Improved GMAT Score by 30 points

Treat bygones as bygones and start a fresh. The first place to start would be take a mock CAT. Post this, take out those books/course material that you have been following and go through the concepts again. You can improve both in the Quants and Verbal sections. I assume you already would have them, but if not, you can buy the Exam Pack 1 and 2 (the new one) and the Question Pack 1 from mba.com for additional practice.

Try to drill down deep in each problem type

SC: The questions test various concepts such as S-V agreement, modifiers, parallelism etc. Find out what troubles you.
CR: There might be certain types of questions that are troubling you. May be Assumption, may be conclusion, inference etc.
You need to find that out and then practice them
RC: This again can be drilled down into different types of questions and also different topics. See what questions and topics trouble you the most and then practice accordingly.

As an addition, start preparing an error log and keep a note of all the mistakes you made and the lessons you learnt from the problems. This will ensure you do not make the same mistake again

Have you completed the OG and the Verbal Review?

If that's the GMAT you're talking about, could you share your score history (and exam dates)?

Hi Tmoni26,

I'd like to know more about each of your attempts at the Official GMAT:

1) How long did you study before each attempt at the GMAT?
2) On what dates did you take each Test?
3) What were your scores on each (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
4) Can you list out all of the materials that you've used throughout your studies?

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

Hi Rich,
Please see reponse below to your questions:-

1) How long did you study before each attempt at the GMAT? -
-1st attempt was on and off study for about 4 months
-2nd attempt was full on dedicated study for 3 months
-3rd attempt was full on study for 2.5 months

2) On what dates did you take each Test?
-first test was February 2015
-second test was 19 May 2015 (after this, I was frustrated and did not continue with Gmatprep)
-third attempt was 12 April 2016

3) What were your scores on each (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
Attempt 1 - Q38, V27 - 540
Attempt 2 - Q44, V 27 - 590
Attempt 3 - Q44, V35 - 650

4) Can you list out all of the materials that you've used throughout your studies?
I think I have been round the block..lol
So for my on and off, I used GMATPrep now 60 day programme
Attempt 2, I combined info from the 60day programme with EmpowerGMAT
Attempt 3 was solely Magoosh and refreshing all the other notes I took previously

HI OptimusPrepJanielle and Atesh,

I have listed my scores above.

I agree with you to drill down on concepts...
I want to do about a month's study....to aim for about end of May retake

No major red flags here apart from the lack of improvement in quant (your score seems to be stuck at 44). Overall, you're really close to your target score. Going from V27 to V35 is probably harder than going from Q38 to Q44, and your verbal is in a good place. Therefore, you might want to focus on quant. If you've managed more than Q44 on your GMATPreps, a thirty point increase in 30 days seems possible. However, if the 44 and 35 are very close to what you were getting on your GMATPreps, you might want to take a little more time for this.

I'd advise you to give yourself another 2 months (of NOT "full on" study ) to sort your quant out completely. If you can do that, you should be able to touch (or cross) 700 (test takers normally aim for a "slightly higher than target" score on their GMATPreps). Take the test in May only if you're okay with a slightly lower chance of seeing a meaningful improvement in your score. What do you think? Will it be easy or difficult for you to push past Q44?

Hello AjiteshArun,
Thanks for your post
To be fair, the last CAT I took before the GMAT, Veritasprep, I got Q46, V34 (650)
On a GMATprep 2, I once got a Q49, V35 but on the Quant, I saw some repeat questions, even though I solved them
so my Quant is at about the 44-45 range,
So my thoughts are "where do I start from", I was trying to build a study schedule but I have not succeeded so far
I will also endeavour to review the errorlog regularly as against the day before the exam..lol
And finally, why not full on study...

Hi Tmoni26,

I've sent you a PM with some questions and additional advice.

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

Hah. That was because last year you stopped preparing after the second attempt. This time around you're so close to your target score that you might be better off going in with more than a 680 on your practice tests (also, I think you can get more than Q44 by working on just the basics, nothing fancy needed there).

I see you've mentioned GMATPrep 2. Get exam packs 1 & 2 if you haven't got them yet.

This was very helpful. Thanks.