Another average performance (660)

Question

Hi all,

So I gave another try at the exam, having mainly practiced the verbal part of the exam in the last couple of months (barely focused on Quant, other than some practice questions). Regardless, I haven't experienced any improvement whatsoever with respect to the verbal part of the exam (stayed at V31) and, surprisingly, I've managed to improve my Quant score to Q49.

Detailed breakthrough of my mocks is as follows:

1. MGMAT 6 - 680 (Q:46 V:38);
2. GMATPrep 1 (Retake) - 760 (Q:49 V:45);
3. GMATPrep 3 (Retake) - 740 (Q:49 V:41);
4. GMATPrep 5 (Retake) - 690 (Q: 49 V: 35) - Performed after a sleepless/rough night (might've affected my performance);
5. GMATPrep 6 - 700 (Q:50 V: 34) - Performed about 5 days prior to my exam.

Note that even though some of my mocks are retakes, the bare majority of the recurring questions (weren't too many to begin with) that popped up were questions that I couldn't recognize the answer to.

Would appreciate any tips as to how to proceed from here/how to improve my verbal reasoning skills (or rather, my time management in the verbal part...).

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi MCBAS.

How have you been preparing for the verbal section so far?

MCBAS · Answer

At the beginning of my practice (about a year ago) I made myself familiar with the basic concepts that are detailed in the Manhattan verbal guides. Over time, my practice consisted mainly of solving OG questions (I'm pretty sure that I've solved almost all Medium-Hard SC & CR OG questions that appear on GMATClub's questions directory). Here and there I might have listened to GMAT Ninja's videos, which were pretty useful. Other than these sources, I'm not sure whether I've utilized any other source.
I'd note that my accuracy across the different OG questions was pretty good, thus I suspect that the main issue with regard to my verbal reasoning skills lies with time management, or other test-taking strategy approaches.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Would appreciate any tips as to how to proceed from here/how to improve my verbal reasoning skills (or rather, my time management in the verbal part...).

Using time markers may be helpful. There's also a 5 Verbal tips and How to get a V40 post on the GMAT Knight blog you might find worth reading too. Download the idiom list if you haven't memorized any for Sentence Correction.

Based on your ESR, your CR is sucking the most time (2:28) and the weakest amongst your 3 sub-sections (26th). I've suggested Manhattan-Prep's 6th Edition for CR (and SC) to students.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

What has been your percentage accuracy on medium and hard verbal questions?

MCBAS · Answer

My accuracy has actually been quite good accros the medium (25%-45% GMATClub difficulty indicator - 85%-90% accuracy), hard (55%-65% GMATClub difficulty indicator - 70-75% accuracy) and very hard (75%-95% GMATClub difficulty indicator - 55%-60% accuracy) OG questions in both SC and CR (more so with SC questions, I suppose).

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Those accuracies are OK, but they are in line with your verbal score because they indicate that you don't quite have verbal under control. When you have verbal under control, you'll achieve 90%+ accuracy on medium questions and 80%+ on hard and very hard questions. In addition, ideally, you'd be able to get 15 medium and 10 hard questions of each type correct in a row. See this post for more on that. https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-practic ... 56936.html Also, see this one for more on how to practice GMAT verbal for best results. Three Key Practice Tips for Mastering GMAT Verbal

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Another average performance (660)

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