GMAT destroyed me with Score 580 (Q 48, V21, IR 7, AWA 5)

[Narendra008]

Hi friends,

After a 5 months continuous preparation, I appeared for the GMAT on 16th Oct. At the end of the exam, it was heartbreaking to see a score of 580 (Q48, V21, IR 7) . Even though I wasn't expecting a 700+ score in this exam, I wasn't expecting a 600- either.
Being an Engineer, I am quite comfortable with Quant section. But, Vebal section always kills me, even in mock tests. My preparation was as described below:-

For initial 2 months, I started with self-study. During this period, I covered some books such as Manhattan SC Guide, Manhattan CR Guide, OG Review 13 for Quant & SC only. For sentence corrections, MGPrep Guide was quite useful for concept buildup, but there are no practice questions. Same is true for MGPrep CR guide.

Then, I subscribed 'The Economist GMAT Tutor' with 3 months Premium Prep Plan. I enjoyed the 3 months study period with this. It is quite interactive, so I never got bored with study. I am a working professional, so do not get much time for preparation. Still, I used to spend 2-2.5 hours daily during week-days and 4-5 hours during weekends. I was quite comfortable & confidant with SC question while during preparation and during simulation tests. My accuracy with SC questions was pretty well. But, I was struggling with RC questions here.

During the whole preparation, I appeared for many mock tests (Detail is mentioned below).
In last 15 days before the real GMAT, I started practicing OG Review 13 Verbal questions (SC, CR & RC) and OG Verbal Review SC questions. During this period, I realized that SC is not a strong area I can consider. My accuracy level in SC questions was poor than that during previous 3 months preparation. RC questions were always among my weak areas. About CR questions, I was comfortable with easy to medium level questions, but harder questions were quite time consuming.
My practice test scores (datewise) were as follows:-

01-Jul-14: Economist GMAT Tutor Test#1- Score 590 (Q48, V25)
03-Aug-14: Princeton Review Test- Score 590 (Q43, V29)
10-Aug-14: Economist GMAT Tutor Test#2- Score 590 (Q47, V25)
31-Aug-14: Economist GMAT Tutor Test#3- Score 620 (Q49, V27)
10-Sep-14: Economist GMAT Tutor Test#4- Score 650 (Q49, V31)
20-Sep-14: Economist GMAT Tutor Test#5- Score 650 (Q49, V31)
01-Oct-14: Economist GMAT Tutor Test#6- Score 620 (Q49, V28)
04-Oct-14: Official GMAT Prep Test#1- Score 640 (Q49, V28)
10-Oct-14: Official GMAT Prep Test#2- Score 600 (Q50, V21)

During the last two tests (Official ones), I appeared with AWA & IR sections just to simulate the ideal test conditions.

My GMAT score was as below:
16-Oct-14 (2:00PM): Total Score 580 (Q48, V21, IR8, AWA5)
**During Verbal test, I guessed a total of 4-5 questions (including one long passage). During test day, everything was as normal as that on any other day.

In this forum, I would like to receive any ideas on how to improve Verbal scores to at least a score of 35 to 36 and how to manage 41 questions in given time frame (right now I am unable to attempt all 4 RC passages and generally skip one long passage).
I am planning another attempt in March'15 and before that I would like to improve all the 3 subsection in verbal section. I do not want to take any chance this time as my target score is 700+. For Quant section, I can manage myself to get a 50. But with verbal section, I am helpless (particularly, after the test).
Guys, please provide your valuable inputs.

Thanks a lot in advance,
Narendra

[[email protected]]

Hi Narenda,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as hoped. Unfortunately, the approach that you took (your methodology and combination of resources) was not enough to help you to hit your goal. One of the immediate problems that I notice is that since you were frequently skipping the Essay and IR sections on your CATs, you were NOT properly trained to handle all of the challenges of Test Day (including fatigue and endurance issues). Even if these CAT scores were based on FULL-length CATs, your Verbal Scaled Scores weren't high enough to imply that you would score V35+ on Test Day.

Given your score goals, you're likely going to need to spend some significant study time working with some new resources. Part of the task will be for you to learn some new tactics and practice them thoroughly and part of the task will be to break you out of all of the "bad habits" that you've developed over the last 5 months.

Thankfully, the Verbal section of the GMAT is just as predictable and standardized as the Quant section of the GMAT, so you CAN train to CRUSH it.

When are you planning to apply to Business School?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[Narendra008]

Hi Rich,

Thanks you for the reply.

I am planning to apply in Round-1 2015 (or, early action deadline 2015) and planning my next GMAT in March-April'15. So, I guess I have enough time period of 4-5 months for further preparation, particularly on Verbal section. After the gmat, I will require to devote enough time for TOEFL & App writing.
As I belong to competitive applicants pool from India, it would be necessary to score a 700+ in GMAT in order to secure the admission in a top 20 B-School. If you have any suggestions on Verbal Score improvement, please let me know.

Best regards,
Narendra

[EducationAisle]

If you have any suggestions on Verbal Score improvement, please let me know.

Hi Narendra! Our sentence correction book Sentence Correction Nirvana is perhaps the only book that offers a score improvement guarantee, and is especially designed for non-native speakers.

Please PM me if you would like to sample any of the major topics in SC (Grammar, Pronouns, Modifiers, Parallelism, ellipsis & comparison, Idioms etc.) and I can mail that section across to you.

The book is available on Flipkart and Amazon.in. You might want to refer to these sites, to see how readers have benefited.

[[email protected]]

Hi Narendra008,

Since you have a strong Quant ability, your focus during your studies should obviously be focused on the Verbal section (with a little bit of Quant practice, just to keep your skills sharp). Is there are reason why you're waiting until March/April to retest? With a V21, you have a lot of work to do, but I don't think that 4-5 months is really necessary. How much time do you think you'll have during a typical week to study? Do you expect the other areas of your life are going to be busy (work, family, etc.)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[Narendra008]

Hello Rich!
Thank you for the reply. I am planning to apply in R1 deadlines next year and my target would be top 20 B-schools in US. To improve my verbal score to a level of 36-37, I need to work very hard, particularly from current level of 21. I am assuming 4-5 months should be sufficient for this. In general, I can spend 12-13 hours in a typical week because of tight work schedule at office & other personal life activities. Can you please suggest me how should I proceed this time, particularly with Verbal prep.

Thanks..

[[email protected]]

Hi Narendra008,

The Verbal section of the GMAT is more about "tactics" than "content knowledge" (with the exception of SCs, in which it's necessary to know grammar and idiom rules to get most of the questions correct). So I'm curious about how you handle CR and RC prompts. What process do you use? What do you normally do on those types of prompts? What type of notes do you take?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[Narendra008]

Hello Rich,

RC is my weakest portion among all topics in GMAT. The accuracy level is quite low (~70%) even without time pressure. With time pressure, the accuracy reduces significantly. In the real GMAT, I don't get time to attempt all the 4 passages. Mostly, I used to skip at least one large passage.

CR is fine with low & medium difficulty level questions, but with high difficulty level questions accuracy level is significantly low.

Are there any trick(s) to improve these sections?

Thanks a lot..

[[email protected]]

Hi Narendra008,

There are a number of tactics that can be used in the Verbal section, and since the Verbal is as standardized and predictable as the Quant, you can train to master those patterns and crush the Verbal.

Pacing problems in the Verbal section are usually do to some "mechanical" problem with how you're working. The biggest problem for most Test Takers in your situation is that they re-read and re-read too often, without being strategic in how they read and the notes that they take.

You've listed a variety of GMAT study resources, but they either didn't teach you how to correctly handle the Verbal section or you did not do enough work to practice what they were trying to teach you. In my last post, I asked what "steps" you take when dealing with SC, RC and CR questions - can you walk me through what you do?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[varunnn]

Hi Narendra, I can understand how you feel. I've been there.

When I was in a similar situation, I started by attacking SC. For 2-3 days I only kept going through the Mgmat SC rules I wasn't able to grasp.
I also signed up for e-gmat verbal; this was a major turning point. I never believed in video lessons but this one was simply too good.
I also did 10-15 SC and CR questions every day from official material only.

For CR, try identifying the conclusion because usually that's what u are attacking and that's what the argument is talking about. Filter out unnecessary detail.
Focus on strengthen, weaken, assumption and inference questions for now. Read up negation test, fact test and causal arguments.

For RC my issue was reading + note taking speed. I tried reading faster and stopped taking notes, but my accuracy on main point questions took a hit.
So I then gave myself 3.5 to 4.5 minutes to read and take quick notes that will get me through main pt questions in 30 seconds. I hit specific questions in anything between 30-60 seconds.

A key lesson I learnt in CR and RC was that you should read every answer choice fully; don't rush through it. For every wrong answer tell yourself why it is wrong(takes 2 secs per wrong answer but accuracy goes up). Always reach an answer through elimination.

[MartyMurray]

Hi Narendra.

In the past I too was challenged by reading comp.

In case this will help, here's my strategy so far.

For one thing, I don't take any notes. I just quickly read the passages and actually usually find them interesting. In doing so I seek to notice a few things, among them the main point, in other words what the writer is getting at, and the structure of the passage, in other words, how is it organized.

During that first reading, I seek to understand how it all flows, and what part each section plays, without taking all that much note of detail. Details can be looked into later if this is necessary for answering specific questions.

So now I am ready to check out some questions.

If a question asks about the main point, I may already have the answer from that initial reading, and in any case I'll probably look over the passage again to find key things that confirm what the main point is.

If the question asks about a detail, I go back and scan for that detail. Then I rescan for anything related to that detail to make sure I am getting the correct answer, the doing of of which also may require process of elimination.

With a little practice I got much better at reading comp.

For resources, Veritas has some nice reading comp questions in their practice CATs and question bank. Also, for more official practice CATs go and find PowerPrep, the older version of the GMTATPrep software.