Aiming For 390 - 670 Improvement On GMAT In Two Months

Question

I started studying last year November, I paid for a 60 min, 5 sessions with a tutor, don't think that helped much. My tutor style was based on solving questions with me and asking questions on what I need him to focus on so I don't think his effort helped a great deal.

I believe that I need to strengthen my fundamental knowledge in Math and English, then get use to GMAT question trends and style. My score was very poor despite my marathon practice tests but I think I have learned how to build stamina. I need to improve my score ahead of a re-take of the exam on June 1st (About two months). Although I wasn’t consistent on my study habit, I skipped one or two days here and there, took a necessary vacation few days before the exam day. However, I am left with no choice so I need to jump start my preparation and bring this thing home by June 1st.

I need help from folks with similar issue from the past. I'd appreciate advice on how you were able to achieve your goal. I need help on study materials that I should consider in learning Math and English (What topics should I focus on for both) fundamental in preparation for the GMAT exam. What study plan should I adopt and how would you suggest I dedicate some time to GMAT daily?

Thank you for your time and advice in advance.
James
OO

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Bakingboju,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied in total?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) Is the 390 from the Official GMAT or from a practice CAT/mock? How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

ccooley · Answer

I'm going to assume that your 390 was on an official test, and that your scores were low in both Quant and Verbal. (Let me know if I'm wrong!)

In that case, I'd recommend starting with two books:
- Manhattan Prep - Foundations of GMAT Math
- Manhattan Prep - Foundations of GMAT Verbal

Stop taking practice tests for now - as you've learned, practice tests aren't a particularly efficient way to learn content (and aren't even the best way to learn strategy in a lot of cases.) Work through those two books and do the drill sets; make sure to leave some of the drills aside to review after you've finished the whole book. That'll give you the foundation you need to effectively learn by doing problems, which you can get from the Official Guide to the GMAT.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Bakingboju,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Given that you have been studying since November and recently scored 370, you need to look at HOW you have been preparing and make some changes, right? Based on your score, it’s clear that you lack the GMAT quant and verbal fundamentals you need for a high score. Thus, moving forward, you need to follow a structured and linear study plan that allows you to individually learn each GMAT quant and verbal topic, starting with the foundations and progressing to more advanced concepts. This process likely will take longer than just 2 months, so you may consider pushing back your GMAT. In any case, here is some detailed advice you can follow to improve your quant and verbal skills.

Say, for example, you are learning about Number Properties. First, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

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.

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 and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions 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. For example, let’s say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each question type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.

Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, it is likely that you will have to work on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not really a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning the grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
 
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. Likely, the main reason that Sentence Correction has not "clicked" for you is that you have not put enough work into developing your skill in seeing what is going on in the various versions of the sentence that the answer choices create. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
 
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answer were always the one that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
 
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
 
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off, and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently to extend your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you will then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.
 
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 my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Bakingboju · Answer

Below are my response to your question:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied in total - I have been studying since November but always skip days every now and then. So you can assume average of 3 -4 days and 2 hours a week 
2) What study materials have you used so far - I focus on OG practice question often and other few Manhattan book
3) Is the 390 from the Official GMAT or from a practice CAT/mock - The 390 score is on the actual GMAT exam 
4) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH) - Quant: 27 / 12% , Verbal: 18 / 18% , Analytical Writing: 4.0 / 17%

Goals:
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School - I am planning to apply in September
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to - I am targeting Kellogg and Booth part time program

Than you for your help.

Kunle

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Bakingboju,

From what you describe, there were a number of 'limitations' based on how you were previously studying. First, it appears that you were studying just 6-8 hours a week; many Test Takers commit to studying 2-3 TIMES that (and that type of commitment is often necessary to earn a big improvement in score). Second, it's not clear how 'structured' your studies actually were - if you were working through lots of practice questions, without focusing on learning Tactics or developing specific skills (that you can use again-and-again), then your studies may have been too disorganized to be properly effective. Third, it does not appear that you were taking practice CATs/mocks at regular intervals - so you were not properly tracking your progress. That type of work (and review of that work) is necessary to define the areas that you need to work on.

Thankfully, you have plenty of time before the Round 1 application deadlines for the Schools that you listed. That having been said, you've named some highly-competitive Schools, so a strong GMAT Score will be a 'must' for your applications. As such, you're almost certainly going to have to commit to a more structured, guided and lengthy Study Plan. Based on your Score Goal, you will likely need at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study.

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Bakingboju · Answer

Thank you Rich,

To answer your question, I am willing to commit 4 hours daily to study. I will split the study time in two hours interval, 2 hrs in the morning and last two hours in the evening. The only issue is that I need to submit my application by June 12th since I am planning a part time program towards September session. I can increase study time to 6 hours on weekends. All I need right now is a schedule and solid plan.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Posted from my mobile device

Bakingboju · Answer

Hello Scott,

I really appreciate the insights that you’ve provided. The content is extremely helpful. I will save your response and refer to them from time to time. However do you have a study plan in place for someone in my shoes? Thank you very much sir.

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Bakingboju,

With a June 12th submission deadline, you have about 2.5 months of potential study time. While you could probably improve a great deal during that time, there's no way to know whether that will actually be enough time for you to get to the 670+ "level" or not (since you will likely need more time to learn and properly practice certain subjects). As such, to get to your Goal Score, you might need more study time than you have allotted.

Given everything that you've described, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat 3-Month Study Plan to be quite helpful (and you could potentially finish that Study Plan in LESS than 3 months). We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an Account.

If you have any additional questions, then just let me know.

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

Bakingboju · Answer

Hello Rich, I have set up a free trial on your website. I am already overwhelmed with the materials on the website

. I will spend time on it today and decide if I want to go that route (A discount coupon would be encouraging). Meanwhile, what is an average daily study time you recommend with the EMPOWERgmat 3-Month Study Plan? Also do you highly suggest I focus 100% on your EMPOWERgmat 3 month study plan as the only material for my preparation? I think your plan is what I need to keep me consistent and dedicated. Thank you sir.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

https://gmatclub.com/forum/aiming-from- ... l#p2251713 Hi Bakingboju, Target Test Prep offers a very detailed quant study plan that will allow you to study in the manner I suggested in my previous response. Furthermore, since it’s clear you need quant help, I think TTP would be perfect for you. We also offer a full access 5-day trial, so you should check out the course and reach out to me directly with any further questions. Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Bakingboju,

Since each person's schedule is different, I find it easier to think in terms of weekly study time (as opposed to "daily" study time). Many GMATers will spend 15-20 hours a week (or more) on their studies, so that would be a reasonable amount to plan for. As you learn more about the Exam content, there will likely be areas that are easier or more challenging for you (and will require less or more time to work through), so there's a reasonable chance that you'll end up adjusting your weekly study routine as you get deeper into your studies. Considering the timeframe that you have described, focusing completely on the 3-month Study Plan would make sense. We offer discount codes to all members of GMATClub (through the Marketplace links), but if you have already enrolled directly, then email me your contact information and I should be able to retroactively apply the discount code.

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

Bakingboju · Answer

Hello Rich,

I have enrolled for the free trial. Here is my email address, [email protected]. I will continue with the free trial today and tomorrow then enroll.

Thank you.

Ade

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Bakingboju,

Great! Once the free trial has passed, I'll take care of the code.

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

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