Verbal score dip from mock tests to real test

[subramanian1408]

Hello!

I hope Stacey will take my question :)

I took the GMAT almost a couple of months ago and scored 720 (Q51, V35). This post should have come immediately thereafter but then I went into some kind of 'screw GMAT' mode :)

I took my first GMATPrep after practicing about 20-25 questions from each section in the OG, and scored 710 with 37 pts in Verbal.
I did a SWOT analysis and figured out that I was relatively strong in SC. I used Manhattan's SC guide to familiarize myself with Grammar rules. As I practiced more and more, I became more aware of the errors in the options and I could pick the right answer 9 times out of 10, spending about 40 seconds on an average per question.
Among the three verbal question types, RC was my second most strong point. I relied on the method of elimination to arrive at my answers and despite my slow reading, I was able to read a passage and answer 4 questions based on it in about 7 minutes. My accuracy was decent at 75-80%.
However, CR was a problem. In each of the 6 MGMATs I took, I struggled to get more than 8 right on 12 or 13. I easily spent ~ 3 minutes on most CR questions because I typically took a long time to simply read an argument and make sense out of it. I did not have a strategy through which I could get the right answer accurately. I tried to improve my reading speed but then lost focus on the crux of the argument. I only relied on eliminating options that didn't make sense to me, but they were sometimes the right answers! I accepted it as it is because I was scoring consistently above 38 in Verbal.
My Verbal scores in the last 3 MGMAT CATs were - 39, 45, 40 - all tests taken less than 5 weeks before the actual test.
I took GMAT Prep 2 three weeks before the test and scored 41 in Verbal.
On the day of the test, I felt I was doing very well. I was extremely confident about my SCs. I got stuck in 2-3 questions in CR but I decided to guess intelligently and move on. RC passages were heavy and there were 2 ambiguous questions. However, I was aware of what they were trying to test and I was confident of the answers that I marked. Ended the test with 1.5 minutes to spare. I was brimming with hope of getting a 49/40+ or 50/40+ split. I was shocked to see a 35 being reported as my Verbal score.

My question is - What am I missing? Is it possible that getting some wrong answers in CR alone or CR and RC alone could have pulled my score down greatly? Eg: getting 4 wrong in CR alone is worse than getting 2 wrong in CR, 1 wrong in RC and SC each?

I don't think more practice is going to help unless I am aware of where I am going wrong. How do I get better at Critical reasoning from where I am?

Thanks a lot!!

Regards,
Subramanian

[StaceyKoprince]

First: 720! Nice job!

Second, are you sure you need more? I would talk to an admissions consultant - you still scored 75th percentile on verbal. I don't think there's a school out there that will reject you for that reason.

See this:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... es-update/

If you come from a demographic that doesn't do especially well on verbal (eg, engineers), then you might be 100% totally fine. An admissions consultant would know about this.

But, let's say that you do have to get better. It's not the case that 4 CRs would be "worth more" than 4 questions of other types, no.

You describe sometimes spending 3+ minutes on CR. I'm going to guess that you, at times, let yourself go even farther, at least at first, on the real test (this is a common reaction to the stress of the real test - our weaknesses get exacerbated), and you sped up on some other ones out of that same anxiety (and a desire to make up the time), leading to some additional careless mistakes on RC and SC.

That would have pulled your score down. So your goal in a re-take is to make ZERO mistakes (okay, you can make one :) on SC and RC - meaning you never *rush* those and leave yourself open to careless mistakes. For CR, you take a stab at the 4 most common Q types (find assump, strengthen, weaken, infer) and any minor types that you find not too bad (if any). On the others (which will only number a few questions), you'll just guess and save all that time for the rest of the test.

That should get you into the 80s on verbal, which is more than enough for any school. (And, again, really 75th is enough! You could still get rejected of course but that won't be the reason...)

For CR:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... reasoning/