Scored a 690 recently (47Q, 38V, IR8), aiming for a 730

Hello, Nathaniel. I appreciate your sharing your ESR. Although it cannot present the full picture, it can help to identify some points of interest. By comparing the Average Difficulty graphs, I can tell you that the big difference between where you are and where you want to be lies in accuracy on Medium-level questions. In Verbal, apart from a slight drop at the end in average difficulty per question missed, you were hitting the right notes, and your score showed it: a 38 from 10 missed questions (2-2-3-3 by quarter) is a pretty generous outcome. Notice that the questions you were missing were consistently more challenging, on average, than the ones you were answering correctly. You must have been answering all Easy questions correctly and missing only the occasional Medium question. The test kept throwing Hard questions at you as a result, and, despite not answering most of these questions correctly—hence the drop in average difficulty between the halfway point and the third quarter—you fared well enough to get tossed another Hard question here or there before the process repeated. I would urge you to practice getting your accuracy up to 80 percent on Medium questions (by official designation) and about 60 percent on Hard questions. If you can hit these benchmarks across CR, RC, and SC, you should be able to break 40 in the section.

The Quant Average Difficulty graph tells a different story. Despite missing only 5 questions on the section (well, of the ones that counted, anyway, and that is a 2-1-2-0 breakdown), you missed them often enough and at such a Medium/Medium-Hard difficulty that the bar pretty much flatlined by the second quarter. My guess is that you could not string together enough consecutive correct answers to get the algorithm to throw you the really challenging questions, and your score suffered as a result. I mean, a 47 from 5 missed questions seems harsh, given that I have seen a 51 in the section from 2 missed questions within the past year. Once again, I would urge you to do everything possible to ensure you are not missing Medium-level questions. The numbers behind the Performance by Fundamental Skills can be misleading when you are missing so few questions.

In short, I do not see any particular cause for concern on either section of the test. Sure, CR seems to have gotten the better of you on the day, and you curiously seem to have missed more "According to the passage" questions in RC than the more typical inference questions, suggesting that your comprehension skills are not lacking, but I think there is a more general trend that needs to be addressed in missing questions that are not categorized as Hard. Until you can consistently hit certain accuracy benchmarks across the board—I favor a 90/80/60 split for students aiming for a 730—you will probably keep coming up short and, worst of all, wondering why.

Good luck with your studies. Do not rush to reschedule, but take the test when you are ready, when you have proof in hand that you can hit your accuracy benchmarks on any given day.

- Andrew

Hi Nathaniel,

690 is a very nice 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. 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.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

Hi Nathaniel,

First off, a 690/Q47 is a fantastic Score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, 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 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/

There's certainly no harm in continuing to study - and you're closer to a 730 than you probably realize. Before we get to the data in your ESR, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) 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)?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?
3) 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?

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

Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

V-38 is great and congrats on scoring 690. You might pm IanStewart to have some strategies in order to improve the quant score.

Hi @Nathanial,
Congratulations on your excellent GMAT score. You might try the Magoosh Premium video lesson for sentence correction.

Good Luck!