GMAT test. It was an online exam and I scored 560 Q35 V32.... 
This was a surprise because I always got more than 40 for quant and roughly around 600-640 for my official practice test no1-2.
Now I want to ask what are the best material for Verbal (especially SC) and for quant.
I have been using the OG2021. What are you guys opinion on manhattanprep vs Kaplan 800
Im also open to online tutors (Magoosh, e-gmat, veritas prep) what are your experience with them, what do you recommend?

Thank you so much, looking forward to your replies

A little background
 - I am a recent graduate with a BBA in finance (but I'm not excellent at math)
 - been studying on and off since January, but got really serious (4-5 hours per day) since the end of July.
 - Non-native, English is my second language 
 - my target score is around 650-680 but after today result i want 700

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Punvc88,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. 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, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used? 
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

Punvc88 · Answer

I think it might have been the delayed during the online test. My test was scheduled at 14:30 pm. I logged in and got connected with the proctor at around 14:15 but then had to wait around an hour to start the exam due to a technical problem. I started the test at around 15:15. This is my first time taking the test, so the anxiety built up too, it wasn't good. When doing mocks, I always made sure to make it as realistic as possible (doing it alone in a room where I'll be taking the test, no phones, 2 breaks after quant and verbal, using a physical whiteboard). I think it was a good, realistic practice test.

To answer your question, 
1) I started studying for Gmat in January doing all quant (reading the basics in the og book 2021, doing the practice questions). Then I stopped around April because I was trying to find a job (building my CV, applying to places). I resumed my studies at the end of July. During this time, I studied mostly verbal and this is probably why my quant score was bad ? I don't know.
2) For the book, I use only the og2021 nothing else, I also watch a number of videos on YouTube ( Magoosh, Gmatninja). For the mocks I took the gmatofficial practice test no1-2 scored 610 and 640. I also took one practice test from manhattanprep and scored 600. 
3) the first mock I took was at the beginning of August, just to see how much I would get after 2-3 months of not studying the GMAT. I got 610(Q45V28) so i thought not too bad. For the second practice test it was the official no 2, I took it around a week before the real test date (early Sep) and got 640(Q42V36). Although it was only a 30 point increase, I felt ok because my target was 650 and also my verbal improved. Then 3-4 days before the test date I kinda want to get used to the testing environment, so I took the Manhattan prep practice test I scored 600 Q39 V34. 40 points drop, but I thought it was possible, i thought maybe the Manhattan prep was just harder. 
4) I want to go to EDHEC Business school, the MIM program, financial economics track. I've been talking to the current students, and they said 650 should be fine. I want to apply as soon as I can. The deadline is in June next year, so I still have time, and I'm not going to give up.

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello Punvc88,

GMAT Club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, etc.

Your current GMAT score is shaky. You can schedule a Free counseling(https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session) session for 20 mins with one of our experts to have detailed advice on your current study plans.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• Not detailed knowledge of GMAT Math patterns and Question types
• Inefficiency by using time-consuming Conventional method to tackle DS and PS questions still
• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Precisely, there has to be one end-to-end solution encompassing all the points mentioned above. We also want to understand your approach to solving PS and DS questions. You can try our free diagnostic test(Quant only) https://www.mathrevolution.com/diagnostic/dtExamMember and receive a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas.

The diagnostic test report will give us detailed insight into various topics and your performance. After an in-depth analysis, we will draw out the category of the topics you are already better at and those where you need more improvement. Also, we will be able to compare your performance while solving the PS and DS questions.

Also, make a note of various possible combinations to achieve a score of 700+. The possible scores will help you track your performance after taking the mock or practice test. It will also help you maintain balance in both the sections, and you will always be in a great position to allot the study hours to a specific area accordingly.

We recommend that you learn the Variable Approach for solving DS questions and the IVY approach to solve PS questions to improve your accuracy and save time while solving the question types. These approaches are the robust self-designed time-saving techniques that will help you learn efficiently, thus raising your score in the quick nick of time.

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-days on-demand course for free trial lessons.

700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too. Start with the learning of the concepts. Make a habit of taking notes during the initial learning of the concepts.

After registering, you will have access to the practice section. Initially, try solving the DS and/or PS questions from very easy and easy category questions on the topic(s) you have learned. You may also connect with one of our experts to get one of the best tutoring supports, which will help you understand the topic(s) and solve questions and learn how to manage time and accuracy.

Adding to the same, mastery of the Variable Approach to solve DS questions and the IVY approach to solve PS questions would add a feather to the cap. Below is the useful link we will recommend you visit on GMAT club to experience DS and IVY approaches' power.

Ultimate Q51 guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ultimate ... l#p1613600

Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

In the end, make sure you have an error log for every day, and you may connect with one of our experts to learn the hard concept and approaches. Keep checking your performance by attempting as many mock tests as possible.

Regular tests will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and hence will be able to learn time management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT. The good news is that you scored really well on quant, right? That said, I understand that you are not satisfied with your verbal score, so the question we need to ask is why you scored so high on your practice exams but lower on the real 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 560. 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 Punvc88,

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

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Punvc88, There may be various reasons behind your actual score being lower than the mock score. Let me share my insights here. You may find this helpful :https://blog.gmatwhiz.com/scored-low-on-gmat/ Looking at your individual score break-up, it is clearly that 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. GMAT quant tests only specific types of questions from each topic. So, if you know those questions types and how to solve those using the right methodology, then you can score well on GMAT quant. Coming to Verbal section, 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 preparation 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. The best way to decide is to check out the free trial offered by most prep companies. 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 helps you with a personalised study plan with clear deadlines which helps you follow the right track. 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 decide for yourself. Here’s a link to our free trial – https://learn.gmatwhiz.com/?page=signup You can also check out the verified reviews here- https://gmatclub.com/reviews/gmatwhiz-345345722?fl=menu 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

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