Retake Strategy to break 750 barrier

[akulk112]

Hi MGMAT Staff,

I wanted some help on my retake strategy. I am in an over-represented pool of applicants and 710 is just not going to cut it. Some background first:

GMAT 1st attempt prep:

MGMAT CAT 1: 680(Q46,V36) - 16th August 2015
MGMAT CAT 2: 690 (Q46, V38) - 2nd Sep 2015
GMATPrep 1:740(Q50,V39) - 8th Sep 2015
GMATPrep 2:720(Q51,V35) - 11th Sep 2015

Actual GMAT 1: 710(Q49,V37)(IR-8,AWA-5.5) - 12th Sep 2015

Enhanced Score Report Verbal:
CR -42(91st %tile)(Idk how...was my lucky day...i have never been this good at CR)
RC- 44(93rd %tile)(One of my better sub-sections)
SC- 27(46th %tile)(Idk what went wrong....generally i score decently in mocks...CR was my weak section in mocks)

GMAT 2nd attempt prep:

Kaplan TEST 1: 680(Q49,V34) - 4th Dec 2015
Kaplan TEST 2: 700(Q48,V38) - 21st Dec 2015

GMAT 2nd attempt: sometime mid/late Jan 2016

I know that i can increase my score by 20 points in the Quant section. I am starting MGMAT strategy guides from scratch again and OG. I have given myself 10 days for that. I should be in good shape for a 50/51 with that.

But i just can't seem to increase my Verbal Section. My target is (Q50,V44), but i am miles behind my target of V44. I am going through the MGMAT SC guide once again. But i need some help on how to get that last 30-50 points in the Verbal Section.

What I need is some help to radically change my strategy/preparation for the verbal. Any thoughts??

Thanks in advance

[StaceyKoprince]

Quant is your strong suit - that's the one that you need to max out at Q51. V44 is almost maxed out (V45 is 99th percentile) - crazy high. If you really feel you need a 750, I would go for Q51, V42.

You may also want to talk to an admissions consultant. It may be the case that getting yourself up to 730+ would make a difference. I don't think 730 to 750 is going to make a real difference (but I'm not an admissions expert). Anyway, it's just good to know what you really need. You might still go for the 750 (to be safe) but be okay if you hit 730.

So from your score report, CR and RC were clearly awesome, and SC needs serious work. You said that generally you do well on SC, so something went screwy. I'm going to guess that it was one of a few things (or a combination):
(1) You were rushing and / or mentally fatigued, and you made careless mistakes on things you would ordinarily answer correctly.
(2) You tend to rely on what "sounds good," and while you trained yourself well for the released OG questions / study materials, the current live test questions test other traps that aren't published / out in the world yet, and you fell into them.

I know it's been a while since you took that test, but do either of those resonate with you?

If you were experiencing some mental fatigue, save some during IR and essay. Go for a 5 on the essay and a 7 on IR next time.

How was your timing? Were you spending more time on CR and RC and then maybe rushing SC a bit?

For #2, just go back and review the actual rules, etc. When you're answering questions, make sure you can point to the error. You don't have to name the error, you don't need to know the grammar term, etc. But you can point and say: these words right here are where this answer choice goes wrong (not just "I don't know, it all sounds funny" <shrug>).

Finally, last time, you took a practice test the day before the real test. Next time, no practice test within 5 days of the real test. Do LESS as the real test approaches. You're about to run a marathon. Don't run a practice marathon the day before - you don't get any better and you just tire yourself out before the real thing!

For SC, first do make sure that you are using the process described in chapter 1 (and of course review all of your rules). Also, try these:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... st-glance/

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ce-part-1/

Let me know if you have any questions about those strategies.

For CR and RC, do whatever you were doing before - it obviously worked!

[akulk112]

Thanks for the suggestions Stacey.

Yeah. Q51,V42 would be more realistic.

I have spoken to an admissions consultant. She suggested that as i am planning only for Co-2019 and that i have the ability to improve the score to 750/760, it would make a better case than a 710 does.

I forgot to mention the timing split as per the ESR.
ESR timing(in minutes):
Overall Verbal: 1.83 mins
CR: 1.81 mins
RC: 2.26 mins
SC: 1.2 mins

Regarding the SC questions on the real GMAT I was at ease for about the first couple of SC questions. And as the level ramped up i started losing my SC strategy and relied more on "sounding good"/intuition.

As for mental stamina, i practice the tests in real test-like situation - all sections, all breaks as per timing, all rules adhered to.

On the real test, AWA + IR - finished in approx. 55 mins.(26mins + 29mins ) Quant(63~64 mins: Overconfidence led to a Q49 and not a Q50/51 ). As for verbal i generally guess answers to 2 questions(1 CR and 1 SC) to make up for lost time. But on the real gmat from question #37 to #41,i had to really rush as RC from #33-#36 was extremely tough, hence i probably had 5 mins for the last 5 questions.

Finally, yeah i took the last two mocks with 4 days of the real GMAT. I generally take two mocks at least 6-7 days apart(That way i get time to work on my weaker areas). I was just a little twitchy the day before the test and decided to take a test. BIG MISTAKE. I'll keep this in mind for the next attempt.

For RC, i am starting to find my mojo back. As for CR, it still needs loads of work.

[StaceyKoprince]

Ah, okay. So first, you had a really tough RC (which means you likely didn't get those questions all correct) and then immediately after you had to rush on the last 5 questions. So that's the last 9 questions - if you underperformed there, that would definitely knock your score down.

Okay, so when you hit a really hard RC, bail on a question next time. Which paragraph was the most awful? When you get a question about that paragraph, bail immediately. Then, you don't kill your time on the whole thing, and you actually have a shot at answering some of the ones that are about things other than the most awful paragraph.

And you were likely also experiencing mental fatigue at that point, which just makes things even tougher. So I stand behind what I recommended in my last post.

For RC, i am starting to find my mojo back. As for CR, it still needs loads of work.

Because it's been a while? That's okay - you did great on CR last time, so you can get it back. Literally go back and do what you were doing before!

You might also want to try building this:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/12/ ... stion-type

[akulk112]

Thanks Stacey. Let me try this approach for two weeks and then i'll take a mock to see how it goes.

[StaceyKoprince]

Sounds good - we'll wait to hear from you. Good luck!

[akulk112]

Hi Stacey,

Hope you are doing well.

Since the last time we spoke, I changed my approach for about two weeks, but the results were not better. I took another KAPTEST:

680(Q49,V35), IR-7, AWA-?

Let me get into more details regd timing. I followed the https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... anagement/ for Verbal timing.

Quant: 7 wrong on 37, primarily stupid mistakes. Confident that i take this up to at least a 50 if not a 51.

Verbal: Hmmm don't know where to start ...
V35: CR accuracy(6/14) RC(5/14) SC(10/13). Total Verbal accuracy(21/41)
i lost big time on my strongest section RC, but made great headway in SC.

Also, i noted a couple of things.

Till question # # incorrect timing
1-11 4 55 mins left
12-21 3 35 mins left
22-31 5 15 mins left
32-41 7(5 in a row)

Given enough time i can solve almost 80-90 % of questions correctly. I don't know what else to try. I was expecting to be around 710-720 by now so that i can give my GMAT by 15th Feb. Any thoughts?

[StaceyKoprince]

Quant: primarily stupid mistakes. Confident that i take this up to at least a 50 if not a 51.

How are you going to minimize careless mistakes in future?

The general answer is the same for everyone. Identify exactly where and why you made a particular mistake. Figure out what bad habit(s) you need to fix and what new good habit(s) you need to implement in order to minimize the chances of repeating that type of mistake in future. Practice until the bad habits are gone and the new habits are ingrained. Point is: it's not enough to just say, "Argh! Don't do that! Pay more attention!"

V35: CR accuracy(6/14) RC(5/14) SC(10/13). Total Verbal accuracy(21/41)

Accuracy doesn't tell very much in the absence of information on difficulty or timing. I'm not familiar with Kaplan's tests; do they also give info on difficulty and timing per question?

For instance, clearly it looks like SC is much stronger than CR and RC. But it could also be the case that, for some unknown reason, you happened to get more really hard CRs and easier SCs. That doesn't always happen, but it can sometimes. If your average difficulty for incorrect answers is, say, 700 on CR but only 600 on SC...then I don't care as much about the CRs you missed, but I definitely care about those SCs, even though you didn't miss as many. It's a lot worse on your score to get lower-level questions wrong.

Next, timing matters. Let's say that you were really fast on RC but you were normal or slow on CR. Well, then you might be better with RC than the % correct makes it seem - but you missed questions due to rushing / careless mistakes. (And, conversely, that makes the picture worse for CR - because you spent full or extra time but still missed a lot.)

Alternatively, what if you rushed on RC and spent the extra time on SC? Well, now I know why your SC performance was so good: you spent a lot of extra time there. But you sacrificed RC as a result. Maybe the problem is that you really need to work on efficiency for SC so that you don't have to rush on RC.

See what I mean? It's not enough just to look at what you got right vs. wrong. You have to factor in difficulty and time spent, too.

Given enough time i can solve almost 80-90 % of questions correctly.

This is a HUGE problem. But it might not be the problem you think. This sentence indicates that you are still prioritizing getting stuff right over time / mental energy spent. You can't do that and still hit 700+.

If you keep prioritizing getting stuff right, then the same thing will keep happening: you'll arrive at the end of verbal either low on time or too mentally fatigued or both. Then, you'll have an uptick in incorrect answers (as you did on the last test), which pulls your score down (as it did on the last test) and then you can't lift back up because the section is over.

Read these:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

Read them every day until you really start to internalize the messages and approach the test and your studying in the way described - ALL the time, every time.

And make sure that you are studying in this way:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

and this:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/07/ ... s-say-what

After you read (all of!) those, reply and tell me what your big takeaways and what steps you need to take in order to incorporate these concepts into your study and your approach to the test.

[akulk112]

Hi,

A couple of takeaways:
1.) My timing was all over the place. Fixing that by taking verbal sectionals. Still not where i want to be.
2.)Quant: making mistakes repeatedly in similar areas. Reviewing concepts more thoroughly
3.)Interleaving Studies: Now breaking study hours into Sessions(2 SC, 2CR, 2 RC) - 30 mins 15 questions each
4.)Not enough in depth review of mocks.

Working on the new approach for past 7 days.

Took one MGMAT mock today: MGMAT 3 : 690 (Q46, V38)
Verbal Analysis:
SC incorrect: 6/15(4 incorrect in 700-800 level, 2 in 600-700 level)
CR incorrect: 5/14(5 incorrect in 700-800 level)
RC incorrect: 3/12(2 in 700-800 level, 1 in 600-700 level)

How do i take it to a V40+?

Also, booked a date for GMAT for 15th March. Didn't want to miss out on the new testing scheme(Quant first, then Verbal, then IR and AWA).

[VK648]

Also, booked a date for GMAT for 15th March. Didn't want to miss out on the new testing scheme(Quant first, then Verbal, then IR and AWA).

Is this official? I didnt find this on the GMAT site? or am I missing something?

[akulk112]

Also, booked a date for GMAT for 15th March. Didn't want to miss out on the new testing scheme(Quant first, then Verbal, then IR and AWA).

Is this official? I didnt find this on the GMAT site? or am I missing something?

I received an email saying that i was eligible to try out the new scheme. So before booking a date, the application asks you to enter the sequence. This is by the GMAC but it is not posted on mba.com.

[VK648]

Thanks for the info. Do you know if this is available for everyone or some sort of pilot?

[akulk112]

Thanks for the info. Do you know if this is available for everyone or some sort of pilot?

From what I know this is a pilot.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, guys - yes, there is a pilot study going on right now. You can read about it here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... der-pilot/

My guess is that, if the pilot goes well, we will see this rolled out to everyone probably this summer.

Okay. Careless mistakes (on Q or V):
http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/ ... -the-gmat/

Of the verbals you missed, what did you think when you analyzed? Were any careless mistakes? (See link above.) Were any ones where you legitimately fell into a trap, but as soon as you saw the correct answer or read the explanation, you got it? Learn what you can learn for next time.

Were any a "narrow to 2 and then guess" situation? (By the way, also go find the ones where you narrowed to 2, guessed, and got it right.)

Then answer these questions:
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?

Were any just "nope, too hard, they got me?" Is there a way to identify that sooner next time so that you guess and move on faster, saving your time and mental energy for other problems?

[akulk112]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the tips. I tried a couple of them for the last 2 weeks. Did not give a mock in between. I just focused on why the incorrect answers were incorrect and why i had a tendency to mark them as such. This I tried primarily on SC questions. I was practicing CR as well.
For quant, my numbers/algebra needs works. I am missing corner cases in a few questions.

I gave a mock MGMAT CAT-5 : 750(Q51,V41)
Q51(5 data sufficiency incorrect, all 700-800 level: algebra/number/statistics need rework)
V41:(all from 700-800 level)
RC: 3 incorrect
CR: 3 incorrect
SC: 5 incorrect


Ok, now for the real concern. I knew 4 CR questions before hand, having read a lot of CR for the last two weeks. This causes a problem as i think this is an inflated score. I have my GMAT scheduled for 15th March(the new testing format QVRA). But i am having second thoughts as i am still not hitting 730+ consistently. I might miss out on the new testing scheme and also my verbal has to be improved. I still see SC as a concern.

And what do I do to get SC up to 90-95% accuracy?

Any thoughts will be really helpful.