Nevo
Hi all,
Here is a quick background: I need a 700+ GMAT score to get into top b-schools and I have 7 weeks to make it (full-time prep, no work). With no preparation whatsoever I took the official mock test today to have a benchmark and got a score of 600 (39Q 33V).
Quant
I completely bombed the quant section (28th percentile, 13 mistakes). I have extremely high quant skills, in my bachelor's I had A+ in all math-related courses. But I pretty much forgot everything related to geometry/trigonometry/powers and so on. When analyzing my mistakes, 6 out of 13 were related to rules of math that I had already forgotten. I assume that with 20-30 hours of refreshment on those I can make a major leap in the quant section.
Verbal
I'm not a native English speaker (more room to improve?), I felt like I had a decent run, had 11 mistakes, 7 of which were SC.
Given the above, is it realistic for me to aim for a 700+ score in 7 weeks? if so, what's my best course of action?
Thanks!
Hi
Nevo600 is a good score to start with. If you prepare in a structured manner with consistent efforts guided in the right direction, you do stand a chance as you can prepare full time. Let me share my insights here.
OG may be a great source for solving GMAT like questions, however, it is definitely not the ideal way to prepare in your case. Moreover, you may find that the
OG is a good option as a question bank but lacks detailed explanations for you to use for improvement. It’s always better to prepare with a definitive resource to help you learn concepts while formulating a consistent strategy to solve questions before practicing them from the
OG. This way, your preparation will be a lot more structured, and the chances of you leaving gaps in your learning will be significantly less. Focus on improving the method you follow to solve questions because that's what stops people from scoring 700+. Furthermore, you may find that the
MGMAT guides aren’t very helpful as they’re targeted more towards native speakers of English. As such, following a resource which focuses on the right methodologies becomes even more crucial.
A Q39 indicates that you have conceptual gaps in a few topics and are highly struggling with the application of concepts (the right methods to solve questions). You should revisit the concepts, understand them perfectly, then learn the right approach to solve questions and then practice questions of that topic. You should consider moving to the next topic only if you are perfect with the previous topic.
Coming to Verbal, your score indicates you are probably good enough with one of the 3 modules (SC, CR and RC) and need to work on the other two. (This is general case. There can be chances that you are average in two and very bad in the other one since you mentioned SC as a weak area)
Verbal questions on GMAT are very tricky. Let me help you with the right way to approach your Verbal Prep.
How to Ace your Verbal Prep?
For GMAT Verbal, it is very important that you follow the
right methodology and the
logical approach. Your focus has to be on
eliminating four incorrect choices rather than choosing the right one. The key is to develop a solid understanding of the concepts that are typically tested on the GMAT and master the process skills that are required to solve GMAT questions. Only then, you will be able to smartly avoid the traps set by the test makers.
Before you start learning, it's important to understand what is actually tested using the questions. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a different way. For example, before you start learning the concepts of SC, you need to understand that SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the
process to approach SC questions is to:
• Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence
• Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise)
• Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning
You can go through the link below to understand the process in a better way:
Since you're targeting a quick turnaround, I suggest you follow a more personalized approach and a study plan with clear deadlines. I understand that creating a study plan can be a tedious task, so you can check
GMATWhiz which can help you create a personalized study plan.
Learn how Ruthwik scored a perfect Q51 bringing it to a GMAT 740:
Hope it helped. If you have any queries regarding the study strategy or the resource, you can get in touch with me using the below link. I will be happy to help.