Retaking the GMAT

Question

Hi guys. So I recently took the GMAT online. My target score was 680 but I ended up getting a 620 (Q42 V34).
I'm looking to push up my verbal and my math to bring it up to a Q45 V40 range.And I'm a little lost as to how I should proceed.Any guidance would be helpful thanks.
These are my mock test scores:
540
610
580
650 
620
I'm planning to take the GMAT after two months once I'm sure I've made an improvement.

RetaketheGMAT · Answer

Hi Sabi17,

The reason you're struggling with focus on your Retake Prep is you missing answers to key questions:

1) You probably have some idea of which topics or question types gave you trouble by you don't know exactly WHY they gave you trouble.
2) There were probably gaps in your test-taking strategies including missing steps like PreProcessing and Visualization in Quant and Vertical Reading and Argument Narrowing in Verbal.

Understanding those two key areas will rapidly give you focus in your Retake Prep. Check out FREE GMAT Readiness Assessment session -- it answers all the questions you're struggling with right now.

Feel free to contact me if you're interested.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Isolating your weak areas may be helpful (consider using an error log) but also improving your solving approach, the WAY you approach, perceive or tackle a question. The sections are called Quantitative REASONING/Verbal REASONING after all!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sabi17,

With a 620/Q42/V34, you are closer to a 680 than you probably realize - and you could potentially pick up all of the points that you're looking for in just the Quant section, just the Verbal section or a 'mix' of the two. 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) How long have you studied in total? How many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
4) 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

Sabi17 · Answer

1)I studied for about 3 months.around 3 hours per day.
2)I used the magoosh premium plan,the GMAT Official Guide 2021 and for mocks I used the GMAT prep and one vertitas prep mock in the end since I had already taken the GMAT prep mocks twice
3)Initially I took them maybe a month apart(The first two).After that I took it every two weeks
My scores were as follows-
540 Q36 V27
610 Q48 V25
580 Q41 V28
650 Q46 V34
620 Q44 V31

4) Im planning to apply for fall 2022.I've only considered applying for SP Jain dubai till now since MBA programs require a minimum of2 years of work experience and I will only have around 1 year and 11 months by then

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sabi17,

While the most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills - since you will likely see some 'repeat' questions that you have already faced. Unfortunately, seeing even a couple of repeats can 'throw off' the Scoring Algorithm and impact your pacing, energy levels, fatigue, etc. (meaning that they would likely all appear to be better than they actually are). Thankfully, the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion that matches the parameters that you will face when you take the Official GMAT) - so you can use any NEW CATs from any of those sources next.

From what you described, if the 650 is one of the results from a CAT that you took a 2ND TIME, then we can't assume that that was an accurate assessment of your skills. 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, most your other CAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 600 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. If these results go back over the last couple of months, then it's possible that you developed some 'bad habits' during your earlier studies that are keeping you from scoring higher. You still have plenty of time to fix those issues (and replace those bad habits with new "good habits"), but you will have to make some significant changes to how you 'see' (and respond to) BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections before you will be able to consistently score at that higher level.

1) For your next attempt, are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Sabi17 · Answer

Im planning to take it at a test centre.I can manage maybe 3 hours per day.Do you know of any free resources I could use to help boost my prep? I read a lot about people taking the MGMATs and I considered buying them but people have also said that they are way harder than the real GMAT. So should I be doing those or just the tests that are more close to the GMAT?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sabi17,

I've sent you a PM with some notes and additional questions.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Sabi17.

620 is not a bad 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. 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.

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