GMAT retaking strategy

[Q4Stacey&Ron]

Hello Stacey and Ron,

I need your advice in retaking the GMAT.

Last week I gave GMAT and scored 580 (Q42, V28). I wasn't shocked by looking at verbal score as my verbal score
on GMATPrep software was always in that range, although I scored much higher in MGMAT tests ... at around 34-39. I'm ready to put in efforts for my 2nd attempt, but I want to change my strategy. Clearly, the current strategy didn't work and I don't want to continue to follow failed strategy. Here is what I followed for my first try:

1. I'm MGMAT student
2. I've all the books provided by MGMAT, Princeton Review, Kaplan (didn't even touch)
3. I did DS/PS questions in Orange/Green book twice (had huge time gap between 2 tries - may be around 2+ months gap)
4. I revised SC/CR from Orange book 2-3 times, I didn't get chance to do or revise all the SCs/CRs from purple book.
5. I did all RC passages from Orange book - 10-15 passages/day
6. Lastly, I gave most of my tests in a row, back to back just before my actual exam. In last 8-9 days I took 4 MGMAT and 3 GMATPrep tests. My highest score was 650 on any type of test.

Here is what I think about my approach:

1. First of all, there was always gap in studies. I could never study 3-4 days in a row. I've a very demanding job and it requires to stay late at work or even work from home. That is the reason I focused on weekends to work on GMAT. Truly, it was exhausting experience. I was always feeling good about one thing is that I'm working on my dream. So I see the gap was not quite healthy because I was losing the momentum and forgetting the tricks/tips learnt.

2. Second, I took back to back exams, so there was no time to correct my weak areas.

3. Third, I did bunch of RCs in a day. That didn't increase my performance on RC very much. I just learnt how to tackle the problem, but didn't achieve the speed.

4. Fourth, I was too exhausted by the time I arrived at the exam. I can think of two reasons for the tiredness:

a. Exhaustive pre-exam study strategy - not to mention 4 hours (most of the times) long tests
b. My exam was scheduled at 4:30 PM. I thought it was a bad timing as I felt low in energy during that time. Plus, since I woke up, I was just thinking about the exam. Clearly I was stressed and I carried that stress till 4:30 PM. I think that is one reason for feeling tired (I was eating properly before and during the test)

5. Overall, weak in verbal. I found my accuracy at MGMAT SC is about 80-90% but GMATPrep SC is around 50%. Same with CR. I was always very confused with GMATPrep SC questions.

Please guide me in retaking GMAT strategy.

How should I proceed ?
How can I improve verbal score? Especially SC and RC ?
My target score is 700+. Is it possible to improve score by 120+ points ?
How much time (approximately) will it take to improve verbal skills ?
When is the right time to retake GMAT ?
What time during day do you think is good to give such a lenghty exam ?

I'm confused, but haven't lost hope. So I thought of turning to experts ! I've been reading your advice in other posts and I thought I can take help from you guys, I really value your advice.

Waiting for your response Ron and Stacey

Q4Stacey&Ron

[RonPurewal]

a few thoughts.

How should I proceed ?

at a minimum, you should make sure that your study techniques are congruent with a few basic observations about the test.

here's the most basic observation that you can possibly make about the test: you are never again going to see any of the questions on which you're practicing.
i know that sounds obvious, but too many students focus on the practice problems themselves. this is doubly important for quant, but it's important for verbal as well: you should not consider a problem "done" until you've extracted some kind of GENERAL TAKEAWAY from that problem.

if you need help extracting takeaways, you should try to find something that will fit into the following template, especially for CR:
"if i see ______ ON ANOTHER PROBLEM, i should ______"
the "on another problem" part is key. this will prevent you from focusing too much on particular words, phrases, etc., and will force you to generalize to reach conclusions that will be applicable to other problems.

on SC, on the other hand, you should concentrate on particular words - especially idiomatic expressions, which, unfortunately, need to be memorized one single idiom at a time.

How can I improve verbal score? Especially SC and RC ?

first, see above.

second, make sure that you can explain why EVERY wrong answer choice to EVERY problem is wrong. if you can't, then you should study the wrong answers until you can.
don't fall into the trap of only studying the correct answers. this isn't a very effective strategy, because, especially for CR, you'll probably solve problems by eliminating the 4 wrong answers much more often than by actually choosing the 1 correct answer.

also, for CR, you should develop a VERY LITERAL and VERY EXACT sense of exactly what is being discussed in the passage and what isn't. you should learn NEVER TO MAKE ANY ADDITIONAL ASSUMPTIONS OR ASSOCIATIONS.
this can be difficult, because it requires that you suppress your normal tendency to make assumptions and associations. for instance, if a passage says that a higher % of drivers aged 16-18 receive speeding tickets than of drivers aged 18-21, you CANNOT assume that such drivers speed more. that's a commonsense assumption, but you're not allowed to make it - and it's on exactly those sorts of fine-grained distinctions that critical reasoning problems often rest.

My target score is 700+. Is it possible to improve score by 120+ points ?

it happens.

How much time (approximately) will it take to improve verbal skills ?

we can't give you a definite figure for that. it depends not only on your personal learning curve, but also on the following factors:

* your ADAPTABILITY: you need to absorb what is in some cases an entirely new mentality to prepare adequately. for instance, as stated above, you must learn to be much more exact and literal than you're probably used to, and you also must learn to extract TAKEAWAYS from problems instead of just solving problems.
if you are naturally adaptive, then this change won't take long. if you're a creature of routine, you may take a month just to get into the correct mentality for studying in the first place.

* your FREE TIME: you mentioned that you don't have much. it's also important that you allow yourself a certain amount of time to unwind and de-stress; all work and no play will make you an ineffective student. DO NOT shortchange yourself in terms of free time. you should allow yourself at least 1 to 2 hours of completely unstructured time every day.

* your ATTITUDE: if you view wrong answers and failed problems as things to stress about, then you'll take longer to learn. if you view every failure as an opportunity to build a stronger foundation, then you'll learn much more quickly.

When is the right time to retake GMAT ?

depends on
* the factors listed above, and
* the deadline(s) at the business school(s) of your choice

What time during day do you think is good to give such a lenghty exam ?

this depends COMPLETELY on you. you should be aware enough of your own daily rhythms to make this call; it varies from individual to individual. for me personally, the best time would be something like 11pm-3:30am.

if you don't have any idea of the times at which your mind is more and less effective, you should keep an "alertness journal" for a couple of weeks, in which you record the way you feel and your competence at mental tasks at various times of day. (if you work all the time, this should be easy to calibrate.) be sure to record things like caffeine intake, hours of sleep, and food as well, as those things can have a tremendous influence on your mental effectiveness.
the results will be illuminating, and may even turn your whole life around.

good luck.

[StaceyKoprince]

Great post, Ron. I only have one thing to add!

You mentioned that you're an MGMAT student. If you were in one of our classes or used the self-study programs, you're eligible for a free Post Exam Assessment. This is a phone call with an instructor to debrief from your first test experience and put together a plan to re-take the test. If you qualify, contact the office right away to set this up (studentservices@manhattangmat.com or 800.576.GMAT).

I also want to add that you have done a great job of thinking about and articulating your potential problem areas - make sure to include that detail on the information you provide for your PEA so that the instructor has all of the necessary data to help you formulate the best plan for a re-take.

[akansha.nidhi]

I am a MGMAT Student too, from India. I also wanted to avail the Post Exam Assessment. I had written GMAT in August and I am planning to take it again, as early as possible . Can you please brief a little about how to avail the assessment facility ?

[StaceyKoprince]

The Post Exam Assessment is available only for students who have taken our course or done a certain number of hours of private tutoring. The system is telling me that you have not done that.

If that's accurate, and you are looking for some one-on-one help, then you can sign up for private tutoring (we do tutor online, so you don't need to live in the same city as one of our tutors). I will warn you: tutoring is quite expensive.

You can find more info here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/Programs/Private-Tutoring