630 (Q45 V31) very sad and disappointed

Question

i just got owned...

summary, 6 months ago, took a gmatprep and got 630 (can't remmeber the breakdown). 
3 months of rigorous mgmat prep with OG, verbal review, quant review. 
so after 3 months of studying i have 0 net improvement.

1 mgmat1 11-Mar 590 34 37
2 mgmat2 9-Apr 610 40 34
3 mgmat3 29-Apr 690 48 36
4 mgmat4 6-May 670 47 34
5 mgmat5 19-May 750 45 51
6 mgmat6 23-May 650 43 34
7 gmat1 26-May 660 44 37
8 gmat2 28-May 650 45 36
9 gmat3 29-May 710 44 44

anybody have suggestions on a good strategy suggestions going forward?

sorry if this post is fragmented, still trying to figure out what went wrong

nupurgupt · Answer

hi exodus

dont' lose heart. 630 is not a bad score....while i'm sure it's lower than what you were aiming for, still i'm sure you can improve your score

looks like your verbal is a bit lower....quant seems quite decent

maybe you could analyse to see what parts of verbal you're lacking in (sc, cr, rc)

for quant, try the challenges on gmatclub and they should help you take your quant from 45 to maybe 50

don't give up!!!!

exodus · Answer

thanks for the kind words and encouragement nupurgupt...
these forums have been immensily helpful in preparing, i only hope that i can come back in 2-3 months to report a 700+ score

as others have said, "the gmat may have won the battle, but i will win the war".

i will beat this thing.

poochandi · Answer

exodus, hold on to your dream and believe that you can. aim for a full in quant. there are plenty of problems everywhere.

in verbal, my main problems were sc and rc. I started reading economist and subscribed to NY times. The editorial in NY times is good. This was one reason I improved my rc. If you are in another country try to check out what publications are good (editorials are). Princetons strategy of glancing the rc passage, going over to the question and coming back just didnt work for me. I read the rc in full detail...took 2/3 minutes but it helped me in countering the rc questions. I am not sure if this strategy will work for everyone.

I will post another email with a detailed strat later.

exodus · Answer

thanks poochandi for your feedback and encouragement.

similar to you, my main problems are sc and rc. (got 100% cr correct in one of my gmatpreps, but maybe need to work on speed). having read the entire mgmat sc book many times (as well as done all the og and vr problems, perhaps i need to look more critically at the ones i'm getting wrong. for RC, i've tried many of the strategies, but haven't found the "right" one yet, i think i'm leaning towards reading the entire thing and understanding while jotting down notes. i just subscribed to the economist and hopefully will be getting it soon. 

currently i'm trying to develop an aggressive re-take strategy for the next 2-3 months, which will involve implementing an extensive error log per the recommendations of many gmatclubbers.

buffett76 · Answer

have you studied 3 months full time or part time??

sridhars · Answer

I have been lacking in verbal for a while too. I realized that active reading of RC passages really helps a lot. While you are reading, you should try to find a pattern , for example, an introduction to the concept in the first paragraph and examples or theory supporting in the concept in the second and so on. Usually, when I read the paragraph , I read it like a mathematical problem. 

Regarding SC, I think Process of Elimination works best for me. Most of the times, I can knock it down to two choices and I try to fit in each option into the entire question and see which one works better. 
I have improved a lot on RC and SC following the above strategies but there is a long way to go.

Good luck with your exam
Sridhar

630 (Q45 V31) very sad and disappointed

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