Scored a 700 in my first attempt... Please tell me how to improve

akshatchamria – While 700 is a good score, a 740 can help you secure T20/M7 admits. A 740 may also increase the likelihood that you get a scholarship (avg. estimate $40K if you have a good profile).

You need to work on both Quant and Verbal to get there. You may try the brute force way using GMAT Club tests. You would also be a good candidate for our Last Mile Push program in which we deliver the kind of score improvement you seek using a combination of AI and HyperSpecific improvement plans. You may watch two case studies below:

Case study 1: Q48 to Q50 improvement in 2 weeks: https://e-gmat.wistia.com/medias/tsv6b5fq1g

Case study 2: 690 to 750 in 3 weeks:





You may read more reviews here: https://gmatclub.com/reviews/e-gmat-6


-Rajat

Hi akshatchamria,

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

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

I used Kaplan's adaptive q-bank. My advice is to order an enhanced score report, then filter the q-bank. I did around 2,000 questions total. I also took a dozen+ practice GMATs, so there's definitely a case for no-life grinding the test.

Hi akshatchamria,

Q47 is a nice start! To improve your quant score to a higher level, you have to go through GMAT quant 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 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.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant courses.

You also may find it helpful to read this article about
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT.

Please reach out with any further questions.

Thank you for the prompt reply!
I really think that I can do better and I will tell you why through my answers to your questions. So, I want to give it another shot and not think about applications now because I still have time to apply. I will complete my undergrad in May 2022.

Now to answer your questions:
1) I have been studying for about 3-4 hours everyday since 1st May, 2021 (including weekends). I gave the exam on 4th September.
2) I took an online course from Jamboree India. They provide an online portal with a lot of practice questions so I completed almost all the questions. It also has full length tests but they are not adaptive. I completed the OG 2021 on my own after watching all the online video lectures.
3) I took two CATs (the free official mocks 1 & 2) successively on 25th and 26th August because I didn't want to take any test in the last week before the main exam. I scored a 720 (Q49, V40) in Prep Test 1 and 750 (Q50, V41) in Prep Test 2.
4) My goal score is a 740 with a Q50 hopefully.
5) I am yet to decide which schools to apply to but I have two courses on my list. I will either go for a MiM or a deferred admission to an MBA program. I have to apply by the end of this year.

Thank you for the reply. I will try the gmatclub mocks to improve my verbal score.

mc93 I gave the GMAT online and ESRs are not available for the online exam. I have myself been doing only practice questions for the past 4 months now haha. I am just grinding it out. I made a mistake by purchasing the Jamboree course. It's verbal tips are extremely horrible. Just the number of practice questions available in the portal helped me. I attempted the questions and checked the explanations on GmatClub. I will now just practice high level questions from GmatClub and give the official mocks.

Thank you for such a great advice!
Your article on scoring 700+ is also so detailed! I will surely try to implement all these strategies while studying.

Thank you for taking the time out to respond.
Akshat