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08 Jul 2014, 20:01
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From V34 to V23
Last Saturday I appeared for my GMAT Exam and scored 570 (Q46, V23, IR 3). An absolute shocker after scoring in 650-690 range in my last three Manhattan GMAT and GMAT Prep mocks in last three weeks.
I started preparing for exam in mid-Feb 2014. By the end of April I completed all study guides of MGMAT once. My first mock score in MGMAT mock test 1 in first week of April was 590(q42, v31). My second mock score in 3rd week of April was 550(q40, v27). Since I was not seeing much of an improvement I tried E-gmat trial modules available free on their website in last week of April. And in first week of May I scored 610(q47,v28) in Gmat Prep Test 1. I purchased full package of E-Gmat Verbal and Live Add On. On 15th June, I scored 690( q49, v34) on Gmat Prep Test 2. That was the first time when 700+ looked like within striking distance. With less than three weeks to go for the actual test I purchased the combined official Question & Exam Pack. I did see some drop (10-15%) in accuracy on CR questions of Question Pack on Medium and Hard level questions. But in SC which I considered my biggest strength the accuracy was largely maintained at around 80+% on medium and hard level questions.
CR- Before attending E-Gmat sessions and going through the course material on CR, I had no solid strategy whatsoever in approaching CR questions. In egmat CR sessions where 5-6 problems were solved, I was able to correctly solve 3-4 problems. My overall CR approach was improving and I was able to prethink the answers in almost 85-90% of CR problems. After completing e-gmat CR course, in e-gmat CR workshop I scored 60 (48+12)( where I incorrectly marked a 12 point CR question even after solving the problem correctly on solid grounds). And this 60 was around 70%ile score in class.
RC- This part was hardest to improve. My accuracy in RC ranged from 50-60 % on hard convoluted passages to 70% on medium level passages and 80+ % on easy passages on official questions at the end of my preparation. In and out I have been reading 1-2 articles from WSJ, NYT and some other websites everyday for past 1 year.
In the initial part of preparation RC accuracy was around 50% and I used to feel very uncomfortable doing RC especially in very dense RC passages. That situation improved but RC still troubled me. I still find it challenging to focus on extremely convoluted passages that are dense and 4-5 paragraphs long.
SC-In the initial part of my preparation when I was studying using MGMAT books SC accuracy was 50%. And by the end of May, when I completed about 80% of E-Gmat course my SC accuracy was above 85 % on official questions. Around that time I attended SC sessions of e-Gmat and combined in three sessions 18 official problems were solved and I was able to solve 17 problems correctly on solid grounds, each within 2 minutes, with some easy ones under a minute. I scored 65, which was around 70%ile, on SC workshop of May 2014 batch.
With two weeks left into the exam, I attempted around 50 problems from Question Pack 1. As I wrote above CR accuracy did drop but SC accuracy was intact. In the last week of preparation I re-attempted 200+ SC and CR questions from GmatClub and all previous mocks that I got wrong in first attempt through the course of my preparation.
After scoring 34,35 and 33 on last three mocks I had made up my mind that I would give the first attempt at official exam and if I scored short of 680-690 range I would appear for 2nd attempt. This is also how I trained my mind to calm for the big day. Therefore, I was totally relaxed going into the exam.
Exam Day- On the exam day, I started well, wrote AWA with solid 5 points. Then IR felt wasnt going that well because I was unable to solve 1st question and three MSR problems in middle out of 11 and guessed the 12th one since I was running short on time. On quant I felt extremely comfortable and for the first time I infact solved few problems twice to make sure my answer choices were indeed correct. I was getting similar feeling like I had when I scored 49 in quant in 2nd Gmat Prep mock.
Then after break I started verbal, and the first question was CR and I could not prethink the answer and finally I was stuck between two answer choices. I guessed and moved ahead on 2nd question which was SC. I was unable to mark the answer on solid grounds and from there with each question the test seemed very unfamiliar and I had a very uncomfortable feeling. By 7-8 question I got a 4 paragraph extremely convoluted RC and I could not comprehend it even remotely. I got another RC around 15th question and the third one around 22nd question. By that question the remaining time was slipping and I had to guess 2 questions on that RC. And another RC appeared around 32-33 question which I somehow managed and by the end I knew I had done badly.
And the reason I was shocked to see V23 was if I was doing that bad the questions in the middle or the end would have been easier. The level of questions was extremely high as compared to when I scored 33-35 on mocks. To sum up, the questions throughout the verbal section were very unfamiliar and including all mocks and actual test, the actual test was the one where the number of answers marked on solid grounds was least. In short, on actual test I had maximum guesses.
Last three mocks were given at the same time of the day as actual test with AWAs completed in all three tests with two 8 minute breaks as in actual test.
I have not been able to introspect much, in last 72 hours, what went wrong. I feel it was lack of concentration and unfamiliarity of the questions, both of which I experienced for the first time on real test. Those type of questions I have not seen in any test prep materials including MGMAT’s and egmat’s.
MGMAT1 (q 41, V31,No AWA , Date - 4/10/2014)
MGMAT2 (q 40, V27,No AWA , Date - 4/23/2014)
MGMAT3 (q 42, V30, with AWA , Date - 5/25/2014)
MGMAT4 (q 42, V35,withAWA , Date - 6/28/2014)
Gmat Prep #1 (q 47, V27,with AWA , IR 4, Date - 5/10/2014)
Gmat Prep #2 (q 49, V34,withAWA , IR 4, Date - 6/15/2014)
Gmat Prep EP #1 (q 47, V33,withAWA , IR 6, Date - 6/28/2014)
Actual Test 570(q46, v23, IR3) 07/05/14
I am willing to put whatever it takes to succeed.
Experts please help.
I apologize for the long post.
Siddharth
Last Saturday I appeared for my GMAT Exam and scored 570 (Q46, V23, IR 3). An absolute shocker after scoring in 650-690 range in my last three Manhattan GMAT and GMAT Prep mocks in last three weeks.
I started preparing for exam in mid-Feb 2014. By the end of April I completed all study guides of MGMAT once. My first mock score in MGMAT mock test 1 in first week of April was 590(q42, v31). My second mock score in 3rd week of April was 550(q40, v27). Since I was not seeing much of an improvement I tried E-gmat trial modules available free on their website in last week of April. And in first week of May I scored 610(q47,v28) in Gmat Prep Test 1. I purchased full package of E-Gmat Verbal and Live Add On. On 15th June, I scored 690( q49, v34) on Gmat Prep Test 2. That was the first time when 700+ looked like within striking distance. With less than three weeks to go for the actual test I purchased the combined official Question & Exam Pack. I did see some drop (10-15%) in accuracy on CR questions of Question Pack on Medium and Hard level questions. But in SC which I considered my biggest strength the accuracy was largely maintained at around 80+% on medium and hard level questions.
CR- Before attending E-Gmat sessions and going through the course material on CR, I had no solid strategy whatsoever in approaching CR questions. In egmat CR sessions where 5-6 problems were solved, I was able to correctly solve 3-4 problems. My overall CR approach was improving and I was able to prethink the answers in almost 85-90% of CR problems. After completing e-gmat CR course, in e-gmat CR workshop I scored 60 (48+12)( where I incorrectly marked a 12 point CR question even after solving the problem correctly on solid grounds). And this 60 was around 70%ile score in class.
RC- This part was hardest to improve. My accuracy in RC ranged from 50-60 % on hard convoluted passages to 70% on medium level passages and 80+ % on easy passages on official questions at the end of my preparation. In and out I have been reading 1-2 articles from WSJ, NYT and some other websites everyday for past 1 year.
In the initial part of preparation RC accuracy was around 50% and I used to feel very uncomfortable doing RC especially in very dense RC passages. That situation improved but RC still troubled me. I still find it challenging to focus on extremely convoluted passages that are dense and 4-5 paragraphs long.
SC-In the initial part of my preparation when I was studying using MGMAT books SC accuracy was 50%. And by the end of May, when I completed about 80% of E-Gmat course my SC accuracy was above 85 % on official questions. Around that time I attended SC sessions of e-Gmat and combined in three sessions 18 official problems were solved and I was able to solve 17 problems correctly on solid grounds, each within 2 minutes, with some easy ones under a minute. I scored 65, which was around 70%ile, on SC workshop of May 2014 batch.
With two weeks left into the exam, I attempted around 50 problems from Question Pack 1. As I wrote above CR accuracy did drop but SC accuracy was intact. In the last week of preparation I re-attempted 200+ SC and CR questions from GmatClub and all previous mocks that I got wrong in first attempt through the course of my preparation.
After scoring 34,35 and 33 on last three mocks I had made up my mind that I would give the first attempt at official exam and if I scored short of 680-690 range I would appear for 2nd attempt. This is also how I trained my mind to calm for the big day. Therefore, I was totally relaxed going into the exam.
Exam Day- On the exam day, I started well, wrote AWA with solid 5 points. Then IR felt wasnt going that well because I was unable to solve 1st question and three MSR problems in middle out of 11 and guessed the 12th one since I was running short on time. On quant I felt extremely comfortable and for the first time I infact solved few problems twice to make sure my answer choices were indeed correct. I was getting similar feeling like I had when I scored 49 in quant in 2nd Gmat Prep mock.
Then after break I started verbal, and the first question was CR and I could not prethink the answer and finally I was stuck between two answer choices. I guessed and moved ahead on 2nd question which was SC. I was unable to mark the answer on solid grounds and from there with each question the test seemed very unfamiliar and I had a very uncomfortable feeling. By 7-8 question I got a 4 paragraph extremely convoluted RC and I could not comprehend it even remotely. I got another RC around 15th question and the third one around 22nd question. By that question the remaining time was slipping and I had to guess 2 questions on that RC. And another RC appeared around 32-33 question which I somehow managed and by the end I knew I had done badly.
And the reason I was shocked to see V23 was if I was doing that bad the questions in the middle or the end would have been easier. The level of questions was extremely high as compared to when I scored 33-35 on mocks. To sum up, the questions throughout the verbal section were very unfamiliar and including all mocks and actual test, the actual test was the one where the number of answers marked on solid grounds was least. In short, on actual test I had maximum guesses.
Last three mocks were given at the same time of the day as actual test with AWAs completed in all three tests with two 8 minute breaks as in actual test.
I have not been able to introspect much, in last 72 hours, what went wrong. I feel it was lack of concentration and unfamiliarity of the questions, both of which I experienced for the first time on real test. Those type of questions I have not seen in any test prep materials including MGMAT’s and egmat’s.
MGMAT1 (q 41, V31,No AWA , Date - 4/10/2014)
MGMAT2 (q 40, V27,No AWA , Date - 4/23/2014)
MGMAT3 (q 42, V30, with AWA , Date - 5/25/2014)
MGMAT4 (q 42, V35,withAWA , Date - 6/28/2014)
Gmat Prep #1 (q 47, V27,with AWA , IR 4, Date - 5/10/2014)
Gmat Prep #2 (q 49, V34,withAWA , IR 4, Date - 6/15/2014)
Gmat Prep EP #1 (q 47, V33,withAWA , IR 6, Date - 6/28/2014)
Actual Test 570(q46, v23, IR3) 07/05/14
I am willing to put whatever it takes to succeed.
Experts please help.
I apologize for the long post.
Siddharth
11 Jul 2014, 10:04
Kudos
Bookmarks
Sorry to hear about your score decline.
For RC - see if these video demonstrations help in terms of reading the passages: https://www.gmatpill.com/practicequestio ... tions.html
And also keep these tips in mind as you study so that you are psychologically prepared going into the exam: https://www.gmatpill.com/about/studying- ... trategies/
If you can remember what kind of "weird" questions you got on test day - try to put an extra emphasis during study. For quant, it helps to do variations off of the same core problems -- something we cover. That way, if you are asked the same question in a slightly different way, you know how to handle it.
I would restart your studies with SC. If you can understand the sentence structure in SC -- it will help you more easily comprehend the passages in CR and RC. Focus on speed in SC --- while maintaining accuracy.
For RC - see if these video demonstrations help in terms of reading the passages: https://www.gmatpill.com/practicequestio ... tions.html
And also keep these tips in mind as you study so that you are psychologically prepared going into the exam: https://www.gmatpill.com/about/studying- ... trategies/
If you can remember what kind of "weird" questions you got on test day - try to put an extra emphasis during study. For quant, it helps to do variations off of the same core problems -- something we cover. That way, if you are asked the same question in a slightly different way, you know how to handle it.
I would restart your studies with SC. If you can understand the sentence structure in SC -- it will help you more easily comprehend the passages in CR and RC. Focus on speed in SC --- while maintaining accuracy.
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