Save me Please!! after scoring good section wise, i scored a mere 480

I have been studying at least 1-2 hours daily and 4-5 hours on weekends.

I did join a coaching for GMAT but unfortunately, hey didn't teach me anything with respect to GMAT exam pattern , only a generic course of verbal (where modifiers were not covered well, just 1 session of theory) and quants class is still going on.
I have been studying for GMAT since past 0ne and a half to two months now, i have been using My academy's material, e-gmat tests, MGmat-13 edition and Prep4GMAt app and random genuine materials from the web.

My focus is on the following B-schools:
1. Smurfit Business School UCD Ireland
2. Nanyang Mba, Singapore
3.Erasmus Rotterdam Business School.
4.ISB Hyderabad, India
5.S.P Jain,India
6.IIM Bangalore (IIMB) EPGP
7.IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) PGPX

I am not targeting any American B-school, to be frank, just because they charge more than 12 million INR.

Deadline is December 2016, but an go upto march 15th march,2017.


Please Help

Hi adisingh31,

To start, since you'll likely need to study through the end of this year to increase your chances of hitting your score goal, you might want to consider applying to Business School in a later application Round (or even next Fall). Using this recent CAT score as reference, you will likely need to invest in a new GMAT Course of some kind (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led). From what you've described, it does not sound like your current GMAT Course has been that helpful - while you should complete the Course (since you've already paid for it), you will probably need to shift your focus to learning/practicing some new Tactics and working with new practice materials.

1) When does your current Course end?
2) On this first CAT, when you say that you could not attempt all the questions, does that mean that you guessed on the questions at the end OR that you left them 'blank'?

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

Hi,
The coaching has almost ended(one class left).

I didn't guess, i just couldn't attempt the last few questions, because i did run out of time.

Please help me formulate a set routine of study, to be followed for next 1 and a half months, in order to achieve my goal of 700+ score.
It would be really kind of you to help me out in this grave situation.

Thanks in advance!!

Hi, adisingh31,

Since you have been unable to make any major improvement after a few months of studying, you may consider rescheduling your test for a later date as well as adjusting your study routine.

When devising a new study plan, you must remember that the GMAT is such a challenging exam because there are relatively few questions asked in a given exam, yet those questions come from a huge topic pool. Thus, the best way to get a great GMAT score is to have a thorough understanding of all the topics that may be tested on the exam. To develop such mastery, you want to strive for linear and targeted learning and follow that with focused practice. In other words, you want to master one topic before you move to the next.

For example, when studying verbal, focus on learning one section at a time: reading comprehension, sentence correction, or critical reasoning. When learning about critical reasoning, for example, you want to be able to learn about all aspects of critical reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. Follow up your learning with focused critical reasoning practice, so you can determine your specific weaknesses within that topic. You should do the same for sentence correction and reading comprehension.

Follow a similar routine for quant. If you are learning about Number Properties, you should learn everything possible about that topic: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. After that, be sure that you practice with a lot of questions (50 or more) just on Number Properties. The results of that practice will help you to determine how well you have truly mastered that topic. Continue this process with every quant topic.

Based on your description of your current study routine, you may have been too focused on random practice rather than learning and mastering one topic at a time. Thus, moving forward, you may consider using a more robust resource that allows for focused learning and practice. If you do not know which GMAT study resource to use, you can check out the course reviews here or on Beat The GMAT..

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to me directly.

Hi adisingh31,

Regardless of how you choose to proceed with your studies, you MUST make sure to answer every question that you face on the GMAT (even if you're just taking a guess). By not getting to those questions at the end of the Quant and Verbal sections, you were 'penalized' - and that penalty is worse than if you had just guessed and gotten all of those questions wrong.

Before we talk about how best to study going forward, I suggest that you finish up your current class and do a bit more studying, then take a new FULL-LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections) - and make sure that you answer ALL of the questions. That next score result will help to define the accuracy of your prior score and will help define exactly what you need to work on as you continue to study. Once you have that score result, you should post it back here or you can contact me directly.

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

hi,
I gave one more GMAT mock test. It was of Manhattan prep. I scored 530 this time, a clear increment of 50 points from my previous attempt.
As suggested, I did attempt all the questions of the verbal section but couldn't attempt the last question of the quant section.

Is this a sign of improvement?

Please help me out!!
Every day is taking me close to The D-Day!!

I also wanted to add that i have been committing a significant number of silly mistakes. I tend to make more mistakes in the easy - medium levels questions than in the harder ones.

Hi adisingh31,

By answering (almost) all of the questions in the Quant and Verbal sections, you can see how significant the 'non-answer penalty' can be (especially if you can avoid that penalty). This helps to better define your current abilities, but it's unlikely that you actually improved 50 points in 4 days. Raising a 530 to a 700+ will still take a significant amount of time and effort - as I mentioned before, it will likely take at least another 3 months.

1) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this CAT?

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

I gained 50 points more in just 4 day's time and that was very likely, since i have been giving my last two tests in an non-idle environment. I use to sore 690 in sectional tests of prep4gmat. but gradually it came down to 590 as i started giving my test li'l casually.
The recent test i gave was a mini gmat (25Q 27V adaptive),and even after many distractions from friends and leaving few questions in quants unattempted(1 in verbal), i got 560-590 score.
Please help me sir.
Help me to get past the 700 mark!!

Please, give me a time table.

my weak points are progressions,permutation combination, probability, number system(to some extent).

Hi adisingh31,

If your goal is to receive a realistic score assessment, then there's really only one way to do that - you have to take a FULL CAT in a realistic and test-like fashion, including taking the ENTIRE CAT (with the Essay and IR sections), at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, away from your home, in a test-like environment and NOT do anything unrealistic (pausing the CAT, listening to music, skipping sections, etc.). 'Sectional' tests can be helpful practice resources, but a score result from one of those tests isn't an accurate assessment of your Test Day skills because a sectional test 'skips over' ALL of the other aspects of Test Day that will influence your performance.

A November 12th Test Date gives you about 6 weeks of remaining study time. Raising a score from the 500s to 700+ in that time will be difficult. Beyond needing to learn and practice the proper Tactics, you've likely developed some 'bad habits' during your prior studies that will take time to fix (and replace with new 'good habits').

1) Do you have the flexibility to push your Test Date back?

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

Unfortunately no!! because postponing the dates would cost me dearly, not in monetary terms, but in that case, i will miss the deadline of many varsities.
Please encourage me!!

Hi adisingh31,

Since an applicant's GMAT score is such an important part of the overall application, if you don't have the type of GMAT score that you need to be considered a competitive applicant, then the application deadlines don't really matter. You've stated that your score goal is 700+, but what score would be 'high enough' for you to apply to Business School as planned?

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

First of all, getting 38 Math means you have not done a good job. That is, your PS and DS have been underperformed.
1.You have been trying to solve math problmes and faced such consequences. You should study Gmat math, not math in general.
2.In order to do that, you not only have to try to calculate mathmatically, but also learn logics that exist only in Gmat math. With such logic, I am pretty sure you will
do better on the exam in Nov.
3.That is why you stand a great chance if you study variable approach method and ivy approach. I assume you should be fine ater taking "all-in-one".
4.If you study PS and DS, and common mistake types, I believe you will be fine.