Hi Stacey,
I have attempted GMAT 4 times and my verbal scores have been 31, 27, 24, and 27. My Quant score has either been 49 or 50. I have decided to try it once more and achieve my target score of 42 in Verbal.
If I Sit quietly and focus then I get most of (>80%) my CR and SC questions right. I generally take 1-2 min for an SC questions and 2-3 min for a CR question for medium to difficult level.
Last 2 times I have been on track till for the first 17-18 questions but as soon as I get the 3 passage(4 questions) I lose the track. I get rushed because of the RC(100 % getting all the questions wrong in the 3rd RC) and after that because I don’t have much time left I have to rush to the SC and CR questions as well and skip the 4th RC, thereby my exam ends on a bad note.
My last attempt was on a 30th April and I was thrown off while doing the 3rd RC( honestly I wasn’t even expecting 4 RCs)
Can you please recommend me a Manhattan course that can help me. I really need some help.
I will go after the RCs now though I am not too bad at RCs when I get sufficient time but during the exam I get rushed and my accuracy goes for a toss.
Can you please guide how should i plan my study this time around.
Thanks a lot.
Regards,
Kshitij Garg
GMAT Forum
2 postsPage 1 of 1
- KshitijG61
- Students
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sun May 28, 2017 4:45 pm
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: How to improve my VA Score
First, great job on the quant. I know you're writing to me about verbal, but I want to acknowledge what you've already done very well for yourself!
When you say that you have been on track, you mean that your time management is on track? Your performance is on track (answering medium to harder questions)? Both?
Most people mean that their performance is "on track"—but they're falling behind on time, and when they get about halfway, they realize that they're 5+ minutes behind and then they start panicking, and then...things go badly after that. Is that what you mean?
In general, everyone should plan to bail immediately on a small number of questions in each section—generally 2-4 in your stronger section and 4-5 in your weaker section. I can't tell for sure from what you're writing, but it sounds as though you may not already be doing this.
Well, let me rephrase that. You are technically already doing it because you bail on RC when you start panicking.
So the thing to fix isn't to somehow learn how to do everything in the 65 minutes you have for the verbal section. The thing to fix is when you bail.
You are still going to bail—very quickly—on a small number of questions, but you are going to choose the best possible times to do this. And the best possible times are when the test gives you something that you know you're not good at, or that you know is really hard, or both.
Simply implementing this strategy can have a huge impact on your score—depending on how far you're dropping right now. Rather than have a lift, lift lift, then fall, fall, fall scoring trajectory, you'll lift to a decent level, though maybe not quite as high as before—but then you won't fall. The GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, so you'll end higher than you are now—and that means you'll score higher than you are scoring now.
By the way:
That's true for everyone, if we could take test untimed and in a less stressful setting. But the GMAT isn't testing whether you can get >80% right. In fact, you won't get >80% right no matter how much you study. That's just not how the test works.
Read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... lly-tests/
Then read this or watch the webinar linked at the beginning:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
Take some notes / think about what you learned.
Then read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
Again, take some notes and think about what you've learned.
Finally, thinking about all of the above, use this article to analyze your most recent MPrep CAT:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ts-part-1/
(Note: I'm in the process of updating this article to match the new, shorter length of the exam—but you can still use it to analyze your exams for now.)
Then come back here and tell me what you learned from your analysis and what you think you need to do to get better. You can cite data to help prove your case—but do tell me your analysis. Don't just give me the data. I'll tell you where I think you're on track and what I think you should do differently.
FYI: I will be traveling the rest of this week and likely won't be back online until next week.
Last 2 times I have been on track till for the first 17-18 questions but as soon as I get the 3 passage(4 questions) I lose the track. I get rushed because of the RC(100 % getting all the questions wrong in the 3rd RC) and after that because I don’t have much time left I have to rush to the SC and CR questions as well and skip the 4th RC, thereby my exam ends on a bad note.
When you say that you have been on track, you mean that your time management is on track? Your performance is on track (answering medium to harder questions)? Both?
Most people mean that their performance is "on track"—but they're falling behind on time, and when they get about halfway, they realize that they're 5+ minutes behind and then they start panicking, and then...things go badly after that. Is that what you mean?
In general, everyone should plan to bail immediately on a small number of questions in each section—generally 2-4 in your stronger section and 4-5 in your weaker section. I can't tell for sure from what you're writing, but it sounds as though you may not already be doing this.
Well, let me rephrase that. You are technically already doing it because you bail on RC when you start panicking.
So the thing to fix isn't to somehow learn how to do everything in the 65 minutes you have for the verbal section. The thing to fix is when you bail.You are still going to bail—very quickly—on a small number of questions, but you are going to choose the best possible times to do this. And the best possible times are when the test gives you something that you know you're not good at, or that you know is really hard, or both.
Simply implementing this strategy can have a huge impact on your score—depending on how far you're dropping right now. Rather than have a lift, lift lift, then fall, fall, fall scoring trajectory, you'll lift to a decent level, though maybe not quite as high as before—but then you won't fall. The GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, so you'll end higher than you are now—and that means you'll score higher than you are scoring now.
By the way:
If I Sit quietly and focus then I get most of (>80%) my CR and SC questions right.
That's true for everyone, if we could take test untimed and in a less stressful setting.
But the GMAT isn't testing whether you can get >80% right. In fact, you won't get >80% right no matter how much you study. That's just not how the test works.Read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... lly-tests/
Then read this or watch the webinar linked at the beginning:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
Take some notes / think about what you learned.
Then read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
Again, take some notes and think about what you've learned.
Finally, thinking about all of the above, use this article to analyze your most recent MPrep CAT:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ts-part-1/
(Note: I'm in the process of updating this article to match the new, shorter length of the exam—but you can still use it to analyze your exams for now.)
Then come back here and tell me what you learned from your analysis and what you think you need to do to get better. You can cite data to help prove your case—but do tell me your analysis. Don't just give me the data. I'll tell you where I think you're on track and what I think you should do differently.
FYI: I will be traveling the rest of this week and likely won't be back online until next week.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
2 posts Page 1 of 1