Improve my score from 680 to 750

Question

Hi 
I just gave my gmat exam and scored a 680 (Q44 V38 IR6). I was very disappointed with the score, especially with my quant score. In all my gmatprep exams I had scored Q49 or Q50 and an aggregate of 710 with verbal varying from 35 to 38. 
In my exam I froze when I saw the first question and lost a lot of time there. Also, I missed one question in quant. I somehow found the quant section in the actual exam to be tougher than gmat prep. 
It would be really helpful I can get some advise on how to improve my score to a 750

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EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Riya, in which sequence did you attempt the sections in the exam?

m1033512 · Answer

try the gmatclub tests .

They are tougher than actual gmat exam and they will definitely challenge you to practice more in quant and improve your understanding

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EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi riyagoyal,

First off, a 680/Q44 is a strong score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. There's no harm in retesting though. Raising a 680 to the point that you can consistently score 750+ will likely require at least another 1.5 - 2 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.
 
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 retake 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

kgaurav1001 · Answer

Focus on accuracy and consistency. Make a list of topics which bother you or gives you cold feet and do a target practice.. with what you have mentioned above all you need to focus on is test day strategy for quant.

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ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

HI riyagoyal,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. So, 680 is a nice place to start. That said, since your score dropped 30 points from your practice exams, you likely have numerous quant and verbal weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Thus, to improve those skills and your score, 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. 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.

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 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.

Although I’m unsure of how you prepared for your previous exam, if you need some additional resources, you should check out the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses . You also may find it helpful to read this article about  The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT .

Good luck!

riyagoyal · Answer

I attempted Quant section first. I feel that I am able to better focus on verbal section that way.

EducationAisle · Answer

Since Quant was your  first  section,  could  it be that you were  tense/nervous  toward the beginning of the exam? This could explain your  low  Quant score.

If  overall stamina  is not an issue with you, wondering if following sequence could work  better  for you?

Analytical Writing Assessment, Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative, Verbal

That way, towards the  beginning  of the exam (when you are tense/nervous), you would be attempting  AWA  and  IR . By the time you reach Quant, you would hopefully be in a mentally more  relaxed  space.

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