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Question

NA. Deleting it.

priya90r · Answer

Based on your scores, it seems you need to work on both Quant and Verbal to achieve your target score. What sections in Verbal do you need to work on most? What topics in Quant are you getting the most easy questions incorrect? These could be starting pointers for your strategy.

Most importantly, when do you plan to take GMAT?

Most importantly, when do you plan to take GMAT?

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Satkirat,
 
Your improvement seems pretty solid; however, why don’t you take another GMAC practice exam to see exactly where you are at? Also, would you like some general advice on how to improve your GMAT quant and verbal skills? Lastly, you may find it helpful to read the following articles:
 
 How to Score a 700+ on the GMAT — A Mini Guide for Success 
 
 The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

You should buy official mock 3-6. 
 
There are ton of manhattan prep questions. So, there is no chance to be inflated your manhattan test score. It is better not to study from their mock tests' pool. You can search those questions in the web whether those questions are from manhattan CAT or not. If those questions are from manhattan CAT, it will show in the manhattan prep forum as  'Manhattan Prep GMAT CAT Math/verbal' .

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Satkirat,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, 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) Have you used any other study materials besides the ones listed in your initial post?
3) When are you planning to apply to School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. Since that algorithm is proprietary, no GMAT company has an exact match for it, thus CAT scores can vary a bit based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs. GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function (and assuming that you took your CATs in a realistic fashion), your 3 recent score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (620 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. It's possible that you have developed some 'bad habits' during your prior studies and gotten 'stuck' at this particular score level, so I suggest that you take one of the Official GMAC CATs for your next CAT (so that we can see if that result is similar to your prior results).

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

noobmaster68add1 · Answer

Hi  ScottTargetTestPrep

I read the articles. They were really helpful, and made me change the way I think of my score. I have decided to take my next mock after 2 weeks. I want to know about your Quant Diagnostic. Should I take the TTP quant diagnostic before I take my next full length mock? I have reviewed my mocks, but still couldn't precisely identify my weaknesses. Will the diagnostic help?

Thanks!

noobmaster68add1 · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC

1) I basically spend around 2 - 2.5 hours on verbal and 1.5 - 2 hours on quant every day. I don't think I am using my time efficiently. I end up getting distracted every time I get tired.
2) Like I said the OG was my first material. I am still doing sentence correction from the OG. Used the Manhattan SC book to improve. A trend I found - In my second mock I got 75% of the CR, 43% of the RC, and 57% of the SC correct. So I decided to spend more time doing RC and SC, and in my third mock I got 60% of the CR, 50% of the RC, and 64% of the SC correct. It seems like I need to balance things.
3) I just started 3rd year of my college. So, I decided to give my GMAT this year only and then get some work experience. But, if I end up getting an okay-ish score then maybe I will try for 2021 intake. Haven't really decided on the schools yet. Like I said, if I end up getting above 700 then maybe I will have to sort out thing because the score alone won't get me into a good school.

Thanks!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Satkirat,

Many Business Schools expect that Applicants will have several years of quality Work Experience (with Leadership roles) when they apply to School. There are exceptions of course, so putting in some time to define the type of Programs that interest you should help you to better define your timeline (both in terms of when you might take the GMAT and when you might apply).

Once you have your next CAT Score, you should post back here (or you can feel free to PM me directly) and we can discuss the results and how you might best proceed with your studies.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

The diagnostic would be a good start! Did you take it?

noobmaster68add1 · Answer

ScottTargetTestPrep   EMPOWERgmatRichC

Hey!

I took my GMAT Prep 2 today. Scored 620 Q44 V31 IR7. I am literally stuck at 620 for a month now! I know that I haven't maxed out. I am confident that I can do better! But, it really isn't working I don't know why. I have decided to take the test sometime in the 1st or 2nd week of November. I do good on verbal while practicing but while taking the test everything seems so difficult. I overthink while attempting the easy questions and end up choosing the wrong option. Though, I know that the number of questions I get wrong doesn't really matter, but I have brought that number down to 12 in verbal in 11 in quant. I really need some guidance.

Will appreciate a reply!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Satkirat,

Based on your most recent CAT Score, I think that the idea that "your way" of approach the overall Exam has gotten you 'stuck' in the low-600s is a reasonable deduction (especially since your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores are remarkably consistently over your last 4 CATs).

Quant Scaled Scores in the mid-Q40s mean that your overall 'math skills' are good, but the Quant section of the GMAT is NOT a 'math test' - it's a 'critical thinking test' that requires lots of little calculations as you work through it. To score at a much higher level in this section, you need to become more of a 'strategist' and less of a 'mathematician.' A Verbal Scaled Score in the low-30s means that you're losing significant points in 1 or 2 of the major Verbal question types (RC, SC and CR), so you'll have to make some fundamental changes to your Verbal Tactics to score higher in this section.

If you still don't have any particular Schools or Programs in mind, then I think that THAT is a detail that needs to be addressed. The process of applying to (and ultimately attending) Business School will require a big investment of time, money and energy on your part, so you really should make sure that the Programs that you're interested in match your career goals/needs. Once you have a list of those Programs, you'll have a much better idea of the type of GMAT Score that you might "need" to apply - and then we can map out the type of Study Plan you would need to hit that Goal Score. As such, I suggest that you take a couple of days to research the various Finance Programs that might interest you. If you're honestly not ready for that yet, then we would instead have to plan around a particular Score Goal ("as high as I can get" is too vague, you need to define an outcome - then we can put together a plan to get to that outcome).

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I'm happy to help. Would you like some general advice on how to improve your GMAT quant and verbal skills?

noobmaster68add1 · Answer

ScottTargetTestPrep 
 
Sure! Anything that helps is much appreciated!

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Satkirat, Why don't you take another official mock and see if 620 is your actual level or not? Because the official mocks are the closest to the official test. In case if you are in a plan to buy any mocks, I would suggest you to go with the official ones. And answering your question of what you should be doing to improve your score, I would recommend you to Identify the weaker areas from the mocks Go through the concepts of those topics and learn the methodologies as well Take sectional quizzes and make sure you apply the methodology learnt while solving questions You can go through the series of webinars , which we finished recently, to understand the various methodologies used to solve GMAT questions. Hope it helped! All the best

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

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.

noobmaster68add1 · Answer

ScottTargetTestPrep

I took 3 mocks recently
Kaplan Prep 2 - 700 Q46 V40
Kaplan Prep 3 - 680 Q44 V39
GMAT Prep 3 - 650 Q45 V34

I have realized that I was not targeting my weak spots in Quant. Will follow your strategy now. Confident that my quant will improve.

I want to improve my RC as well. In my GMAT Prep 3 I got only 49% of the RC questions correct. What do you recommend? I am trying everything that's mentioned by experts. Reading slow, summarizing as I finish a para, connecting the passages etc. Even started reading The Economist daily. Still haven't improved. Do you recommend practicing using the LSAT Material?

Thanks!

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

If you run out of OG questions it might be good to know that there are online only Official Questions you can purchase from mba.com

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Have you run out of GMAT materials? Glad to see you are following my advice for quant.

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