Please help to crack GMAT .....

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Please help to crack GMAT .....

by SagarSk » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:40 am
Hello,

I took GMAT last week and got 570 (Q47 V22). I had prepared for more than 5 months along the way and i feel that i may have made many mistakes in my
preparation. First was not taking GMAT diagnostics or any prep exam for first 3.5 months. I focussed mainly on Manhattan quant and Verbal
books for preparing and not anything else.

I solved OG2018 only during the last month of preparation and verbal maybe with just 3 weeks before exams. The solutions that are provided
in OG are vague and they don't mention why the particular option is wrong . I did not focus on these things while going through OGs.

My first GMAT was scheduled for 10th June. With less than a month to go for the exam, I gave my first GMATPrep exam and I got 550. I came down to my senses and rescheduled my GMAT by 30 days. I had just 45 days to go by now I went thorough Powerscore for RC and 6th edition Manhattan for SC and RC.
Again I did not practice a lot of Verbal questions. I gave my second GMATPrep and scored a 660.

I took the GMAT exam on the 10th of August. After the Quant session, I was a bit disappointed as I could not comprehend some questions.
The final score was 570 (Q47 V22).

I really need to work on Verbal as well as Quant in some aspects and I really need a good online course to prepare completely for next 4 months.
I am targeting anywhere upwards of 720.

Regards,
Sagar

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by [email protected] » Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:59 pm
Hi Sagar,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day did not go as well as hoped. From what you describe, I think that while you worked through lots of practice questions, you did not necessarily focus on learning and practicing the proper Tactics (and those Tactics are what you will need to hit 720+ on the Official GMAT). Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you're looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) What type of study routine were you following? Were you studying a consistent number of hours each week or were you studying inconsistently?
2) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
4) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by SagarSk » Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:06 pm
Hi Rich,

Thanks a lot for responding so fast.

1. For the first 2 to 3 months I was consistently workings for 2-2.5 hours a day mainly working on Manhattan quant books.
The next 2 months was a bit inconsistent and it ranged between an hour or two and somedays none at all because of demanding work schedule.
I feel that i did not devote much of time working or analyzing on the Verbal questions.

2.I am now planning to take GMAT in December this year.

3.I am planning to apply for the fall of 2019 . The application deadline would be mid of Jan 2019.

4. Am applying for Rotman ,IESCE, ISB and Tepper.

My main focus now is to spend the next 4 months going through the Verbal part and improve Quant from 47 to anywhere to 50 or 51.

Regards,
Sagar

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by [email protected] » Mon Aug 13, 2018 5:39 pm
Hi Sagar,

With another 3-4 months of consistent study, you could potentially improve a great deal - you will likely need all of that time to get to the point that you are consistently scoring 700+, so you will need to be efficient with this next phase of your studies.

Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level; since your prior studies were book heavy, you will likely end up needing to invest in some new, non-book resources that emphasize Tactics and patterns in the Exam.

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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by SagarSk » Mon Aug 13, 2018 6:32 pm
Hi Rich,

You are absolutely right, the study for the past 4 months has not been consistent and i erred in many ways.

I can consistently spend about 2 to 2.5 hours a day and about 5-6 hours on a weekend. Earlier i did not believe in taking at least a particular day off in a week and sometimes the study rendered ineffective. I think a day off a week would be better to at least revise the things learnt in a week.

Do you think a break is necessary to avoid a burnout?

So overall i can spend 16-18 hours a week for studies.

Regards,
Sagar

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by [email protected] » Tue Aug 14, 2018 5:20 pm
Hi Sagar,

I agree that taking one day 'off' from your studies each week would be a good idea. In the broader sense, you should also be thinking in terms of the 'quality' of your study - and not the 'quantity' of it. With 16-18 hours of study each week, you could accomplish a great deal - but again, you will have to focus on learning and practicing the proper Quant and Verbal Tactics.

When it comes to studying for the GMAT, there are a variety of different options. Most GMAT Companies offer some type of free materials (practice problems, Trial Accounts, videos, etc.) that you can use to 'test out' a product before you buy it. We have a variety of those resources at our website (www.empowergmat.com). I suggest that you take advantage of all of them then choose the one that best matches your personality, timeline and budget.

If you have any additional questions, then just let me know.

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by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Sun Aug 26, 2018 9:30 am
Hi SagarSk,

I'm glad you reached out, and I'm happy to help. For starters, a Q47 is very good quant score, so nice job. That being said, since you have been studying for 5 months and are still 150 points under your score goal, you really need to look at HOW you have been preparing, and potentially make some changes. Furthermore, since you scored a V22, it's clear that you lack some of the fundamental skills necessary for a good verbal score. Thus, moving forward, you will want to follow a linear study plan and use a resource that allows you to learn the concepts and strategies related to Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension and to practice the concepts you have reviewed.

For example, let's say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each Critical Reasoning question type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type of question. If, for example, you get a Weaken the Argument question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific Critical Reasoning question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly. Follow this process for Reading Comprehension as well.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of Reading Comprehension questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author's Tone, etc. As you would handle Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice. However, keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such passages, begin reading magazines with similar content and style, such as the Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.

Sentence Correction, on the other hand, is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, it is likely that you will have to work on all three of those aspects, and it is also likely that the reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects.

Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not really a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning the grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.

This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. Likely, the main reason that Sentence Correction has not "clicked" for you is that you have not put enough work into developing your skill in seeing what is going on in the various versions of the sentence that the answer choices create. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns in the sentence clearly refer to nouns in the sentence? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.

There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answer were always the one that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.

As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices in a Sentence Correction question, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.

To improve what you do when you are answering Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. For instance, are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off, and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently that would have extended your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, you will want to engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your Sentence Correction skills improve, you will then want to practice with Sentence Correction questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.

Although your quant score is better than your verbal score, you may consider improving your GMAT quant score as well. To improve in GMAT quant, you can follow a study routine similar to the one I suggested for verbal. For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. As you practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the Beat the GMAT reviews for the best quant and verbal courses .

You also may find my it helpful to read my article about how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

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