Going from 690 to 720 in a week?

Question

Hi gmatclub community and experts,

Really need some help here.

I gave my GMAT at the centre yesterday and got a 690 ( Q50, V33)

My last 3 scores were 710, 700, 710 in the last 15 days.

My last 5 Verbal Scores in the mocks were (35, 36, 38, 36, 35 ) - ( 3 GMAT Prep, 1 MGMAT and 1 Princeton)
My last 7 Quant Scores in the mocks were (51, 49, 51, 50, 50, 49, 49 ) - ( 3 GMAT Prep, 1 Princeton, 3 Gmatclub)

I have booked the online GMAT next week (on 16th) in order to score at least 710 or a 720 (since V33 on my actual test is an anomaly and 36 was my avg score. Will plan Q51 also to give that extra push but the main issue is Verbal in which I need to increase minimum 3 points)

Need help on how to structure the next 7 days to come back to increase 30 points minimum.

RC is a major issue with 50-60% accuracy but don't know what I can do here in a week. (Finished MGMAT guide)
Idea to keep my CR/SC accuracy to 90%.(Finished MGMAT guide and Powerscore Bible)

Please help.

Thanks in advance.

BooRadley · Answer

Hey  Vichitra ,

Since RC is a decent contributor to your score and is an issue for you, I would suggest to shore up your practice on RC and get more accustomed to some of the techniques mentioned in those guides. I found RC practice more helpful than just reading those guides.

Q50 is great, so I think it would be better to invest your energies on verbal while maintaining your quant ability.

Don't worry, you will ace it.

Hit Kudos, if it helped.

ar07 · Answer

Hi Vichitra,

Just to add to the above suggestion, I think you should focus on solving OG RCs.

To get an online feel, you may solve from GMAT Club. Please make sure you spend sufficient time in understanding the “structure” of the passage in mind (or take notes, whatever you prefer).

Please feel free to reach out for any other help.

Thanks!

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Vichitra,
 
Although improving from 690 to 730 in just one week is pretty difficult, here is some general advice you can follow to improve your GMAT score. To improve your 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.
 
You also may find it helpful to read the following articles about 
 How to Score a 700+ on the GMAT  and  The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT .

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

RetaketheGMAT · Answer

If you've only got a week (or even up to a month) and you're trying to boost your score significantly, then it makes more sense to focus on your in-test process. Many of the test takers I work with are facing the same challenge (especially now as Round 1 deadlines are coming up). It's amazing how many points are left on the table due to poor in-test process, especially by people who have studied the content extensively and taken many practice tests and completed large numbers of practice problems.

Here are 4 key areas to focus on in quant process (ideally with an expert GMAT performance coach):
1) Capturing and preprocessing the question
2) Visualization of the problem
3) Accurate equation setups
4) Efficient calculation methods including estimation.

Here are 4 key areas to focus on in quant process (ideally with an expert GMAT performance coach):
1) Capturing and preprocessing the question
2) Visualization of the problem
3) Accurate equation setups
4) Efficient calculation methods including estimation.

Hovkial · Answer

I recommend reading passages slowly and with full understanding on the first read attempt. Your main goals should be to understand the flow of the arguments and the descriptions. Many questions will focus on these aspects. The few questions about details should be answered by referring back to the passage.

RC scores cannot be elevated by using gimmicky "shortcuts" and "tricks". On the medium to longer passages, you will be tested fully. Read as many different kinds of materials as you can and make it a goal to fully understand what you are reading.

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