Desperately need Expert advice! Please help

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Desperately need Expert advice! Please help

by haidgmat » Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:23 pm
Can someone please suggest ways to improve my GMAT score or the Verbal Score? I took my test couple of weeks ago and got a 660 (Q48 V33) My target is to get a 700-710+ and I only have three weeks to study before I take the test again. Please feel free to ask questions, make comments or point out errors that you may see. I must be doing something wrong or not doing something right.

First, I took the GMAC Prep test without studying any other books just to see where I stand.

06/08 GMAC I: 560(Q39 V28)

I fished the OG-11 after taking the first demoralizing GMAC I CAT. It took me about 3 months because there were unavoidable breaks in between periods of continuous studying. Then I took the GMAC II.

09/05 GMAC II: 630 (Q44 V32)

I went through the Quantitative Review, Verbal Review and MGMAT SC. Then I took started taking the MGMAT CATs. The scores are as follows.

09/25 MGMAT I: 590 (Q43 V29)
10/02 MGMAT II: 620 (Q37 V37)
10/03 MGMAT III: 640 (Q43 V34)
10/03 MGMAT IV: 640 (Q38 V38)
10/04 MGMAT V: 640 (Q42 V35)
10/06 MGMAT VI: 650 (Q45 V34)

While doing the MGMAT CATs, I was reviewing and revising topics I had difficulties with. I also finished Kaplan 800 while doing the MGMAT CATs. However, I totally skipped out the RC portions from Verbal review and Kaplan 800. I felt pretty strong in CR while doing OG-11 and felt strong about SC after doing the MGMAT SC however after taking the 6 CATs by MGMAT, the assessment report showed that the average accuracy of three sections in the Verbal were all between 57 to 58%.
I know if I can improve my Verbal score I can improve my overall score by quite a bit. My plan was to go over the Aristotle SC Grail and then MGMAT SC again while practicing the problems from OG-11 and Verbal Review. Then I was going to go over Powerscore CR Bible and do the problems from OG-11 and Verbal review. Then for RC: do Aristotle's RC-99 and of course OG-11 and Verbal Review.

For some reason, after taking the test, I felt like I did not go over the explanations to answers of the verbal questions thoroughly. I feel like I cannot apply what I learned from the questions I got correct or incorrect, to problems I do later on.

Any advice will be highly appreciated. Thanks a lot!!!
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by cbenk121 » Mon Oct 25, 2010 8:50 pm
haidgmat wrote:Can someone please suggest ways to improve my GMAT score or the Verbal Score? I took my test couple of weeks ago and got a 660 (Q48 V33) My target is to get a 700-710+ and I only have three weeks to study before I take the test again. Please feel free to ask questions, make comments or point out errors that you may see. I must be doing something wrong or not doing something right.

First, I took the GMAC Prep test without studying any other books just to see where I stand.

06/08 GMAC I: 560(Q39 V28)

I fished the OG-11 after taking the first demoralizing GMAC I CAT. It took me about 3 months because there were unavoidable breaks in between periods of continuous studying. Then I took the GMAC II.

09/05 GMAC II: 630 (Q44 V32)

I went through the Quantitative Review, Verbal Review and MGMAT SC. Then I took started taking the MGMAT CATs. The scores are as follows.

09/25 MGMAT I: 590 (Q43 V29)
10/02 MGMAT II: 620 (Q37 V37)
10/03 MGMAT III: 640 (Q43 V34)
10/03 MGMAT IV: 640 (Q38 V38)
10/04 MGMAT V: 640 (Q42 V35)
10/06 MGMAT VI: 650 (Q45 V34)

While doing the MGMAT CATs, I was reviewing and revising topics I had difficulties with. I also finished Kaplan 800 while doing the MGMAT CATs. However, I totally skipped out the RC portions from Verbal review and Kaplan 800. I felt pretty strong in CR while doing OG-11 and felt strong about SC after doing the MGMAT SC however after taking the 6 CATs by MGMAT, the assessment report showed that the average accuracy of three sections in the Verbal were all between 57 to 58%.
I know if I can improve my Verbal score I can improve my overall score by quite a bit. My plan was to go over the Aristotle SC Grail and then MGMAT SC again while practicing the problems from OG-11 and Verbal Review. Then I was going to go over Powerscore CR Bible and do the problems from OG-11 and Verbal review. Then for RC: do Aristotle's RC-99 and of course OG-11 and Verbal Review.

For some reason, after taking the test, I felt like I did not go over the explanations to answers of the verbal questions thoroughly. I feel like I cannot apply what I learned from the questions I got correct or incorrect, to problems I do later on.

Any advice will be highly appreciated. Thanks a lot!!!
Sounds like you have a pretty solid plan of attack, certainly a lot to tackle in 3 weeks, but if you have the time, it's certainly doable.

In particular, RC seems, to me, like an easy place to improve because the answer is almost always in front of you. Except in the case of inferences. If you can get RC to 100%, that's money in the bank, one area you know you can knock out of the park.

Additionally, here's a posting I made a while ago on approaching RC problems - I don't know your current approach, but there should be at least something you can take away from this.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/tips-for-doi ... tml#213652

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by haidgmat » Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:53 pm
cbenk121 wrote:
haidgmat wrote:Can someone please suggest ways to improve my GMAT score or the Verbal Score? I took my test couple of weeks ago and got a 660 (Q48 V33) My target is to get a 700-710+ and I only have three weeks to study before I take the test again. Please feel free to ask questions, make comments or point out errors that you may see. I must be doing something wrong or not doing something right.

First, I took the GMAC Prep test without studying any other books just to see where I stand.

06/08 GMAC I: 560(Q39 V28)

I fished the OG-11 after taking the first demoralizing GMAC I CAT. It took me about 3 months because there were unavoidable breaks in between periods of continuous studying. Then I took the GMAC II.

09/05 GMAC II: 630 (Q44 V32)

I went through the Quantitative Review, Verbal Review and MGMAT SC. Then I took started taking the MGMAT CATs. The scores are as follows.

09/25 MGMAT I: 590 (Q43 V29)
10/02 MGMAT II: 620 (Q37 V37)
10/03 MGMAT III: 640 (Q43 V34)
10/03 MGMAT IV: 640 (Q38 V38)
10/04 MGMAT V: 640 (Q42 V35)
10/06 MGMAT VI: 650 (Q45 V34)

While doing the MGMAT CATs, I was reviewing and revising topics I had difficulties with. I also finished Kaplan 800 while doing the MGMAT CATs. However, I totally skipped out the RC portions from Verbal review and Kaplan 800. I felt pretty strong in CR while doing OG-11 and felt strong about SC after doing the MGMAT SC however after taking the 6 CATs by MGMAT, the assessment report showed that the average accuracy of three sections in the Verbal were all between 57 to 58%.
I know if I can improve my Verbal score I can improve my overall score by quite a bit. My plan was to go over the Aristotle SC Grail and then MGMAT SC again while practicing the problems from OG-11 and Verbal Review. Then I was going to go over Powerscore CR Bible and do the problems from OG-11 and Verbal review. Then for RC: do Aristotle's RC-99 and of course OG-11 and Verbal Review.

For some reason, after taking the test, I felt like I did not go over the explanations to answers of the verbal questions thoroughly. I feel like I cannot apply what I learned from the questions I got correct or incorrect, to problems I do later on.

Any advice will be highly appreciated. Thanks a lot!!!
Sounds like you have a pretty solid plan of attack, certainly a lot to tackle in 3 weeks, but if you have the time, it's certainly doable.

In particular, RC seems, to me, like an easy place to improve because the answer is almost always in front of you. Except in the case of inferences. If you can get RC to 100%, that's money in the bank, one area you know you can knock out of the park.

Additionally, here's a posting I made a while ago on approaching RC problems - I don't know your current approach, but there should be at least something you can take away from this.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/tips-for-doi ... tml#213652
thanks for your post. Many suggest doing CR prior to RC while practicing. Is that what I should do? Btw: read your post on RC a couple of times and I think I learned quite a bit.