GMAT Verbal & Essays

Hi All,

This is my first post and its pretty disappointing:(

Last year I wrote my GMAT exam in the month of May. I did not attend any coaching classes. Before giving my actual GMAT exam, I gave 4-5 Mock tests(3-Manhattan Review , 2- PowerPrep GMAT). Following were my scores in those exams: 650, 660, 650, 690, 690. I gave all the exams at home with minimal breaks. My actual score turned out to be 630(Q47, V28). I wanted to break the 700 barrier. I failed miserably.

Due to some family responsibilities, I started after 1 year(May 2013)and not earlier than that, I started my preparation again. This time I focused completely on Verbal Section and started practicing all the different types of verbal questions. Before I started my practice, I went through the following material:

1. Powerscore Critical Reasoning bible.
2. OG13.
3. Manhattan SC 5th Edition.
4. Free e-gmat material available at e-gmat website.
5. Kaplan Verbal book.
6. My last Year's Notes and material.

After going through all the above material, I practiced for around 2.5 months.
Then I gave 5 mock exams before my final exam. My scores were: 690, 700, 710, 690, 700.
In all the mock exams my verbal score was consistently either 35 or 36. I was happy that I was able to break the 700 barrier in my mock exams with a better verbal score than last year.

I gave my actual GMAT exam today, I was very confident that I will be able to break the 700 barrier. But I am not sure what happened, I could not clear it. My actual score came. I got 650(Q-50,V-28). Verbal score was exactly the same as to what i got last year and both the times my actual GMAT score turned out be much lesser than my mock exam scores. I am not sure where I went wrong. I was able to finish all my sections before the time ran out. I finished the Quant section almost 8 minutes earlier than the stipulated time. I finished my verbal section 3.5 minutes earlier than the given time. I am not sure what should I do to get the desired result. Today's results have mentally drained me.

I am really in a desperate need to understand my mistakes so that I can correct them. I want to give another attempt before 15th November so that I can apply to colleges before their deadlines expire.


Can someone please advise so that I can identify what is it that I am doing terribly wrong?

Hi Rich.C,

Please find below my answers:

1. The 5 CATs that I took before my official GMATs were different every time. The only common mock test among them was Power Prep GMAT 1 in which I scored 690 before my first official GMAT and this time I got 710.

2. Both the times, I took my GMAT mock tests in the week leading up to my GMAT. 1 exam every day in the last week.

3. My overall experience is 6.5 Years, so I want to apply to ISB(Indian School of Business), NUS(National University of Singapore) and couple of universities in US.

Hi Rich.C,

Please find below my answers:

1. The 5 CATs that I took before my official GMATs were different every time. The only common mock test among them was Power Prep GMAT 1 in which I scored 690 before my first official GMAT and this time I got 710.

2. Both the times, I took my GMAT mock tests in the week leading up to my GMAT. 1 exam every day in the last week.

3. My overall experience is 6.5 Years, so I want to apply to ISB(Indian School of Business), NUS(National University of Singapore) and couple of universities in US.

Hi Rich.C,

Thanks a lot for your prompt reply. I am planning to give the exam again and as early as possible. So this time, I am definitely going to follow your tip of spreading my mock tests over the period of my preparation.

Hi Sumit,
I read your article and it more or less resembles my situation. I seem to have tied everything to improve my verbal score but nothing is working out so far. I gave my gmat and my quant score is 49 but my verbal is really bad. I generally used to get around 35 in my mocks but in the official gmat exam I ended up getting a 23. If you needed have found a way to improve your verbal please do help.
Thanks,
Rahul

Focus on your weakest verbal section and work over it. Work more on practice paper.
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