From 570-710 on Official GMAT --> Shooting for 740

Hey Everyone,

I'm writing this as I'm at a crossroads with my GMAT prep. Here's a quick overview of my background for context:

I started prepping for the GMAT in June of 2020. I work a full-time job in tech strategy consulting and was an economics major at a top 20 college. I started using Magoosh and went through all of the lessons and answered all of the problems. I also supplemented this studying with the Manhattan Prep books. After about ~6 months of studying, I started taking the official practice tests. I was scoring in the low 700s and even scored a 760 on one practice test. I felt fairly confident and scheduled an exam for end of March 2021.

I came into the test pretty nervous and ended up scoring 570. I knew I could do better, so I scheduled an exam for two weeks later. I ended up scoring a 650. After scoring 650, I decided I needed to re-evaluate my approach and decided to use Target Test Prep. I went through all of the quant material and most of the verbal material in TTP, and felt much more comfortable handling GMAT problems. After a week weeks of working through TTP, I decided to sit for a GMAT course in late August.

That brings us to today. I just got done with my official exam and scored a 710 (Q49, V37) with an 8 IR. While I'm happy that I've improved, I'm pretty frustrated as I want to score a 740.

My dream school is Tuck and I want to give myself the best chance of getting in there. I'd appreciate any advice from the experts in terms of study plans moving forward.

Thanks in advance and appreciate the help!

ScottTargetTestPrep
EMPOWERgmatRichC
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KaplanCrispin
ManhattanPrep
mikemcgarry
ScoreleapTestPrep
VeritasPrepMarisa

Hi BostonTC2018.

Nice job so far!

It's always good to see someone take full advantage of the TTP course and achieve a significant score increase.

To get the rest of the way to 740, you could do two things: lock in that 49 quant score and shoot for an even higher quant score by continuing to strengthen any less strong areas of quant you have, and continue higher in verbal by developing more concept knowledge if necessary and continuing to develop your skills.

Regarding quant, you likely know which areas you are less confident in, the ones you typically have more trouble with on your practice tests or the types of questions you'd just plain rather not see. You could drive your quant score a point or two higher by strengthening your skills in some of those areas, by reviewing the concepts involved in an area and then doing dozens of practice questions in that area until you practically can't get them incorrect. I love working on quant this way. Every area you get stronger in means more correct answers in that area and also more correct answers in other areas, because you end up having less stress and more time to answer all kinds of questions when you take the GMAT,

For verbal, you could continue through the TTP verbal chapters and keep practicing by analyzing questions choice by choice to get better at identifying and articulating what's going on in each answer choice. Also, you could review any concepts that you realize you don't quite have down as you practice.

Also, here are some posts that you can get further insight from to maximize the results of your verbal prep.

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

https://gmatclub.com/forum/verbal-tip-b ... 59527.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/verbal-prep- ... 57059.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-practic ... 56936.html
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Hi BostonTC2018,

First off, a 710/Q49 is an outstanding Score, so you can comfortably apply to any Business Schools that interest you. As such, another retest is probably not necessary. Since you have a first-choice School in mind, 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/

With a V37, you don't have any big 'weak spots' in that section of the Exam, but there is likely one category (RC, SC or CR) in which you're letting a few too many points slip past you. If you took this recent attempt at a Test Center, then you might choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report (so we can nitpick this performance in more detail). 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
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Hi BostonTC2018,

Great job so far!! I'm thrilled to see how you were able to make such great strides with TTP.

Regarding next steps, I see that Marty has provided some great advice, but if you would like to chat about your plan further, you can reach out to me at jeff@targettestprep.com, and we can hop on a call to determine the best path forward.
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Hello BostonTC2018,

Your current GMAT score is exceptional!
Don't be frustrated and disappointed. You can surely achieve your target score of 740.

You can schedule a free counseling session for 20 mins with one of our experts: https://calendly.com/mathrevolution.

Since we are a math expert, we will recommend you go through our post on the GMAT club: Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@mathrevolution.com.

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team
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Hey BostonTC2018,

First things First: Celebrate 710 - definitely a great achievement. Welcome to 700 Club. It is important to celebrate small victories in life - 710 is definitely a big feat and still a dream for many many GMAT Test takers.

Now, let us understand where you have scope to hit that 740
You are Q 49, so even if you hit Q50 or Q51, the overall score jump may not be significant and not proportional to the effort that you may need to put in.

@ V37 - you have great scope for improvement here. Now we need to dissect this further, to understand :
a. in which sections you made more mistakes
b. where you made those mistakes

By any chance do you have an ESR for this Test? Can you email it to me: kalyan.chamarthi@scoreleap.in, I can help you analyze, and tell you where you need to focus and what should be your strategy. Also, please share your recent scores from MBA.com Full Length Mock Tests.

In the meantime, visit Tuck Class Profile MBA'23 - you will notice that while the GMAT average is 724, Q is 48 and V is 41 ( V37 is far below the schools average), which means you definitely need to hit a V42 - So Focus on VERBAL.

Hope this helps. Feel free to drop me a message, I will be very glad if I can be of more help.

Good Luck
Stay Blessed! Stay Happy!
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Hi BostonTC2018,

Sorry to hear that your test day did not go as planned. However, 710 is a great score to secure. You are almost there. Let me help you.

One way would be to analyse the solutions in depth and learn the right strategy and methodologies. But I don't think you will have plenty of time to spare now. I would suggest you to speak to any GMAT strategy expert for discussing your core pain points and advanced strategies for your prep.

Getting your ESR may help you figure out what exactly went wrong.

Having said this, I would like to know what is the approach you followed during the test along with a few other things (including your exact pain points) so that I can suggest you a more structured plan and help you with advanced strategies in time. If you wish to discuss this over a call, you can schedule a free consultation call using the below link. Considering the effort, you have put, I would really like to know the concerns and help you improve your score.


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