Last 10 days - GMAT preparation

Thanks souvonik2k for the advice.

But I still face a 50 point shortage; what do you think is the best method to shoot up the score? - when you say revise, should I look at exercises and their answers? or simply the concepts?

Hi Rich,

Please find below the required information:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
-- I have been studying for around 2/3 hours per day - let's say 15 hours/week

2) What study materials have you used so far?
-- I have used the Manhattan Prep for concepts and GMATClub tests and Manhattan Prep for tests

3) On what 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)?
-- Date: 8/25
-- Score: 680 - V35 and Q47

-- Date: 8/11
-- Score: 670 - V34 and Q47

Goals:
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
-- October - December 2019

5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
-- I will be researching more into this. But, current list of schools that I will definitely be applying to are:
- ISB, NUS, SMU, Oxford (Judge - tentative), INSEAD, IE, ESADE, Yale

At this point, you should clearly know what your weak subject topics are as well as have a game plan for how to face the test.

It is more important to strengthen your weak spots. Do some problems from those topics, analyze your approach and make changes if necessary. Repeat and quickly revise the other topics.

Doing more mock tests will likely not be productive. GL!

Posted from my mobile device

Hi such8,

These 2 CAT Scores are remarkably similar to one another - and if they're the only 2 Scores you have, then it's possible that you've gotten 'stuck' at this score level. By extension, you might need more than another 1.5 weeks to get to the point that you can consistently score 730+. As such, you might want to consider pushing back your Test Date. There's no harm in testing as scheduled, but if you're going to retest until you score at least a 730, then you could potentially save some money and aggravation by pushing your Test back a few weeks (so that you can continue to study and hone the necessary skills to pick up the points that you're after).

1) What is the minimum Score that you would apply with?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Hi Such8,

I have an important question: Since you are still 50 points from your score goal, could you keep studying and take the GMAT at a later date? Also, do you need some general advice on how to improve both your verbal and quant skills?

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the valuable feedback! I will take one more practice test and see what score I am hitting.

As for your questions:
1) What is the minimum Score that you would apply with?
- 720

2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?
- Since I am a working professional, I guess it trickles down to 2 hours per day on weekdays and 5 hours per day on weekends - i.e. 20 hours per week

Do you have some suggestions based on this?

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the valuable advice.

The reason why I don't want to push the date is because I want to apply for Round 2 and focus on the application process.

Also, any general advice from you on how to improve both verbal and quant skills will be a blessing at this stage.

Thanks!

Hi such8,

You mentioned that you had also taken 6 MGMAT CATs and 2 Official GMAC CATs, but you did not include all of those results in your posts. When did you take each of those CATs and what were your scores?

That data is important - those scores can help define what type of progress you've made during your studies and potentially define whether you truly are stuck at this current score level or not. Assuming that the Scores that you listed so far are an accurate assessment of your current skills, then raising a 670/680 to the point that you can consistently score 720+ will likely require at least another month 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.

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

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.

You also may find it helpful to read this article about how to score a 700+ on the GMAT.

Good luck!