GMAT ESR Review Request - Please help!

Hi Pleasehelp,

Thank you for the response. So, I realize that you are hoping to craft a master plan based on your ESR; however, you need to make sure that you avoid falling into the trap of focusing on micro-details based on your ESR and thus misdiagnosing your weaknesses. Since your ESR is based on only 31 quant questions and 36 verbal questions (a very small sample size), it may not give you a complete picture of what to focus on going forward. For example, does your scoring 100% in Rates/Ratios/Percents mean that you are devoid of weakness in those topics? Not necessarily. Perhaps you were given many lower-level questions or had some lucky guesses on those topics. Furthermore, there is no way to know HOW MANY questions you were given from those topics, right?

A few things do seem clear. For one, your ESR seems to indicate that you are not strong in COUNTING/SERIES/SETS and EQUALITIES/INEQUALITIES/ALGEBRA. So, by becoming super-strong in those areas, you likely would score a few points higher in quant. Overall, since your quant score currently stands at 42 and you’d like to improve it by at least a few points, you need to follow a structured study plan that allows you to master the GMAT topic by topic through linear learning and focused practice. By studying in such a way, you can ensure that you methodically learn GMAT quant and fill in any knowledge gaps.

Let’s say, for example, you are learning about Number Properties. First, 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.

In order to follow the path described above, you may consider using an online self-study course, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses.

You also may find it helpful to read the following articles about how to increase your GMAT quant score and the phases of preparing for the GMAT.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!