My Plan to get from 460 to 650!

Question

Hi, guys!

I'm new to the forum, but I have been lurking on here for the past few months. Also, I would like to give a thank you to everyone who has been gracious enough to give strategies and tips for studying.

I just took my first practice exam and I scored a 460. As disappointed as I was, I feel my strategy has not been great and I'm excited to try again and aim for mid 600-700 score I need to get into my program of choice. My first real GMAT exam is in less than 2 days and I'm not feeling nervous as I have already scheduled another exam for almost 7 weeks out.

Where I think I went wrong: 
I have been studying on Magoosh's GMAT study platform and while I really like their videos, I feel I was answering too many practice questions before I got a handle on the foundations of what I was learning.
-I did not use flashcards.
-I did not create an error log.
-I did too many practice questions (all difficulty levels) too soon.
-I did not go over the foundations of Math and Verbal.

After reading over many of your postings and other online resources, I'm changing my gameplan.

My new study plan: 
-Create flashcards.
-Use an error log.
-Read over MGMAT Foundations of Math and Verbal
-Go over all the Magoosh Lessons before I touch any more questions again
-Go over practice questions later in my studying when I feel confident in my understanding of foundations

I'm excited to implement this new plan. I felt a little flustered with Magoosh's beginner studying guide. I really believe I can do much better and am becoming more confident as I cover more the of the materials in Magoosh instead of just answering practice questions.

Josh Jones' Quora Post is mainly where I'm getting my strategy from and Ashurocks17's post on this forum from April 1, 2016 that discusses how he went from 460 to 740.

If you have any tips or are also trying to improve your score or have any advice, definitely reach out! I'd be more than happy to be a support to anyone else who might be feeling disappointed in their studying and scores.

Thanks!

-Av

Bismarck · Answer

Thanks  avghuman  for the post.
Keep us updated about your progress , it will motivate other people.

pushpitkc · Answer

Hi avghuman

Welcome to GMATClub!

I would recommend to restart your preparation with one of two free tests you get, when
you sign into mba.com! Additionally, for tests, you should purchase GMATPrep Collection
Bundle(contains 2 exam packs - EP1 and EP2 and a question pack)

You are all set with the Manhattan Strategy guides which are an excellent resource as far
as basic strategy is concerned. I would recommend you to clear your concepts and then
immediately follow it up with some practice. The Magoosh videos will also help you with
the consolidation of the concepts that you have already read in the Manhattan guides.

These are some links on GMATClub which will help you with overall improvement of the
concepts

Verbal Section Prep
You could use the PowerScore CR bible in order to build concepts for CR.
For RC, you could refer to the below-given links
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-s- ... 83101.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/guide-to-rea ... 21112.html

For practice, you can find all the questions at GMATClub. You should use the Timer feature
in order to time yourself once you are familiar with the concepts. Some links for practice
SC: https://gmatclub.com/forum/sentence-cor ... 29750.html
CR: https://gmatclub.com/forum/critical-rea ... 28861.html
RC: https://gmatclub.com/forum/reading-comp ... 29341.html

Quant Section Prep
Link to GMAT Quantitative Mega-Thread(beneficial in understanding concepts)
https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gma ... 44512.html

Follow Bunuel in the Quant forum. Solve all the questions in his signature.
These are some awesome questions that give you the true taste of GMAT(Baker's Dozen, Fresh Meat,
etc) Also, make it a habit to sure you solve each and every question he puts up on the forum. This will
expose you to question from various topics and will help you improve your accuracy quickly.

Hope this helps you!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi avghuman,

Once you've taken the Official GMAT, you should post back here with your results. With that data, we'll have a far better sense of your current skills, strengths and weaknesses - and we can plan out an appropriate Study Plan from there. Beyond that data, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for this CAT?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
4) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

avghuman · Answer

Thanks, Bismarck! It's all about learning our weaknesses and seeing where we went wrong in order to get to the next level, amirite!? #hustle

avghuman · Answer

Thank you for the warm welcome! That looks like a great plan of action. I am leaning most toward MGMAT and their guides. Thanks for the recommendation and I look forward to implementing your advice.

-Av

avghuman · Answer

Hi Rich,

Hope you are well.

1) I've been studying for 3 months (not consistently) on Magoosh.
2)
First Gmat Review Test: 460 
Quant: 28 (20th Perc)
Verbal: 25 (36th Perc)
IR: 7 (out of 8, 81st Perc)
3) I plan on applying in early November to Part-Time and Full-Time programs.
4) NYU, Fordham, Hofstra. Nothing too crazy. I would like to stay in NY.

-Av

avghuman · Answer

I am considering Target Test Prep for the Quant section. Magoosh's verbal has been okay but I will still look into powerscore and MGMAT. I have looked at Veritas Prep live online courses but it's a bit pricey for me at the moment.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi avghuman,

Improving your GMAT score by 190 points in just 7 weeks is a tall order, so you may consider giving yourself more time to study. That being said, I’m happy to provide some advice on how to improve your GMAT score. Since you scored a 460 on your most recent practice exam, it’s clear that you lack certain quant and verbal fundamentals that are necessary for a high score. To improve your skills, you will want to follow a study plan that allows you to learn linearly, such that you can slowly build GMAT mastery of one topic prior to moving on to the next. Within each topic, begin with the foundations and progress toward more advanced concepts.

For example, if you are learning about Number Properties, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

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.

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 and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions 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. For example, let’s say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each Critical Reasoning question type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type of question. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific Critical Reasoning question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of Reading Comprehension questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice. However, keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such passages, begin reading magazines with similar content and style, such as the Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.

Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, it is likely that you will have to work on all three of those aspects, and it is also likely that the reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not really a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning the grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
 
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. Likely, the main reason that Sentence Correction has not "clicked" for you is that you have not put enough work into developing your skill in seeing what is going on in the various versions of the sentence that the answer choices create. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns in the sentence clearly refer to nouns in the sentence? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
 
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answer were always the one that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
 
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices in a Sentence Correction question, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
 
To improve what you do when you are answering Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. For instance, are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off, and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently that would have extended your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your Sentence Correction skills improve, you will then want to practice with Sentence Correction questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.
 
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 verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

avghuman · Answer

Hi Scott,

Hope you are well! Thank you for the post.

I agree with you 100% on having to get down the fundamentals. I did way too much mixed practice after each topic and I know this threw me off. Thanks for the lengthy and well-thought reply and I will certainly take your advice. =]

avghuman · Answer

So I decided to go with MGMAT for studying. From the reviews I have seen, a lot of people made higher score jumps through the program and it appears MGMAT purposely makes their material much harder so that when the real test is administered, you perform above a certain baseline level. I am taking the 9 session online-live course as well as their interact since I performed so poorly.

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