GMAT Test Advice

Hi zwander,

Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level, so you'll likely end up needing to invest in some new, non-book resources for this next phase of your studies. 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) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on your first GMAT (the 470)?
2) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
3) What is your overall goal score? Why do you think you need a Q36?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Hi, zwander

I’m sorry to hear that you are frustrated with your score. Don’t be demotivated. Improving your quant score up to 36 in a month is achievable, supposing that you spend at least 2-3 hours intensively in studying quant. Firstly, Q27 shows that you need solid establishment of basic concepts. Then, you should start to solve following questions. Self studying by only using books is one way to hit the target score, but when you are faced with problems, such as not fully understanding, lack of time, it is really difficult to solve, since you have to analyze and find out the causes by yourself, which is really time-consuming. In this case, you’d better consider online courses or private tutoring. If you ‘must’ get the target score in a month, private tutoring would be much more efficient and effective. But considering that private tutoring is more expensive, I recommend you to take online courses if it is not that urgent. You’d better take Math Review course. This course is offered by most of the companies and you can learn the basics of each section. You can refer to this : https://gmatclub.com/reviews/highest-ra ... or-quant-4

Once you solidified your quant basics, then question solving skills are really important to get a good score. Quant solving skills that are offered by the companies are all different, and it is important to find the skills that fit you. Just following conventional ways to solve the quant questions could not be that efficient, because it is really time-consuming. You can refer to this and find out unique and innovative way to solve them : https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/vs

Please let us know if you have further questions.
You can reach us at info@mathrevolution.com

Success is within your reach,
Good luck!

Hello! thank you for your reply.

Okay so to answer your questions:
1. For Quant I scored 25 and verbal I had scored 29
2. I only did the two free practice exams that are given on the official MBA website and I scored 560 (39 quant and 28 verbal) and 580 (42 quant 28 verbal). However, a lot of the quant questions in practice exam 2 I felt were very similar to the first one so thats why i feel like I was able to score a 42.

3. Ideally I would like to score in the mid 600s if I could, but if not I know that a 36 in quant is okay for my school according to one of the recruiters I had emailed. I would want to like to achieve something higher to make myself more competitive though if it's possible.
4. I am hoping to apply by April (my school's deadline is at the end of May, however, enrolment is on a first come first serve basis, so the sooner I do it the better chances I have of getting in)
5. Finally, I am only applying to Degroote's school of business for their Coop MBA here in Canada. The reason being because I did my undergrad in science and they have an interesting coop program where I can specialize in health service management.

Based on this information, from your experience, what would you recommend for me?

Hello!

thanks for the advice! What kind of non gmat material are you referring to/recommend? I guess what I need to is find some resources that go over the basic concepts as well as provide some practice questions as I learn each topic. Do you have anything in mind?

Hi zwander,

Raising a 510 to the point that you could consistently score 650+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. However, with a Test Date in April, you only have about 2 months of potential study time. While you could potentially improve a great deal in that time, you would have to be really efficient with your studies - with a specific Study Plan and a focus on learning all of the Tactics, patterns and little 'secrets' to the Exam.

1) What is the minimum GMAT Score that you would apply with?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Hello Rich,

I believe the minimum GMAT score I could apply with is 600 (sometimes they may make exceptions for 580+ but I'd rather play it safe). Also, starting next week I would be able to put 35-40 hours of studying since I would be able to study full time for two weeks, and then about 25-30 hours for the weeks remaining until I decide to write it in April hopefully. Do you think that is a good amount of time? If I am putting in that many hours. Also, what resources should I use to improve myself and for studying?

Hi zwander,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. First off, you must understand that 1.5 months is not a ton of study time. You really need to make sure that you give yourself the time you need to improve your quant skills. Since your quant score is at a 27, it’s clear that you lack the GMAT quant fundamentals you need for your goal score, so you may need to adjust your study routine so that you follow a more structured and linear plan. Ideally, you want a study plan that allows you to individually learn each GMAT quant topic, starting with the foundations before moving to more advanced concepts.

Let’s say 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.

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 materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant courses. You also may find it helpful to read this article about how to increase your GMAT quant score.

If you have any questions, feel to reach back out.

Good luck

Hi zwander,

I've sent you a PM with some additional notes/suggestions.

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