Need HELP planning my study! GMAT on May 2nd!!

Hi Shami05,

The good news is that you seem to be in a very solid spot. To improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you have 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 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!

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT- This article is amazing!

I analysed all mistakes in quant mock 3 and I got 5 questions wrong due to carelessness. I am going to try the approach you provided to the best of my ability!

Thank You!

Hi Shami05,

There are a variety of factors that can impact your performance on a CAT/mock (and on the Official GMAT), including the type of Exam that you're using, the time of day that you start the Exam, the testing conditions, how well-rested you are, the section-order, etc. Based on your 3 CAT results, it's likely that you are a strong overall critical-thinker and that your knowledge base is good. To consistently score 700+ though, you might need to make some fundamental changes to how you 'see' (and respond to) the Exam.

Before I can offer you any additional 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) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks?
4) 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

So, Mock 1: Q48 v38
Mock 2: Q44 and V 38
Mock 3: Q43 and V 36

At the V36-38 level, a person has likely got some decent verbal skills. You basically 'get' the verbal section so to speak. It might be worth working on the way you tackle questions. May surprise folk that a lot of the verbal tutoring I do doesn't necessarily go over fundamentals per se. It's more about becoming more efficient so whether you're going from a V31 to V40 (https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-online- ... 68599.html) or even recently with a student going from a V41 to a V45 in about 10 days adding this sort of learning into your prep can be helpful.

For Quant, it's difficult to make a quick judgement, but going from a Q48 to Q43 may mean there are some specific sub-topics you are slippery on (i.e. geometry). If the algorithm throws you some questions types you're weaker or are really hit-or-miss on, your score may fluctuate heavily downwards. There could be other reasons, though, such as time management issues.

There are a variety of factors that can impact your performance on a CAT/mock (and on the Official GMAT), including the type of Exam that you're using, the time of day that you start the Exam, the testing conditions, how well-rested you are, the section-order, etc. Based on your 3 CAT results, it's likely that you are a strong overall critical-thinker and that your knowledge base is good. To consistently score 700+ though, you might need to make some fundamental changes to how you 'see' (and respond to) the Exam.

Before I can offer you any additional 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) How many hours do you typically study each week?- When I started in Nov it was 4-6hrs/week. Since March, I ramped up to 12hrs/week and since April 1- I have taken time off work so all I do is study. About 6-8hrs/day
2) What study materials have you used so far? - Magoosh and official gmat practice questions and mocks
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks? MOck 1- around mar 15, mock 2- April 2 and mock 3- april 6
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?When is as soon as I have the score. I am applying for Rotman and Schulich

Sure thing! I'm happy to help!

Hi Shami05

For scoring 700 and above, you need to get the easy medium questions right as GMAT test is adaptive in nature. You can afford making mistakes only in the latter half of the Section, not in the beginning. You have to make the GMAT algorithm serve you difficult questions and get them right. For that, being conceptually clear on all topics is really vital. Not only this, you have to be good with application of concepts because GMAT is a test of application of concepts.

I generally recommend to follow a 3 step approach:

1. Learn all the concepts thoroughly.

2. A key focus on methodologies. Do not skip straight to practicing questions as this will not help you learn a lot and, will not help with retention either. Instead, learn the most effective methodology to solve a particular question type. For example, a meaning based approach for SC. Also, go through solutions step-by-step to maximize your learning effectively.

3. Finally, start practicing questions. A good benchmark to know that you're ready is 80-90% accuracy at all difficulty levels.

There are wild swings in your scores which implies that you may not have followed a very structured approach. It's important to identify if you have missed out any step.

You have to identify your weak areas and work on them in order to turn them into your strengths and score high.

Feel free to reach out in case of any queries!

Hi Shami05,

I've sent you a PM with some notes and additional questions.

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

Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com