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May 1212:00 PM EDT
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Make the most of your break with the most realistic GMAT™ prep. Take up to $700 off select products.
May 1308:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
In Episode 4 of our GMAT Ninja CR series, we tackle the most intimidating CR question type: Boldface & "Legalese" questions. If you've ever stared at an answer choice that reads, "The first is a consideration introduced to counter a position that...- May 14
08:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
Most GMAT test-takers are intimidated by the hardest GMAT Verbal questions. In this session, Target Test Prep GMAT instructor Erika Tyler-John, a 100th percentile GMAT scorer, will show you how top scorers break down challenging Verbal questions..
strawberryjelly
05 Jun 2019, 06:50
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi all,
I have read many many posts on retakes, but they are very much focused on retakes that are aiming to get over the 700 barrier, rather than already being there but needing higher.
This is how my scoring went:
GMAC OP #1 13/11/18 - 670 (43Q/39V)
GMAC OP #2 28/01/19 - 750 (48Q/45V)
GMAC OP #3 23/03/19 - 750 (48Q/44V)
GMAC OP #4 04/04/19 - 770 (48Q/48V)
GMAC OP #5 19/04/19 - 740 (48Q/44V)
GMAC OP #6 22/04/19 - 730 (49Q/41V)
All taken in full test conditions, no pausing, no distractions (apart from road noise outside), no long breaks, every section done including IR and AWA.
GMAT official test 25/04/19 - 710 (46Q/41V)
I was obviously disappointed with this and ordered my ESR which indicated that CR had led me down in Verbal and Geometry was my main weakness in Quant. I went back and shored up those areas and retook on 3/06:
GMAT official test 03/06/19 - 700 (45Q/41V)
Getting a little worried now as I want to apply to HSW and Booth. I am female and European, so I know scores are slightly lower in my application group but I really do want to achieve a 730 minimum. I am awaiting the second test's ESR to come back to see what particularly went wrong but does anyone have any tips about how to approach the next month - retaking again 15/07.
Thanks
I have read many many posts on retakes, but they are very much focused on retakes that are aiming to get over the 700 barrier, rather than already being there but needing higher.
This is how my scoring went:
GMAC OP #1 13/11/18 - 670 (43Q/39V)
GMAC OP #2 28/01/19 - 750 (48Q/45V)
GMAC OP #3 23/03/19 - 750 (48Q/44V)
GMAC OP #4 04/04/19 - 770 (48Q/48V)
GMAC OP #5 19/04/19 - 740 (48Q/44V)
GMAC OP #6 22/04/19 - 730 (49Q/41V)
All taken in full test conditions, no pausing, no distractions (apart from road noise outside), no long breaks, every section done including IR and AWA.
GMAT official test 25/04/19 - 710 (46Q/41V)
I was obviously disappointed with this and ordered my ESR which indicated that CR had led me down in Verbal and Geometry was my main weakness in Quant. I went back and shored up those areas and retook on 3/06:
GMAT official test 03/06/19 - 700 (45Q/41V)
Getting a little worried now as I want to apply to HSW and Booth. I am female and European, so I know scores are slightly lower in my application group but I really do want to achieve a 730 minimum. I am awaiting the second test's ESR to come back to see what particularly went wrong but does anyone have any tips about how to approach the next month - retaking again 15/07.
Thanks
05 Jun 2019, 07:01
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi strawberryjelly,
By seeing your mock and official scores, IMO your verbal is way better than Quant.
So you should spend most of your preparation on Quant.
Try Manhattan Advanced guides, TTP course and couple these with GMAT Club tests!
All the best!!
By seeing your mock and official scores, IMO your verbal is way better than Quant.
So you should spend most of your preparation on Quant.
Try Manhattan Advanced guides, TTP course and couple these with GMAT Club tests!
All the best!!
05 Jun 2019, 08:56
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi strawberryjelly,
First off 700 and 710 are some very nice scores. That said, to improve to 730+ 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. 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 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, 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 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.
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 verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses.
You also may find my article with more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions.
Good luck!
First off 700 and 710 are some very nice scores. That said, to improve to 730+ 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. 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 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, 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 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.
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 verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses.
You also may find my article with more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions.
Good luck!
