My First GMAT attempt

Question

Hello to those reading this,

I just appeared for the GMAT this past Friday. While I was not expecting anything great to be honest, my overall score was just shy of what I was scoring in mocks. Here is a breakdown of my official score:

Overall - 585
Q - 79
V - 84
DI - 74

I am planning to give it again, most likely in the first week of September, I hope to be applying to primarily B-schools in India.

Currently, I have a full time job as an analyst in an Indian service centre for a UK-based bank, where lately more and more is being put on my plate which I felt affected me quite a bit before my attempt.

I guess the reason I am posting this is to hear some thoughts on what should a good expectation look like in terms of score improvement for my next attempt.

kingbucky · Answer

Congratulations on the score  kushisokay 
You have an approximately 45 to 50 days. Make best use of your time during commute (take some 5 CR problems) or whenever you're idle. Use after work hours time very productively for the next 50 days.

Take more official mocks.  By the way how many Official mocks did you take for your recent attempt ?   Keep pushing harder and harder. The Quant can be improved a lot focus on it. Solve OG question, Quantitative Review questions - Don't waste time on non-OG questions.

All the best, inform us on how your attempt went !

pintukr · Answer

You may solve topic wise questions on the Forum Quiz platform. All the Best.

kingbucky · Answer

Yes, Forum Quiz is an excellent tool to keep improving. Do ensure you choose only problems contributed by highly reputed prep providers, as I think you can't filter out OG questions.

Edskore · Answer

585 with a 79 in Quant and 84 in Verbal but only a 74 in Data Insights tells a pretty clear story, your DI is the section holding the total score back, and the good news is that's usually the fastest section to move if you give it focused attention.

Seven weeks is a solid runway, especially with a full time job in the mix. What worked for me was ring fencing DI as its own subject instead of treating it like leftover Quant and Verbal skills, because it really is its own beast, especially Multi Source Reasoning and Two Part Analysis. I'd spend the first two or three weeks doing untimed DI sets just to build comfort reading tables and graphs quickly, then shift to timed sets once accuracy is solid.

Given the analyst job eating into your time, even 45 minutes a day of focused DI work will move that 74 more than scattered review across all three sections. Q79 and V84 are already in good shape, protect them with light maintenance and put your real hours into DI.

You have real time and a real gap to close here, that is a good position to be in.

Edskore · Answer

Congrats on 585 first time out, and honestly a DI of 74 with a full time analyst job eating your evenings is nothing to be down about.

On what to expect for improvement, I'd push back a little on aiming for a specific number and instead look at where the points are actually sitting. DI is usually the section that responds fastest to focused practice because a lot of the loss there is timing and format familiarity rather than a content gap, so that's where I'd put the bulk of your next 6 weeks. When I was prepping I saw the biggest jump not from doing more questions but from timing every practice section like the real DI clock and forcing myself to make faster "good enough" calls on TPA and MSR instead of chasing exact answers.

Given the job stress is real, protect a fixed practice window daily even if it's short, consistency beats marathon weekend sessions for retention. A 60 to 80 point jump by September is realistic if DI specifically gets dedicated time, not just more overall study hours.

You've got two months, that's enough if you're targeted about it. Good luck with the retake.

EducationAisle · Answer

How have you been preparing?

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

A small gap between your mocks and your official score is normal, so I wouldn't read too much into landing a bit under where your practice tests were. Test day rarely matches practice exactly.

What matters more is the work situation you described. Prepping for the GMAT while your plate keeps getting fuller at a demanding analyst job is genuinely hard, and that kind of pressure quietly eats into your focus in the weeks before a test. So before setting a score target, be honest with yourself about whether your September window actually gives you room to prepare properly.

On the improvement question itself, there's no fixed number I can promise you. The size of the jump depends on where your points are and how systematically you close those gaps, and your score report already shows where the room is. Verbal at 84 is your strongest section by a good margin, and depending on your target schools it probably needs only light maintenance, not rebuilding. Data Insights at 74 is your lowest, and it's your biggest opportunity. Since all three sections count toward your total, raising DI moves your score just as much as gains anywhere else. Quant at 79 has room too. So your path to a higher total runs mostly through DI and Quant while you keep Verbal sharp.

The way to raise those sections is one topic at a time, not by grinding mixed practice tests. Relearn the concept, drill that single topic untimed until your accuracy is high, and for every miss figure out exactly why you got it wrong: concept gap, misread, careless slip, or trap. Redo those questions from scratch a few days later to confirm the fix stuck. Add timing only once you're accurate. DI leans on the same Quant and Verbal reasoning you're already building, so that foundation work pays off there directly.

You've got roughly six to seven weeks until early September. That's workable given how clearly your gaps point to what to fix, but if the job doesn't leave you room to prepare the way you need to, pushing the date back beats sitting the exam underprepared.

One thing to nail down now: "B-schools in India" covers a lot of programs with very different score expectations. Pin down your actual target schools and their score ranges so you know exactly how much you need to improve.

This walks through turning your review into real gains:  How to Improve Your GMAT Focus Score .

KaviIyer · Answer

Can you let me know how you prepared and what have been your learnings (best practices).

I am planning to prepare.

Reon · Answer

Are you just starting with your prep?

mpobisetty · Answer

Not an expert here but it seems that you need to work on your Quant because it is possible that your quant under-preparedness is reflecting in your DI scores as well.

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