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Shocked with my Verbal Score in the real test - Need Help

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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Shocked with my Verbal Score in the real test - Need Help

by jasmine1984 » Thu Dec 05, 2013 11:58 pm
I have been practicing for my verbals for about 3 months.I began with 20 on my verbals, gradually i went up to 30 in Gmat Prep Test, and finally I got 36 and 39 in my GMAT Exam Pack Test. I was led into believing that the Paid GMAT Prep Test gives you an approximate range of what you would achieve in you actual Gmat Test. This is where my shocker starts I got a 16 in real GMAT. I was shocked to say the least. As i started my verbal section i lacked concentration. I gave a myself a seconds break and then i was doing fine.However it was constantly running in my mind as to how i was doing. I saw a lot of question type i haven seen before. By the 14th question i got a bold face question and i felt relaxed as i thought i was doing well. Another experience was sentence correction. I always thought that the GMAT will be evenly distributed.But if i am not wrong i must have got atleast more than 20 sentence correction question and there was time i felt it was a sentence correction exam when in a row i got 4 SC questions.
Also i would like to mention i always had pacing problem in verbals and i always had to mark last 8-( questions and the same happened in the real exam too.I got a long Rc passage towards the end with 5 minutes left for my exam to end. I had to randomly mark all the question and i must have marked around 9-10 questions in a row ( but read the sc questions though) and there my verbal 16 the lowest i have ever seen and got(quant 49).

Now my question is - shall i consider a retake? if yes is it achievable to improve my verbals score to 30's in 1-1.5 months? what should be my approach as now i don't trust any of the exams so i don't even know how to gauge my performance. Also, i have completed all the materials from mgmat to egmat.
I need serious help and a productive plan to ace verbals.
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by VivianKerr » Fri Dec 06, 2013 1:06 pm
Hi Jasmine,

If you essentially missed and were not able to attempt the last 9-10 questions in the Verbal section, it's no wonder you got a 16! No one could achieve a high Verbal score on a CAT like the GMAT with only attempting 75% of the problems, so definitely don't beat yourself up about that. Lots of people have Test Day meltdowns.

Your actual Verbal score is probably in the low 30's, but the GMAT is as much about PACING as it is about your ability to answer questions correctly. It doesn't sound like you did a lot of pacing drills in your practice. Here's a few things to consider moving forward:

Know where your time is going. Get specific. Is it 700+ level completely underlined SC questions involving parallelism? Or maybe it's the harder Assumption CR questions? Or you're wasting time weighing answer choices in RC? You need to think like a doctor for a second, and review your incorrect questions and diagnosis weaknesses.

Re-evaluate your strategic, step-by-step approach for each of the 3 Q-types. What I mean is, (1) are your strategies giving your 80-90% accuracy when you work untimed, and (2) are you abandoning your strategies when faced with timing pressure? If the answer to (1) is no, you need new strategies. If the answer to (2) is yes, you need to introduce pacing drills OUTSIDE OF PRACTICE CATs. For example, try 5 CR Q's in 10 minutes, or try reading and taking notes on a long passage in 3 minutes. Introduce a little pacing pressure, and see if your strategies hold up.

Make sure to use pacing benchmarks in your practice CATs from now on. You need to have them in front of you while you practice and you MUST STICK TO THEM. Even if that means guessing on a question here and there, you CANNOT let yourself randomly guess on the final 9-10 questions on ANY CAT.

Good luck! :-)
Vivian Kerr
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by [email protected] » Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:33 pm
Hi jasmine1984,

I think that it's safe to say that you're going to want to retest, but I am curious about some things.

1) What is your score goal?
2) What schools are you planning to apply to school?
3) On your practice CATs, did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including Essay and IR)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by jasmine1984 » Sat Dec 07, 2013 12:35 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi jasmine1984,

I think that it's safe to say that you're going to want to retest, but I am curious about some things.

1) What is your score goal?
2) What schools are you planning to apply to school?
3) On your practice CATs, did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including Essay and IR)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
In my practice test even in the new gmat exam pack that i bought i got 680-700, with verbals 36-39. I want 650+ , i was planning to apply for IE advance finance course but now i cant do that. Now i have to look at warwick, bocconi, cranfield MBA. Also, in my practice test, last 4 exam that i took before the real exam i took the entire cat. In the real exam in the beginning of the verbals i had a bit difficulty in concentrating but then i closed my eyes for a second and i was doing fine. In my 14th question i got a bold face and i felt a bit relaxed.
I always had problem with pacing in verbals in all my practice cats and i lived with the fact that i have to mark 5-6 questions towards the end. This happened mainly because of CR. I normally have a high accuracy in CR but i take around 2.5 minutes per question. Then 8 minutes for RC. Now i am really not sure what must have gone wrong. Is it pacing or my accuracy.
So my question is- what should be my next step.Can i improve in 1.5 months and what should be my approach.
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by [email protected] » Sat Dec 07, 2013 6:27 pm
Hi jasmine1984,

I've sent you a private message.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by jasmine1984 » Sun Dec 08, 2013 3:30 am
I have sent u a private message.
Thanks
[email protected] wrote:Hi jasmine1984,

I've sent you a private message.

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