620 - Exhausted all Magoosh EGMAT Manhattan. Dead end

[orangepoo]

hey

1. I started with giving my Gmat no 1 with studying OG - got a 530 V19
2. Joined Magoosh & studied Manahttan + Powerscore books in Verbal n Quant - learned concepts - gave GMAT no 2 - 600 Q47 V24
3. Joined EGMAT to improve Verbal - gave GMAT no 3 - 620 Q48 V28

What do I do??

I have exhausted all materials completely.
I did look at my weakness and improve upon them and also work on my strengths too.
All this over a year of preparation.


My target is 700+ . I know I can do it but I need something to push me through.
Should I look out for a private tutor. If so, Where and who?

Or should I take up any other course.

I wont die till I hit a 700. I am ready to work for that.
Pls Help me !!!!

[MartyMurray]

Hi orangepoo.

Your verbal section score has been increasing. So clearly you are doing something right. There are many more verbal practice resources out there. So you can keep going and keep that score increasing.

If you really understand the concepts, then likely to get your score to go up, you have to become more effective at using the concepts.

Often in the fog of concepts, question types and strategies, people don't see that GMAT verbal is a game and that increasing one's verbal section score is largely about improving how one plays the game.

Check out this post written by someone at GMAC.

https://www.mba.com/us/the-gmat-blog-hub ... -exam.aspx

So the upshot of all this is that now that you have learned the fundamentals, probably you need to focus on improving how you are playing the GMAT verbal game.

One way to do that is to slow WAY down and seek to get a high hit rate when doing all three types of verbal questions. I mean take ten, fifteen minutes per question, however long it takes to get maybe 90 percent of them right. Could you hit 90 percent if you were taking fifteen minutes per question? If not why not? The answer to that question will indicate what you need to do in order to score higher in verbal.

Basically the GMAT, especially the verbal section, is a test of VISION. So if you want to get more verbal questions right, you need to see things more clearly and notice details and red flags more.

For practice questions, you could use the e-book, not the destructive, bad karma paper, version of the OG for Verbal Review.

In any case, likely you need to go beyond learning about strategies and reading explanations to working on getting to the point where you can just tell what's going on yourself, explanation or no explanation, strategy or no strategy. One way to work on that is to look at every answer choice to every verbal question and figure out why each wrong answer is wrong and each right answer is right.

It's nice to see how determined you are. It sounds as if you are going to totally rock this test.

[[email protected]]

Hi orangepoo,

Raising a 530 to a 620 is a solid improvement. A 620 is also a solid score, so it might be enough to help you get into your first-choice Business School.

1) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
2) When are you planning to apply?

To score 700+, you're almost certainly going to need to improve BOTH your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores. Since you've been studying for a year though, and your 2nd and 3rd GMAT scores are remarkably similar, you've likely developed some 'bad habits' that will take time to fix (and replace with new 'good habits'). As such, the next phase of this process will probably take more time than you think it will.

3) How much time do you study during a typical week?
4) Which CATs have you used so far?

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

[orangepoo]

Hey Marty

Thanx for the input

[orangepoo]

Hey Rich

1. I am targeting the top 30 - 40 . I still havnt zeroed on which ones thou. But coming from India - the demographic score is pretty high and - I understand I need to have a 700 plus.

2. I am planning to apply for 2017 fall - so I will be targeting the Early Deadline this year.

3. I spend around 4 to 5 hrs a day studying.

4. I have used the Magoosh CAT and GMATPrep .

[[email protected]]

HI orangepoo,

If you're truly targeting Schools in the Top30 - Top40, then you likely do NOT need a score in the 700+ range. Once you better define which Schools you're interested in, you can research the Schools/Programs directly and get a better sense of what GMAT Score 'range' each Program tends to expect from its applicants. When you can name specific Programs, you can also ask Admissions Experts for advice (and perspective on how strong your overall application is, relative to those of other Applicants to the Program).

That all having been said, you still have plenty of time to study and retake the GMAT, if you chose. Based on everything that you've described, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Total Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients complete that Study Plan in well under 2 months, so the time commitment wouldn't be that bad. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an Account.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

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

[sukhman]

You can look for official questions to practice, since your fundamentals are fine , will know where you need to improve. Look for gmatprep old and new questions ( on gmatclub and this website ), There is verbal based Crackverbal( they are based in banglore) which have online ondemand course and give offcial gmatprep document( current and retired which consists of almost 500 SC , 300 CR and 300 RC questions . Buy official guides old and new for practice questions . When you are preparing for gmat , official questions should be your priority for practice , you can Buy gmatprep questions pack since your Quant score is okay there's GMAT focus based on Quant Buy GMAT Exam Pack1 . ITS NOT DEAD END ITS A START.

[ceilidh.erickson]

First of all - congratulations on your substantial improvement! You may not be as far along as you want, but you should be proud of yourself for improving significantly so far.

You talked about your real test scores, but you didn't mention anything about practice exams.

1. How many practice exams did you take?
2. Were your scores consistent with the real tests?
3. How was your timing on each section?
4. How were you tracking your mistakes?

Students often make the mistake of either taking too many practice exams, not giving themselves time to improve in between, or taking too few, not giving themselves an opportunity to practice time management & decision-making.