Request suggestions on improving from 670 to 720+

[Dev1985]

Took GMAT test yesterday and scored 670 (Q49 V 33). I have been studying for GMAT for past 3 months and were scoring well in the practice tests.
Had score 720 in GMAT prep taken 2 days before the exam however actual score came much less .
I am planning to take the exam again in next one month. Any suggestions for scoring 720+.

Thanks!

I have completed all of the below for preparation.
1. Manhattan SC
2. Manhattan CR
3. PowerScore- CR Bible
4. OG 10 & OG 13
5. OG 11 - Sentence Correction


My test Scores:
25/05/2015 - GMAT Club - 670 (Q50 V30)
30/05/2015 - Manhattan 1 - 670 (Q45 V 37)
20/06/2015 - Manhattan 2 - 660 (Q45 V36)

27/06/2015 - GMAT Prep 1 - 760 (Q 50 V42)
10/07/2015 - Manhattan 3 - 650 ( Q44 V 35)
12/07/2015 - GMAT Prep2 - 720 (Q49 V 40)
15/07/2015 - Real Test - 670 (Q49 V 33)

General issues that I face is in reading and grasping the material. I tend to re-read the sentences a lot. I feel I am little slow in reading. I face this problem even in Quant and IR section. So, timing is one of the biggest concern that I need to work on. In the GMAT exam last 10-15 questions I felt I was not able to give proper time. And the last 3-4 questions were almost a blinder.

In GMAT prep exam, I committed maximum mistakes in Sentence correction, followed by CR and very few questions were wrong in RC.

Most question of verbal OG 11 and few questions of OG 13, I did over last few days before the exam, and the accuracy was very high, even for SC section. (some questions were repeat, helping to gain on time). But on the real GMAT I felt in 3-4 SC questions I felt it very difficult to decide between the two shortlisted options after the POE.

Please provide your suggestions. Thanks a lot in advance.

Regards !

[Jim@StratusPrep]

Seems like verbal is your issue. Tough to say what to do without seeing specific issues you had, but generally I would look at the verbal material and try to find the patterns in the questions. This is not something you can read in a post or a book, you have to get a feel for how different types of SC questions are proposed or what are the different traps in inference questions. Work on categorizing problems and error types.

Luckily you still have GMATPrep Exams 3 & 4, so use those.

[Dev1985]

Thanks a lot, Jim for your reply. Following is a brief analysis that might help uncover my problem areas:


General issues that I face is in reading and grasping the material. I tend to re-read the sentences a lot. I feel I am little slow in reading. I face this problem even in Quant and IR section. So, timing is one of the biggest concern that I need to work on. In the GMAT exam last 10-15 questions I felt I was not able to give proper time. And the last 3-4 questions were almost a blinder.

In GMAT prep exam, I committed maximum mistakes in Sentence correction, followed by CR and very few questions were wrong in RC.

Most question of verbal OG 11 and few questions of OG 13, I did over last few days before the exam, and the accuracy was very high, even for SC section. (some questions were repeat, helping to gain on time). But on the real GMAT I felt in 3-4 SC questions I felt it very difficult to decide between the two shortlisted options after the POE.

Please provide your suggestions. Thanks a lot in advance.

[Jim@StratusPrep]

I would go back over the SC questions that you got wrong and start to categorize them. You can use the categorizations in the back of the OG if you need help, but the point is to see what you are missing. Is it the actual grammatical rule or is it that you missed identifying the mistake? You will find that most of the difficult questions simply layer different combinations of the basic 7 or 8 rules tested.

[Rich@EconomistGMAT]

Hi Dev1985,

The GMAT is an event that you can train for, and RC is no exception. The passages often follow a common format that you can train yourself to read from and refer back to more efficiently. We actually helped someone on our blog with a similar issue recently, which you can check out here: https://bit.ly/1OkkgV1

Additionally, try supplementing your materials with outside reading from your favorite outlets and attack them like you would if they appeared on the exam. Not only is this good reading practice, but it's also an opportunity for you to choose your reading materials, which you probably know you don't get to do on the exam.

Best,
Rich