GMAT Re-Take

Hey Gowrish,

Welcome to GMATClub!

IMO, you should work harder on the Quant section for your next attempt. You should target Q49/50 and work on keeping the verbal score intact. For this, you could subscribe for the GMATClub tests(especially for Quant) and work on them diligently. For Verbal, you can work on difficult questions(700+) on topics which you were not confident in.

If you don't mind spending a few bucks, get an ESR and understand which topics need improvement. As far as Quant is concerned, retrospect and understand where the gap is. If needed, review the concepts for the specific topics where you make mistakes. You should take the GMATPrep tests as this will help you prepare for the big test.

Hope this helps!

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Hi Gowrish,

Many Test Takers face pacing issues in the Quant section, the Verbal section or both - so you're not alone. That having been said, it's important to remember that pacing problems do NOT exist on their own - they're the results of OTHER problems. A Q44 means that you did well on most of the 'math questions' that you faced in the Quant section, but you made some little mistakes as you worked through the section AND you missed out on LOTS of 'strategy-based' questions. The Quant section of the GMAT is NOT a 'math test' - it's a 'critical thinking test' that requires lots of little calculations as you work through it. To score at a much higher level in this section, you need to become more of a 'strategist' and less of a 'mathematician.'

To score significantly higher in the Quant section, you have to change how you 'see' (and respond to) that section of the Exam. Continuing to work through the same practice materials in the same ways as before implies that you're going to keep answering Quant questions "your way" - and that will likely lead to a similar Score result when you retest. You're actually closer to a 700+ than you probably realize, but you're going to have to focus on learning and practicing the proper Tactics to hit that type of Score in the timeframe that you've described.

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Gowrish,

660 is not a bad start! To improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you need to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. 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. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.

You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you had to know to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.

So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.


In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, 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 article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!

What you should realise and do is that, try to understand your weak areas and improve upon them. Maybe you can start with ESRs.
I offer free ESR evaluation service to help students get the best GMAT score possible.

Check out this link.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/reach-out-to ... l#p2361754