Improvement from 550 to 750: Thank you GMAT-Club!

Oh yes: The first big jump was mainly due to a much better quant score as I learned the concept one after the other, mainly by studying Bunuel s replies. The second big jump was due to a much better performance in sentence correction.

Congratulations!! that's a mighty score!

Any tips for Verbal score improvement? particularly CR & RC.

All the best!


Cheers,
GyM

Congratulations on your score! That's fantastic improvement - you worked hard! Your distribution is pretty similar to mine - I got Q49, V42. Anything in particular you used in terms of your prep materials besides following Bunuel? (that sounds a bit creepy but you can improve your score by following someone great)

Congratulations hard work eventually pays off

Williamsson Congratulations on 750!!!

Thank you!

It might sound a bit dull, but practice is the key for CR. While in SC, you have to learn a few concepts and the skill to quickly identify common/typical SC mistakes, for RC and CR all I did was practice, practice and practice and analyse each single (!) problem with regards to the following questions:

Why did I answer this question right/wrong?
Why is this the right answer and the others not? What's wrong with the other answers?
What do I have to remember/note/write down in order not to make the same mistake again? Lessons learned?

You really have to take your time and go through all these questions for each single verbal problem.

With regards to RC, I did not follow the typical "go through the text quickly to get an idea of the passage and then reread if detailed questions appear", but what I did was:


-Read the whole passage SLOWLY and make sure you REALLY UNDERSTAND what the text is about. Remember the details. If you forgot them, reread. Do all this before you answer even the first question.
-This way, you will be able to answer most questions without rereading. So you can save a lot of time here, which is why you don't have to be afraid of taking your time for the first read.
-Using this strategy, I usually answered 100% of RC right in my mock exams towards the end.


But of course, that it worked for me doesn't necessarily mean that it's the right strategy for everyone.

For preparation, I did not use any material besides the 2017 OG and -as creepy as it might sound- Bunuel's (and of course others') solutions and explanations to the quant problems posted in the forums, as they often included the necessary theories/concepts to answer the question at hand.

For diagnostics, I used the first GMATprep exam and the OG diagnostic test.

For mock exams, I used GMATprep exclusively.


Other than that, no courses or additional materials. As you can see, I heavily relied on official material, particularly for verbal. But it also took me more than six months, so for someone who hasn't that much time for preparation, I think organising additional material or enrolling in a course might be more beneficial.

Dear Williamsson,

Congratulation for such great score and wish you good luck for your application process.

Congratulations on the awesome score, Williamsson! And don't worry: schools really won't have any issues with that IR score.

Good luck with your applications, and let us know where you land for your MBA!

Thanks! agree that practice is key. Working on it diligently, will try to approach it more methodically by asking the questions suggested by you.

Just out of curiosity, what was your source for understanding concepts in CR?


For RC i never tried the slow reading approach, maybe that is the reason i am weak at Inference type questions. It seems interesting, I will try out your approach.
On an average for long & short passages, how much time do you suggest i should spend on reading & note taking?

Appreciate your elaborate answers.

Thanks,
GyM

It's actually the same approach: I went through official questions and every time I got one wrong (at the beginning quite a few), I analysed in depth the argument and asked myself why which answer choice is wrong or right. I took notes and made a list of "rules" that I would follow in order not to do the same mistakes again.

E.g.,
"Stick to the argument" - answer choices that talk about something that is not directly related to the argument or invent something are probably wrong, even if they sound reasonable at first glance
"Correlation vs cause and effect"
"Averages" - just because something is true in average, it does not mean that it's true for every single individual/case

etc.
etc.

Congratulations on getting a fantastic score and some wonderful tips! Wishing you all the very best for your Admissions!

Sounds good.

Thanks again! Appreciate it.

Regards,
GyM

Congratulations are well in order!

The 750 itself is already quite impressive, but considering that you started from a 550 makes this achievement all the more impressive.
Stories like this are what keeps us folks motivated!

Thank you for the encouragement.

Best regards & good luck for the application process,
Chris

Thank you Williamsson for the methodology for answering RC and CR, would it help id someone read LSAT to understand the concept?

Hi dhilavikash,

Based on your recent posts, it appears that you've been 'stuck' right around a 550 for at least the last couple of months - and if that's the case, then it's possible that you developed some 'bad habits' during your earlier studies that are keeping you from scoring higher. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. The earlier posts in this thread are all almost 4 years old - and the original poster hasn't been on this site since late in 2018 - meaning that you might not receive a response from him/her. The more information that you can provide about your situation, the easier it should be to help you though (and if you start a new thread - instead of piggy-backing on this one - then you will likely receive more of a response). Thus, before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, 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 in total? Over the last 4 months, how many hours have you typically studied each week?
2) What study materials have you used over the course of ALL of your studies? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate 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 apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com