From 620 to 720; Advice

Hi Nik11,

Although 620 is not a bad start, improving by 100 points in 35 days may be a bit tight. In any case, here is some general advice you can follow to improve your GMAT quant and verbal skills.

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!

Hi Nik11,

To start, a 620 is a strong initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 550 most years), so you are likely a reasonably strong critical thinker already. That having been said, many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so if you currently have just 5 weeks of study time remaining, then there will almost certainly be a limit to how much you can improve in that time. Statistically-speaking, raising a 620 to the point that you can consistently score 720+ will likely require that you commit to at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make 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. While I understand that you want to apply for the upcoming application Rounds, if you ultimately "need" a 720+ to apply, then THAT Score Goal has to come first - and you might want to consider pushing back your Test Date and application plans.

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 (along with the type of GMAT Score that you might "need" for the Schools that you are interested in) 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/

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on your timeline and your goals:

1) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) What specific Schools are you planning to apply to and what specific application deadlines are you facing? Are there any later Rounds?
3) What is the minimum GMAT Score that you would apply with?

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

Thank you very much to everyone. Very useful tips and clear explanations.
In a nutshell these are more specific details:
I want to apply for the 4th/5th intake in each of the following schools:
LBS(MFA), LSE(M.PE and Finance), Imperial(MSc Finance), HEC(M. Int. Finance), ESSEC(Msc Finance), NUS(MSc Finance), CBS(MSc Adv. Ec&Fin), HSG(Double degree MiM+MSc Fin) and INSEAD(MiM).

I have a BSc in Economics and Business Administration from a top Italian target(but not so famous in Europe) that comes just after Bocconi.
First class(110/110 cum laude), GPA: 3,80(28,5/30)
I'm currently a Candidate for CAIA level 1 (exam window March)
Little work experience in small and mid Real Estate development companies and then in later 2021 for a Proptech startup and a IB firm.
I strongly believe that my most important corcern now is... english. I have just had my Toefl and I'm waiting for the result but it is likely to be very low(100-103) and as you can see I have some troubles.
Coming back to the Gmat, I have seen that most of my quant mistakes are due to distractions or lack of time. I want to work hard on these. However, I want to follow your advice and try to find and recognize patterns in my mistakes to solve them sistematically.
I just want to repeat that I've just 1 month left, but I'll have something like 180h.
I aim for a 720 because I know that I can reach it with an acceptable amount of effort.

Posted from my mobile device