Need GMAT verbal strategy help

[sandeepm144]

Hi,

I have prepared for GMAT for about 2 months. I did cover all areas. I started giving mocks tests from MGMAT and GMATPrep . Here are my scores:

MGMAT 1 (June 2nd): 590 (Q42,V28)
MGMAT 2 (June7th): 600 (Q45,V29)
MGMAT 3 (June 29th): 630 (Q44,Q32)
GMATPrep 1 (July 1st): 660 (Q49,V32)
MGMAT 4 (July 4th): 670 (Q45,V36)
MGMAT 5 (July 6th): 600 (Q42,V32)
GMATPrep 2 (July 17th): 660 (Q50,V31)
MGMAT 6 (July 21st): 690 (Q45,V38)
GMATPrep 3 (July 24th):710 (Q 50,V35)
GMATPrep 4 (July 30th): 770 (Q50,V44)

GMAT (July 31st): 660 (Q49,V32,IR-7)

I am completely disappointed looking at 660 on the screen. After the last GMATPrep I was confident that I am in the 730+ range. But I am not able to understand what went wrong on real GMAT in verbal section. I finished my verbal section with right timing and I was at 32nd question with 18minutes left. To my knowledge I fumbled in 2-3 SC questions and 3 RC questions where I could not make right judgement between the two options I am left with after POE, completely dejected looking at 32 verbal score.

I am planning to give GMAT again in 2 months time can any one suggest me some strategies on cracking verbal (by getting a score of 40+).


Cheers
Maruthi Sandeep

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you had a disappointing test day. You still did a great job overall with quant and IR, so very nice job on that.

In the period from the 17th to the 24th, your verbal practice scores ranged from 31 to 38. Your skills could not have actually changed that much in such a short timeframe, so that kind of fluctuation indicates that something is problematic somewhere - and that, on the real test, you have to be prepared to score at the low end of that range unless you figure out and fix whatever the problem is.

There are a number of reasons why this can occur. One is timing, but it sounds as though your timing was okay. Another is mental fatigue. Did you feel any of the symptoms described in the article below?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

Obviously, you were experiencing some amount of mental fatigue by the last section of the test. The question is how significant it was. What did you do in the last few days before the test? (I notice that you took a practice test the day before, which is a big no-no. We don't recommend taking a practice test within 5 days of the real thing. You basically ran a practice marathon the day before the real marathon...not a good move.)

What did you do the morning of? Did you have the symptoms described in the above article? (Note: physical fatigue and mental fatigue are very different. Most of the time, we don't know when we are mentally fatigued, because our brains are too tired to notice it!)

Mental fatigue can lead to answering more quickly / not checking as carefully, and therefore making careless mistakes (but not realizing it, of course). It can also lead to the opposite - difficulty making decisions.

Do you think this could have been a factor in your case? (I'm guessing it was...)

In terms of where to go from here, can you give us more data on your strengths and weaknesses? You can use the below article to analyze your MGMAT CATs:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

BUT your most recent MGMAT verbal score was at the high end of your range. So if you can, go back and analyze your GMATPrep #2, which was quite close to your V score on the real test. They don't tell you anything other than what you got right vs. wrong, but give us information on the question types AND sub-types (eg, not just "I missed 4 CR" but "I missed 1 CR Weaken, 1 Strengthen, and 2 Inference"). If you can't actually identify what the sub-type was...then you have some work to do. :)

Finally, I just want to mention that a score of 40 on V is the 90th percentile - that is, it is a VERY high score (the Q and V scoring ranges do not use the same percentile scales). That's not to say that you shouldn't go for a V40, but you don't need a score like that in order to have a great overall score and to satisfy any admissions committee. Just keep that in mind.

[sandeepm144]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for getting back. I tried to answer the CR questions quickly during my test day. As you mentioned it might be due to fatigue.

Now coming to my GMAT Prep #2, the break up of 4 CR wrongs is -2 weaken, 1evaluate, 1-assumption. I generally get 50% of SCs wrong. The original GMAT SCs are very different from what I see in MGMAT CATs. Can you suggest me a way to fix my SC?
Coming to RCs, I get the inference questions wrong and most of the time I get struck with two options and ends up choosing the wrong one always, how to tackle this?


Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

First, read this and make sure you are studying in this way:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Okay, all 4 of your incorrect CRs were from the Assumption Family, so there's some work to be done there. This article contains some resources:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... reasoning/

For SC, I would recommend studying OG problems as much as possible - in addition to learning the rules backwards and forwards, of course. What materials have you been using so far? If you've already used our SC book, good. If not, you may want to consider getting it. (I don't normally push / mention our products...but pretty much everyone in the industry agrees that our SC book is the best. :)

Here are some other resources on SC:
http://tinyurl.com/scprocess
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

And here is an RC resource that will help with inference:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... rehension/

For all of verbal, add this to your analysis of problems (after you are done trying them):
1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
2) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
4) why was it actually right?

I recommend doing that on a series of problems that you've done in the past few weeks, first, so that you really learn a bunch of stuff. Then test yourself on new problems - and then analyze them, too! That analysis will especially help when you get stuck between two answers.

[sandeepm144]

Thanks Stacey. I will implement these things during my preparation this time.

[StaceyKoprince]

good luck!