How to improve 700 score in 3 weeks

Question

I have been preparing for GMAT from February. I had earlier given GMAT in December and managed a 620. I have been getting consistent scores in last 3 GMAT preps

5th June 690 (Q50 V32)
23rd June 710 (Q49 and V37)
2nd July 700 (Q49 and V37)

However, my target score is 720 and would want to improve my scores by atleast 20 points in the next 2 weeks. I have finished almost all of eGMATs verbal course (barring idioms) and practicing from mainly OG (for verbal) and GMAT club tests (for quant). Any suggestions regarding improving scores in immediate 2 weeks?

Many thanks

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

Manjit  - Thank you for the query. You will need to leverage the search option to find some incredible valuable posts that address your concern. Also, you need to zero in on which subsection you need to focus on to get those last 50 points. Please remember that the GMAT becomes incredibly difficult after the 700 level. In short, you need to be perfect and cannot afford to make any silly mistake. At that stage, even 1 incorrect answer can plummet your score significantly.

Manjit · Answer

Thanks  DisciplinedPrep  Will surely do the same. Just a small query, should I focus on Quant - given that I'm at 75 percentile and if I focus on that (I'm from engineering background) I can increase my scaled score by 1 point or should I focus on Verbal, given that I am at 83 percentile and have little hope to improve my standard immediately?

Many thanks

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

Manjit  - I would recommend that you religiously practice Quant questions leading up to your test day but focus more on verbal because there's a lot of room for improvement. Try to find which subsectional area needs improvement and practices those question types.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Majit,

Those are some very nice practice test scores. To improve your GMAT 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 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.

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 would have had 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. 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.

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 my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

waxuh · Answer

Hi Manjit,

What were your Scaled Scores for the Quant and Verbal sections on your Official GMAT? Also, have you taken any practice CATs (and what were the Scaled Scores on those tests?)?

If what you say is true, and you didn't really study before your first GMAT, then you have some natural skill already. By your own analysis, your pacing is a problem (and it's a problem than many Test Takers have to learn to fix), so while you can get many questions correct, "your way" of solving is taking too long. So, fixing your pacing is more about finding faster ways to answer questions than anything else. THAT issue usually takes longer to solve than you might think, which is probably why the other Forums weren't too optimistic about your plan.

Since you haven't done much studying, there are other significant factors in your life that will impede your studying and I don't know you, my first thought is that it's not likely that you'll pick up 80 points in 3 weeks. Of course, there are exceptions, and maybe you're one of them. Once you provide the Scaled Scores, we'll have a better idea of what areas you should be focusing on.

Manjit · Answer

Thanks  ScottTargetTestPrep

I get what you're saying. I have decided to drill through quant and verbal section, topic wise, to get that extra 10-20 points. I know accuracy is a problem for me in number system/arithmetic/sets. I very often get tricked by simple questions. Secondly, in verbal, comparisons and parallelism are difficult topics for me and I usually spend a lot of time with those questions. Additionally, in verbal, pacing is a problem for me as I usually end up with randomly answering 3-4 questions at the end. I have to increase my pace and increase my accuracy in the mentioned sections. Any tips as to where I can I get to practice topic wise super tough questions in verbal (as official questions on MBA site are very limited in number)?

Manjit · Answer

Edit: I gave GMAT prep4 today and scored 710. First I did quant section, then verbal. My scaled scores are Q49 and V38. Its frustrating to see quant scores not going up

I end up making silly mistakes in the first 10 question set and that's unforgivable!! I'm thinking of giving GMATclub tests for getting a feel of super tough and super tricky questions. For verbal, I intend to work with Scholaranium from eGmat. I hope that should be sufficient. Any advice guys? Thanks!

Manjit · Answer

Hi guys,

I wanted to say that today I took the GMAT and scored a very low score - 610 (Q48 and V27). I regularly used e-Gmat lessons to improve my verbal and had got to a good level. My GMATprep scores were
Test 1: 690 (Q50 V32)
Test 2: 700 (Q49 V37)
Test 3: 710 (Q49 V37)
Test 4: 710 (Q49 V38)
Test 5: 680 (was sick) (Q48 V35)
Test 6: 740 (Q49 V41)

Since I had pretty consistent scores, I was confident of a 710+ score. However, on the test day, everything didn't seem to go as per plan. I completed all the sections on time and finished both verbal and quant with half a minute to spare. I thought I did ok in quant whereas I thought verbal was a disaster. There were 3 long and excruciatingly difficult RC passages and the CR questions were incomprehensible. I even struggled with the SC questions. This never used to happen in the GMATpreps.

Probably, I didn't do all the GMATprep tests under the conditions required or probably I was too taken aback by the actual GMAT Test. I could tackle most difficult questions on OG and verbal review with a high accuracy, but didn't focus much on timing. Probably, that's the reason I think my verbal score on the actual GMAT exam suffered (poor accuracy under exam condition).

Request your help in tackling my poor performance on the main test and please provide suggestions for improvement. I plan to give GMAT in a couple of weeks.

Posted from my mobile device

kavach · Answer

Hi Manjit,

Sorry to hear about your bad test day. As of now, your immediate step should be to order the ESR. The ESR will give you a mirror view of your performance on the test. It can be, as I have seen in other cases as well, that you performed well in the section you think you dint. 
Once you have your ESR is when I guess you can start to look at strategies and steps you need to take in order to get to your dream score.

Regards

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Manjit,

I'm sorry to hear that this 2nd attempt did not go as well as hoped. Based on your prior Score 620/Q42/V34, this recent Score shows that your Quant performance was closer to how you were performing on your CATs, but the drop in Verbal (to a V27) means that you lost significant points in all 3 major Verbal categories (SC, RC and CR). It's possible that some of the issues that we discussed back in December of last year are still impacting your performance now.

Since it's been over 7 months since your 1st attempt, I'd like to know a bit more about how you've been studying since then:

1) What type of study routine have you been following this year? Did you take any 'time off' from your studies?
2) What study materials have you used for this 2nd attempt?
3) Have you taken any CATs/mocks besides the 6 Official CATs? How have you scored on EACH of those other CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

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

Manjit · Answer

Hi Rich!
Thank you for replying! Yes, you're absolutely correct in saying that my quant performance was closer to my prep scores. But the drop in verbal was unexpected. I started my test with Verbal section and for a moment I was completely stuck with first question (and hence I think I messed up the first 9 questions). 
Regarding your query, here are my answers:

1) What type of study routine have you been following this year? Did you take any 'time off' from your studies? --  I started my prep in Feb and took some time off in march and may due to family issues 
2) What study materials have you used for this 2nd attempt? --  e-GMAT verbal and GMATClub Quant tests 
3) Have you taken any CATs/mocks besides the 6 Official CATs? How have you scored on EACH of those other CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)? --  Yes ManhattanGMAT CAT (total score 600 Q43 V31)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Manjit,

While the most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills - since you will likely see some 'repeat' questions that you already have faced. Seeing even a couple of repeats can 'throw off' the Scoring Algorithm and impact your pacing, energy levels, fatigue, etc. (meaning that they would likely all appear to be better than they actually are). You took all 6 of the Official CATs before studying for your 1st attempt, so taking them again - and seeing those 'inflated' results - likely gave you a false sense of your current Verbal skills.

Thankfully, 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). Thus, you can use CATs from any of those sources during this next phase of your studies. It's important to remember that each CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. As such, you really shouldn't take more than 1 FULL CAT per week.

You now have 3 Scores that are all in the low-600s (2 Official Scores and the MGMAT CAT that you took during your recent studies), so it's possible that you've gotten 'stuck' at this particular score level. Based on the data in your 1st ESR, you were having some issues with SCs - and it's possible that those issues are still there. As such, you might choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report for this 2nd attempt (so we can better define how you handled the entire Verbal section). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

With a Score Goal of 720+, you still have some serious work to do - but the GMAT is still the same consistent, predictable Exam that it's always been, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Have you considered using a verbal self-study course?

Manjit · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC

I have PMed you my ESR. Can you please take some time out and go through the same? Thanks a lot for your help!

Best 
Manjit

Manjit · Answer

Hi  ScottTargetTestPrep

Yes, I have considered. I had already purchased e-GMATs verbals elf study course and I must say it helped me to get a good grip on SC. Apart from that, I relied on OGs and Verbal guides for my preparation.

Best 
Manjit

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

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

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