ESR Evaluation?

Question

Hi! I just finished my GMAT test and ended up with a score of 710 (44Q 42V). I would certainly like to retake, and curious to hear an expert's analysis of this report to pinpoint what to study mostly before the next exam. Please note that I had 50% extended time on the test, which is why the timing section is different.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look

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GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Gratz on the 700+ score. Based on the ESR, for Quant, Equal/inequal/alg appears to be one of the fundamental skills to focus on. There's a gmatclub in-house math guide you may want to check out for relevant chapters (i.e. Absolute values). For Verbal SC, cutting out the fluff so you can better see whether the core of a sentence works and leveraging the non-underlined part may help.

5 Quick Quant tips

5 Quick Quant tips

minifox · Answer

Thanks so much for the reply. This might be a dumb question, but what are the exact content areas that fall under equal/inequal/alg? Also where might I be able to find the in-house math guides?

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi minifox.

In verbal, you were strong overall, but for some reason, you had issues with the grammar aspect of SC.

Have you had trouble picking up on grammar issues when you've answered individual SC practice questions? If so, you could get better at seeing those issues by doing untimed SC practice using questions involving grammar issues such as subject-verb agreement issues, pronoun issues, flaws in sentences structure, and flaws in parallel structure.

In quant, your primary area of weakness is EQUAL/INEQUAL/ALG. To get stronger in that area, you could work on questions that require algebra and questions involving inequalities and absolute value. I think many of these questions will be Data Sufficiency questions.

Also, you could be stronger in general in quant. So, probably, you should go back through quant one topic at a time and do the following for each topic.

- Review the relevant concepts and strategies.

- Practice untimed until you achieve very high accuracy, such as Easy - close to 100%, Medium - 90%+, Hard - 70%+.

- Once you're achieving high accuracy untimed, work on speeding up to test pace.

You need to achieve those high levels of accuracy untimed to be strong in a topic. Lower accuracies may seem OK. However, when you achieve, for example, 75% accuracy in medium questions, you're still missing a pretty high proportion of questions and thus must have gaps in your knowledge or skillset that can keep you from achieving your quant score goal on test day.

Once you've taken those steps for a quant topic, move on to another topic and do the same thing.

For some more insights into how to practice for best results, see this post.

The Best GMAT Practice Methods

IanStewart · Answer

You did better in SC than in RC (as the score translation in the fine print explains), so your wrong answer in RC was to an easier question (probably the one in the first quarter of the test) while your wrong answers in SC were to hard questions (one of which was 800-level, if you look at the difficulty graph). That illustrates why you can't read much into these breakdowns by topic in an ESR; when an ESR tells you that you got 50% of your Grammar or 60% of your Ratio questions right, that might not be great if the questions were easy, and it might be good if the questions were very hard. And these ESR breakdowns are based on such a small sample of questions anyway that reading much into them is usually a mistake.

You should instead combine the data from the ESR with information you've gotten during your offline practice. If you've done well in Grammar SC in most of your practice, then this ESR result is just normal variance. If you've noticed during your practice that Grammar is a weaker area, then that's something to focus on, because it's perhaps the easiest Verbal area to improve at. But improving on V42 scores isn't easy, because there isn't any prep material for test takers at that level, and you'll have a much easier time raising your Q score. Again, give much more weight to your offline practice when deciding where to focus -- your Algebra/Inequalities result doesn't look great in this ESR, but that's only meaningful if it confirms an impression you've developed during your practice. You can probably improve at most of Quant anyway, so I'd invest some time there, learning from material (or a tutor if that's an option for you) intended for high-level test takers, i.e. material that takes a conceptual approach to the test (I'd avoid mass market prep company material, since that material needs to be suitable for test takers at a much lower level than yours). Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi minifox, I've sent you an analysis of your ESR and some additional questions. GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made, Rich Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

agarwalmahek088 · Answer

Hello Experts

I have made two attempts in the last year.
My scores are
1. 640 (Q44 V33)
2. 570 (Q45 V23)

My target score is 720.I used the Magoosh subscription with video lessons for the first attempt and the Gmat Club quiz for the second attempt. I have also finished all three official guides and exhausted all the Official Mocks. Attaching my ESR.
Can someone please guide me and help me understand where I went wrong and what should be my POA henceforth? Any advice would be of great help.

agarwalmahek088 · Answer

Hello Experts

I have made two attempts in the last year.
My scores are
1. 640 (Q44 V33)
2. 570 (Q45 V23)

My target score is 720.I used the Magoosh subscription with video lessons for the first attempt and the Gmat Club quiz for the second attempt. I have also finished all three official guides and exhausted all the Official Mocks. Attaching my ESR.
Can someone please guide me and help me understand where I went wrong and what should be my POA henceforth? Any advice would be of great help.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I'm sorry to hear how things have been going with your GMAT. Here is a great article you can check out:

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