New to GmatClub. Aiming for 720+.

EMPOWERgmatRichC

400(V20,Q26) is my result.

Quant: 15/31 correct answers.
I've skipped each data sufficiency question as I do not understand the conception at all. Furthermore, I've never been taught math in English, so I suffered from vocab scarcity.

Verbal: 18/36 correct answers.
SC was easy for me while the RC was awful; I've never been exposed to such a sophisticated vocabulary. I've gotten my ass thoroughly kicked there.

I agree with you, I would not take a proper mock until you feel like you are comfortable with the material. Taking one now won't prove much.

Hi Kaczet

Welcome to GMATCLUB, and all the best for your GMAT journey.

All I can say is take some time and make yourself familiar with the types of questions you encounter in GMAT, and hone your skills for each of the sub-sections.
This club is indeed a boon for both help and practice that are required to ace GMAT.

Stick to questions from official sources , and get clarity in every concepts you come across.
Do not worry about the timing in your initial stage of preparation, you can work on that later.

These three links may help you a lot :

1. https://blog.targettestprep.com/how-to- ... -on-gmat/#

2. https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/tag/qu ... -wisdom-2/

3. https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-definiti ... 69705.html

Akshdeep

Hi Kaczet,

Many Test Takers are unhappy with their initial practice scores, but you really shouldn't be. It's just a measure of your skills right now - and we now know a bit more about your strengths and weaknesses - so that we can put together a study plan that better fits your particular 'needs.' Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores - and with a November Test Date, you have plenty of time to continue studying and improving. Raising a 400 to a 720+ will be a challenging task, but the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

All of that having been said, you will want to be efficient during the next several months of studying, so you would likely benefit from a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Thank you guys for your responses.

EMPOWERgmatRichC

I'm rather a self-taught type of person.
I can devote 2 to 3 hours a day on weekdays, and 6 to 10 hours a day on weekends. In addition, I'm going to pass IELTS within the said 4 months, too. This may be considered a ludicrous idea, but I plan to ace IELTS without actually studying for it (i.e. using IELTS coursebooks). I believe that preparations for GMAT will provide me with massive and constant English language exposure that would be sufficient.

To come back, the only part that I am scared of is RC. I did it incredibly bad. I hope it gets better with time.

Fellows,

which would be the best: to focus on each topic separately (i.e. first SC, then RC, then Algebra, then CR, followed with DS), or to mix these?
In other words, I'm seeking for an ingenious strategy that would allow me to learn the basics (theory) in the most effective way.

Hi Kaczet,

One of the great aspects of the GMAT is that there are a variety of different ways in which you can prepare for the Exam. If you're going to be studying for 2 Exams at the same time though, then you might run into some difficulties. Since you have plenty of potential study time right now, you can certainly proceed however you choose, but you have to regularly track your progress (re: in the case of the GMAT, taking FULL-LENGTH CATs under realistic conditions and at regular intervals), so that we can get a sense of how well "your way" of studying is helping you to improve.

Given what you're planning, I suggest that you study as you see fit for the next 2-3 weeks, then take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT. Once you have that result, you should post back here and we can discuss how you might adjust your studies (if needed).

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

Hi Kaczet,

I’m glad you reached out and I’m happy to help! Certainly, raising your GMAT 320+ points will be a challenging task, but if you give yourself a realistic timeline and work hard, you can make some major improvements.

To increase 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 once you pinpoint your weaker areas 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. 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 at least around 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, you would 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. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you get a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why you got it wrong. 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.

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 you didn't get it right. 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, if anything, you would have needed to know in order 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.

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.

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 it helpful to read my article for more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT.

Good luck!

Hi guys!

Okay, week passed. I've just taken another GMAT practice exam (second one).
The score is 550 (Q42,V23). I've been practicing mainly RC the whole week (!!!).
I've devoted only 6h to quant so far; unfortunately, i found myself stuck on one of the Quant questions, and had to guess last two questions. I was short on time in Verbal, too. No RC improvement can be seen so far.
There's a more detailed analysis:
RC: 4/14 correct
SC: 11/13 correct
CR: 4/9 correct

Quant:
20/31 correct -> made some stupid mistakes; I found each question easy, but I've forgotten some base principles (I haven't been exposed to Math for 3 years now). I may be arrogant but I aim for 51Q in November. Verbal part is going to be my Achilles' heel.


ScottTargetTestPrep, thank you for your meaningful comment.

Edit: I do better on paper. Passages that I found in MGMAT READING COMPREHENSION book were easy for me. The ones from "official guide for gmat" were even easier. I don't know what I should do now.

Edit 2: I missed two first Quant questions, which were really easy, and then I missed the "different integers" phrase! I think I would have gotten Q46-48 if I hadn't been studying for 8 hours just before taking the prep. I'll take the 3rd next week.

Hi Kaczet,

This recent CAT Score is a nice improvement over your original Score (from last week) - and it's likely a result of the work that you've done so far to become more familiar with the overall content of the GMAT. The similarity in the Verbal Scaled Scores implies that you continue to 'respond' to that section of the Test in the same general ways though, Thus, learning how to properly handle the various Verbal question types (in RC, SC and CR) along with the Tactics and patterns for each, will need to be a big part of how you proceed. You still have plenty of time to study though, which is good. If you're interested in Verbal-centric Course materials, then just let me know. You can also feel free to contact me directly at any time.

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

Rich,

I would be grateful if you could provide me with some tips or good RC-centric materials. There is a lot of information on how one can improve his/her RC performance but I need to know exactly which tips would suit me the best. Thus, your help would be appreciated. Also, let me know if you need any further information from me.

I'm very happy with my recent result as I know that I could have done even better in Quant - I looked at the questions I missed and, luckily, found all of them veeery easy.
Verbal part needs to be taken care of, and it seems like I have a lot of time to do so!

I woke up, took a bath, and sat to the GMATofficialprep practice test. I did Quant only, and scored Q47. What's funny is that I've gotten through the Verbal section in 3-4 minutes, without reading a single Q/A, and still managed to score 14/36. But this doesn't matter. The fact is that I had to prove myself that I can do better in Quant. I knew that I'm doing well as some of the questions were really tough. Yesterday's score was due to the fact that I had been learning the whole day before I took the practice test.

I think I can postpone the next FULL CAT until mid-August.

Kaczet

To start your RC preparation I would suggest you to go through this post https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 41004.html

For practicing RC, several passages were categorized according to their difficulty in this post https://gmatclub.com/forum/reading-comp ... 29341.html You can start from 500-level passages and build up as you gain confidence.

Hi Kaczet,

To earn a score of 720+ on the Official GMAT, you're going to need to perform at a high level on BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. The type of training involved is more than just about 'tips' though - you'll need to commit to learning and practicing the proper Tactics, learning the built-in patterns and incorporating all of the little tips/secrets to how the GMAT is designed. You can certainly find general advice throughout the forums here, and since you're already working through some practice materials, I suggest that you continue to study as you choose then take that next CAT in mid-August. By that point, you will have been studying for almost a month and you should have a decent 'feel' for the overall Exam. From that point, we'll be better able to analyze what you'll specifically need to work on - and how you might adjust your studies going forward.

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

I couldn’t resist myself from taking another practice test. Scored 680(Q50,V31). I’ve used the PowerScore GMAT CR bible for CR, and I feel like a CR god! I’m really excited!!!
I’m going to monitor my progress, using a Ms Excel sheet. I believe I can score 700+ in November. I now really believe it.

Next feedback will appear within two months. Unfortunately, some big projects apprared last week at my job, and I’ll probably suffer from time scarcity.
Nevertheless, the progress I’ve already made keeps my spirits up.

Posted from my mobile device

Hello EMPOWERgmatRichC!
I'd love to be counselled by you as I struggle to get any improvement for about a month now.

So, I am stuck somewhere between 640 - 690; Q46-Q49 and 25-V32 I'd say.
Any further prep results would be biased so I don't see any sense in taking another CAT.

Had I known that some BIG M&A deals were to appear, I'd have learnt as much as I could and I'd have taken the GMAT in August.
Therefore, I decided to take GMAT as fast as possible; I'm working about 14 hours a day now, so I can't really study at all. I must forestall decrease in performance.
I'm really sad to say this, but I am not going to score as high as 720. Not even 700, I suppose. Therefore, my goal has changed. I want to score Q51. I must train myself to be able to score 50-51 at all hours, both at 4 PM and at 3 AM.
What should I do? What should I focus on? I've already read the Bunuel's known thread but I am still confused.

Should all the focus be put on properties of integers? I find myself good at inequalities, absolute value, functions, probability and divisibility. I don't know what makes me score below Q50. Silly mistakes are in play, of course; on average, out of the mistakes that I make, 60-70% are the "insufficient knowledge" ones.

Should I provide any more information, don't hesitate to ask any question.

Thank you!