How to score 600 + if you weak in Math ?

Question

Hi,

Need Help.

I am able to solve 500 Level questions and 50 % accuracy with 600 level.
I have humanities background and want to score 600 plus.

I am OK with verbal and trying to practise daily to take the score as high as possible. Though I am bad at Hard questions in CR.

Do you think I can cross 600 and reach my target.

How to go about it ?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Ratnaa19,

Many Test Takers become too fixated on the 'implied level' of the questions that they're working on - instead of what really matters: defining WHY they're getting questions wrong and becoming more efficient at approaching the overall Exam. It's also worth noting that you do not need to correctly answer any questions that you think are too hard or too weird to earn a 600+ on the Official GMAT. 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?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Ratnaa19 · Answer

Hi thanks for your reply.

Answers to your questions:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? 6 months
2) What study materials have you used so far? Have the entire manhattan set of math and verbal
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
I took few CATS in Jan but the scored are inconsistent: (Mgmat Diagnostic was 390 before Prep)
Mgmat: 530
Princeton:620
Princeton:460
Princeton:480

Dont know why there is a decline in scores. I took these with IR and 8 min breaks

Goals:
4) When are you planning to take the GMAT? March 2019
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School? for 2020 Intake. Mostly Europe/UK
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to? Ideally HEC If i get a good score as I am from Fashion background) else RSM in Netherlands

I have never been a Math oriented person and I kind of loose it when taking exams. Sometimes I even make silly errors.
I have trying hard to get my Verbal and IR up ( Because Schools see your overall profile)
I would want to score at least 40 on quant. and cross 600 somehow.

I am so lost in my last month. and getting a bad feeler. If nothing works out I will anyway take the real test in March second week and see how it goes. I am loosing patience now.

Help needed

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Ratnaa19,

It would help to know your exact Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH of the CATs that you've taken, so that we can try to better define your current strengths and weaknesses.

"Review" is an exceptionally important part of the GMAT training process; your ability to define WHY you're getting questions wrong is essential to defining the areas that you need to work on (and the specific things that you need to 'fix'). As such, I'd like to know a bit more about your most recent CAT. While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):

After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Ratnaa19,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Given that you’ve been studying for 6 months and you are still scoring around 480 (with, I’m assuming, a low quant score), you need to look at HOW you have been preparing and make some changes, right? Thus, moving forward, you need to follow a structured and linear study plan so that you can individually learn each quant topic, starting with the foundations before moving to more advanced concepts. Following such a process will ensure that you are able to learn GMAT quant from the “ground up” and methodically improve your skills. This process may take longer than just a few months, so keep in mind that you may need to readjust your GMAT test date. In any case, here is some advice you can follow to improve your GMAT quant skills.

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!

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  Ratnaa19 , you just have to  compensate  your weaker Quant, with a relatively high Verbal score.

You have a very modest target (600+) set for yourself and given the right preparation, it really should be doable.

MathRevolution · Answer

Hi, Ratnaa19

I’m sorry to hear that you are struggling with Quant. Firstly, I want to say that 600 is not that high score and you can also achieve it with proper studying strategy and practice. There is a huge fluctuation(460-620) in your mock test score. In this case, it is really hard to examine your score and level accurately. The most accurate and reliable measure is Official GMAT score, so you don't have to be obsessed with mock test score which is swaying. But it is necessary to analyze all the test results and check your strength and weaknesses, considering that you spent 6 months, and didn’t see great improvement.

One of the possible reasons of score stagnation could be a habit of solving problems without solid concepts base. After you understand basic contents, then you should solve the basic questions. Just jumping into solving difficult questions could be detrimental to the processes of solidyfing the establishment. So, until you solve the basic questions and explain the concepts at your pleasure, you should practice the questions step by step. After you get 80-90% of questions of a concept correct, then you can move on to the other topics. Especially, these steps are essential in quant part.

Here’s some tip to improve Quant. Focus on DS first. DS can be a quick win. There are patterns and logic to GMAT quant problems and you can save a lot of time especially in DS questions. With Math Revolution ’s ’Variable Approach’ for DS questions, you can minimize time spent on each question while improving accuracy. We applyvariables–equations matching system to the DS questions. For example, you first need to count the number of variables and equations given in the question. By doing so, you can determine which answer choice will most likely be the answer. You can refer to this: https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/lesson

To exactly assess your current math skill and receive a customized guide to improve your target score within time the frame you are expecting, we highly recommend you to take our "Free Diagnostic Test" that assesses your skill with 73 questions including all categories and topics. You may try it after registering for the membership.

Please let us know if you have further questions.You can reach us at [email protected]

Success is within your reach, Good luck!

Ratnaa19 · Answer

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your reply.
I recently took Priceton CATS and score a 570 and Manhattan CAT where i scored a 540.
Today i took the verbal test of gmatclub and scored a bad 23.

Is there any scope of improvement? I even had a thought of quitting Gmat.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Ratnaa19,

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 - and that you took these CATs in a realistic fashion - these last 2 CAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 550 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. You're actually close to a 600+ than you probably realize, but you might be making too many little mistakes (and losing points as a result). There could be issues with your general note-taking and organization and/or how you go about approaching questions (the Tactics you use, etc.).

A few weeks ago, we discussed how "review" is an exceptionally important part of the GMAT training process, but there was never any follow-up. Your ability to define WHY you're getting questions wrong is essential to defining the areas that you need to work on (and the specific things that you need to 'fix'). As such, I'd like to know a bit more about your most recent CAT (the 540). While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):

After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Ratnaa19,

I realize that you are frustrated with the GMAT, but you CAN improve!! That said, truly improving your GMAT quant and verbal skills, and thus your GMAT score, is going to take some time and hard work.

If you give yourself a realistic timeline and follow a structured and linear study plan (as previously mentioned), you’ll be shocked by how much you can improve. Keep your head up and just keep going!!

If you’d like any further advice, feel free to reach out. Also, you may find it helpful to read this article about  developing the proper mindset for GMAT success .

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