530 to 600 - Is that possible

Hello tzeremakos,
I started studying for GMAT approx month and a half ago. For the first few weeks I only read the MGMAT books and reviewed all the quant concepts. First few weeks went by very quick and initially I decided to only spend 4 weeks studying quant then onto verbal for 4 weeks and another 4-6 weeks on both before writing the exam. Here's where I have gotten to so far.

Initially I knew almost nothing, spent first few weeks reviewing. Then the first week of Oct, i took the GmatPrep test#1, and scored a Q40, i skipped the verbal. I got a 400 because of skipping verbal. I studied 1 week only on quant on by myself and once again my score was Q40, and v20, so I scored a 510. I didn't make any improvements in my quant. So i enrolled in Magoosh, I spent a week studying very hard 4-5 hours for a week. Then took my first MgMat mock and score a Q44, and V29 for a score of 590. So in one week I went from 510 to 590 by focusing and going over the basics. I also spent quite a bit of time doing Magoosh practice problems. So far I have attempted 250 problems. My goal for next mock ( in 3 days) is 620, (q48) & v30. Which is ambitious but I am doing all that I can to make sure I reach it. I feel like its doable if I stay focused. Once I get there I will move onto verbal, and with a q48 & v35 should be able to get a mid 600s.

Here's what you need to do and I am sure you will get there in 2-3 weeks easily. Here's what you need to do in my opinion. You are at Q35, that's way below what you need to score. This means you are still struggling with he basic concepts. Sign up for Magoosh or Gmatpill or another program and review all the basic concepts. Also do 20-30 problems for each concept. Make sure you master the basics. You should easily be able to get 600 as long as you know the basics. Then onto verbal for the last 2 weeks, (even though I haven't started), i think a v26 is a decent starting point and if you can push it to V30, which is very realistic in two weeks following the same logic and same plan as Quant, you should easily be able to achieve a 600 on test day.

On piece of advice, don't focus too much on just one section, you are likely to experience diminishing returns once you hit a plateau and will require a significant amount of time investment to go past that point. For instance, if you are stuck at Q41 or 42, spent rest of the time on verbal and see if you can push it to V32 or 33. Even though you are not a native speaker, I am sure you have a good base considering you are getting v26. You should be able to make decent improvements if you stick to a sound game plan. Also you might have to spend a few hundred dollars to push yourself over the edge. Don't hesitate, think of it as an investment that will help you get to your goal. $100 for Magoosh or $100 for Gmatclub tests or $200 for gmatpill..... That's not a lot of money for getting into your dream program.

All the best

To agree with a lot of the advice above - having a plan with specific sections/skills to focus on will help you use your time most efficiently. Your test results should give you a clue of what areas you need the most help on (and if necessary, invest in a course, study support, or a tutor to improve in that section)

One thing you don't mention is whether you're practicing by doing actual GMAT problems. Reading is good, but it can only take you so far. And taking practice tests is a fairly inefficient way to study, for a couple of reasons. There's a lot of stuff on a practice test that you don't really need to study at any given time, and they're really designed to evaluate you, rather than helping you learn. Do you have any sense of what your specific strengths and weaknesses are (more specific than just 'quant' or 'verbal' or 'DS' or 'SC', etc)? If so, find a good source of problems in those topics (GMATClub has a lot of great problems!) and get working...

Hi mate,

I believe that is possible; moreover, not only do I believe so, but also I am a real example of such an improvement.
I had 550, then improved to 650.
I used different sources for my studies, yet I could see the difference only after I changed the way I was preparing. You can find a lot of useful material on this forum...especially how to identify your weaknesses, and even a lot of questions to master them...
You need to realize one thing - quality beats quantity.
If you try to solve a lot of questions, make sure that you do not move to the next one, unless you clearly understand how to solve every single question (sometimes in even more ways).