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04 Nov 2020, 05:15
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Hi everyone,
I took my official GMAT exam yesterday (3rd November). Scored 640 (Q42 V35). I need to retake the exam to reach my target score of 700. I am not sure how to proceed further and how many hours should I invest to retake the test.
I have never struggled with Quant and was worried only about Verbal till the test day. I targeted to score Q49-50 in the official exam but that didn't happen to be the case.
Below is my GMAT journey. It's a huge post but I thought of providing as many details as possible so that it is easy to provide your inputs.
I started my prep in May 2020 with Magoosh. Completed Magoosh and OG 2020 (twice) by mid July and took GMAT Official Prep Test on July 12 scored 570 (Q47, V22).
As I needed to improve a lot on the Verbal part in all the sections, I thought of picking up one section at a time. I studied Manhattan SC book, followed EGMAT videos for SC, answered questions at the end of every concept and practice file. I also listened to EGMAT webinar for RC and used to practice 2-3 RCs a day. Didn't do anything for CR (Wanted to pickup after I get better with SC). For Quant, I used to practice questions that I found on GMAT club in my weak areas and used to watch videos to understand certain concepts. Then I took GMAT Official Prep Test 2 on 31st August and scored 640 (Q48, V29). Till this point I used to study 2-4 hours per day on weekdays depending on work and 6-8 hrs on weekends.
Till end of August I was visiting GMATclub but didn't know how to leverage it properly. I just used to review posts, refer solutions whenever I am unable to find something, download compiled files and practice. Then I came through a post and got to know about the search tags and error log. I started working on official SC problems and studied Powerscore CR Bible for CR. But in September I couldn't focus on studies much due to heavy workload of 15 hrs a day. Somehow I managed to study Powerscore CR Bible and some SC problems on weekends. I haven't done anything with respect to Quant except for taking GMATclub Quant tests (scores - 42, 33, 44).
In October I took a leave from work and studied for 12 hours a day starting 5th October, focusing mostly on verbal by practicing official questions on GMAT club. I had to revise a lot because I lost touch in entire September. After studying for a week I took Experts Global mock on 13th October and scored 620 (Q42 V32) I wasn't much worried about the Quant part as I haven't been in touch for so long and I knew that I can improve once I get in touch.
From then on, I started focusing on both the subjects dedicating 6 hours per each subject. I identified my weak areas in Quant and strengthened concepts. Depending on topic I used to dedicate one to two days per topic. I used to practice almost all official questions and GMAT Club tests questions for that particular topic. I took some GMATclub quant tests as well and scored (44, 45, 47, 39).
I took Official GMAT prep test 3 on October 22nd and scored 670 (Q50, V30). I analyzed my mistakes and was really worried about Verbal part as I couldn't show much improvement. I practiced more and more reviewed my own error log and notes. For Quant, I continued practicing question sets from GMAT club tests and GMAT club.
I took my final official GMAT Prep test on 30th October and score 680 (Q49, V34). I was again worried about the verbal part as it was getting difficult for me to manage timing and I used to get stuck between two options. When I analyzed my Quant, I realized that I did not know how to solve only 2-3 problems and others were silly mistakes which I could've avoided with attention.
I geared up for my test day by reviewing all my synopsis. I started my exam with Quant as I always do. The marker wasn't working and I had to loose 2-2.5 mins before I started working on my first question. I got tensed and I wasn't able to get solutions for problems as I proceeded (Honestly I have never struggled like this in any mock test). I was surprised that I didn't see any questions on inequalities or modulus. I was already prepared to see a low score and started Verbal section. I felt that the questions are ok in verbal and was feeling better compared to my practice sessions.
I am not able to figure out where it went wrong and what steps should I take to improve my score. I have simulated the test environment for the mock tests that I took, except for the fact that I took it at home. Haven't repeated tests as well.
I am planning to apply for Doctoral programs at ISB, IIMB and IIMA. The deadline for ISB is 8th of February. For IIM A and IIM B it is 21st January. Is it possible to improve my score by 50-60 points in 5-6 weeks? Then I will have at least a month at hand to work on my applications.
Your help is much appreciated. I am yet to get the official score report as I completed my test yesterday (3rd November).
Thanks a lot!
Pallavi.
I took my official GMAT exam yesterday (3rd November). Scored 640 (Q42 V35). I need to retake the exam to reach my target score of 700. I am not sure how to proceed further and how many hours should I invest to retake the test.
I have never struggled with Quant and was worried only about Verbal till the test day. I targeted to score Q49-50 in the official exam but that didn't happen to be the case.
Below is my GMAT journey. It's a huge post but I thought of providing as many details as possible so that it is easy to provide your inputs.
I started my prep in May 2020 with Magoosh. Completed Magoosh and OG 2020 (twice) by mid July and took GMAT Official Prep Test on July 12 scored 570 (Q47, V22).
As I needed to improve a lot on the Verbal part in all the sections, I thought of picking up one section at a time. I studied Manhattan SC book, followed EGMAT videos for SC, answered questions at the end of every concept and practice file. I also listened to EGMAT webinar for RC and used to practice 2-3 RCs a day. Didn't do anything for CR (Wanted to pickup after I get better with SC). For Quant, I used to practice questions that I found on GMAT club in my weak areas and used to watch videos to understand certain concepts. Then I took GMAT Official Prep Test 2 on 31st August and scored 640 (Q48, V29). Till this point I used to study 2-4 hours per day on weekdays depending on work and 6-8 hrs on weekends.
Till end of August I was visiting GMATclub but didn't know how to leverage it properly. I just used to review posts, refer solutions whenever I am unable to find something, download compiled files and practice. Then I came through a post and got to know about the search tags and error log. I started working on official SC problems and studied Powerscore CR Bible for CR. But in September I couldn't focus on studies much due to heavy workload of 15 hrs a day. Somehow I managed to study Powerscore CR Bible and some SC problems on weekends. I haven't done anything with respect to Quant except for taking GMATclub Quant tests (scores - 42, 33, 44).
In October I took a leave from work and studied for 12 hours a day starting 5th October, focusing mostly on verbal by practicing official questions on GMAT club. I had to revise a lot because I lost touch in entire September. After studying for a week I took Experts Global mock on 13th October and scored 620 (Q42 V32) I wasn't much worried about the Quant part as I haven't been in touch for so long and I knew that I can improve once I get in touch.
From then on, I started focusing on both the subjects dedicating 6 hours per each subject. I identified my weak areas in Quant and strengthened concepts. Depending on topic I used to dedicate one to two days per topic. I used to practice almost all official questions and GMAT Club tests questions for that particular topic. I took some GMATclub quant tests as well and scored (44, 45, 47, 39).
I took Official GMAT prep test 3 on October 22nd and scored 670 (Q50, V30). I analyzed my mistakes and was really worried about Verbal part as I couldn't show much improvement. I practiced more and more reviewed my own error log and notes. For Quant, I continued practicing question sets from GMAT club tests and GMAT club.
I took my final official GMAT Prep test on 30th October and score 680 (Q49, V34). I was again worried about the verbal part as it was getting difficult for me to manage timing and I used to get stuck between two options. When I analyzed my Quant, I realized that I did not know how to solve only 2-3 problems and others were silly mistakes which I could've avoided with attention.
I geared up for my test day by reviewing all my synopsis. I started my exam with Quant as I always do. The marker wasn't working and I had to loose 2-2.5 mins before I started working on my first question. I got tensed and I wasn't able to get solutions for problems as I proceeded (Honestly I have never struggled like this in any mock test). I was surprised that I didn't see any questions on inequalities or modulus. I was already prepared to see a low score and started Verbal section. I felt that the questions are ok in verbal and was feeling better compared to my practice sessions.
I am not able to figure out where it went wrong and what steps should I take to improve my score. I have simulated the test environment for the mock tests that I took, except for the fact that I took it at home. Haven't repeated tests as well.
I am planning to apply for Doctoral programs at ISB, IIMB and IIMA. The deadline for ISB is 8th of February. For IIM A and IIM B it is 21st January. Is it possible to improve my score by 50-60 points in 5-6 weeks? Then I will have at least a month at hand to work on my applications.
Your help is much appreciated. I am yet to get the official score report as I completed my test yesterday (3rd November).
Thanks a lot!
Pallavi.
04 Nov 2020, 11:37
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Pallavi,
640 is not a bad start! 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 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!
640 is not a bad start! 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 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!
04 Nov 2020, 23:44
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Pallavi,
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. The issue that you had with the marker certainly sounds as though it threw off your performance a bit, but we have to be careful about assuming that that was the 'only' reason you underperformed. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" usually involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:
1) Did you take any of your CATs/mocks more than once?
2) Can you go into a bit more detail about how you spent the last month of your studies? It certainly sounds as though you were putting in a lot of study hours each day, but it's not clear how you were structuring your studies.
You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.
The PhD application process tends to be a bit more 'rigorous' than the MBA application process is - since there tends to be a small group of highly qualified applicants competing for a relatively small number of PhD 'slots.' As such, beyond having a strong GMAT Score, you'll need a strong OVERALL profile and you'll need to properly 'market yourself' to each individual Program that you apply to. By extension, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. The issue that you had with the marker certainly sounds as though it threw off your performance a bit, but we have to be careful about assuming that that was the 'only' reason you underperformed. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" usually involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:
1) Did you take any of your CATs/mocks more than once?
2) Can you go into a bit more detail about how you spent the last month of your studies? It certainly sounds as though you were putting in a lot of study hours each day, but it's not clear how you were structuring your studies.
You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.
The PhD application process tends to be a bit more 'rigorous' than the MBA application process is - since there tends to be a small group of highly qualified applicants competing for a relatively small number of PhD 'slots.' As such, beyond having a strong GMAT Score, you'll need a strong OVERALL profile and you'll need to properly 'market yourself' to each individual Program that you apply to. By extension, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
