Low GMAT score on my first attempt. Feeling helpless ..Kindly advise..

Hi Koustubh11,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day did not go as well as planned. You still managed to improve a great deal between your first CAT/mock (back in 2020) and your Official GMAT - so you clearly have the capacity to learn and improve. Before I can offer you any advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) Over the last 3 months, how many hours did you typically study each week?
2) 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)?
4) When you took the Official GMAT, did you run out of time and leave any questions unanswered? How many questions did you have to 'rush' through at the end of each section?
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

Hi Koustubh11,

Sorry about how things went with your test. The key to scoring well on GMAT is to focusing on the right aspects. If your score doesn't improve even after months (in fact years) of prep, then that means that there's something wrong with the preparation strategy. First let us understand the right way to prepare for GMAT.

How to prepare for GMAT in the right way?

Before you start preparing for any test, it's important to understand the structure of the test, what is tested on it and then prepare accordingly. In this case, GMAT is a test which focuses on your application skills along with the conceptual knowledge. So, just learning the concepts and practicing questions without focusing on the right methodology will not do any good. So, I suggest you to first focus on the methodology to solve questions of a particular topic and only then move to practicing questions of that topic.

So, the right way to prepare would be to first

• learn the concepts of a topic,
• learn the right methodology to solve questions of that topic
• practice a few questions of that topic to solidify your learning and then move to the nest topic
• Repeat the process for all the topics

And working on weak areas is equally important. You move to the next topic only if you get a decent accuracy in the previous topic. If not, you revisit the concepts, fill the conceptual gaps and then move to the next topic only when you are 100% confident. There are a couple of articles which you might find helpful.


And you can go through the recording below to understand how to strategize your GMAT prep in an effective way.

What might have gone wrong?

As we have understood the right way to prepare, now let's analyze what could have gone wrong with your previous attempt. You must have learnt the concepts of the topics and you must have practiced questions as well. But did you focus on the methodology part? Did you focus on working your weak areas?

These two could be the major reasons for you not scoring well on GMAT. So, this time make sure you do your prep in the right way by focusing on all the above parameters. And regarding the resource, choose a resource which can help you with not only the concepts, but the methodology as well. And the questions to practice and their detailed solutions are equally important as the solutions help you understand where exactly you are making the mistake. And a study plan would be an added advantage as you will have clear deadlines.

You can check out how some of the students(including ex- e-gmat students) improved their score to 700+ using GMATWhiz course. Here's the playlist link:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... agIstcvCrS

And regarding how to proceed further and the study strategy, I think it would be better if we can get in touch over a call and discuss the same as I would like to ask a few questions about your current preparation strategy and your weak areas. You can use the below link to get in touch with me.

Hi Koustubh11,
You might go through manhattan prep strategy guides for verbal concepts. Once you are done with a specific topic, such as modifier, you can attempt some easy and medium OG questions and see gmat club solutions. At first, focus on accuracy, and you should start timed practice when you are more confident.

Good Luck!

Hi Koustubh11,
To improve your verbal score, you might focus more on SC as it will help you understand the structure and meaning of a sentence, so you do well in CR and RC too.

Good Luck!

Getting familiar with the structures of sentences may also help you see the "core" of a sentence clearly. For SC, you may better see which sentences grammatically hold up.

How to get better at GMAT Sentence Correction. Cut out the fluff.

Hi Koustubh, many other experts have already given their suggestions and I have nothing to add in this regard.

I just have immense admiration for you, since you have been able to increase your Quant score from 14 to 37! A 23 point improvement is just incredible and while your overall score disappoints you, I hope you do give due credit to yourself, for having already moved a mountain.

Kudos and all the best!