Second Mock and Brain Fog | 640 (q48, v28)

Question

Hello All,

I gave my second official mock and scored 640 (Q48, V28)

I am dividing my struggles and weak areas into two parts:

1. I am weak in verbal as you can see from my score. It's mostly RC as whenever I attempt RC in the official mock, I end up solving one passage and guessing the other 3. I am a slow reader so I have to read again and again to comprehend and the same goes with CR. Experts say that you have to slow down and read the passage to understand. I can solve questions at Easy - 100%, Medium - 80%, and Hard - 50% accuracy untimed but when it comes to time. I suck and which comes to the second part.

2. My brain stops working under time constraints or whenever I attempt full-fledged mock tests. In the mock tests, I ended up making mistakes in easy and medium-level questions so much that I am not able to see much harder questions. I feel helpless here and because of this anxiety and time constraint, I am not able to unlock my full potential.

Dear experts, Please help! My goal is 700+ and I am planning to give my exam next month.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

...weak in verbal as you can see from my score. It's mostly RC...

For RC, consider practicing the reading component with articles from the The Economist (if you don't want to burn Official Questions). Working on a method that promotes absorption may be helpful.

3 Quick Reading Comprehension tips

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi HC1993,

Many GMATers find at least some aspect of the Verbal section to be challenging - so you are not alone. Thankfully, you do NOT need to be a 'fast' reader to score at a high level on the GMAT, but you do have to work at a reasonable pace, 'attack' each prompt that you face (re: actively read, look for patterns, etc.) and take a reasonable amount of notes. It's also important to note that pacing problems do NOT exist on their own - they're the results of OTHER problems. In simple terms, if "your way" of approaching the Verbal section is keeping you from hitting your Score Goal, then you cannot continue to work in that way.

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:

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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

vv65 · Answer

Perhaps you should change the plan to take the GMAT next month. You probably need more time to prepare. Or, if you don't mind the expense, you could take a GMAT next month anyway, just for the sake of the experience.

Re  "brain stops working under time constraints or whenever I attempt full-fledged mock tests" 
Has this been a problem in exams other than the GMAT? (In school and college exams for example)

Posted from my mobile device

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

One thing you could do that will help is shoot for even higher accuracy untimed. The skills you develop in achieving higher untimed accuracy will help you to answer questions faster, because vision and precision lead to speed.

Also, the ideas in this post may help you to speed up in verbal.

How to Get Faster at GMAT Verbal

Shooting for super high accuracy in untimed practice will help with this issue too. By learning to achieve very high accuracy untimed, you'll tighten up your thinking with the result that you'll see things more clearly under time pressure.

Also, you can take many more practice tests. You can supplement the official tests with some of the better third-party tests as long as you aren't too worried about the scores you get on the third-party tests, which often don't produce accurate scores.

Also, you can work your way to answering questions faster. For instance, if you usually get questions correct when you spend 4 minutes each, work on getting the time down to 3 minutes each, then 2:30, etc., rather than just go from untimed to timed.

HC1993 · Answer

Thank you for your response, Marty.
Can you suggest where I can find good verbal adaptive mocks apart from GMAT Prep and GMAT Club?

Second Mock and Brain Fog | 640 (q48, v28)

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