Stuck in early 600s...

GoMBA · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:11 am Post subject: Stuck in early 600s...

Hi
I have been preparing for the gmat quite seriously for about last 1.5months. After completing the review of the concepts from OG, Manhattan SC guide, CR Bible i started writing practice tests about 25days back. So far i have written 5 practice tests and here are the scores:

1. MGMAT PT#1 580 (Q42, V27)
2. GMATPrep Test#1 640 (Q45, V33)
3. MGMAT Free PT 610 (Q45, V30)
4. MGMAT PT#2 630 (Q49, V29)
5. MGMAT PT#3 600 (Q44, V30)

I wrote the 5th one today and its just more of the same (though the one i wrote today seemed like the hardest so far, atleast quant wise). As you can see from the scores above i find myself completely stuck in terms of my overall score and pattern of scoring. I seem to be stuck around 30 in verbal and 45 in math.

If i further review the details of the tests i gave (as provided by manhattan practice test review options) i notice that:

-In quant i falter at 700-800 level questions and more in DS than PS
-In verbal its a total mix - roughly 50% accuracy in each of RC, CR and SC. SC being sometimes better than others.

So my request to the group is to share any feedback from a similar situation that you may have faced or otherwise if you have a clue what might be wrong with me. With this rate i feel dejected that i will not be able to breach the 700 limits that i so desperately want to. Kindly help.

Thanks.

GoMBA · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:14 am Post subject: Re: Stuck in early 600s...

May i have the attention of someone on the group to help me out of the woods? Sad

VP_Jim · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:15 am Post subject:

Well, a 45 in math is pretty good, so I'd focus more on improving that verbal score. Here's some general advice:

For SC: focus on understanding the handful of grammatical errors that show up frequently. Understand them, but most of all, be able to SPOT them in sentence correction problems. For example, whenever you see the words "it" or "they" in a sentence, bells should ring that you're probably dealing with a pronoun error. Do lots of practice problems, ANALYZING why EVERY right and wrong answer is right or wrong.

For CR: Practice spotting conclusions and premises in arguments. Then, build on that by trying to find assumptions. A good portion (half? 3/4?) of CR problems revolve around assumptions. Again, truly ANALYZE every problem you do, understanding why every answer is right or wrong.

For RC: This is the hard part. Just start reading! The more you read - this doesn't necessarily have to be GMAT reading, mind you - the better you'll get. Again, ANALYZE every answer choice, not just the right ones.

Good luck!

GoMBA · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:13 pm Post subject:

Thanks very much for the analysis and suggestions.

I also agree that i should now focus on verbal for some time.