Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
Whether you are just beginning your MBA journey or fine-tuning your path to a 700+ score, GMAT Day is designed to give you a competitive edge.
Apr 2711:00 AM EDT
-12:00 PM EDT
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors
Apr 2912:30 AM EDT
-01:30 AM EDT
Learn how Kamakshi achieved a GMAT 675 with an impressive 96th %ile in Data Insights. Discover the unique methods and exam strategies that helped her excel in DI along with other sections for a balanced and high score.
Apr 3001:30 AM EDT
-02:30 AM EDT
At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
May 0111:00 AM PDT
-12:00 PM PDT
Free- full-length test + 15 concept videos + 150+ short videos + study plan!
May 0306:30 AM PDT
-08:30 AM PDT
Verbal trouble on GMAT? Fix it NOW! Join Sunita Singhvi for a focused webinar on actionable strategies to boost your Verbal score and take your performance to the next level.
08 Aug 2012, 07:32
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Guys
Just came back from my second attempt at GMAT! Thought I'd write a very quick post on the four tips that I found made the biggest improvement in my quant score with the least effort:
Like many other posters here, my first attempt returned a decent overall score, but very unbalanced with very high verbal score (97th percentile) and a somewhat middling quant, so the focus this time out was to improve the quant. I managed to get my score up from 66th percentile - a little low for my purposes, to 78th percentile - enough to move my score from being marginally too low to better than I actually need for the school that I want.
So here's the four tips that made the biggest improvement for the least effort.
1. If you're struggling, guess and move on: If there's just one take away from this post, this is it.
The first time I took the test I really hadn't realised just how critical this is. Unless you really focus on time management it's incredibly easy to spend 4 or even 6 minutes on a question. Once I started doing the mock tests I realised that every time I did this, I not only totally screwed over my chances on subsequent questions, but most of the time I still ended up getting that question wrong anyway! I was actually burning way more time on questions I got wrong than I was on questions I got right! The GMAT is unlike any test that you've ever done in that you can get half the questions wrong and still get a pretty decent score. If you get to 3 minutes and you don't have an answer yet, guess and move on. My finding was that this alone boosted my quant score quite noticeably. By the way, I used the Manhattan online mock tests which I do highly recommended - all their textbooks come with 6 online mock exams that provide a wealth of really good data analysis reports into where your weaknesses are, where you're losing time etc.
2. Read the question: Obvious huh? But I can't count the number of times I screwed up during prep simply because I was in too much of a rush to start answering the question and didn't actually read it properly. The problem is, when you rush past the question, you all too often miss that little detail that makes the difference between getting it right and failing miserably after wasting 5 minutes. Force yourself to spend a full 30 seconds reading the question, and glance at the answer options before you start writing. It really helps.
3. How to make up time: One of the posts on this forum on time mgmt that I came across points out that the GMAT algorithm penalises *consecutive* wrong answers much more heavily. I can't be certain that this is true of the real thing, but it's certainly noticeably true of the Manhattan mocks which supposedly recreate the GMAT algorithm. If you're running behind and need to make up time, try to guess on every *second* question, and answer the ones in between more carefully. Getting every second one wrong appears to burn your score much less than getting four in a row right and then getting the next four in a row wrong because you've run out of time.
4. A quick way to solve those pesky factorial questions: A much less important tip, but still in the category of very small effort for a good return was a gem I came across in the excellent post from Bunuel on number theory. (I'd link to it, but the forum rules won't let me, just do a search on the forum for "Bunuel number theory", it should be the top post)
This post contains lots of good stuff, but for me the hidden gem was the formula towards the bottom for how to very quickly determine the number of instances of a given prime number in a factorial. This is one of the very few things I noticed that seems to come up in the GMAT all the time but which Manhattan really doesn't cover very well. Manhattan does vaguely cover it in passing and gives you some idea how to figure it out from first principles. Bunuel gives you a fool-proof formula that a 10 year old could work. I know which one I prefer!
So there you go. I reckon that at least half my score improvement basically comes down to these four tips. Hope it helps! Good luck folks!
Just came back from my second attempt at GMAT! Thought I'd write a very quick post on the four tips that I found made the biggest improvement in my quant score with the least effort:
Like many other posters here, my first attempt returned a decent overall score, but very unbalanced with very high verbal score (97th percentile) and a somewhat middling quant, so the focus this time out was to improve the quant. I managed to get my score up from 66th percentile - a little low for my purposes, to 78th percentile - enough to move my score from being marginally too low to better than I actually need for the school that I want.
So here's the four tips that made the biggest improvement for the least effort.
1. If you're struggling, guess and move on: If there's just one take away from this post, this is it.
The first time I took the test I really hadn't realised just how critical this is. Unless you really focus on time management it's incredibly easy to spend 4 or even 6 minutes on a question. Once I started doing the mock tests I realised that every time I did this, I not only totally screwed over my chances on subsequent questions, but most of the time I still ended up getting that question wrong anyway! I was actually burning way more time on questions I got wrong than I was on questions I got right! The GMAT is unlike any test that you've ever done in that you can get half the questions wrong and still get a pretty decent score. If you get to 3 minutes and you don't have an answer yet, guess and move on. My finding was that this alone boosted my quant score quite noticeably. By the way, I used the Manhattan online mock tests which I do highly recommended - all their textbooks come with 6 online mock exams that provide a wealth of really good data analysis reports into where your weaknesses are, where you're losing time etc.
2. Read the question: Obvious huh? But I can't count the number of times I screwed up during prep simply because I was in too much of a rush to start answering the question and didn't actually read it properly. The problem is, when you rush past the question, you all too often miss that little detail that makes the difference between getting it right and failing miserably after wasting 5 minutes. Force yourself to spend a full 30 seconds reading the question, and glance at the answer options before you start writing. It really helps.
3. How to make up time: One of the posts on this forum on time mgmt that I came across points out that the GMAT algorithm penalises *consecutive* wrong answers much more heavily. I can't be certain that this is true of the real thing, but it's certainly noticeably true of the Manhattan mocks which supposedly recreate the GMAT algorithm. If you're running behind and need to make up time, try to guess on every *second* question, and answer the ones in between more carefully. Getting every second one wrong appears to burn your score much less than getting four in a row right and then getting the next four in a row wrong because you've run out of time.
4. A quick way to solve those pesky factorial questions: A much less important tip, but still in the category of very small effort for a good return was a gem I came across in the excellent post from Bunuel on number theory. (I'd link to it, but the forum rules won't let me, just do a search on the forum for "Bunuel number theory", it should be the top post)
This post contains lots of good stuff, but for me the hidden gem was the formula towards the bottom for how to very quickly determine the number of instances of a given prime number in a factorial. This is one of the very few things I noticed that seems to come up in the GMAT all the time but which Manhattan really doesn't cover very well. Manhattan does vaguely cover it in passing and gives you some idea how to figure it out from first principles. Bunuel gives you a fool-proof formula that a 10 year old could work. I know which one I prefer!
So there you go. I reckon that at least half my score improvement basically comes down to these four tips. Hope it helps! Good luck folks!
08 Aug 2012, 11:10
Kudos
Bookmarks
I fully agree with you about moving on with questions if you can't solve and the importance of reading the question right. I had to stop for a few seconds (5 or so seconds) before rushing into a question and it helped a lot to eliminate issues with solving the "wrong" question.
Also, a few things for timing: timing-strategies-on-the-gmat-80176.html
Also, a few things for timing: timing-strategies-on-the-gmat-80176.html
souvik101990
Expert
Alum
Joined: 19 Mar 2012
Last visit: 11 Nov 2025
Posts: 4,314
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 2,326
Location: United States (WA)
Concentration: Leadership, General Management
Schools: Ross '20 (M)
GMAT 1: 760 Q50 V42
GMAT 2: 740 Q49 V42 (Online)
GMAT 3: 760 Q50 V42 (Online)
GPA: 3.8
WE:Marketing (Non-Profit and Government)
Products:
Expert reply
08 Aug 2012, 12:27
Kudos
Bookmarks
bb
This might work for me.
I just took gmatclub m03 and got 4 out of 37 incorrect
in one particular DS question in which i was supposed to see if x could be calculated, i was testing cases with positive, negative and proper fractions as usual.
Found out that both 1 and 2 were insufficient. Got it wrong because the prompt had "positive value of x" in it.
This is EXTREMELY frustrating, and it seems this is my biggest weakness area in quant. I dont know whether meditating would solve the problem
