Hi guys need help i am planning to give my gmat soon however my scores

I have not taken kaplan mocks. I have taken veritas mocks which itself seem to be 20 points above gmat. Meaning I feel that a score of 680 in veritas may translate to 700 in gmat. But thats just what I feel. I am sure kaplan might not be easy as well. If you can share any SC question here, may be I can give my views.

Hi Nums99,

Following a study plan that is linear, thorough, and focused is a major key to improving your GMAT quant score. In other words, you need to ensure that your study plan allows you to focus on each GMAT quant topic one at a time. By following that method, you’ll be able to first learn all you need from a particular topic, and then practice questions from that topic until you’ve gained mastery. So, you’ll attack each topic in two phases: Learning and Practice. Let’s use Geometry as an example.

Phase #1: Learn all you can about Geometry.

First and foremost, you must learn all aspects of Geometry:

-- area and perimeter formulas

-- special right triangle ratios

-- similar triangles

-- inscribed shapes

-- 3D geometry

-- shaded regions

-- etc.

Once you have fully learned about the necessary Geometry concepts, you can dive into focused practice.

Phase #2: Practice your butt off to ensure mastery in Geometry.

Now that you’ve learned all you can about Geometry, you need to dive into problems sets of, say, 15 or 20 questions at a time. When first starting out with this practice, do not worry about your speed; just focus on accuracy. As you begin to improve your accuracy, you organically will get faster. Ultimately, shoot to do 100+ problems, so you can ensure that you’ve thoroughly practiced each Geometry concept. After completing each problem set, take as much time as you need to analyze your wrong answers. When analyzing them, determine why you incorrectly answered each question. Did you make a careless error? Did you misapply a concept? Did you forget a formula? Did you not understand what the question was asking? By understanding WHY you got a question wrong, you’ll be able to clearly identify and then strengthen your weaknesses. Geometry is just one example; rinse and repeat for all other quant topics.

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.

Feel free to reach out with further questions.

Thanks Scott..would you be kind enough to share some strategies that I should deploy in last 15 days of my gmat preparation. I have gmat on 23rd august.

I am targeting 720 and my veritas scores have been around 690-710. I have already exhausted my gmat preps around a month back so cant even quote those scores as they are more than 40 days old.

I aim to target 38+ in verbal. any thing you can suggest. I think my better areas are SC and RC in that order..should I focus on my strengths or use this time to improve my CR which has been a concern on and off.

thanks in advance

HI biyania,

Although 15 days is not a lot of time, a great way to improve your GMAT skills (and thus your GMAT score) is 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 my article with more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.

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

Hi Nums99,

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. Since that algorithm is proprietary, no GMAT company has an exact match for it, thus CAT scores can vary a bit based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs. The most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, but the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion).

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? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC

Well, I started in January but due to some reason i could not give my exam in Feb and took a huge gap of 4-5 months I recently started again in the 2nd week of July. I have been able to get my verbal score up from 24 - 34 however i havent been able to do the same for the quant section it has been in the 40-44 zone. It hasn't improved at all, this has led me to think i am probably studying the wrong way and need to focus more on my mistakes.

As for the study material i have been using Gmatclub QB and forums along with OG and Manhattan for Verbal.

I plan to take my Gmat in 15 days and I am aiming at 710-720+ but the quant part is dragging me down .

Hi Nums99,

Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores. From what you described, you've recently been studying for just 1 month (after a 4-5 month break from your studies). By extension, you might simply need more time than you have allotted to continue studying and honing your skills to hit your Goal Score.

In addition, your recent studies seem to be centered around working through lots of practice questions, but it's not clear what Tactics you've been practicing or how you're training to deal with the entire Exam in one sitting. You didn't quite answer all of my questions - and that information really is relevant. It's possible that the smartest choice right now would be for you to reschedule your Exam.

Studies:
1) Over the last month, how many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Since you restarted your studies, on what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)? Had you taken any of these practice CATs before (during your earlier studies)?

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

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

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC
Sorry for not answering the questions earlier here are all the answers to your questions

1) I have been studying for at-least 7 hours daily over the last 3 weeks ( around 147 hours). I spend most of this time trying to solve various type of quants and verbal material. I try doing 50 quants questions daily along with 30 SC 10 CR and 3 RC.

2) I started with princeton mocks in the month of Jan
1st mock ever princeton ( score - 460 Q35 V 19)
2nd Mock princeton after 2 hard weeks of studying (score 600 q39 v34)
3rd Mock kaplan mock 5 months earlier ( score - 540 q41 v23)

Then I took 3 of Kaplan mocks in the past 20 days ( after the 5 month gap )
Mock 2 580 q44 v26
Mock 3 620 q41 v34
Mock 4 580 q40 v30

3) I am planning to apply for a masters for the batch of 2020

4) I don't have many school in my mind but i definetly want to try for ISB, LBS and Kellogg

Hi Nums99,

GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function, your 3 recent CAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 600 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. Raising a 600 to the point that you can consistently score 720+ will likely require at least another 2-3 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.

There's no harm in taking the GMAT as scheduled, but you will almost certainly have to retake it in the future. As such, you could save some money and aggravation by rescheduling your Exam.

Regardless of how you choose to continue your studies, while it might be tempting to try to 'cram' in a lot of study time each week, 'cramming' rarely leads to great results on Exams such as the GMAT. I've never asked anyone to study 50 hours a week - and if you're going to study 7+ hours a day during this upcoming stretch, then you'll greatly increase your chances of 'burning out' before Test Day (which is something that we want to avoid). If you want to try it though, then I suggest that for every 2 hours of study that you do, you take one hour "off" (re: study for 2 hours, take 1 hour off, study for another 2 hours, take 1 hour off, etc. - the exception will be when you take your CATs, since those should each be done in a continuous 3.5 hour block).

If you can give yourself a couple of months to continue studying, then there is a Study Plan that I can suggest for you.

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

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC

Please suggest me your study plan and if possible please provide me with a one month study plan i am ready to do whatever it takes and i know i can pretty much get 720-750 all i require is some time and a proper study plan

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC

Please provide me with a Study plan what you think will be the best for me

Hi Nums99,

My apologies for not seeing your earlier message. I've sent you a PM with some additional notes and suggestions.

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

Hello;

I have been reading your replies and they are great.Where can we find the practise questions?

Target Test Prep:).