ruhi_m wrote:Hi,
I am following the 60 Day program and I gave the Veritas practice test yesterday. Even though I got only 9 questions wrong out of 41, my score was 30.
How is the score calculated and what can I do to boost my score?
Thanks!
RM
Hi Ruhi.
First, regarding how the score is calculated, here's basically what is going on.
When you get a right answer, your level goes up and you get a harder question next. If you get that one right your level goes up again. If you get it wrong, your level goes back down a notch. So check this out. Unless you get consecutive right answers, your level won't go up.
So on that verbal section, probably you got up to a certain level, and then bounced up and down around that level. So even though you got many right answers, since you didn't get many right answers in a row, you didn't drive your level up. You got one or two right, and went up a level, and then got one or two wrong, and went back down, and so on.
As a matter of fact, it is possible to increase your score merely by focusing on getting longer streaks of right answers. From what I have seen, you are better off getting long streaks of right answers and thus driving up your level, even if you end up guessing on a few toward the end of the section.
Beyond that, generally, increasing one's verbal score takes getting better at noticing key details and seeing the logic of the questions. The GMAT is basically a test of vision and of skill in using logic to arrive at answers. So those two things are what you need to work on. Anything else you may have learned about handling GMAT verbal may be useful, but is less important than developing vision and skill in using logic.
To develop those things, you are best off doing verbal questions on an untimed basis, seeking to see all key details and to really get good at understanding the logic of the questions and answer choices. Read sentence correction answer choices from end to end, seeking to really see what's right or wrong about them. For CR questions, go beyond using strategies to really seeing the logic of why each wrong answer is wrong and each right answer is right. Can you prove the right answers to CR questions right? To get a high hit rate in CR you need to understand what's going on well enough to do that. For RC get good at not getting fooled into thinking that the passages are about things that they are not actually about and at seeing what the passages do and do not say.
Likely none of this is going to happen via your spending two to three minutes per question. I have seen people ponder questions for a half hour or more each, training themselves to see what they need to see in order to consistently get right answers.
Anyone with a reasonably good understanding of the English language can score high on GMAT verbal if he or she understands that it is a test of vision and decision making skills and trains accordingly.
