Urgent help required for GMAT Prep. Thanks in advance for the pointers

No problem! These forums have been a great help to me as well so just continuing the cycle. Let me know if there’s anything else.

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Hi,
Firstly, so sad to know that even after putting in so much of effort, you are not able to reach your target score. I can completely understand how that feels. Let me share my insights on what should be done next.

I could see that the scores are not consistent be that the overall scores or individual break downs. There might be two reasons for that. The first reason might be the lack of concentration and also the use of different approaches. If this is the case, make sure you put in the same level of concentration and also follow a consistent approach for every mock.

The other case which is possible is that you might not be using the right strategies to solve the questions. This might be reason for the inconsistent scores you have been getting. I see that you studied from a variety of resources which might be good conceptually. But to score well on GMAT, you need to have good strategies along with the right conceptual knowledge. And also, to improve your score from mid 600’s to a 740, you need to identify the weaker areas, work on them and overcome them. The resource which you use should actually help you do that. The pattern of your scores indicate that you might have not worked on your weaker areas which eventually led you to make same mistakes again and again.

And also never ever take mocks before completing all the concepts. The inconsistency in your Verbal score might be because of your lack of conceptual knowledge and lack of application is CR and RC. Because trust me, every individual module plays a very important role in GMAT and RC especially has a key role. If you have more than 20 hours a week, then I would suggest you to focus primarily on Quant and give some time to CR and RC. In case if you cannot dedicate 20 hours a week, your idea of starting CR and RC after finishing Quant is better. In the latter case, make sure you don’t waste mocks on Verbal.

The good thing about GMAT Quant is that it only tests specific types of questions from every concept. So to score well on Quant it is important to :
1. Know all the question types from each topic
2. Learn the right method to solve each of these question types
3. And practise these questions

GMATWhiz has done extensive research to identify all various type of questions for each topic and covered them in Concept Booster with detailed video solutions. The main idea is to help you learn the right method for solving questions within 2 mins of time.
It comes with real-time improvement modules after finishing a particular concept.

You can check the free trial of GMATWhiz and get an overview of the course. You can always reach out if you have any queries. You can use the below link to book a free consultation call with a Strategy Expert who has scored 740 on GMAT to get a clear idea of how to improve.

Click here to schedule a call

Hi dracarys007,

I'm glad you reached out, and I'm happy to help. The good news is that 650 (on your second practice exam) is a great 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 quant and verbal 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 the following article about The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!


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I have scheduled a call with GMATWHIZ... Hope to get helpful insights. Thank you for spending your valuable time writing the reply. Much appreciated.

It's our pleasure to help you. Please join the consultation call, so that we can help you figure out the path forward

Hi dracarys007,

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, these 3 CAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 620 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes.

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) Have you been studying consistently over the last 6 months or did you take any 'time off' from your studies? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Did you take just those 3 CATs/mocks during that time or were there any others? Have you taken any of the Official GMAC CATs?
3) 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

First off - THank you for your time to help me and write the reply. Much appreciated.

Please see below on answers to your questions.
1) Have you been studying consistently over the last 6 months or did you take any 'time off' from your studies? How many hours do you typically study each week?
Yes I have been consistently studing for gmat 3 hours each day with a day off every week on sundays.
I have completed OG including quant review two times and Manhattan advanced quant book two times.
I have also completed OG SC twice. I am good on SCbut yet to start prepping for RC and CR.

2) Did you take just those 3 CATs/mocks during that time or were there any others? Have you taken any of the Official GMAC CATs?
Yes I only took these three CATs till date.

3) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

My aim is to get a 740+ score which can give me an admit in top 20 B School. I am aiming for round one which seems distant to me. I wont compromise until I get that 740+ score. I am commited no matter how long it takes. I will defer my plans for MBA until I get a good score. I am also looking for scholarship on the score. I am positive.

Hi dracarys007,

To start, raising a 620 to the point that you can consistently score 740+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. By extension, you might need to consider pushing back your application plans though (beyond Round 1).

While it's not clear which specific Schools you are planning to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement.

There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

Since you have not taken any of the Official GMAC practice CATs yet, I suggest that you take one of those CATs soon (perhaps this weekend). Once you have that 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