GMAT score 420 today, I am disappointed, How can I improve

Hey shovitdhar, I am sorry to hear that man. If it is of any condolence, I started off my GMAT prep with a 490 and after a month of studying I got to 590 and I am still trying to improve to the 700's so hang in there. You just have to study effectively. You can check out my blog and see how I started off.

Also, I started off focusing on Quant as well but I took some great advice from someone and I mixed up my study schedule with Quant and Verbal (you learn better if you mix it up). In terms of the books, I highly recommend the Manhattan GMAT Books (All guides except the CR guide). For CR, I am using Powerscore CR Bible and am proud to say that at one point in time, CR was my weakest part and now it is my strongest part after going through more than half of the book.

I think if you nail down each and every concept in MGMAT and also use Official Guide 11th and 12th edition as well as the separate official verbal and quant books, you will be on your way to scoring a much higher score. I hope this helps a little bit. Hang in there. Beating the gmat has a lot to do with patience, determination and persistence.

Sorry to hear about your disappointing GMAT experience. Take some time to absorb it but don't stay down too long. With the right preparation you can reach your goal. Right now you will get the most mileage out of improving your Verbal score. It might be a good idea to start there and then move on to the quant. You have the potential for a very big increase (20+ points).
As for quant you might be better served learning the concepts before you attempt more difficult problems. Q35 suggests that there are still fundamentals that you aren't comfortable with. To get a firm grasp on these basics I recommend using the Manhattan GMAT strategy guide. Doing a bunch of problems won't help you actually learn the material. Use the MGMAT guides to learn the material first, then do the assigned practice problems in the OG12. Also tackle the online question bank that comes with each MGMAT strategy guide. These problems range from easy to difficult. Once you are through those work on the GMAT Club tests. These are the difficult problems that will push your score to 45+.

Take a short break from studying to give your brain a rest. Create a study plan and stick to it. With these materials you will definitely see big improvements in your score.

Thank you for your advice. I think I need to take a break before I begin second preparation. I used to be very confident about my study plan, but I doubt that.

I need to ask you some questions:

(1) I have 1-2 hour for study per day and one whole day on weekend. How long do you think I can improve from 400 to 700+ ?

(2) what materials do you think I should use enough to reach 700+?

(3) should do the online full test like princeton, manhanten, kaptest repeatly? For example, if I score first time on princeton 400, should I repeat this test and try to score higher until I reach 700+? Is it neccessary?

I think I wasted too much time on various materials which cause me to lost myself. Simply concentrating on several materials enough for to crack the GMAT, right?

tracyyahoo: I agree with cheetarah that you have a lot of room for improvement and with the right focused prep you should be able to raise your score significantly.

I would caution you about jumping right into more practice tests though. It seems like your fundamentals in English could use some help (is it a second language?), particularly for SC. A good way to gauge yourself is to see as you work through Verbal questions, do you understand the explanations consistently? If they make sense and you can confidently explain to somebody why the correct answer is correct, you're on the right track. If there are times when they don't make complete sense though, doing more problems won't help. If that's the case, I would focus on strengthening your fundamentals (maybe with a good grammar book). Search these forums for other suggestions.

tracy,

While the score is definitely less, nothing to worry about it. Because you know you will have to move on and give your best try once again.You would have seen so many success stories of people who have had a bad first test score but then came out with flying colours. I think more than anything else this test would only show your present level of preparation and also areas of improvement.Yes as you said ,take some time off and start again with a fresh hope and focus to reach your goal.

Verbal is evidently your weak area so work on it. Try Manhattan SC for sentence correction and Powerscore CR for CR which will help you in understanding the fundamentals. Just be clear about what you want to do and I think rest will fall in place.

1) I honestly don't know how long it will take you to move from 400 to 700+. That's a very big jump. I would say it depends on how long it takes you to improve Verbal. As GMAT Koopa mentioned, it seems like English might be your second language. Improving your English grammar and comprehension skills comes before tackling GMAT problems. Read A LOT during your time off from GMAT preparation. This will help you build a foundation for what you will be studying. Read magazines, newspapers, and books. The more you read, the faster you will progress.

2) I recommend the Manhattan GMAT strategy guides. They cover the basics thoroughly and help you build upon them. Also use the Official Guide for practice problems. These are past GMAT problems.

3) Taking tests is not the way to learn the material. Learn the material and then use the tests to measure your progress. Taking the same test over and over doesn't do you any good. While you want to redo problems you got wrong, took too long to answer correctly, or simply guessed on, retaking the entire exam until you reach a certain score isn't going to be indicative of your ability or timing since you will already be familiar with many of the questions. Although the tests are adaptive they pull from a finite question bank so you are likely to see many repeats (although not in the same order).

Hope this helps.

Thank you GMATKOOPA,

It is my second language.

Should do the same test repeatly until I got 700+, does it help?

tracy: No, that won't help. See the explanation by cheetarah.

Manhantan SC stuff is not good I think.. There are no practice tests. Lots of stuff to remember, I will become very tired, I think it is not effective way to me.

I would rather focus on the real SC questions, then figure out the reason why choose this answer. I think I will do this kind of stuff more because it is practical.

When I'm the in test center starting to do verbal, at begin I spent 5 more mins on first SC question, I used to be quite confident at simple SC question, this time it hampers my pace doing proceeding questions which leaves me lots quesitions unread at the end then forced to randomly choose.

At middle of verbal test, I come across 2 full underline SC questions, I thought wao.... This time may be 700+
I never met 2 underline SC questions on princeton test and PREP1 test. I thought this time I might be going up to high score zone. Anyway, you know I got 410 which is perfect reflection of my first try on Prep 1.

Right now I don't know how to improve my skill. No teacher to teach me becase I lack of so many knowledge. lots of tests and materials can try but no good. No mood for practice GMAT.

I want to die.

Tracy,
Your post started with your every intention of improving your score and wanting to work towards that. If you feel that you are comfortable with something its better that you start working with that. We Take GMAT to do MBA post which you are always put in a challenging environment. Your Challenge is now to work on your areas of improvement. Feeling completely down by just this will not take us anywhere. Would suggest you to refer to GMAT study plans in this forum and chose the best one which suits you.

Thank you Chandu-4 gmat,

I have some of Chinese math material and test material need to review and take.

Too many study plan in this forum and in other forums, I will get myself in nowhere.

After I jogging while thinking for an hour in the Gym, I found that the best way to generate a study plan by myself because it suits the most.

I think nobody will help you evaluate this is correct way to do, that way is wrong. THEY DON'T KNOW. Just self-reliance I think

All the Best!

Hi ajith suresh,

To start, the other posts in this thread are over 6 years old, so it's unlikely that you'll hear from any of those posters. I suggest that you start a new thread and provide a bit more information about how you studied and your goals (as opposed to just piggy-backing on this old thread). There are a variety of Experts and other Members who'll be happy to offer you advice.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich