From 460 (Q32V22) to 540 (Q44V20), please help me!!

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Hi all, here's my story.
GMAT was never an intention. There is a particular program I was gunning for since last year, but this year the program made GMAT a pre-requisite.

I found out about this in Sept while I was working. With zero prep and no knowledge of the GMAT, I immediately got my first attempt a big fail 460 (Q32 V22). I got 5.5 in AWA, if it is of any comfort. But nonetheless, it hit me really bad.

I started self-studying with Barron's, McGraw Hill, and OG 10. I was forunate to find this lovely community. I picked up a few things from everyone. I used GMATprep, OG 12 Verbal and Qaunt 12 ed too. and MGMAT CAT tests and question banks. I scored an average of 610 and 620 on 4 CAT tests.

One month later, Today, I took the GMAT. 540 (Q44 V20)!!!!!! What the (blank) is going on?

Okay, Q32 to Q44 is quite something. I owe it to everyone here. I thought the most useful advices came from gmatninja.com, Ron's videos on techniques, and everyone. I feel tiny bit relieved that I got something out of the way.

Now..... verbal...from V22 down to V20!?
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there is a significant imbalance. Verbal is my weakness clearly...I felt like crying. I did the verbal review and did very well on it actually. In my daily ritual of 20 questions per topic, I got 90% of them correct. I know grammer rules by heart.

But what happened? MGMAT got me at the low and mid 30s....and GMATprep gave me the same.

I sat down calmly and looked back at what happened. There were 3 main issues.
1. I got hung up with a question in Quant, while I was working towards the end, I realized I messed up a question from before. It might have still stuck in my mind afterwards.
2. I drank too much red bull...I felt I needed to pee badly so I might have rushed it.
3. My mental stamina was just wearing down.

Which brings me to humbly ask help from everyone.
1. How to train mental stamina?
2. Verbal workshops and techniques advice.
3. How to be consistent in verbal?

My aim is get above 650.
Please help! I am feeling desparate and hopeless.
Last edited by doitright on Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

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by euro » Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:11 am
@doitright:
1. How to train mental stamina?

~The best way to do this is to take your practice sessions seriously.
Whenever solving questions from any source (for e.g. OG 12), plan your sessions for 75 to 80 mins.
~Try to recreate actual test conditions when you give practice tests. Don't take breaks of more than 5-6 mins. Attempt AWA section honestly. Give your best effort; do not skip the essays.
~Try to give at least 2 CATs per week.

3. How to be consistent in verbal?
~SC: MGMAT's SC Strategy Guide
~CR: Powerscore CR Bible
~RC: Read articles on RC techniques on this website. Just type "reading comprehension" in the search box and hit enter. You should see lot of articles that will prove valuable.

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by doitright » Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:19 am
thanks man.

im still baffled why my verbal is so bad

my OG 12th and verbal review went really well!! i don't know how it happened.

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by euro » Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:53 am
doitright wrote:thanks man.

im still baffled why my verbal is so bad

my OG 12th and verbal review went really well!! i don't know how it happened.
I think you need to closely analyze your results from practice tests. MGMAT provides some great analytics for each test.
What type of questions are taking up the most time? Which question type has the lowest accuracy?

There are lot of grids/ error logs available. Use these to track performance on OG problem-solving.

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by aslan » Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:10 pm
hey relax...it happens in these kinds of tests.Euro has given some valuable advice ill add some.

1-Do the verbal side of CAT's and send the sheet of the result breakup on the forum here.Ask experts to give advice on which part you were lagging.Build speed where advice

2-Make 'flashcards' out of SC errors on MGCAT WITH answer explanations..LOTS of em!...and continue to read them .This will get into your subconscious.I have realized one thing important, that on exam day everything is coming out of your subconscious of whatever you learned over the days.Very little is actually what your doing from the conscious side.'Train your mind as if you were tying your shoelaces' on these questions as 'adam' wrote in his debrief

3-Dont think doing TONS of question from OG will raise your score.Do all the questions in a CAT setup do build the mental stamina of seeing all three variations in a single go.Slowly build up the speed on each and check how much time you spent in the result grid.Natives usually end the verbal with 20 mins remaining.It is possible for other human also than :)

4) last, spend more time reviewing your mistakes than actually doing the problems.

TC

Aslan

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by Victory_GMAT » Sat Nov 13, 2010 6:41 pm
Just keep working on verbal portion and you will make it.