need to improve GMAT score from 650 to 700+

Question

Hi
I gave gmat test today and scored 650 with Q49 V30,
need help to improve my score.
All suggestions are welcome.

Earlier I have scored V34-V36 in gmat mocks , i don't know what went wrong in actual GMAT.

PFA my ESR

adding experts for help and analysis of ESR
@e-gmat 
 mikemcgarry  
 VeritasKarishma  
 GMATNinja

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi GMATbuster92,

First off, a 650/Q49 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, 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-admission ... tants-124/

If you do choose to retest though, then it would help to know a bit more about your prior studies and goals:

1) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
4) What is your goal score?

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 (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

GMATbuster92 · Answer

Hi Rich,
Thanks for your kind words , it really boost my confidence. I have attached ESR to the original post, Please have a look.

as for your questions:
1) How long have you studied? 
I started on July 1st , so almost 3.5 months

2) What study materials have you used so far?
I have used OG 2018 and 2019, Veritas prep videos, Princeton classroom coaching and Gmat Club practice questions

3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
GMAT PREP 1 640 Q50 V28
GMAT PREP 2 670 Q49 V34
GMAT PREP 3 690 Q50 V32
GMAT PREP 4 670 Q49 V34

4) What is your goal score?
 720+ , as I come from very competitive pool of Indian male with Engineering background

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Kshitiz, looking at your mock scores, your actual score wasn't  way  off (a lot of cases get reported on this forum, with deficits of 100+ between mocks and the actual score:)).

ESR suggests that you need to work upon all the three areas in Verbal.

egmat · Answer

Hi GMATbuster92 , As is clear from your score split, most of your score improvement must come from Verbal section so please find below my observations and recommendations from the Verbal section of your ESR: - You have average ability in all the 3 sub-sections. You seem to know most of the concepts well, but the problem seems to be in your process to solve the questions. - Poor accuracy in the first block impacted your score negatively as you never got a chance at medium-hard questions. - In the first 3 blocks you seem to have spent a lot of time on questions that you got incorrect. More efficient use of that time could have helped in improving your score. Based on the above observations, I would recommend that you read the following articles and if you still have any queries, please feel free to write to us on support@e-gmat.com. - Retaker Strategy - Efficient Timing Strategies for maximizing score Hope this helps! Regards, Aditee

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi GMATbuster92,

I've sent you a PM with some notes and suggestions based on your ESR.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi GMATbuster92,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT, but 640 is not a total disaster, right? I mean, you scored a Q49, which matches the quant score of 50% of your practice tests, and your verbal is only four points lower than your best verbal score and two points higher than your worst from your practice exams. So, let’s try to look at the glass as half full rather than half empty. One important point to keep in mind is that you probably were not ready to take the GMAT when you did, since your highest practice test score was still 30+ points lower than your score goal.

Looking at your ESR, since you scored in the 61st, 51st, and 54th percentiles for Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Sentence Correction, respectively, it’s clear that you need to improve in all three areas of verbal in order to raise your verbal score. Regarding the drop in your verbal score, it’s likely that in your preparation, you have been too focused on using patterns and rules to answer verbal questions and have not put sufficient energy into learning to use logic. Test-makers are always coming up with new ways to write questions, so if you’re too reliant on using past patterns instead of pure logic, you won’t correctly answer questions with twists that are different from the ones you saw while prepping. As a result, when you take the actual GMAT, you won't do as well answering verbal questions as you did when you were practicing. To score high in verbal, you have to identify the key concepts in questions and use logic to arrive at correct answers.

With all that said, leave your latest GMAT in the rearview, and focus on moving forward and improving your verbal skills so you can hit your GMAT score goal. You may find it helpful to read this article about
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

need to improve GMAT score from 650 to 700+

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards