Completed a princeton review course, stuck between 510-570. What next?

Hi NikkiL,

Since you have been studying since August but have yet to break Q40, you likely need to make some adjustments to HOW you have been preparing for your GMAT, right? Moving forward, ensure that you are following a study plan that allows you to learn GMAT quant from the ground up. In other words, follow a study plan that allows you to learn each topic individually and then practice each topic until you've gained mastery. Let me expand on this idea further,.

For example, if you are learning about Number Properties, 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.

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 materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant courses.

You also may find it helpful to read this article about how to increase your GMAT quant score.

Feel free to reach out with further questions.

Hi Nikki,

GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function, most of your CAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 540 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. The variations in your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores are likely due to a mix of silly/little mistakes (that you either make or do not make) and lucky/unlucky guesses.

Statistically-speaking, raising a 540 to the point that you can consistently score 650+ will likely require that you commit at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. Thus, your Score Goal is a reasonably achievable Goal before the March 31st deadline you listed, but you will have to be really efficient with your studies going forward. It's worth noting that to hit a 650, you do NOT need to correctly answer any of the hard or weird questions on Test Day, but you do have to keep the little mistakes to a minimum on everything else.

1) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Hi Scott,

Thank you for taking the time and providing your valuable advice!

I am working on my weak quant topics as per your guidance, using all the info provided in the GMATClub Quant Megathread.

Since I can answer 500-600 level with a good accuracy and 600-700 are tougher, I would like to improve on my ability to solve higher difficulty questions.
I've begun to use the GMATClub question bank as a source for this practise.
Do you suggest that this practise should be done topic/concept wise as well?

Thank you.
Nikki

Hi Nikki,

A score below 600 indicates that there are certain conceptual gaps which you need to fill and that you are struggling with the application of concepts. The right thing to do is to identify your weak areas and work on them. Do not just practice questions without learning the right methods. Let me elaborate it to you.

The path ahead:

As you have taken 6 mocks, make sure you analyze them, go through the solution of each question and identify at which step you faltered. This will help you identify the flaw in your approach and thereby helps you to learn the right methods to solve the questions.

Quant:

• Identify the topics which you feel you need more exposure
• Identify if it's the concepts or the application you are struggling in a topic
• Make sure you move to the next topic only when you feel confident about certain topic
• After you learn the concepts of a certain topic, learn the right methods to solve questions of those topic and then practice a few questions to solidify your learning
• Start taking timed quizzes once you are done with all the topics

Verbal

And the same process goes for CR and RC as well. Practicing more questions will not help improve your accuracy in CR. I suggest you to first learn the right process of solving questions and then practice questions.

• Read the argument
• Identify the premises and the conclusion (Helps you identify the scope of the argument)
• Read the question stem
• Identify the missing link (You can do it once you understand the framework)
• Eliminate answer choices which are not inline with your pre-thought assumption

All in all, I suggest you to focus more on the process rather than on the questions. If you need any help with the study strategy, you can get in touch with me using the below link.

Hi Rich,

Thank you for taking the time and sharing personalised guidance, it's much appreciated.

I have a few doubts as stated below.

1. Could you please elaborate on what you mean by "It's worth noting that to hit a 650, you do NOT need to correctly answer any of the hard or weird questions on Test Day"? I ask this question since I've begun in-depth studying of the tough topics such as combinatorics, probability, mixtures and standard deviation. Do you suggest that I focus on other topics that may not be so hard?
2. How do you suggest I improve my accuracy on 600-700 level questions? Since I have a good accuracy on 500-600 level questions.
3. I've had some difficultly in gauging where my weak spots lie and feel unprepared in quant to take another practise test. Please suggest how I should go about understanding which topics need improvement.

Answers to your questions are below.
1) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
At the test facility
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?
I currently study roughly 5 hours a day for 6 days of the week (30 per week) and am willing to ramp it up, just need a good plan forward to execute.

Thank you again!
Nikki

Hi Nikki,

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

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