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My GMAT score never goes above 470 to 520 range!!!!

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My GMAT score never goes above 470 to 520 range!!!!

by src_saurav » Sun Apr 05, 2015 9:41 am
It has been 2.5 months

I just took the Kaplan pre test where i saw my score again falling in the same zone as before 470-520.

My verbal score is 22/37 and Verbal is 25/41

Though i noticed that i could have got much more if i had time .I just blindly marked some answers to sail through as if had read them i would not have been able to complete the test.


Please help me with some suggestions.
I refer Magoosh and Kaplan/Veritas online material which seem very hard to me.
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Sun Apr 05, 2015 11:29 am
Can you give us a few more details? How many practice tests have you taken? Of the online material you mentioned, how much have you worked through? Have you begun to work through the Official Guide?
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by src_saurav » Sun Apr 05, 2015 12:01 pm
Hi,


Total duration of studying-2.5 months.


Thanks for replying.I am not using OG.I am using KAPLAN premier 2015 as material for GMAT preparation.There are many standard questions in it. Also i have signed up with Magoosh online . I have practiced a lot of questions on both of them .

I have taken 2 practice tests of GMAT PREP .Actually i tried taking the same test twice as i want to improve on the same test and then move on to other. Both went pretty poor with 450. This time i tried taking pretest KAPLAN with time bound and i found that i could have actually scored more but couldn't because i had to sail through the middle part of the exam. I am confident with questions now though now timing seems to be a big problem.

Let me know your thoughts. I know i need to just get certain things right and i will just climb the ladder like anything.
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by [email protected] » Sun Apr 05, 2015 12:25 pm
Hi src_saurav,

You've described a pacing problem, but it's important to understand that pacing problems do NOT exist on their own - they are the result of OTHER problems in how you're approaching the Test. I have some questions about your CATs and about how you've been studying:

1) When you say that you have to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish the CAT on time, how MANY questions are you actually guessing on?
2) On the questions that you DO spend time on, how often are you spending MORE than 3 minutes (on a Quant question) and MORE than 2 minutes on a Verbal SC/CR question?

3) How many times do you normally have to read a question before you start trying to answer it?

4) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
5) What is your goal score?

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by src_saurav » Sun Apr 05, 2015 12:32 pm
1) When you say that you have to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish the CAT on time, how MANY questions are you actually guessing on?

It lies b/w the question number 20-35 in both the sections

2) On the questions that you DO spend time on, how often are you spending MORE than 3 minutes (on a Quant question) and MORE than 2 minutes on a Verbal SC/CR question?

as above.

3) How many times do you normally have to read a question before you start trying to answer it?
i read it only once


4) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

8th June
5) What is your goal score?
700
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by [email protected] » Sun Apr 05, 2015 12:50 pm
Hi src_saurav,

Since you're guessing on so many questions, you're clearly spending way too much time on the questions that you DO try to answer. We have to figure out what you're doing with THAT time. For most Test Takers, reading the prompt over-and-over is one of the primary causes of 'lost time', but you say that you only read the prompt once. So WHAT exactly are you doing with your time?

You're going to find that most GMAT questions only require about 1 minute (or less) of real 'work'; the rest of the time is spent reading the prompt, taking light notes and labeling your work. You might be wasting time doing work 'in your head' or making little mistakes that you end up having to correct. You have to review your work and figure out what the specifics are. You should also try to re-do past questions with the goal to work faster, take better notes and NOT waste time. As a suggestion, doing work 'in your head' almost always takes LONGER than doing the same work on the pad, so DON'T do work in your head.

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by src_saurav » Sun Apr 05, 2015 7:25 pm
Hi,

Thanks for reply.It takes some time to figure out the way to solve a problem.I guess there i lose some time.

I got the below timings-

Quant

1-10--25mins
11-20-->20 mins
21-30-->15mins
31-37-->10 mins


Verbal
1-10-->25mins
11-20--20mins
21-30--15mins
31-37-->15mins


If you see ,the timings in the later part of the sections are very very less and that is where i fumbled.That is where i made mistakes and sailed through because i had to keep up with the timings.

Especially,in verbal section where they give you RC and you have to read and find out.I sailed through an entire RC as i had absolutely no time left.

Now,what to do in the later part as the questions may be HARD (probability,work time,RC).?
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by [email protected] » Sun Apr 05, 2015 9:25 pm
Hi src_saurav,

We really need to dig deeper into this information to figure out exactly how to help you speed up.

Here's a suggestion: from this last CAT, I want to you post the 5 questions from the Quant and 5 questions from the Verbal that you spent the LONGEST time on. You can also include any questions that you just could not figure out. Post them in the proper Forums and I'll be happy to take a look (and I'm sure that you'll get plenty of additional suggestions from the other Experts and Users here).

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by src_saurav » Sun Apr 05, 2015 10:53 pm
Thanks for your reply.


I have already posted the questions in the CR and match sections of this forum.I will tell you my problem

1)CR seems to be an area where i narrow down but end up marking the wrong choice.So ,that takes time to think whether the one i am thinking is correct or the other one.

2)RC takes a lot of time to read and make notes.Especially ,when it is towards the end of the test where i mentioned that one needs to spend less time on it.

3)Quant section questions take time if they are probabilty,counting or time/work questions.Also, if they are data sufficiency ones where one has to be wary of trap answers.


The above combined do not allow me to freely think and find a solution and thus i end up not scoring much.
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by src_saurav » Mon Apr 06, 2015 9:03 pm
Please help me with the the above explanation that i provided.
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by [email protected] » Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:26 am
Hi src_saurav,

After re-reading your prior posts, it's not clear HOW you're approaching these questions. I understand that you read them and then try to eliminate answers (in CR and RC), but that's not really strategy - it's what most Test Takers do when they DON'T have a strategy.

1) What practice materials have you been using?
2) Do you have a series of 'steps' that you go through when solving specific types of questions? Do these tactics have a name and a source?

You might need to invest in some new study resources that teach you the tactics, patterns and secrets that you need to know to score at a higher level. From what you've described, I'm not sure if you know those things or if you just can't remember them.

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