GMAT Test: One Big Messup

Question

Hi Fellows,
I need your help to make a decision. I have attempted GMAT twice, below is a summary of my scores.
First Attempt (14th May 2018)
Q: 48 / V: 34 / IR: 6 / Essay: 5
Total: 670
Second Attempt (28th July 2018)
Q: 43 / V: 37 / IR: 8 / Essay: NA
Total: 650
Cancelled

For the first exam I prepped for almost 2 months and for the second attempt I worked on Verbal only for almost a month. The second attempt Quants score is a surprise as I was scoring between 44-47 in Kaplan test (took 5 Kaplan tests)

I am planning to apply for MBA session of 2019 for which applications will open in September/October 2018

My Target universities are 
First preference: Booth, Kellogg, Ross
Second Preference: Johnson, Anderson, Tepper

A bit about me: I am a 29 years male from Pakistan with a work experience of 6 years in the biggest telecom operator of the country (Jazz its a Subsidiary of NASDAQ: VEON) I have strong career progression (4 promotions in 6 years) Currently I am Manager marketing segments. I also have experience in Business Planning, Strategy & M&A.

So the questions are 
1) Should I take GMAT again if i want to get into universities of my preference? 
2) If yes! I shall take it in next 30 days, which sources would you recommend for Quants ( e-gmat vs. math revolution)

Currently I am working and have a 60 hours work week but I still can squeeze 1 hour a day on the weekdays and around 3 hours on Saturday and Sunday each (10-12 hours a week)
Share your wisdom please.
Thanks,

AjiteshArun · Answer

670 is a good score anywhere, but it also happens to be significantly higher than the average GMAT score for Pakistan (around 500). This is different from China, for example, for which the average GMAT score must be almost 600. As such, I think you should take the GMAT again only if you think that you can improve without committing another few months to the next attempt (maybe the 30 days you have in mind are enough). That time would probably be better spent working on your applications.

You can also reach out to the consultants  here  to get their opinions.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi AsadMaq,

First off, a 670/Q48 is a strong score (it's above the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. You're ultimately asking Admissions questions though, so you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and application plans. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admission ... tants-124/

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

HKD1710 · Answer

As you are in the rythm right now and concepts are fresh in mind then consider this as the last push towards the desired score. Do not delay taking the exam this time as you might feel burned out later. This time prepare well for quant and do not leave verbal practice for a single day. As you were getting Q44-47, then Q43 is not very surprising. I believe you need to tackle the exam well. Do not mark too many questions wrong in the start and consecutively 3 questions wrong anywhere in the exam. Do not also waste a lot of time on any question so that it makes you run for time in the end. You should be good with 30-45 days practice this time. All the very best.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Maq7,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. For starters, you may consider reaching out to some admissions consultants here on GMAT Club to determine whether your GMAT score will be high enough for possible admissions to your desired programs.

You have been able to achieve very good quant and verbal scores on two separate exams, so if you can hit those marks (or even higher) on your next attempt, your GMAT score will improve. That being said, there are some clear steps you can take to improve your quant and verbal skills prior to your next exam. Remember, it’s possible to score 670 without fully understanding some topics or refining certain skills. To take your score to the next level, you have 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. 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 at least around 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, 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. As you practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why you got it wrong. 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.
 
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, if anything, you would have needed to know in order 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.

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 and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions 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.
 
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 verbal and quant 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 my article for more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

ccooley · Answer

The earlier replies have addressed the question of whether to retake the GMAT, but I want to comment on one thing I noticed in your post. You mention that you just studied Verbal for a month before your second GMAT attempt. That probably explains why your Quant score dropped from a 48 to a 43! Now, if you're planning to only study Quant... the same thing may very well happen with your Verbal score. You really should study both, even on the same day. If you study just one until you feel like you're 'finished', you'll feel great afterwards, but you'll quickly forget what you've learned - and you'll forget the material you haven't been reviewing as well. Read about 'blocked versus interleaved studying' for more on this concept. Intuitively, it might seem like you should study one topic at a time until you understand it, but in studies, it's been shown that's not necessarily right. Here's an article about it: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... hat-means/

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