Helpless with my official verbal score

Question

Hello Club-community,

Today I share my GMAT story with you and it might me the saddest you read. I don´t want to write to detailed so I try my best to keep it short. 
I started studying for the GMAT 1 1/2 years ago  full time . Today I messed up my 6th official test and as a result my 3rd application process for my dream university UC Denver. For a successful application I need a GMAT around 620, which is not that high. How everything begun:

1. Application deadline 31.05.18:
I started studying with the Manhattan books (10 red books) and the OG. I spend every hour of the day in my office and studied around 8-10 hours every day. At a certain point, however, I realized that my mock scores don´t increase. I was stuck around 530-560 (official prep softwear). So I decided to take a 1 on 1 tutor. With his help, especially in verbal, I was able to score around 590-600 on mock tests (Manhattan mock tests). Nevertheless, I experienced a horrible first attempt 460 V21 Q31 (I dont know what went wrong with my Q score). Since my deadline was 2 weeks later I decided to take the GMAT again right away. 510 V18 Q43. Rejected!

2. Application deadline 31.11.18:
I analyzed my 1st attempt and decided to move to friends in San Francisco for my second one. Turn everything to english was my though! 
This time I decided to study with magoosh, since I was very fascinated with their lessons and explanation videos for every video. I started to study even harder 10-14 hours every day. I canceled all my social life and started to dissect the verbal section. I experienced a hugh increase in SC. However, I had hugh problems with RC. My CR was quite good from the beginning. My mock tests (official prep software) went up to around 600. Still, I decided to take a tutor from magoosh to improve especially my verbal and certain Quant parts. Suddenly, my mocks after that begin to drop in the verbal section, while my Quant went through the roof (I was around 47-48 on mocks), my verbal dropped to around 14. Still, I decided to take my 3rd attempt a little earlier (12th of october) since I felt fit! Score: 510 Q43 V19 (I canceled). Since I had another 1 1/2 month I kept studying. All the lessons, tons of questions from different sources (magoosh, OG, OG Verbal, OG Math). I studied all explanations over and over again. My estimated Magoosh score for verbal was 29-36. Next attempt: 480 Q43 V 14. Rejected!

3. Application deadline 04.06.19:
I took some time of and asked myself what I can do different, if it makes any sense to try it again. I have a big problem: I hate loosing. I never grew up on that!
My most important decision was that I will never study more than 5 hours a day. But when I study, just 100 percent focused. Sometimes I just did 2 hours because I was wasted after it. It is very difficult to put yourself into 100% concentration... In addition, I took a tutor again. This time from Manhattan Prep (He scored 99% and was good at explaining). I experienced an increase of knowledge, even a little fun if you can say that. What material did I use: OG 2018 and 2019, OG Verbal and Math 2018, material from Manhattan prep (tutor stuff) and Magoosh (I canceled all previous achievements and started again with the questions). I decided not to take a mock test before my 5th attempt because of psychology reasons. Meanwhile, I started to work with a psychologist to overcome my fear for the test, which started after my 4th attempt. When my tutor told me I am ready to score 600+ I booked the next available appointment: 18th of April: 550 Q44 V23. My tutor was speechless about my verbal score and also not satisfied with my Quant. However, I experienced an increase in my score for the first time. I was sure that I will rock the next attempt. So I decided to go back to work, more or less just focussing on my weaknesses. In addition, I decided to take a mock-test while my tutor sat next to me so he can analyze if I do anything wrong, like getting to nervous or something. Boom! Kaplan mock-test: 650 Q47 V32. Still my tutor said my verbal could be even better, however, he did not noticed that I did anything wrong. Now, lets start my last attempt: With a mock-test of 650, with an estimated verbal score of 31-38 from magoosh, with hundreds of RCs, with thousands of questions answered, with 1 1/2 year of full time studying... 04.06.19: 560 Q46 V21! My rejection will come!

What hurts so much is that my I just wanted a score of 620... You can trust me, I did everything you can imagine. EVERYTHING!

However, if anybody has an idea or wants to help me in kind of a tutor session or something please do so. My Goal is 620 Q45 V30. With that score all my dreams would come true. I would study what I want to, in the city I want to live in and all that with my girlfriend.

Thank you for your help, thank you for listening!

Max

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Greenmaxim,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. So, first off, I have to pat you on the back for sticking with your GMAT prep for 1.5 years, as you’ve certainly showed a lot of grit and determination!

That said, since you have been studying for that amount of time and have yet to break V23, you really need to look at HOW you have been preparing and make some changes, right? What we can tell from your score level is that you are lacking the fundamental verbal skills that you need for a high score. Thus, moving forward, you likely need to follow a structured and linear study plan that allows you to learn each GMAT verbal topic individually, starting with the foundations before moving to more advanced concepts. Let me expand on this idea further.

For example, when studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various question types. Do you know the importance of an assumption within an argument? Can you easily spot a conclusion? Do you know how to resolve a paradox? Do you know how to properly evaluate cause and effect? Do you know how to properly weaken or strengthen an argument? These are just a few examples; you really need to take a deep dive into the individual Critical Reasoning topics to develop the necessary skills to properly attack any Critical Reasoning questions that you encounter.

As you learn each Critical Reasoning problem type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you incorrectly answered a Weaken the Argument question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be stimulating. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such bland passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as The Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.
 
Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
 
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending less than two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
 
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and none of those reasons are that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
 
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to put in the necessary time to see the differences between answers and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
 
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could do differently to extend your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
 
Ultimately, if you are unable to learn and practice in the manner described above, you may consider looking for additional verbal prep resources. If you are unsure of which resources to choose, check out some reviews here on GMAT Club.

You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

Arro44 · Answer

Hi Max,

super sorry to hear that it hasn´t worked as intended up until now.

I´ll put together a long reply tomorrow when I find the time, especially focusing on verbal as a non-native (and fellow German) speaker.

Regards,
Chris

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Greenmaxim,

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 issues though, the immediate issue is actually timeline-related.

GMAC limits each Test Taker to 8 lifetime attempts at the Official GMAT (under certain circumstances, you can petition for a 9th attempt, but that is not granted too often). In addition, you can take the GMAT no more than 5 times in any 12-month period. Based on these restrictions, you have two things to consider as you continue to study. First, you likely have just 2 more attempts at the Official GMAT. Second, since your 3rd attempt was October 12th, 2018, you can take the GMAT just one more time before October 12th, 2019 (and then that 7th attempt will the be 5th attempt in 12 months, meaning that an 8th attempt - if necessary - would not be possible until AFTER October 12 of this year).

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 your timeline and your goals:

1) Which "brands" of practice CATs have you used so far (and have you used all of each brand - for example, have you used all 6 Official GMAC CATs?)?
2) Is UC Denver the only School that you are interested in?
3) What is the current application deadline for each Program that you plan to apply to?

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report for this recent attempt. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

Greenmaxim · Answer

Hi everyone,

first of all, thank you for your quick and very detailed answers. A little bit more about my studies:

My Test tacking strategies (3 periods, incl all CATs and Official Tests):

Study period: 10.01.18 - 01.06.18

Material used: Manhattan Prep Gmat (10 red books); Tutor (Language school Eloquia Frankfurt) about 15h + Material from them
Strategie: 1x CAT after getting familiar with the question types; Going though all Manhattan books, making notes and answering the questions in the book; OG 2018; Studied with my girlfriend together; Made a Math Error lockbook; I maybe spend to much time with Quant and avoided parts I hated/weaknesses 
Conclusion: I am not good at studying from books; My girlfriend uses a different type of studying; I didnt focus enough on my weaknesses; I spend to much time in the office without being efficient; I didn´t focus enough

CATs:
06.02 440 Q36 V15 Official prep software (before I started my studies)
16.03 510 Q43 V19 Official prep software
05.04 600 Q42 V32 Manhattan
08.05 540 Q35 V28 Official prep software
11.05 530 Q35 V28 Official prep software
22.05 510 Q39 V21 Manhattan 
28.05 550 Q38 V28 Manhattan
30.05 560 Q43 V24 Manhattan

Official Tests: 
16.05 460 Q31 V21
01.06 510 Q43 V18

Study period 11.09.18 - 30.11.18

Material used: Magoosh premium account; I started from zero again and went through every lesson; I made very thorough notes and sticked them on my wall; I followed the one month study plan from magoosh even though I needed way more time since I spend a lot of my time with the lesson- and explanation videos; I made a Math and Verbal Error Lockbook; Tutor from Magoosh + around 15h; OG 2018
Conclusion: All from Magoosh: My estimated Quant score was 38-44 and my verbal score was 29-36; My average time for each question was almost 1 min more than that of the average (explanation: Especially at the beginning I spend way more time on each SC to understand everything what is happening); Tutor was convinced with me! My Grandpa was very sick and died just before my tests - I am very sure that didn´t effect my test, however, it might has.; Videos were way better for my way of studying/understanding; I started reading the Economist; I focused more on my weaknesses; I spend to much time in the office without being efficient; I didn´t focus enough; Stabilized my Quant

CATs:
20.09 590 Q45 V26 Official prep software
07.10 560 Q43 V25 Official prep software
13.11 580 Q48 V21 Official prep software
22.11 530 Q41 V21 Official prep software

Official Tests:
12.10 490 Q36 V19
30.11 470 Q43 V14

Study period 18.01.19 - 04.06.19

Material used: Reset Magoosh question Bank + did almost all; All OG 2018 Verbal questions; OG 2018 Math PS questions; All OG 2019 RCs lots of SC and CR as well; Tutor from Manhattan (located in Frankfurt - Germany) + face to face sessions with him; Material from him especially RCs (often very hard); Focused on doing mixed difficulty from day to day so that I wouldnt stumble over Medium ones; Focused ALMOST ONLY on my weaknesses; No Error Lockbooks (to time consuming); Studied Max. 5h a day + rediscovered my social life; worked A LOT on my timing; Read Economist
Conclusion: My timing got fantastic; felt super strong in Q and also very good in V; I had this feeling of beeing capable to answer every question right; My weaknesses became strong; My tutor expected sth. around 650; I did just one CAT --> This period was fantastic!

CATs: 
17.05 650 Q47 V32 Kaplan

Official Test:
18.04 550 Q44 V23
04.06 560 Q46 V21

All in all: 
To be honest I am a mental wreck and need psychological assistants since November last year. I would say that I am a very smart guy. My biggest problem before the test was that I was lazy but whenever I started studying for something the results were fantastic. Now, the test feels less about getting into a university but more about beating a certain part of me. I hate loosing.

What Universities: 
UC Denver was my dream choice (GMAT around 620). Subject, city, people, area -> everything was what I wanted.
However, at the beginning, I had an eye on those IVY leagues. I knew I am smart, I just wanted to try my best. Nevertheless, my story provides quite some evidence that this is inaccessible.

What I don´t understand:
I read through all you answeres, however I am aware of my weaknesses and I studyied them again and again. In verbal I started twice (!) from the very beginning. Magoosh has an "adaptive difficulty" algorithm and they almost just present me Hard V questions (sometimes Very Hard, sometimes Medium).
In addition, why does my V score differs so much in each CAT and official Test.

Thank you everybody for you help. I really appreciate it and don´t take it for granted!

Max

Arro44 · Answer

Hi Max, as I am far from an expert in Quant myself I´ll just focus on verbal; RC: Concerning RC you might be able to retrieve a couple of skills from high school. If you graduated in a German-speaking country, chances are you had to work through plenty of "Gedichtsanalysen" & "Aufsätze". While the GMAT might not be in German, you can recycle many of the thought patterns and skills you learned when tackling the above-mentioned topics. I know first hand that long, scientific texts can appear quite scary, especially to us non-native speakers. However, if you focus on understanding the context and main idea of the text you already won half the battle. Yes, there might always be a couple of words you might not fully understand, however, as long as you have a good grasp of the broader context those couple of words can´t stop you from being successful in RC. Just imagine your 12th-grade German teacher would give you an RC passage which you would have to analyze afterwards and you probably know 60% of the questions that are heading your way.

SC: Try to find the low hanging fruits and crush the "easy" questions. If you find obvious grammar issues, look for similar issues across multiple answer choices. Frequent things would be; Verbs which violate the rule of "He, she, it das "S" muss mit" or any mistakes concerning "Anpassung der Präposition an das Subject (Singluar / Plural). It might sound simple, but the more mistakes you can spot in answer choices, the more confident you will become. CR: This can become your absolute strength! In my opinion, CR is the part of the verbal section in which you have the least disadvantage as a non-native speaker (just personal opinion). Once you are able to dissect the respective arguments your hit rate on 600 & 600/700 lvl question can easily go towards 90%. I can highly recommend the following guide in this regard: https://gmatclub.com/forum/mod-nightbla ... l#p2272709 Last but not least I tried to put some of the strategies and tips that helped me into a brief guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/verbal-strat ... l#p2082192 While the guide is fairly basic some of the things might be helpful. If you have any questions in particular, please feel free to reach out. I am nowhere near as familiar with the test as the experts here on this forum, however, I am in the same boat when it comes to trying to tackle all those concepts as a German native speaker. Viele Grüße & viel Erfolg, Chris

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Greenmaxim,

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

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

gmat1393 · Answer

Hi Greenmaxim,

I am sorry that your exam didnt went as you expected.

IMO you should enroll for egmat.It help you strengthen your basics first and form a solid foundation.
They do have a webinars every alternate week.You should attend one of those and take a decision if its worth for you.

For Quant I would suggest you go thru Manhattan Quant guides or TTP course and couple them with GMAT club tests.

Hope this helps

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

Hi Max!

I can understand what you are going through right now. After so many efforts and still not getting what you want then disappointment is bound to come but I like your attitude when you said: "you don't like to give up"! I feel you need to lift your morale up and remain focussed. From your post, I can also make out that you don't have excellent command over the English language; nothing to worry, all you need to tell yourself is since your basics are not in place, you will have to spend more time getting your basics right and convert your weaknesses into strengths. So rather than feeling bad that you have not got what you wanted, feel positive that you have taken lots of efforts but since you lacked on basic knowledge, more efforts are required from your end and you need to keep working on your weaknesses and convert them into your strengths.

Since you have already tried almost everything for your GMAT prep from using varied sources to hiring tutors, I don't know what specific advice one can give you regarding your prep. I feel you need to re-energize yourself and get your basics right. I am definitely getting a feeling that you are very near to your goal and with persistence and patience you will get what you are looking for.

Wishing you all the very best in your prep. Please feel free to get in touch if you need any help or motivation.

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