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TAKE IT HIGHER · 2009 July 10th, 03:27 PM

Hi All,
I gave my GMAT today and got a 650. I studied for about a month, which includes 14 days of dedicated study (took leave from work). My Target is 700.

I got the following section scores : Q44, V34

As you can see, my verbal score is not good. I had attended HighQ classes (8 sessions total) just to make sure I do everything that can help.

I am planning a retake in a month and would really appreciate any suggestions you can provide on my plan below or tips you can provide to get this extra 50! Just want to check through your experiences if the below should be enough.

I plan to take a 1 month unpaid leave, starting in a week or two. During this time, I will practice both math and verbal with major focus on verbal. I realise that the major issue with me is speed. If I take enough time for SC, critical reasoning and reading comprehension, I get correct answers for almost all answers (tested and verified this during OG practice). However, with time pressure I guess I screw up especially in critical reasoning and reading comprehension. I suspect that if I practice, the speed may increase.

During the actual GMAT's verbal section, I realised that I was short of time for the last 10 questions (10 questions in 13 minutes). I believe these last 10 minutes caused most errors.

Do you guys think a dedicated, continuous practice for a month will help in the speed issue (bcoz I am already in full momentum, I dont want GMAT to take a backseat again) ? Wheteher this dedicated one month plan will help is what I want to know.

For reading comprehension and critical reasoning, I practiced the complete OG once. For SC, I did OG and Kaplan 800 twice. I also did the Verbal OG(the purple book). What do you think I can do to improve my verbal score.

I have exhausted all questions in OG, should I keep repractising the OG multiple times or refer to many other books. The problem is if you do a question from a book more than twice, the third time you see the starting sentence of that question, you would know the answer; its no fun after that. So, how can I practice Official Guide so many times because many forums say OG is the best.

Sorry, too many questions. I am sure many would be facing these issues with verbal section.

Cheers!
~TAKE IT HIGHER~
(sound track of the movie "Over the Top")

Crack the nut · 2009 July 10th, 03:50 PM

Hi,
Still not a bad score.

Have you given any Gmatprep tests. how do you compare those with real Test ?

Any clue how many questions have you hit correctly in verbal ?

abhishek_mumbai · 2009 July 10th, 03:51 PM

Yes.. verbal section is quite challanging for me too..
All I can say is that stay active in this forum.. My accuracy rate was 50% when I started my preparations and it is close to 80% now - all credit goes to this forum and excellent posts.
You should consider reading notes of TM Titans..

TAKE IT HIGHER · 2009 July 10th, 05:36 PM

Hi Crack the nut, Abhishek,

Thanks for your responses.
I scored 690 (Q49,V34) in the 2nd GMATprep. I wont take the 1st gmatprep test score seriously because I gave it 15 days before the exam, was not that prepared for the test at that moment. I gave tests from 800score and scored 690-710 consistently. I think the verbal of 800score tests are not tough enough because I consistently got 41-44 in verbal for those tests.

In the 2nd prep test, I did 6 mistakes in SC, 3 each in reading comprehension and critical reasoning. I realised that and started studying for SC. I think I did well in SC in the real exam, only that it was time consuming. How much effort practice made you guys reasonably good (assuming that I refer to all the forums available as well)?

I don't know which answers were incorrect in the real gmat. About SC, I am pretty confident. I think about 10 questions in the end (1 reading comprehension, 2 CRs and 1SC) screwed up all. Its speed I need! I realize that in quantitative you can get a lot of answers wrong and still get 44, but in verbal, even if you get only 10 wrong, you may get a score in 30s.

I am really worried about the 1 month strategy. It better work. I don't think one needs an excellent vocab to crack gmat. Correct me if wrong. My spoken and written english is quite ok (I believe).

~TAKE IT HIGHER~
(sound track of the movie "Over the Top")

tkt · 2009 September 11th, 02:36 AM

I would suggest preparing over bit longer duration and even lesser time a day

2009 July 10th, 03:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
TAKE IT HIGHER I JUST got here. Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 2	Gave GMAT today - Scored 650 Hi All, I gave my GMAT today and got a 650. I studied for about a month, which includes 14 days of dedicated study (took leave from work). My Target is 700. I got the following section scores : Q44, V34 As you can see, my verbal score is not good. I had attended HighQ classes (8 sessions total) just to make sure I do everything that can help. I am planning a retake in a month and would really appreciate any suggestions you can provide on my plan below or tips you can provide to get this extra 50! Just want to check through your experiences if the below should be enough. I plan to take a 1 month unpaid leave, starting in a week or two. During this time, I will practice both math and verbal with major focus on verbal. I realise that the major issue with me is speed. If I take enough time for SC, critical reasoning and reading comprehension, I get correct answers for almost all answers (tested and verified this during OG practice). However, with time pressure I guess I screw up especially in critical reasoning and reading comprehension. I suspect that if I practice, the speed may increase. During the actual GMAT's verbal section, I realised that I was short of time for the last 10 questions (10 questions in 13 minutes). I believe these last 10 minutes caused most errors. Do you guys think a dedicated, continuous practice for a month will help in the speed issue (bcoz I am already in full momentum, I dont want GMAT to take a backseat again) ? Wheteher this dedicated one month plan will help is what I want to know. For reading comprehension and critical reasoning, I practiced the complete OG once. For SC, I did OG and Kaplan 800 twice. I also did the Verbal OG(the purple book). What do you think I can do to improve my verbal score. I have exhausted all questions in OG, should I keep repractising the OG multiple times or refer to many other books. The problem is if you do a question from a book more than twice, the third time you see the starting sentence of that question, you would know the answer; its no fun after that. So, how can I practice Official Guide so many times because many forums say OG is the best. Sorry, too many questions. I am sure many would be facing these issues with verbal section. Cheers! ~TAKE IT HIGHER~ (sound track of the movie "Over the Top")

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2009 July 10th, 03:50 PM	#2 (permalink)
Crack the nut I JUST got here. Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 27	Hi, Still not a bad score. Have you given any Gmatprep tests. how do you compare those with real Test ? Any clue how many questions have you hit correctly in verbal ?

2009 July 10th, 03:51 PM	#3 (permalink)
abhishek_mumbai Done with GMAT - 700 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pune, India Posts: 1,182	Yes.. verbal section is quite challanging for me too.. All I can say is that stay active in this forum.. My accuracy rate was 50% when I started my preparations and it is close to 80% now - all credit goes to this forum and excellent posts. You should consider reading notes of TM Titans..

2009 July 10th, 05:36 PM	#4 (permalink)
TAKE IT HIGHER I JUST got here. Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 2	Hi Crack the nut, Abhishek, Thanks for your responses. I scored 690 (Q49,V34) in the 2nd GMATprep. I wont take the 1st gmatprep test score seriously because I gave it 15 days before the exam, was not that prepared for the test at that moment. I gave tests from 800score and scored 690-710 consistently. I think the verbal of 800score tests are not tough enough because I consistently got 41-44 in verbal for those tests. In the 2nd prep test, I did 6 mistakes in SC, 3 each in reading comprehension and critical reasoning. I realised that and started studying for SC. I think I did well in SC in the real exam, only that it was time consuming. How much effort practice made you guys reasonably good (assuming that I refer to all the forums available as well)? I don't know which answers were incorrect in the real gmat. About SC, I am pretty confident. I think about 10 questions in the end (1 reading comprehension, 2 CRs and 1SC) screwed up all. Its speed I need! I realize that in quantitative you can get a lot of answers wrong and still get 44, but in verbal, even if you get only 10 wrong, you may get a score in 30s. I am really worried about the 1 month strategy. It better work. I don't think one needs an excellent vocab to crack gmat. Correct me if wrong. My spoken and written english is quite ok (I believe). ~TAKE IT HIGHER~ (sound track of the movie "Over the Top")

2009 September 11th, 02:36 AM	#5 (permalink)
tkt Eager! Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 39	I would suggest preparing over bit longer duration and even lesser time a day

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