Help! 15 Day Quant Strategy for 600+ Score from 560

Question

Hey all. Not sure this is the right thread but  my dream school IESE is giving me 15 days to re-take my GMAT to get AT LEAST a 600+ . I could definitely get in with a 600-630 and if I get up to a 680 (albeit unlikely) I can acquire scholarships. I have a very good backstory, career progression, background, etc so they are making an exception past the last date for me.

GMAT 2 - 14th May - 560 Total (42%) / 32 Quant (32%) / 34 Verbal (71%) & 6 IR (70%) 
GMAT 1 - 25th April - 430 Total / 25 Quant / 24 Verbal & 5 IR
Next GMAT 31st May 8AM - NEED 600 minimum to secure entry

Prior MGMAT  practice tests = 520, 530, 540, 560, 580.. Best Quant: 38, Best Verbal: 35  - I actually got worse in the practice tests over time.. but surprisingly got the 560 yesterday.

I am finishing all the questions on good time - within 2 minutes on quant. my verbal skills and timing are also quite good within 1.2-2 min where suitable. I always get to the last question, skipping one to two per section.

I have the following questions...
- Any tips on how to improve my Quant in just two weeks while working full-time? (I can study for 2-3 hours each night and I have 12 hours Saturday, 12 hours Sunday, plus there is a bank holiday on the 27th so an extra 12 hours there - up to 60/80 hours of studying could be done by then) - shall I focus on practice questions from MGMAT like I have been doing or just the GMATCLUB? 
- I have a friend who is open to tutoring me for a few hours on two days (He is getting a PhD in maths) - is it worth even bringing him in to teach me topics like word problems, factoring? 
-  See the image attached , it shows areas in red where I have missed many questions based on 4 MGMAT practice exams. 
-  See the Excel attached for a rough workplan.  I am planning of replicating last two tabs for these next two weeks. Any thoughts?

I have access to 2018 MGMAT Access Hub materials and an old Kaplan test. I did the MGMAT 9 sessions last month and probably studied for over 350hours thus far.

Since you will ask why the big score jump, I am overcoming clinical depression and anxiety due to life factors for the past 6 months hence my terrible first performance.

Rubina11 · Answer

Since you have very less time at your hand, you might want to look at each problem type and then try to learn concepts related to it.
I would recommend you to stick to the official questions only during these days.

kinvestor · Answer

Try these Tips and you should see the improvement:

=> Focus on the Official Guide and go through the solutions thoroughly.

=> Practice official question from the club , there are a ton available.

=> Give the og diagnostic quant test and the two free gmat preps.

All this should take you post 600 easily.

Ps. please give a kudos if you find it useful.

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi GG1990,

If you have only 15 days and you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in Quant; a subscription to GMATCLUB tests is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them.

Lastly I would also encourage you to purchase the GMATPREP QP 1 for some great additional practice.

Hope this helps. All the best.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi GG1990,

Although two weeks is not a whole lot of time to improve to 600+, you certainly can take your best shot. Regarding how to improve in quant, the best thing you can do is cast a “wide net” by doing focused practice to find and fix your weaknesses in all quant topics. In other words, you need to go through GMAT quant carefully to learn 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 the 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 around at least 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, 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 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 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.

You also may find it helpful to read this article about  How to Increase Your GMAT Quant Score .

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

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