Am I worsening on GMAT?

Question

I took gmat on Jul 11 and got a 700(Q47, V39) on real thing! Tho the kind of courses and unis I desire, will need atleast 30 points more. Since then I did Advanced OG and MGMATs (all 5) but my Quant score on them is like Q42. Have I worsened? I had exhausted all official mocks in first attempt (Q47-Q50 in official 3/4/5/6)

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  ANKITAPATHAK . The exclamation point seems to indicate that you are fairly pleased with your official score. Are you sure you need to retest? As for your recent CAT results, Manhattan Prep Quant is often regarded as more challenging and time-intensive than official Quant, so a 42 might translate to a higher score. The same can be said of in-house GMAT Club Quant questions. I have known 50-51 scorers on the official exam who earned 44s right out of the gates. Why the discrepancy? In all likelihood, the questions are somehow different from those you may be accustomed to seeing and practicing in official material, just different enough to lower your accuracy and increase your time spent per question. That said, if your results from the five MGMAT mocks did not improve from first to last, then perhaps you have plateaued in your progress. It may simply mean that you need to spend more time breaking down why you are not arriving at accurate answers in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps you rely too much on plugging in numbers when formulas would serve you better; perhaps you approach questions too quickly, without assessing or writing down information given in the problem, and fall for a trap answer. In short, there are questions you will have to ask yourself and spend adequate time answering before you are likely to see an improved and consistent performance that translates to that 30-point increase you are seeking.

Good luck with your studies. (Keep going.)

- Andrew

LamboWalker · Answer

I honestly wouldn't worry about the score too much. Just focus on what questions you got wrong and perhaps learn new concepts that'll help on those problems. Maybe its time to revisit the error log. Manhattan quant is known to be much harder than the real deal I can advocate. For quant I found the OG questions to not be enough of a challenge and had to rely on sources such as Manhattan advanced, GMATclub and others. Oh and also silly mistakes can slash your quant score by 2-3 points.

ANKITAPATHAK · Answer

Thanks Andrew for taking out the time to help. Exclamation shows my sheer exhaustion- I am not someone who enjoys standardised tests and failing to improve has left me confused. I will definitely introspect my approach.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ANKITAPATHAK,

700 is a great start! 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 verbal and quant 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.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ANKITAPATHAK,

First off, a 700/Q47 is an outstanding Score, so you can comfortably apply to any Business Schools that interest you. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

There's certainly no harm in continuing to study - and you could pick up some additional points in BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. 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:

1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

If you took your Official GMAT at a Test Center, then you might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

rajatchopra1994 · Answer

ANKITAPATHAK

700!! a great GMAT score.

You already know where you are lagging, as Q47 is not your desired score. Your Target is Q50+.
I would suggest checking your ESR, in which topics you got more wrong answers. Prepare those topics First.
Try 700 Levels Question for Quant. Take Veritas & GMATClub tests as it is real to GMAT Exam.

Regards
Rajat

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Probably fair to say the best gauge of your GMAT scoring level is with GMAT Official Mocks (and the exam itself).

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello ANKITAPATHAK,

GMAT Club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, etc.

Your current GMAT score of 700 with a Q47 is decent! You can achieve your target score of 730+.

As a GMAT instructor, I will recommend taking our Free diagnostic test(Quant only)https://www.mathrevolution.com/diagnostic/dtExamMember and receiving a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas in Quant.

Time is precious and unstoppable at the same time. You can schedule a Free counseling session for 20 mins with one of our experts: https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session for detailed advice on your study plans.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

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