Improving GMAT Score (from 690 Q48, V35) - Help with next steps

Hi lafsg30,

Congratulations ! A score of 690 on GMAT is fantastic.

I understand you have the luxury of time to write the GMAT again. But take the GMAT for improving the score further only if it gives you a considerable edge for your applications to the B-school programs.

Answering a couple of questions may be helpful:-
1. What schools are you targeting?
If you are targeting Indian B-schools, the score of 690 should get you in. The median scores range around 700-710 mark. Even many schools in USA / other countries have their GMAT in the 700 range, although here getting a higher score boosts your chances of securing a scholarship.
2. What other aspects are you bringing in to the table?
The admit to a top-tier B-school is on the basis of the overall profile presented to the schools. The GMAT score only serves as a qualifier for the PI rounds. So if you have the luxury of time, why not invest that in strengthening other aspects of your profile such as extra-curriculars or otherwise.

Now if the answers to above 2 questions indicate that a GMAT score improvement toward 740 is necessary, I have 2 simple suggestions:-

Your scores are pretty consistent and have improved over time. It indicates that your foundation is strong. However, the answer to score improvement lies in your own questions: You need to manage time better and stop / minimise guesswork. For that I would suggest that you practice more of the 700+ level questions with focus on improving accuracy. Your time management will improve once you improve on the accuracy.

The most important suggestion is to reduce the lead-time toward exams. You have been preparing for the GMAT for too long. Because of the nature of GMAT exam, it helps to prepare for 2-3 months and then take the exam. Taking too long for the exam would cause you to lose interest and ultimately score improvement would be minimal.
Since you already have a good foundation, I would suggest you to take the exam in a couple of weeks time.

All the best. Do get in touch if you have any queries.

Cheers!
TopTierMBA

Hi lafsg30,

First off, very nice start with 690! Although I am unable to see your ESR, here is some advice you can follow to improve your GMAT score. 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, types that you would rather not see, and types 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.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find it helpful to read the following article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.

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