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28 Aug 2019, 22:59
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hello,
I had taken the GMAT exam about a month ago with a target of 700 in mind but only managed a 660 (43Q 39V). Disappointed but not deterred, I decided to work doubly hard on my quant the second time around with the same target score in mind.
After about a month of relearning quant strategy from the manhattan books, I decided to use my friend's outdated Official Prep mock software (this was from before the exam got shortened) and scored a 720 in that mock (Q48 V40) and I was ecstatic! But I also knew that this wasn't a 100% accurate indicator because there were a handful of questions that I remembered solving in the Official Prep Starter Kit (1 & 2). I then decided to purchase the 3rd and 4th Official Prep mocks and ended up scoring a 680 (Q46 V37) and a 710 (Q49 V39) in them.
And so, when I ended up scoring a 670 with a combination of Q39 V42, I had no idea how to feel about it. What should my next step be?
I had taken the GMAT exam about a month ago with a target of 700 in mind but only managed a 660 (43Q 39V). Disappointed but not deterred, I decided to work doubly hard on my quant the second time around with the same target score in mind.
After about a month of relearning quant strategy from the manhattan books, I decided to use my friend's outdated Official Prep mock software (this was from before the exam got shortened) and scored a 720 in that mock (Q48 V40) and I was ecstatic! But I also knew that this wasn't a 100% accurate indicator because there were a handful of questions that I remembered solving in the Official Prep Starter Kit (1 & 2). I then decided to purchase the 3rd and 4th Official Prep mocks and ended up scoring a 680 (Q46 V37) and a 710 (Q49 V39) in them.
And so, when I ended up scoring a 670 with a combination of Q39 V42, I had no idea how to feel about it. What should my next step be?
29 Aug 2019, 03:01
Kudos
Bookmarks
Lamda
Hello,
I had taken the GMAT exam about a month ago with a target of 700 in mind but only managed a 660 (43Q 39V). Disappointed but not deterred, I decided to work doubly hard on my quant the second time around with the same target score in mind.
After about a month of relearning quant strategy from the manhattan books, I decided to use my friend's outdated Official Prep mock software (this was from before the exam got shortened) and scored a 720 in that mock (Q48 V40) and I was ecstatic! But I also knew that this wasn't a 100% accurate indicator because there were a handful of questions that I remembered solving in the Official Prep Starter Kit (1 & 2). I then decided to purchase the 3rd and 4th Official Prep mocks and ended up scoring a 680 (Q46 V37) and a 710 (Q49 V39) in them.
And so, when I ended up scoring a 670 with a combination of Q39 V42, I had no idea how to feel about it. What should my next step be?
I had taken the GMAT exam about a month ago with a target of 700 in mind but only managed a 660 (43Q 39V). Disappointed but not deterred, I decided to work doubly hard on my quant the second time around with the same target score in mind.
After about a month of relearning quant strategy from the manhattan books, I decided to use my friend's outdated Official Prep mock software (this was from before the exam got shortened) and scored a 720 in that mock (Q48 V40) and I was ecstatic! But I also knew that this wasn't a 100% accurate indicator because there were a handful of questions that I remembered solving in the Official Prep Starter Kit (1 & 2). I then decided to purchase the 3rd and 4th Official Prep mocks and ended up scoring a 680 (Q46 V37) and a 710 (Q49 V39) in them.
And so, when I ended up scoring a 670 with a combination of Q39 V42, I had no idea how to feel about it. What should my next step be?
Lamda,
Thanks for your message. First of all, congrats on your score. 660/670 is a good score and you should not be disheartened. It seems your verbal is on the stronger side and you need to brush up on your quant fundamentals and need dedicated practice on areas that need improvement. I feel you would be better off purchasing your ESR (Enhanced Score Report). The report will tell you how you performed test day and some other analysis such as time management, etc that would be a good place to begin with you for your next (and hopefully final) retake. You could easily hit your goal score of 700 (and probably more) if you can improve your quant by 7-8 points and keep Verbal around the 39-42 mark. Our best wishes are with you and Just do not give up!
Happy Studying !
29 Aug 2019, 09:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Lamda,
The good news is that 670 is not a bad start. That said,to improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you need to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.
Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.
You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you had to know to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.
So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find it helpful to read the following article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!
The good news is that 670 is not a bad start. That said,to improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you need to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.
Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.
You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you had to know to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.
So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find it helpful to read the following article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!
