My GMAT Preparation continues.... 640 (Q44 V34)

[hk]

Oh boy what a weekend it was!!! LAst saturday i took my GMAT and score a 640 (76 percentile) with Quant 44 (70 percentile) and Verbal 34 (69th percentile). Needless to say, i'm a bit disappointed with the score, but since i cant change the past, I've decided to control my future and hence I'm planning to re-take it in a month or a month and a half.

But the most difficult part of retaking is that i have absolutely no idea how to change my prep or how to improve. Honestly, I gave in everything that i had, and here is how i prepared.

1. I prepared for 3 months starting from Feb 2009.

2. I used the Official guide 11, OG verbal, MGMAT SC Guide, Kaplan Math work book, Kaplan 800 and took 6 practice tests from MGMAT, took the two GMATPrep tests twice, took one Kaplan test, one knewton test and one princeton review test. I also took 3 GMAT Focus tests.

3. I devised a pretty good game plan and stuck to it. Completed the all the questions from official guides and other books, Spent hours reviewing all the questions and figuring out why i made a mistake and also reviewed all the correct answers to see if i could have approached them differently.

4. I made an error log for all the wrong questions in Official guide and revisited them to see if i'm getting them right the next time.

5. Studied 6 days a weekand took a practice test every Sunday, followed by reviewing all the answers.

6. I prepared my own flash cards and reviewed them once/twice a week to keep my memory fresh.

7. I sincerely stuck to a timetable, and never let myself distract from preps.

So as you can see above i did all i could but then i couldn't nail the test. I'm determined to improve my score because the schools i'm targetting have an average GMAT score of around 680.

Here are my scores from the practice test (Forgot some scores):

GMATPrep 1 - 540
MGMAT1 - 560
MGMAT2 - 580
MGMAT3 - 650 (Q46 V33)
Kaplan - 640 (Q46 V33)
MGMAT4 - 670 (Q46 V35)
Knewton - 660 (Q45 V46)
MGMAT5 - 700 (Q47 V39)
GMATPrep 1 retake - 650 (Q45 V34)
GMATPrep 2 - 670 (Q48 V34)


Now can anybody please tell me how can i improve on my score or how can i approach the preparation differently??

I appreciate all your inputs..

p.s. oh and btw I was actually sick on the day of the test. I was coughing so violently that the guy at the test center came to me to make sure i'm alright and gave me a box of paper towels.!!! So thats one more reason for my score i guess...

[Stacey Koprince]

Received a PM asking me to respond. Well, it's certainly not ideal that you were so sick during the test! To others reading this, if you're really ill, you may want to consider postponing. I know we lose the $250 test fee, but better that than hurting your test score.

Your score was not that much lower than your practice tests scores (in fact, except for the one high 700 test, your real score looks like it was in about the same range as your practice test scores).

You don't mention what score you want but mention that the schools you like have average scores around 680. Is that your goal score? If so, you're basically right in that range already (the real test has a standard deviation of 30 points) and what we need to talk about is keeping your skills up and keeping you healthy so that you can peak on the date of your next test.

Or are you going for an even higher score? Then we need to talk about how you can get even more improvement than you already have - a different conversation.

Let us know which it is so we can advise you properly. You may also want to give us some more data about your prep and your strengths and weaknesses.

When you took the practice tests, did you also take the essays? Did you spend as much time and mental energy on the practice essays as you did on the real essays?

How was your timing? Did you generally move steadily through the test, giving appropriate time and attention to each question? (2m for quant,1 to 1.5m for SC, 2m for CR, 2-4m to read a passage, 1m for general RC questions, 1.5 to 2m for specific RC questions) Or did you have to rush at times and possibly make random guesses? If you did have to rush and/or make random guesses, on how many questions would you say you did that? Did you do it on a lot of questions in a row or were the guesses scattered? Alternatively, did you move too quickly and finish with a lot of time (>3min) left over?

On your last MGMAT test, look at the question lists and tabulate:
- problems on which you spent >30 sec above or >45sec below what you were supposed to on problems of that type
- problems below your level that you got wrong - eg, if you're currently scoring 650, look for problems in the 500-600 category

Also run the assessment reports and tabulate:
- areas on which you scored <50% correct
- areas on which you averaged >20sec above or >30 sec below what you were supposed to average
- areas on which there is >30sec (overall question categories) or >45sec (question subcategories) disparity in timing (in either direction) between the ones of that type that you got right and the ones that you got wrong

Pat yourself on the back for things on which you scored >50% correct (the higher, the better) and for things you answered correctly in the general timeframe you were supposed to spend. For things you answered correctly very quickly, do still pat yourself on the back, but know that doing something too fast increases the chances you'll make a careless mistake - so going too fast is not necessarily a good thing.

Note on some of the timing data: if your timing got messed up in the section (eg, you spent too much time early on and had to rush later on), then your data will be skewed because you will have been forced to do questions towards the end much faster than you'd otherwise have done them (possibly to the point of making random guesses in a few seconds). If this happened in either section, you'll have to dive down into the data for individual problems rather than use the assessment reports to do the work for you, because the average timing may seem to be okay even though you had a bunch that were too long and a bunch that were too short.

Take a look at all of that data and come back and tell us more about your strengths and weaknesses.

[hk]

Stacey,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply.. I apologize for not giving you sufficient data.

First, My target schools require an Average score of around 680 to 700. So thats my target score - 680 to 710.

Second, My strength is in the quant section, although i'm good with math and concepts, my main score-killer is the careless mistakes that i make. This was the case in most of the practice tests.

Third, My weakness is Verbal. I have read the MGMAT's SC strategy guide and have practiced all the exercises at the end of each chapter. CR was unpredictable and so was RC. Sometimes I get about 95% of them right and sometimes i managed only 60% of the questions.

Regarding my timing, My timing in the verbal section was fine, but at times, as in the real GMAT, i had to guess on the last 3 questions of the Quant section to complete the test. If i remember correctly, i had 3mins and 25secs when i finished my 34th question in quant. I take more time to solve word problems especially if a DS question is a word problem.

Now here is what i am aiming for: I would like to take my GMAT in 7 weeks and would like to score 680+. I'm willing to go thro' whatever it takes to get that score. What i dont know is how to approach it differently this time.

[Chinabean]

I think that for RC & CR, use the powerscore critical reasoning bible, it is the best (IMHO) book out there for those 2 parts. Also, although other people will say you shouldn't, use the LSAT test papers (are pretty hard to find but not impossible!!) as these questions are really hard and so once you can answer these, the gmat questions will seem much easier and also, your confidence will be boosted. For SC, check out the resources on here, i.e best I found were Sahil's notes, Amateur Notes and Spidey's SC Notes.

Hey, at the end of the day I only got 680 but with 5 days prep and these are the things that I used so with more time, you should be able to significantly raise your score. (Check out the "rout the gmat" post on here if you do not believe me!!)

send me your email and I may be able to help you with materials in some areas

Chris

[Stacey Koprince]

Okay, so lots of things here. First, if you're going for a 680 to 710, then let's assume that we want your practice tests to be in the 700 range by the time you take the real thing. That means that we're talking about some improvement above and beyond where you already where before - not just trying to get the score that you were already getting on practice tests.

On quant, you mention that it is a strength and you also mention making lots of careless mistakes. Perhaps cleaning up your careless mistakes will be enough to lift your score that last bit, or perhaps you'll need more work - I can't tell at this point. But you can get started on the careless mistake portion of things and see what happens to your score.

You can't afford many mistakes if you are going to score 700. Go back to the last few problems sets and tests you did and create an error log. Note down where the question is (so you can find it again easily), the specific error(s) you made (as detailed as possible!), WHY you made those errors (as best as you can figure that out), and what habits you could build to do things differently so that you minimize the chances of making any particular error again.

Keep this in a dedicated log and keep adding to it as you continue to study. If you notice that you made the same kind of error 2 or 3 times over the course of a few weeks, spend some serious time developing some new habit that will minimize your chances of making that mistake. If you aren't sure how to combat the tendency to make a particular kind of error, describe the error in a post here and ask for help.

Can you be more specific about your weaknesses in verbal? You mention having studied SC a lot. Are you stronger at SC now or are you still struggling? You don't mention how you have been studying CR and RC. If you don't already, you need some kind of book, course, tutor, or other resource that will teach you how to get better at these. Someone has already made one suggestion above and you can poll other students to find out what they used and liked.

You also mentioned struggling a bit with the timing on quant. I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you're in good company - most people struggle with timing on the quant. The bad news is that you're probably not going to develop the ability to answer everything the quant section throws at you in the timeframe that you're given. That's reserved for the uber-99th percentile test-takers (the elusive 800 scorers) - and even they sometimes see a question that gives them pause.

Now, it's actually not bad news that, no matter how much you study, you're still not going to be able to address everything in quant in the given timeframe. It's not bad news because the test expects you to get a lot of stuff wrong. So you still have an effective way to deal with the situation: when the test gives you something that's too hard, you say, "Okay, too good, you win that point." Guess and move on.

What you do NOT want to do is spend too much time on that question and then have to guess on something elsewhere on the test - something that you might actually be able to do if you had adequate time. When you're struggling with a question, there's a reason: the question is really hard. And it's okay to get that question wrong; it won't prevent you from getting the score you want! What will prevent you from getting the score you want is blowing your time on a hard question (that you're likely to get wrong anyway because it's hard!) and then getting another (possibly easier) question wrong due to lack of time. Multiply by 3 (or more!), as you mentioned having only about 3 min left for the last 3.

Oh, re: the LSAT. I took it in February and am finishing up training to teach it. RC is in many ways similar on the two tests, but CR (GMAT) / LR (LSAT) can actually be quite different. In fact, when I took my first LSAT practice test, I got a few LRs wrong because I applied GMAT logic; I hadn't started training yet and didn't realize that the LSAT writers were looking for something different. So I personally would not use LR LSAT questions to study for the GMAT. YMMV.

[hk]

Stacey,

Firstly i would like to thanks you very very much for helping me here. It was invaluable. This is the kind of advice that one pays $250 an hour for.

I'll try to follow the direction that you've shown me and work towards my score.

Thanks again.
HK

[Bara]

Thanks for the PM. I'm happy to give you some advice on your GMAT journey!

Ultimately it seems to me you need to identify what patterns of things you're getting right and wrong with the Verbal.

This involves the tedious task of seeing what a correct answer is, what the question is testing and what you put down. Create a chart of this, and you'll soon see some patterns reveal themselves. Obviously, when you work with someone who knows this material cold, you're paying for their ability to fly through your material with ease, and see patterns a lot more quickly. They might also be able to make some deductions of overall patterns that you can't see right off.

Now, once you identify some of this, I suggest you take a little bit of time to understand why a correct answer is deemed correct by the GMAC folks. Remember, the answer that is 'right' is really the one that is 'least wrong.' So: see if you can figure out why it is identified as such.

A third thing to keep in mind is that there are 3 types of test takers:
1) native english speakers who can tell the difference between writtten and spoken English
2) native English speakers who can't tell the difference between writtne and spoken English
3) Non-native English speakers.

Once you identify yourself in one of those categories, you willl have a different approach to how to address each type of question and answer strategy. For 1, you can be more intutive, and 3, more scientific. 2 is half and half. Which are you?

With re. to the LSAT: I've taught this test for 17 years, as well as the GMAT, so we do give some clients the RC and CR for practice. We don't just pass it out to everyone, however. It depends on the kinds of mistakes a client is making whether we pass on this other 'hurdle' for them to deal with. Not having a full grasp on your struggles, I can't say whether you'd be a contender for this. It does make the GMAT questions seems easier which is why we like it - - it feels like a 'clean' way to work with the questions and how to approach them, rather than try to find suitable 3rd party material, which is often not as well thought through or tested.

The last thing I'd say is that once you answer enough questions, you begin to 'learn' the GMAT the way we learn subject, or musicial instruments or sports. While alot of this is applied knowledge, much of it is also acquired knowing. If you've not gotten there yet, then you need to expose yourself to more material and practice.

The more you see, the more you improve. In the past coupe of days, one of our students who JUST took the test did ALL what we told her to do, and she came back with questions, and committed to an active dialogue with the material and her process. She engaged in a process similar to what I'm telling you to do, and her score improved 190 points. And this was her first time taking the test, with a real GMAT diagnostic test as the base score.

So scoring 70 points higher is doable...just chart your course and get help along the way! you're doing all the right things!

good luck! keep us posted!

[hk]

Thanks a lot Bara. I'll definitely keep all your advices and suggestions in mind and work my way. In the past month, i can safely say that i have improved a lot on several aspects and hopefully with my continued practice i'll be able to crack the gmat the next time which is not too far.

A truly appreciate your time and suggestions.

HK

[shivayogimath]

Hi hk,

I took my GMAT the first time and scored 640, Quants 46 and Verbal 33. I was very disappointed. I knew I could do better. I too was sick on the exam day. One may agree with Stacey that one should probably consider postponing the exam but $250 dollars is a big amount. Also, most top schools consider your high score and hence instead of forfeiting the amount you might take it and give it your best. Hence I decided to take the exam. I had prepared using Princeton, Kaplan, OG 11 and GMAT Prep exams like most of us. I knew I could improve my score and I decided to take the GMAT again. I analyzed what had gone wrong and came up with an approach. I went back to the basics of each topic and started preparing again. I especially put in a lot of effort in improving my verbal. I took the GMAT again in less than 20 days and scored 730, Quant 48 and Verbal 42. I have captured all my experience and my analysis in my blog, https://gmatbeeline.blocked/. Please visit my blog and see if it helps. I wish you the very best and I am sure you will get the score you are looking for.

Regards,
Shashi

[Stacey Koprince]

Hi, Shashi - question for you. Was this a long time ago (that you took the exam a second time in less than 20 days)?

Today, we're required to wait 31 days before we can take the test again. I'm trying to remember when GMAC instituted that rule - it was at least three years ago, when Pearson took over the test center contract.

[DanaJ]

Hi hk,

I took my GMAT the first time and scored 640, Quants 46 and Verbal 33. I was very disappointed. I knew I could do better. I too was sick on the exam day. One may agree with Stacey that one should probably consider postponing the exam but $250 dollars is a big amount. Also, most top schools consider your high score and hence instead of forfeiting the amount you might take it and give it your best. Hence I decided to take the exam. I had prepared using Princeton, Kaplan, OG 11 and GMAT Prep exams like most of us. I knew I could improve my score and I decided to take the GMAT again. I analyzed what had gone wrong and came up with an approach. I went back to the basics of each topic and started preparing again. I especially put in a lot of effort in improving my verbal. I took the GMAT again in less than 20 days and scored 730, Quant 48 and Verbal 42. I have captured all my experience and my analysis in my blog, https://gmatbeeline.blocked/. Please visit my blog and see if it helps. I wish you the very best and I am sure you will get the score you are looking for.

Regards,
Shashi

This is your third post today containing largely the same info through which you promote your blog. Please refrain from doing that! If you really want to promote the material you've compiled or anything like that, start by contributing to the community in some decent way. We do not tolerate spamming around here!

[Prajeen_v]

I think that for RC & CR, use the powerscore critical reasoning bible, it is the best (IMHO) book out there for those 2 parts.

send me your email and I may be able to help you with materials in some areas

Chris

Hello Chris,
Do you have soft copy of powerscore critical reasoning bible? If you have please email it to me at [email protected]
many thanks.

[Stacey Koprince]

Please remember that these materials are copyrighted - companies work very hard to make these materials and the money earned from sales funds future research. If you pass things around for free (not to mention: illegally!), the companies making all of this great material will not be able to afford to continue to do this research and improve the available study materials.

In short, please don't steal copyrighted materials!

[missionGMAT007]

Hello All,
As this thread is already discussing a case similar to mine, I would like to have your suggestions on my case also.

Please let me know whether I should start a new thread for this discussion. Thanks in advance.

About me: I am a non native English speaker, an Engineer.

I took GMAT on 11th of June and scored 510. Obviously, I was disappointed, but was not worried as most of my prep tests were in line with the actual test result.

Following are my prep test results and the corresponding hit rate,
Test Type -------- Date --------- Score ---------------- Hit Rate (right/total)
MGMAT 1 --------- 25/4/2009 -- 490 (q: 38, v: 20) -- PS 11/21, DS 5/14; CR 6/14, SC 7/15, RC 4/12
MGMAT 2 ---------- 10/5/2009 -- 530 (q: 32, v: 32) -- PS 6/21, DS 9/14; CR 7/14, SC 8/15, RC 6/12
MGMAT 3 ---------- 21/5/2009 -- 600 (q: 45, v: 29) -- PS 11/22, DS 8/15; CR 5/12, SC 10/15, RC 3/12
GMATprep 1 ------24/5/2009 -- 530 (q: 44, v: 22)
GMATprep 2 ------ 30/5/2009 -- 510 (q: 40, v: 21) -- PS 14/20, DS 7/17; CR 7/11, SC 7/17, RC 6/13
GMATprep 1 (2) -- 3/6/2009 -- 550 (q: 45, v: 21) -- PS 13/19, DS 10/18; CR 6/11, SC 8/17, RC 5/13
GMATprep 2 (2) -- 8/6/2009 -- 530 (q: 45, v:19) -- PS 13/19, DS 10/18; CR 6/11, SC 7/17, RC 5/13
Actual GMAT ----- 11/6/2009 --- 510 (q: 44 v: 17)


My performance in verbal was pathetic throughout the prep tests and I did even worse in the actual test.
Certainly, the result is no-where near my target score of 750. I really wanted to improve my score and I know that is not possible unless I improve in verbal.

First of all, I thank you all for your contribution in this forum and you guys really helped me in big way.

My preparation spread across two and half months. I prepared detailed plan of action and stick to it to the best of my abilities. I studied two hours in working days and 5 to 6 hours in weekends. I used, OG 11th edition, MGMAT sentence correction, Princeton Review crack the GMAT, Prepared my own flash cards, Used Eric’s flash cards, MGMAT SC flash cards etc.

My verbal experience

Sentence Correction
SC is arguably my weakest section in verbal and also the section in which I put maximum effort.
First, I studied MGMAT SC book, a great book, which explains all the minute details of GMAT verbal rules. I did all the questions in the end of each chapter, did all the OG questions corresponding to each chapter and reviewed each questions. I revised MGMAT SC and re-did all the questions in OG SC once again.

My failure rate in OG SC was as below,
------------- 1 to 50 -- 51 to 100 -- 101 to 138
SC ----------- 40% ----- 38% --------- 50%
SC (retry) -- 28% ----- 32% --------- 30%

My MGMAT test results show that I improved in overall verbal, especially in SC. I improved my verbal score from 20 to 32. After seeing my pathetic sores in verbal I started putting more effort in verbal reviews. Surprisingly, my experience in GMATprep was opposite. My verbal scores dropped to even worse scores. I did not see any results for the efforts I put, especially in the case of SC.

I did a mistake of targeting 2 minutes for a SC questions while practicing OG. I think it was too late when I found out that. Though I felt better doing SC in OG, my SC in GMATprep was worse. I was not even able to concentrate on the questions. I don’t know what happened. I was able to comfortably do the SC questions while doing the review though.

Overall, I feel that I am not strong enough in SC, my timing is not good enough, I may also have to take a different way of learning SC.

Reading comprehension
Though I felt that RC was not my problem area, I suffered badly in tests.
I did 90 percent of the questions in OG and RC questions from two LSAT tests. My success rate in OG questions were between 65% and 75%. I did not do much of review in OG questions. I did review only for the wrong questions. Needless to say, my timing was very bad though I improved over time.

My success rate in RC never exceeded 50% in any prep tests and also I did not even get time to read the last RC passage in any of the tests!!!

Overall, I feel that I need to improve my reading speed as well as my comprehension skills, especially during the timed condition.

Critical Reasoning
Quite frankly, CR is my strongest section in verbal. I studied its basics from Princeton review and did all questions in it, did questions from two LSAST tests. Also, did all questions in OG and my success rate in OG was between 65% and 70%. I reviewed only questions which I got wrong. Here also, I practiced with target time as 2 min per question which affected my overall timing. Initially my timing was bad though I improved over time.

My hit rate was bad in MGMAT tests but it was better in GMATprep tests. Also I was able to do all the CR questions correctly while reviewing GMATprep tests. In spite of all this, I feel that in my actual test I made lot of mistakes in CR.

Timing
In all my prep tests, my verbal timing was pathetic. Though I tried a lot I was not even able to improve an inch. Always I get 10 or 15 minutes for the 10-12 questions. Every time I did not get time to READ the last RC passage. My timing in all the sections was pathetic. I feel I improved only in the case of CR.

After my second GMATprep test I did not even studied quant as I was that pathetic in verbal. I put all the effort in verbal, but did not give any result. After taking my last GMATprep test, I was disappointed and almost made up my mind that I will take GMAT for the second time. I took one full day rest, I prayed, and made up my mind that I can somehow show all these prep tests are wrong! I took the test.

The Actual GMAT
Though I did not prepare the AWA section much (I did it only once, in the last GMATprep test), it went well.

I took break, used refresh room, and had some water.

I was very confident in math. Read each questions properly and attacked it accordingly. I scored 44 in quant.

I used my second break to have some fruit, some water and I stretched my muscles. I was not tensed at all.

The first thing I noticed after few questions is that I was not able to concentrate. I did not understand much of what I read. My pen stopped working; I got a new one that too stopped working. I know that the tip of the pen was getting dried up. I shook the pen and it started working. By the time I lost my concentration. The other thing that affected my concentration was the sound of AC. I know that the same sound of AC was not disturbing me during my quant section.

I had only 12 minutes for the last 13 questions (same situation as that of the prep test). I finished the exam by simply clicking some answers.

I got the score 510 (q: 44 v: 17).


What I want from you
Help… help…. Help…. What I should do. What I should not do. Your suggestions.

NB: I have started reading editorials from Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist, and Slate. I have started improving my reading skills and the best thing is that, I enjoy it

[Stacey Koprince]

I'm glad you gave a very detailed overview - that will be helpful as we figure out what to do.

It is a good idea to start your own new post, though. We don't want to mix up advice for different people. Also, this section we're in right now is the "I just Beat the GMAT!" section - for people who are already done with the test! Your post should be posted in the GMAT Strategy folder.

You can copy and paste your text. After you've reposted it in the GMAT Strategy folder, feel free to send me (and / or any other experts) a PM (private message) with the link to your post (copy the URL / address of the post and paste it into the PM). The experts can follow the link directly to your post and respond.