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I'm beyond frustrated

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I'm beyond frustrated

by gillyelephant » Fri Dec 02, 2016 10:56 pm
After hours and hours of studying for the past month, this is what I have to show for it: https://i.imgur.com/V51GHaj.jpg

I knew going into my retake today that Verbal was my weak point ever since the first time I took the exam 3 weeks ago. All I really tried focusing on these past three weeks has been CR and RC. Based on the ESR from my first exam, I got a 28, 33, and 51 in RC, CR, and SC respectively. Because of that, I became too cocky on SC and didn't focus on it much at all these past 3 weeks. I'm guessing that because my Verbal score decreased on the retake, that my SC went down.

I'm not going to give up until I get a 700+ but you can imagine how discouraged I am now. I'm applying for '17 full time programs, and the 2nd round deadlines for most of the schools I'm applying to is early January, which means I have to settle with this score for now unless I can squeeze in a retake before then.

I'm kind of venting here but I'm also looking for any advice. I'm willing to do what it takes to increase my Verbal score; I just don't know what that entails.
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by Bara » Fri Dec 09, 2016 9:49 am
You're almost there!!

Really, at this point it's fine tuning. Your verbal went slightly down the second time: WHY?

What materials are you using?

Do you understand and what content you haven't mastered?

The test is coachable. You need to understand what you're not getting right, and frankly, that is more difficult for you, the test taker, than it is for any expert outside of the test.

What have you done to study? Did you ONLY study the past month? You need to study SMARTER not HARDER! Which includes focused study on your weakest areas.

I know we offer evaluations, as I'm sure my colleagues offer as well. You might be best served to have someone look at what you're doing, or not doing, right.
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by [email protected] » Fri Dec 09, 2016 11:19 am
Hi gillyelephant,

First off, a 690/Q48 is a fantastic score (it's just a bit shy of the 90th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-an-mba-a ... t-f40.html

All of that having been said, GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Your 2 Official score results show that you essentially performed the same each time you took the Exam (+/- a few Scaled points). Since you retook the GMAT so soon after your initial attempt, it's not surprising that your scores are so similar - you likely continued to practice the same approaches as before and kept the same 'mindset' as before. You could have easily scored 700+ - and you could have picked up those additional points in EITHER the Quant or Verbal sections. However, at your current scoring level, the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to little mistakes; if you make too many of them, then a 700+ score simply becomes impossible to achieve. This is all meant to say that if you do choose to retake the GMAT, your studies really have to focus on eliminating little mistakes from your work.

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by Jeff@TargetTestPrep » Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:00 pm
Hi gillyelephant,

First of all, great job on the two 690s! I know you are aiming for a 700+ GMAT score; however, a 690 is a great start. Considering that you scored a 38V on the GMAT, you seem to have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of GMAT verbal. Thus, rather than starting with the foundations of GMAT verbal, you might find it useful to do some focused practice in Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Sentence Correction. The idea behind doing focused practice is that by completing many questions from one particular topic, you should be able to uncover any lingering weaknesses in that topic and thus raise your verbal score.

For example, if you are reviewing Critical Reasoning, be sure to practice a large number of questions just from Critical Reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. Once you complete that practice, thoroughly analyze your wrong answers to determine your weaknesses within Critical Reasoning and spend some time eliminating those weaknesses. Once those weaknesses have been addressed, move on to the next verbal topic.

Although you have a great quant score, you might consider continuing to practice quant, so you can gain a few more points in that section. Since you are scoring Q48, you probably can increase that score with a regimen of focused practice.

For example, if you are reviewing Number Properties, be sure that you practice 50 or more questions just on Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. The results of that practice will help you determine your weak areas within that topic. Once you find and fix your weak areas, move on to the next quant topic. If you are able to successfully locate and fix your quant weaknesses, you may be able to drive that score to a 50+.

If you would like some help determining your quant strengths and weaknesses, I welcome you to take my free [37-question quant diagnostic](https://gmat.targettestprep.com/free_diagnostic). After completing the diagnostic, you will receive a detailed analysis of your proficiency level in GMAT quant topics and have an opportunity to discuss your diagnostic results with me or another TTP instructor/coach.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to me directly. Let's make it happen!

Good luck!!

Jeffrey Miller
Head of GMAT Instruction
[email protected]

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