D day on Feb 21

Question

Hi, I am giving my GMAT test on the 21st of February next year. I just took a mock CAT(GMAT prep) and got a score of 620. I need your tips on improving my score, with just 55 days to go. My breakup score on the mock test is as follows, Q40, V35. One thing I noticed in the mock test is that I didnt have enough time to finish off the questions. I had to guess atleast 7 quant questions in the end(and got all 7 wrong

). In verbal I was a bit okay, I had to guess only the last 2 and got one right. I couldn't concentrate hard enough on the verbal questions, all my mistakes when i reviewed them were very silly. I really thought that I could've got most of them correct. How do I improve my speed and concentration levels for the entire 4 hours? I have gone through almost all the topics in both Quant and Verbal. i used manhattan books for verbal and for Quant, The GMAT Club math book helped me and I also took help of IMS CAT materials. Also I need to know the resources which will help me to improve my score by atleast 80 points. Please respond. Waiting eagerly for some advice. Thanks, Dewakar1165.

rishiraj · Answer

What is good about your score that inspite of score 620,which is quite an average score, you don't have a very unbalanced score.
Your query is quite generic and it's difficult to suggest where you may need to improve and the plan of action.
If you really want to break the 700 barrier, you should know which areas do you need to work on ? You have to determine whether you're particularly bad at one particular area while being good at others or you're just average in all the areas without being particularly good or bad at any area.
Just give a more refined view of your issue and I think we may suggest you what material to refer and what course of action to take

dewakar1165 · Answer

Hi Rishi,
Thanks for your prompt response.
After the test, I found out that I was very weak in DS. Most of the questions which I got wrong on the Quant were DS. As far as verbal is concerned, RC is a definite weak point. The thing is I am able to understand the passage clearly but answering the questions seems to be the problem. And when I read the explanations, I am like,"How did I miss that! :shock:

". I think I am rushing through answering the questions to save time and getting them wrong.

akshathbs · Answer

hey dude i wrote my gmat on 23rd of december and i scored 710(q 47 v 41)(first attempt , i prepared for 2.5 months) To be honest don't worry or get excited by ur practice tests scores they are useless

i never scored more than 36 on Verbal and less than 49 in Quants in any of my tests Though i changed my strategies in the last week ( ended up not studying quants at all and got really good at doing SC's and i also found ways to improve my RC skills ) so keep mixing and matching and be rest assured unless you are super-cool on the D-day there is no way ur going to score a 700+ if ur just a normal guy like me.

dewakar1165 · Answer

Hi Guys,
First of all thanks for the replies..

I took the free Kaplan test on saturday and got a score of 630 (Q39, V39).
Here's the further breakup of my scores.
Q - DS (11/14 correct)
PS (15/23 correct)
V - CR (10/11)
RC (9/14)
SC (12/16)
I had finished off the Quant with almost 30 mins to spare. At the end I thought that I could've taken a bit more time on some questions. And those questions were promptly wrong! 2 of the Quant errors were due to silly errors on my part! one question the options din't load fully so just had to click an unknown option.

The Verbal part I managed to finish just in time. still RC seems to be a problem area, getting 5 wrong out of 14 is a bit too much for me to digest! I am pretty happy with my CR though . There's still much room for improvement on SC though. That could increase my score by a good margin.

Overall I felt that I had done fairly well on the test. But the scores don't seem to indicate the same. 
Your comments on my performance will be very valuable to me. Looking forward to your replies.

Thanks,
dewakar1165.

BM · Answer

Since you have identified some weak areas, I suggest:

1.  Jeff Sackmann 's Math Problems  - Visit his website and purchase the DS sets for Fundamental (easy) and challenge (difficult). They're a bit pricey, but they help.
 2. GMATClub Tests  - The quant tests are extremely difficult, and this certainly applies to the DS questions there. These tests will definitely raise your score.
 3. LSAT RC Questions  - GMATClub has quite a few of them. Also consider purchasing the LSAT SuperPrep book, which has about 100 RC problems.

Also, make sure that you avoid answering and reviewing each question passively. In other words, don't simply answer the question, check the answer, and then move one. Read each explanation thoroughly.

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