What am I doing wrong. Stagnant scores? TS- 700+

Question

It has been a long struggle for me. I started my GMAT Prep last summer. My very first MGMAT diagnostic score was a 540 (Q-33, V-30). I got this score without any Prep. I knew I had a long road ahead.

I went over the MGMT Strategy Guides. It took me a long time to get to a point where I could give tests since I have been out of school for 8 years and my math skills were extremely rusty.

In Mid-October, I gave my first GMAT Prep test and scored a 620 (Q-40, V-35). After that test, I went on and took 1 Kaplan CAT and scored a 670 (Q-49, V-32) and 1 MGMAt test and scored a 640 (Q-44, V-33).

After that I took an entire month, bough the gmat club tests and did a few Quant tests and a few Verbal tests. I revised all my errors thoroughly etc.

Today, I gave my 2nd GMATPrep and scored a 620 again!!!!! (Q-44, V-31). I ran out of time and I had to guess and rush through the last 10 Quant questions and last 7 or so Verbal questions.

I am extremely tired and disappointed. I have been keeping an error log but I don't have 2-3 very specific weak area. My weak areas and strong areas are all over the place depending on the test I give.

Any ideas please?

Thanks for the input.

bb · Answer

Huh. I don't see you username associated with GMAT Club tests (and you signed up just a few weeks ago?)

If your areas are strong, why only 620? Did you only make 2-3 mistakes? You had to make at least 15 in each section to score 620...
Also I can understand the math being rusty but it also looks like your Verbal scores have NOT moved at all in any of the tests - I would say that's your weakness. V30 is not strong for a native speaker. Q44 is not terrible at all by the way.

gmatprep1982 · Answer

I use my username tied to my email id for the gmatclub tests.
This explains why you didn't see my username tied to the tests.

What are some good resources for verbal. Question banks? I have heard all the praise for the GMAt Club Quant tests but not for the GMAT Club verbal. I seem to be able to find excellent practice material for Quant. What would be the same for Verbal? Is Kaplan 800 good for verbal?

Also, my biggest hit was with timing having had to guess 10 questions on Math and 7 on Verbal. How can I improve my timing?

daedalus1989 · Answer

Based on my knowledge of things, you suffer from nerves and consistency issues far more than anything else. Just yesterday, I took the first GMATPrep exam, and score 700 (Q47 V40). Normally, I score around 42-44 in V, BUT because I panicked on a couple of late quant questions, and did the last four or five in about six minutes, I demoralized myself completely ahead of the Verbal.

Look at it this way - rushing through the last 10 Quant questions means that, if you had timed yourself slightly better, you could've scored around 46-48 in Q (which is a solid score). If you can get the timing down, you should be able to go into the Verbal section with more confidence, and score above the 35 you had the first time.

My personal advice would be to take a weekend off. Go out, have some fun, read a good book, and, most importantly, don't think about the GMAT. You'll see that after a couple of days off, you'll feel refreshed. Afterwards, go over OG13, and time yourself in increments. Do 30-40 questions in one go, and see how long it takes you. Don't clock-watch, just do the problems and see if how much time you need to shave. The more practice you get at this, the better your internal clock will be at identifying appropriate amounts of time to spend on a question. Remember - you can get 10 questions wrong per section and still score a 720. Don't get discouraged, no matter what!

bb · Answer

Kaplan 800 is not good for verbal. I would recommend MGMAT books, Veritas Prep books, and a few people have liked the Aristotle materials. There is also this thread: how-to-go-to-v40-from-v30-142366.html

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What am I doing wrong. Stagnant scores? TS- 700+

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