GMAT reattempt

Question

Hi,
I appeared for gmat back in May 2019. I scored a 650. However, i need to score above 680.
My scores on mocks were as follows

Offical Mock 1 : 640
Mock 2 : 710
Mock 3 : 710
Mock 4 : 760

MGMAT 1 and 6 : 690

I don't know where i went wrong on the exam day. But i need to reappear again. I am looking to strategies and ways to study and also the materials for the second attempt. I need to attempt within a month since my job starts in July and i wont be able to give much time. 
Do let me know what steps i should now. Thanks

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

Zaid - Congratulations on getting a 650 score on the GMAT. What are your sectional scores in Quant and Verbal? You should immediately purchase the ESR, to under your actual test performance; the ESR will provide some great insights on your sub-sectional performance, including timing. A score of 650 shows that your basics are clear and you would thereby need to fine-tune certain areas to increase your score to the 700 level.

That said, I am surprised with your practices test scores; there exist wide gaps. Please provide more details such as dates of these practices tests, GMAT Prep tests (?), and sectional scores. Also, please specify whether you have taken these tests in ideal testing conditions.
 
Recommendations and Resources for GMAT Retake :
 https://gmatclub.com/forum/should-i-retake-gmat-thread-retaking-gmat-strategies-83339.html

Zaidf123 · Answer

Hi. So my GMAT Sectional scores were Q47 V31.

So the practice tests were official mocks. These were taken at a gap of one week, starting a month before my gmat exam.
I managed a Q49-50 on all these exams and a V35,V37,V42. 
All the exams were in ideal test conditions with the proper 8 minute breaks. I took then at 8 AM, which was my slot for the exam. 
Thanks

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Zaidf123,

First off, a 650/Q47 is a strong score so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. That having been said, you're actually closer to a 680+ than you probably realize - and the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?

Goals:
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
4) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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

Zaidf123 · Answer

Hi, I prepared for around 3-4 months. Materials were OG19, OG13, Magoosh for solving, E-gmat videos for verbal, GMAT Club.
I am planning to apply around September, October.
My target schools are ESSEC, ESCP, IE, EDHEC, Queens (Masters In Management Course)

I'll be purchasing the ESR soon.
Thanks

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Zaidf123,

You still have plenty of time to study before the Round 1 application deadlines - which is good. Based on the data in your ESR, you could potentially tweak your studies a bit and retest in a month (or less) and hit 680+, as long as you're efficient about your studies going forward. If you would rather not post your ESR publicly, then you can feel free to PM or email it directly to me.

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

Zaidf123 · Answer

sue, i'll mail you the ESR. Thanks

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Zaidf123,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. The good news is that Q47 is a really solid quant score, so nice job! That said, I understand that you are not satisfied with your verbal score, so the question we need to ask is why you scored so high on your practice exams but lower on the real GMAT.

Since you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than V31. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, to hit your score goal, your preparation probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions 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. 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.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, as you experienced, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions, so you can develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions so that you learn to see everything that is going on in the questions.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new study materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses . You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

If you’d like more specific advice on how to improve your quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out. Good luck!

CrackVerbal · Answer

Hi  Zaidf123 ,

We could definitely help you out.

With a GMAT score of 650, we can assume that your basics concepts are in place.

It could be possible that you are facing issues with specific concepts on the GMAT or need guidance with advanced 700+ level questions.

Do you have your GMAT ESR report?

If you have an ESR report, do submit to us for a Free analysis. After evaluating your ESR report, we will be able to give you actionable insights on the areas you need to work on to get past your target GMAT score of 680.

Get your ESR Report Evaluated For Free

Else you could reach out to us directly on 8880560000 and speak to our GMAT experts.

You could also check out  GMAT Personal Tutoring Sessions  to know about our 1 to 1 personal tutoring sessions to help students like you reach their target GMAT score quickly.

Here is what our student who scored 770 in her second GMAT attempt had to say about us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcLszEP4oZ8

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