Which mock to believe? What should be my next steps?

Question

Hi, I started preparing for GMAT on July 6th, 2020. 
I have taken three mocks to date;
1) July 19th from GMAT Prep; Score - Q-49, V-26, IR-7, Overall-620
2) July 26th from e-Gmat; Score - Q-47, V-31, Overall-640
3) July 28th from Experts Global; Score - Q-50, V-36, IR-8, Overall-720

The range is very high for such a short period.
I want to give my exam the latest by October 15th. I want to target 730+.
Which Score to trust? What should be my next steps be?
Till now, I have relied on free mocks. I do not mind buying mock exams, But with everyone claiming theirs to be the best, I am confused as to whom to trust.
I have performed poorly in RC and SC across the three exams. What would be the best strategy to excel in these two sections?

Abhineetegi · Answer

Hi,
You are doing good as per your scores.

You can try Manhattan and Official Mocks.

preeti95 · Answer

You can take gmat club mocks for quant, and Manhattan/Veritas mocks for verbal.

Additionally, you can find the major free mocks here:
 https://gmatclub.com/forum/18-online-free-full-length-gmat-cat-practice-tests-link-257862.html

Just before your gmat, you can take gmat official 3-6 mocks, which will give a much more accurate score.

Drop a kudos if this helps!

Gmatsaiyan · Answer

You can only trust GMAT prep mocks.
Although try giving another Gmat prep mock and see where you stand.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vMani,

To start, a 620 is a great initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 550 most years). No-one here knows you well enough to say for sure how quickly you might improve your GMAT skills and Scores, but statisticaally-speaking, the idea that you raised your Score 100 points (from a 620 to a 720) in just 9 days (or even in 3 weeks, if we count all of your studies to date) is questionable.

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. Since that algorithm is proprietary, no GMAT company has an exact match for it, thus CAT scores can vary a bit based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs. The most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC (the 2 free CATs, and each of the 2 that come with Exam Pack 1 and Exam Pack 2), but retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills - since you will likely see some 'repeat' questions that you have already faced. Unfortunately, seeing even a couple of repeats can 'throw off' the Scoring Algorithm and impact your pacing, energy levels, fatigue, etc. (meaning that they would likely all appear to be better than they actually are). Thankfully, the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion).

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

vMani · Answer

Answering your questions;
1) I currently spend approximately 4 to 5 hours daily on GMAT prep.
2) Free trial of experts global and eGmat.
3) I haven't decided on this yet. But ideally, I would be applying before 2021. I am looking for Fletcher School, top (not shortlisted yet) Canadian colleges, and ISB.

IanStewart · Answer

There is no reason to trust scores from any company tests -- they are all biased in certain ways. You should only trust scores from official practice tests, or from the real exam.

You have a long time before you plan to take the real test, so there isn't any reason to take practice tests now (taking one, as you did, is a great idea so you can make a study plan, but no reason to take more than that). Instead you should be working on improving your true ability level, and taking tests is not a great way to do that. You do that by learning concepts and doing practice problems. Your Quant score already appears to be near the top of the scale, but you do stand to improve considerably at Verbal, so while you should do enough to maintain your Quant, your priority should be Verbal.

About a month before test day, you could take another official diagnostic to see where you stand, and more specifically to see if you'd benefit more by working further on content (by doing non-test practice) or by working on test-taking and pacing (by taking more diagnostic tests). Based on your current score, it seems like you should definitely be able to get a strong enough score for the programs that interest you, just as long as you can make some progress in Verbal, so you're in a good position right now. Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vMani,

Since your first 2 CAT results were fairly similar to one another, it's reasonable to assume that your current 'ability level' is probably in the low-600s to mid-600s. Statistically-speaking, you would likely need at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study to get to the point that you could consistently score 730+. From what you describe, you are not facing any immediate application deadlines, so you can proceed with your studies however you choose. If you would like to be efficient with your studies going forward, then you might find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).

1) Assuming another 2 months of study are needed, are you going to be able to maintain the same general number of study hours each week?
2) When you took any of these CATs/mocks, did you have to 'rush' to finish any of the Verbal sections? If you did, then how many questions do you think you had to 'guess' on to finish the section on time?

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

vMani · Answer

1) yes, I'll be able to put in 4 hours of work daily for the next two months. That won't be a problem. But I like to do self-paced study.
2) In all three mocks, I had over 10 minutes to spare for the quant section but had to rush through the last 7 - 9 verbal questions. I guessed most of them.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vMani,

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

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

HI Mani,

A 100 point improvement in such a short time is really ironic. Unless you have put a significant effort, achieving such an improvement is very difficult. But a jump from 640 to 720 in two days seems out of place. So, I don’t think 720 is the actual reflection of your current potential. The official mocks are the most reliable ones and if you get a consistent score of 720 in their mocks, then you are good to go. If you wish to buy any mocks, I would recommend you to buy the official ones.

The path forward: 
I suggest you to identify the weaker areas based on the first official mock you took and start working on them. Make sure you learn the right methodology to solve the questions along with concepts. Most people start their preparation by focusing on  learning concepts and then they directly jump to solving questions  on that particular topic. However, there is a very important step in between which is “ To master the right strategies to solve Questions ”. Let me explain this to you from SC and RC stand-point as you mentioned them as your weaker areas.

There is a misconception that SC questions test your knowledge of grammatical rules. But what GMAT actually tests is the ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it is really important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. Grammatical rules are helpful but only to some extent. You can find a few answer choices which are grammatically correct and also convey a logical meaning. But there is only one answer choice, which conveys the intended meaning. So, it is important to understand the meaning the sentence is trying to convey and identify the errors and then eliminate the answer choices which do not convey the intended meaning.

To do this, you need to read the sentence properly because you might come across a few complex and lengthy sentences. To read a sentence properly and understand its meaning, it is important to break the sentence at the right intervals. These intervals can be:
  Conjunctions 
 Relative pronouns 
 Verbs and verb like words that act as modifiers

You can understand the gist of the approach by referring to the following video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM

Coming to RC, you need to have the right reading strategies to understand the intention of the author. No matter what the topic is, your reading strategy should be the same. You have to read the passage with an open mind, leaving all the unnecessary baggage. GMAT gives you ample amount of information in the passage. It does not test your knowledge on topics such as physics, political science. You need to read the passage in an inferential manner so that you can draw the right inferences and understand the intention behind writing the passage. You can refer to the following video to understand the strategy of “ Involved and Evolved Reading ”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0VhuzaV6P0

Hope it helped! If you wish to discuss more about the study strategy and what your next steps should be, you can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

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Which mock to believe? What should be my next steps?

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