570 GMAT- Q50 and V19

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tina90: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:46 am

by tina90 » Wed Nov 26, 2014 2:58 am

I really don't know what went wrong in verbal. I was getting around 30 in verbal in the prep tests. Can anybody comment

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by GMATinsight » Wed Nov 26, 2014 3:38 am

tina90 wrote:I really don't know what went wrong in verbal. I was getting around 30 in verbal in the prep tests. Can anybody comment

Since only score is the available parameter to comment so the only thing I can comment is that spiky scores are usually obtained by students who struggle with basic application of concepts and your Verbal score is showing the same as there is substantial difference between 30 and 19.

You may take a diagnostic class with us to analyse what must have went wrong and where exactly are you weak that you may want to work to improve your score.

You score has substantial score of improvement in Verbal and Quant is fantastic so please keep that consistent.

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by [email protected] » Wed Nov 26, 2014 11:24 pm

Hi tina90,

When Test Takers see a significant drop in their Official Scores (relative to their practice CAT scores), the reason(s) is either that something during your practice was "off" or that something about Test Day was "off." While you're probably not happy right now, you're not alone. A certain percentage of Test Takers end up retaking the GMAT (some do so several times). Thankfully, Business Schools don't care if you retake the GMAT, so there's no problem doing so. I'd like to know a bit more about your study history and your goals. Once those details have been defined, we can put together a plan for what you can do next.

1) What is your goal score?
2) What resources did you use during your studies?

3) Can you provide the scores for each of your CATs (including the date you took it and the Quant/Verbal Scaled Scores)?
4) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT every time (including the Essay and IR)?
5) Did you take any of the CATs more than once?

6) What did you do the day before your Test?
7) How well did you sleep the night before?
8) How long was the ride to the Testing Center?

It's possible that you just had a bad day, but a V19 points to some kind of problem that needs to be addressed.

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

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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tina90: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:46 am

by tina90 » Fri Nov 28, 2014 5:34 am

1) What is your goal score? 700
2) What resources did you use during your studies? I had studied on my own and gave GMAT once in Jan 2014. scored the same (570 : Q 42 and V27). Then I joined a class (Jamboree classes for GMAT) for GMAT because in my first attempt, I was quite under-prepared. Because I joined the class I learnt a lot of strategies and practiced a lot of different problems in maths that I hadn't done in the first attempt. I mean much more than that I had done in my first attempt.
So this time when I gave it I was definitely prepared much more than the last time. And I think that's why I got a 50 in maths.

Now about the resources that I used. For Verbal- Apart from the strategies taught in class, they gave me a set of old GMAT questions (350 in SC, 200 in CR, and 200 RC). Just to give a background of this material, these are set of old gmat questions and questions from different GMAT study material together. It was a good set of questions..
I did OG13. I did OG Verbal Review 2nd edition. I bought the 404 questions from GMAC.
for CR- strategies from Powerscore Bible
for SC- mostly Manhattan SC guide

3) Can you provide the scores for each of your CATs (including the date you took it and the Quant/Verbal Scaled Scores)?
MGMAT 650(Q42 V39) - 12 Nov
MGMAT 680(Q47 V36) - 14 Nov
Kaplan 750

4) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT every time (including the Essay and IR)?
Yes, I took the 2 GMAT prep tests completely Test1- 700 (Q48 V38) on 9th Nov, Test2 - 690 (Q49 V34) on 15th Nov
I took the GMAT 3 also - 650 (Q49, V28) on 21st Nov.
5) Did you take any of the CATs more than once?
I took Test2 only verbal once again (V31)- I found few repeated questions in this one.

6) What did you do the day before your Test? 26th was my test. On 24th all evening (from 4pm onwards) I did not study anything. Was not in the mood to study. On 25th, i revised SC rules, maths formulae, then I wasn't very confident about verbal .. I was scared I might get below 30 and so I revised CR strategies and went through some CR questions just to revise how the strategies are applied..And I gave the Prep2 only verbal part, once again at about 4pm just so that I would gain some confidence about Verbal..
I understand that I shouldn't have given a verbal test on 25th but I wanted some confidence before the real test..
In my initial days of preparation I was performing well in the verbal.
But towards the end, something had gone wrong with my verbal performance. I was not getting the same scores as I was getting during the intial practice tests.(I had given some Jamboree practice tests too. These tests aren't adaptive but they have made it as much as they can per the real GMAT in terms of the variety of questions and the difficulty of questions)
I was getting decent scores in the intial practice tests around 35..but slowly slowly I realized my verbal score was not being consistent towards the end. Intially, I used to be able to meet the time limit also in the verbal section. Even during MGMAT and the first Kaplan test and the Preps, I used to be able to meet the time limit for the verbal section but towards the end when I gave GMAT Prep3 and the 2nd Kaplan test- I realized I wasn't able to finish on time.
I had taken leave for 2 weeks from my job from 12 Nov. I also felt towards the end of the exam I wasn't enjoying solving questions especially in English. It might be possible that I was mentally tired to solve verbal towards the end. But I don't know how true is that because I din't feel that at all during the Quant section on the real day.

7) How well did you sleep the night before? I slept for 7 - 7.5 hrs. I took sometime to sleep that night. but then eventually was bale to sleep properly all night.
8) How long was the ride to the Testing Center? it was a 45 mins drive. I had planned to leave at 8.45 am but eventually left at 9am.

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by [email protected] » Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:37 pm

Hi tina90,

You mentioned that on your last couple of CATs that you had a pacing problem during the Verbal section. Can you describe that in more detail?

1) Do you mean that you had to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish? If so, then how many did you guess on?
2) Did you answer ALL of the questions of did you leave any unanswered?
3) Did you not read any of the RC passages (and then just guess on the questions)?

4) Can you answer the above questions in regards to your Official GMAT?

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

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tina90: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:46 am

by tina90 » Mon Apr 20, 2015 6:45 pm

1) Do you mean that you had to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish? If so, then how many did you guess on? - Yes, at one point of time I realized that I had to hurry up so ?I'm quite sure I ended up guessing on quite a few questions.
2) Did you answer ALL of the questions of did you leave any unanswered? I attempted all questions because I did not want to suffer the penalty for leaving a question unattempted.
3) Did you not read any of the RC passages (and then just guess on the questions)? - There were times when I had to hurry up so I think I had not understood the passage completely so I made a guess.

4) Can you answer the above questions in regards to your Official GMAT?

Now that I have started studying again, I think the reasons for a low verbal score were:
1) I was low on confidence for verbal. A few days before the exam I had a feeling I might mess up verbal so I told myself to be careful in the verbal section.
2) If I have got such a low score, there must be some issue with my concepts as well. Though I think my concepts were quite clear. I mean I was sure about the strategy we have to follow for different questions and also practised many questions. I was getting a fair accuracy in verbal. Earlier I didn't seem to have pacing problems but then towards the end while practising I realized I did have pacing problems.
What my point is - there has to be another reason that the score is low, right? Is it the concepts? If yes, then if I just start brushing up my concepts again and practising the questions again then I'm not sure how different will it be for my previous preparation and whether it will really help me improve. What can be the reason is what I'm not quite sure of.
And I really need to figure it out because it is extremely important that I figure that out.

I have attached the report analysis from my ESR.

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by [email protected] » Sat Apr 25, 2015 11:49 am

Hi tina90,

After rereading these posts, there's nothing that specifically stands out as the 'cause' of what happened to your Verbal score on Test Day. As such, there are probably a variety of factors that contributed to that score drop. I'm going to list some possibilities, but it's up to you to really think hard about what occurred on Test Day (and even in the final days leading up to it).

I typically look for 'issues' that might occur during practice:
1) Unrealistic practice materials
2) Book-heavy study approaches
3) Skipping sections while taking CATs or doing anything else that would be considered unrealistic (pausing the CATs, listening to music, etc.)
4) Retaking CATs (and getting 'inflated' scores)
5) Seeing questions on your CATs that you practiced with or saw in these Forums (which would also lead to 'inflated' scores).

Since your CAT scores were all higher than your Official Score and you couldn't pinpoint anything unrealistic that you did, the focus then shifts over to Test Day itself (and the days leading up to it).

1) Lack of sleep
2) Change in 'routine'
3) Taking the GMAT at a different time of day (compared to the time of day that you took your CATs)
4) Skipping breakfast or trying foods/drinks that you normally would not have
5) Long 'lead time' between when you wake up and when you start your GMAT
6) Skipping the two 8-minute breaks (or not using them effectively)
7) Fatigue issues

Most Test Takers get to a point in the Verbal section in which they consciously think "I JUST WANT THE TEST TO BE OVER...."; THAT is one of the most dangerous situations to face, since the moment that "getting the Test over with" becomes the "goal", then accuracy, strong work, proper thinking, note-taking, etc. all gets throw out and even though you're reading the prompt, you're not processing anything, not doing work, etc. You just end up picking an answer that you think "sounds good." With a V19, that last part was clearly happening - you thought that you were choosing the correct answer - but you were not.

Going forward, I can't recommend that you continue to study in the way that you were studying Verbal before. A new set of tactics and resources is warranted (and you have to be ready to practice/commit to some new approaches).

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

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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digvijayk: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 113; Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:24 amFollowed by: 5 members; Location: GMAT Strategy Kingdom; Thanked: 43 times; GMAT Score:720

by digvijayk » Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:10 am

I went through what you're describing.

You need a timing and quitting strategy. Just search through BTG forum. Expert articles and vids are also available.

You need a psychological edge. Although, I'm happy that Jamboree helped you get a jump on your quant, I would advise you to use official questions and practice with Gmatprep tests from now on. You can retake them a number of times. 1 or 2 Qs may repeat but the rest of the questions will be new. And they'll be REAL retired GMAT questions, which matters a lot!

Also, if you're scoring X on your practice test, expect to score X-20 or X-30 on your actual test. So now you know how much you need to score in mock tests.

Please PM me, I'll provide you some techniques that will give you a nice jump in your verbal score.

Finally, don't lose heart. People have gone from 400s to 700s here. The BTG forum is full of success stories. All you have to do is look for them.

Follow my blog at: https://gmat0.blocked/

No business could ever survive without strategy, so how can your test preparation? Get your strategy in place today. Go to:

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Biso: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:26 am

by Biso » Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:55 am

Hi, my case is very similar to Tina's. I took the gmat yesterday and got a 570 (Q49 V19). I was scoring in the 30-32 range on the verbal section. My first ever prep test i got a V25, which was the lowest verbal score i got in all my prep tests. I kept improving till i got V32. I was hoping to improve even more so i can end up with a Q49 V35/36 so i can break the 700 mark. However, things did not go as planned. I thought i was doing well on the verbal part. Questions were getting harder, much harder than what i got in any of my prep tests. I assumed this means i am doing very well, only to find out later that i ended up with a disastrous V19 that pulled my score down more than 80 points had i gotten my average V score.

Here are the sources I studied verbal from:

1. Official guide 16 ( Verbal and Main books) Two rounds
2. Manhattan SC (this book helped me improve on the SC)
3. Magoosh online videos and questions (this source was helpful in SC more than CR and RC to me)

I need to improve RC and CR big time to be able to score higher than V35.

I would really appreciate your advise going forward. Which sources should i study from now? how to improve my RC and CR?

Thanks in advance

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Biso: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:26 am

by Biso » Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:55 am

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DavidG@VeritasPrep: Legendary Member; Posts: 2663; Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 amFollowed by: 128 members; Location: Boston, MA; Thanked: 1153 times; GMAT Score:770

by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:08 am

Biso wrote:Hi, my case is very similar to Tina's. I took the gmat yesterday and got a 570 (Q49 V19). I was scoring in the 30-32 range on the verbal section. My first ever prep test i got a V25, which was the lowest verbal score i got in all my prep tests. I kept improving till i got V32. I was hoping to improve even more so i can end up with a Q49 V35/36 so i can break the 700 mark. However, things did not go as planned. I thought i was doing well on the verbal part. Questions were getting harder, much harder than what i got in any of my prep tests. I assumed this means i am doing very well, only to find out later that i ended up with a disastrous V19 that pulled my score down more than 80 points had i gotten my average V score.

Here are the sources I studied verbal from:

1. Official guide 16 ( Verbal and Main books) Two rounds
2. Manhattan SC (this book helped me improve on the SC)
3. Magoosh online videos and questions (this source was helpful in SC more than CR and RC to me)

I need to improve RC and CR big time to be able to score higher than V35.

I would really appreciate your advise going forward. Which sources should i study from now? how to improve my RC and CR?

Thanks in advance

First, if it's any consolation, it seems as though that V19 is an outlier. Odds are, you could take the test again in a few weeks and see a score that's more in line with your practice exams.

Still, no reason not to try to improve in the meantime.

Some pieces of advice:

- When you review questions from old exams try to make horizontal connections between the sections. For example, you are probably well aware of the importance of modifiers in Sentence Correction, but you'll come to see, when analyzing answer choices, that modifiers are also incredibly important in CR and RC - "some" vs "most" vs "all" vs "few" are incredibly important distinctions. Verbal, in general, is about logic and attention to linguistic detail.)

- Read voraciously for a few weeks. It can be anything - novels, journals, etc. - so long as it's challenging. Our brains change rapidly when we read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/ar ... in/282952/

- Consider incorporating a mindfulness meditation practice. There's interesting research about how meditation can boost standardized test scores in a very short period of time: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/

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Biso: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:26 am

by Biso » Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:42 am

So veritas question bank is enough or should i go back to the basic fundamentals of CR and RC from Manhattan? I am willing to do whatever ot takes to get the 700+ score

Thanks for you advise

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DavidG@VeritasPrep: Legendary Member; Posts: 2663; Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 amFollowed by: 128 members; Location: Boston, MA; Thanked: 1153 times; GMAT Score:770

by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:39 am

Biso wrote:So veritas question bank is enough or should i go back to the basic fundamentals of CR and RC from Manhattan? I am willing to do whatever ot takes to get the 700+ score

Thanks for you advise

I'd start by going back to problems you've already done, either in the Official Guide or from old practice tests. Thoroughly dissect the questions. Did you miss questions because you weren't reading closely enough and a key word or phrase could have tipped you off that what you selected wasn't correct? (If so, you can make a note of this and get right back to drilling, making an effort to read more closely.) Did you miss questions because you misunderstood the argument? Did you miss questions because you had the answer choices narrowed down to two possibilities and then you just shrugged and picked one (as opposed to having a logical justification for what you selected?) Or did you miss questions because you didn't have an approach at all and you need to develop one? (It sounds as though you've already spent a good amount of time learning fundamentals, so it really comes down to whether you've been using what you've learned, and if so, are these tools effective for you?) And if you genuinely don't know why you missed a question, post it here.

Once you've performed the above analysis, try to distill your conclusions to 3-4 key takeaways. Absorb these takeaways. Drill a bit more with practice problems. Then hit another practice test. Wash/rinse/repeat until you're seeing results.

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by [email protected] » Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:17 am

Hi Biso,

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.

If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?

Thankfully, the GMAT is a predictable, standardized Test, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

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

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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Biso: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:26 am

by Biso » Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:31 am

1) i took 7 prep tests total, only one (the last) was a full length test (a mistake)
2) yes i took all tests at home
3) i took all tests inthe morning at 8-9am, test was at 10:30am
4) All CAT tests were uninterrupted. Just the 8 minute break at the end of the wuant section and on the last prep test i took the 2 breaks
5) Yes the i repeared the first 2 prep tests were repeated once, however my highest and 2nd highest verbal scores were on new tests. Most repeated questions were quantitative.

It would be great if tou can give me a clear steps/study plan for the next few weeks to improve my verbal score to V36+ and maintain my Q score or improve it to Q50

I really appreciate your support

Thanks a lot
Biso

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