First diagnostic 515 (32nd percentile). Targeting 700+

Question

Just took my first official GMAT Focus mock with zero preparation and scored 515.

Verbal Reasoning: 80 — 56th percentile
Quantitative Reasoning: 78 — 50th percentile
Data Insights: 68 — 14th percentile

6 years of work experience, founded two businesses in freight logistics and tyre trading and NGO experience . Haven’t touched formal academics in years so the cold start was expected. I picked data insights to be the last section and I'm not used to 2hr exams anymore so the fatigue really hit me and this whole test just ended up being a non serious attempt. I ended up leaving a question unattempted. But this mock helped me realise i need to brush up my fundamentals and get back into reading.

Target score: 700+ for MBA applications targeting fall 2027. Schools I’m looking at include ISB, INSEAD, LBS, HEC Paris, NUS, and a few US T25 schools. Exam timeline: aiming for August 2026 — roughly 3 months of prep.

Data Insights at 14th percentile is my biggest gap and first priority. Verbal is my strongest section so less urgent work needed there. Quant at 50th percentile needs systematic improvement but isn’t catastrophic.

Im a first gen graduate so i don’t really have anyone to guide me through the process. Im not really sure which resources to pick and how to go about the preparation.

Appreciate any honest advice, especially from people who started in the 500s and broke 700.

kingbucky · Answer

Hi  bakasur ,

From my experience, I think you should have Data Insights DI at the last, after covering a fair amount of Quant and Verbal, by this I mean, covering or getting familiar with all major topics. Now, why do I say this ? It's because, the DI section just contains questions that mix both Quant and Verbal concepts. And, about your view with Verbal, Did you score 80 by making too many guesses - i.e. Do you mark the right choice having 100% certainty ? Now, your Quant score is okay for starting out, but you need to familiarize with all the concepts and try to hit a 70 percentile or a 80 percentile.

My advice will be to start Quant and Verbal simultaneously and start the DI section and sectional mocks and problem solving sections for Quant and Verbal.

All the best in your prep ! Use the GMATClub as your most valuable resource. And consider TTP Self Study course - it personally resonated with me.

- Kingbucky

gchandana · Answer

Hi  bakasur ,

Adding to what  kingbucky  has mentioned, to decide whether you are good at some concept or section, you want to make sure you got the answer correct for the right reasons. If not, you can work them.

Also, since you mentioned that you are not used to a 2-hour-long exam and DI was your last section, it could also mean that fatigue was the reason rather than a knowledge gap. Again, you would have to analyse the score report for this.

Keeping these aside, you may want to brush up on your quant concepts or learn them again from scratch. Depending on that, see if you would want to sign up for a self-study course or sign up for a tutor. Based on that, you could check reviews for courses and tutors and decide on one. Also, for courses, almost every course has free trials, so you can check them out and evaluate. The same goes for tutors; they would most probably have one free consultation.
Also, we have free YouTube playlists; check them out too (on the GMAT Club YouTube page).
Definitely recommend keeping GMAT Club as one of the resources, because you get a lot of free material here, and also you can reach out to experts conveniently.

Please feel free to reach out to anyone or post here.
 
P.S. You can check out this  post , you can study plans, and other resources.

Hope this helps!
All the best!

Archit3110 · Answer

Use GC tests & give official mocks when you have prepared for exam.. for preparation use official books

Edskore · Answer

That DI score at 14th percentile is the story here. I had almost the same split in my early mocks - decent verbal, okayish quant, and a DI section I was basically treating as an afterthought. Big mistake.

Three months is enough time if you're strategic about what you attack first. Here's how I'd think about it given your specific breakdown:

The DI gap is your biggest lever. People underestimate how much Data Insights can swing the total score on GMAT Focus Edition. Multi-Source Reasoning and Graphs and Tables are the two sub-types that trip up most people who haven't explicitly practiced them. They're not harder than quant - they just require a different reading style. You need to cross-check information across sources rather than solve a single clean problem. Start there. Give DI at least 30-40% of your study time in the first month.

For Quant at 50th percentile, the issue at that level is usually one of two things: weak foundations in a specific area (number properties, fractions, and rates are the usual culprits), or poor time management that forces guesses on questions you actually know. Figure out which one it is by reviewing your wrong answers and asking whether you understood the concept after the fact or were completely lost.

Verbal at 56th is usable. Don't ignore it, but don't over-invest either.

One thing I'd add specifically for you - 6 years out of formal academics means the DI struggle is probably not conceptual, it's more about reading endurance and switching mental modes quickly. The fix is timed practice with review, not just more exposure to questions.

For resources: official GMAT Focus prep materials are non-negotiable for realistic difficulty calibration. The GMAT Club question bank for DI is solid for volume practice.

You've got the work ethic (founding two businesses is not nothing). Apply it with structure and 700+ by August is very achievable.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi bakasur,

I'd actually recommend focusing on Q/V first. Prioritising DI immediately may seem logical, but there are a lot of quant/reading/reasoning skills that we should work on before making DI the main focus of our prep. As for guidance, there are so many people on GMAT club who can help you. Keep posting your questions and at least some of them will respond.

All the best!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Recognizing that the mock was a cold-start data point taken under fatigue, rather than treating it as your true score, will serve you well. The 515 tells you the magnitude of the gap to your target, but it does not tell you which topics to prioritize at a granular level. That comes from topic-by-topic study.

A few observations first. The jump from 515 to 700+ is large. In Focus Edition terms, 705 is roughly the 99th percentile. Breaking 700 means performing in the top 1 to 2% across all three sections. Achievable, but it requires deep mastery, not surface coverage. With three months of prep alongside running two businesses, the timeline is workable only if your study time is consistent and the quality of your prep is high. If August starts to feel tight, pushing the date is a better outcome than taking the test underprepared.

On Verbal being your strongest section: V80 is the 56th percentile, which is the middle of the pack. Relative to your target, Verbal is not actually strong. A 700+ scorer typically has all three sections well into the high percentiles. DI at the 14th percentile is your most urgent gap, but do not coast on Verbal or Quant.

The approach that works is topical learning and practice. Take one topic at a time, study the concepts, formulas, and techniques thoroughly, then practice only that topic until your accuracy is consistently high before moving on. This applies to Quant, Verbal, and DI. Doing mixed practice volume before the concepts are solid reinforces gaps rather than fixing them.

For every question you get wrong, ask what went wrong. Was it a concept you did not know, a misread, a careless calculation, or a trap you fell into? That diagnostic is what turns practice into improvement. Without it, you are just consuming questions. Once you have built topic-level accuracy untimed, layer in timing, then mix topics into broader sets. Full-length mocks come later as checkpoints, not as the primary tool.

A few section-specific notes. DI tests several distinct question types: Data Sufficiency, Multi-Source Reasoning, Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation, and Two-Part Analysis. Each has its own logic. A 14th percentile score usually reflects weakness across most of them plus underlying quantitative gaps, so DI improvement runs partly in parallel with Quant work. For Quant at the 50th percentile after a long academic gap, you need to relearn the fundamentals from the ground up: arithmetic, algebra, number properties, word problems, rates, ratios, statistics, etc. Then layer in the GMAT-specific patterns and traps. For Verbal, give Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning equal weight. Most untrained test takers leave easy CR points on the table by relying on intuition rather than disciplined argument analysis.

On resources: given that you are starting from scratch without a guide, working from scattered free materials will hurt you. You need a clear, comprehensive, structured prep course that takes you through each topic sequentially, with concept lessons, isolated topic-by-topic practice, and detailed analytics showing where you are getting questions wrong. The structure is what lets you actually see your weaknesses and address them. Combine that with official questions from mba.com once you have learned a topic. 
 For the schools on your list, the high 600s to 700+ range is the right target. INSEAD, London Business School, HEC Paris, ISB, and the US T25 expect that range to be competitive.

To summarize: treat the 515 as a starting data point, build mastery topic by topic with rigorous error analysis, prioritize DI but do not neglect Verbal or Quant, use a structured course as your backbone, and be willing to move the date if August arrives and you are not where you need to be.

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First diagnostic 515 (32nd percentile). Targeting 700+

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