Starting Trouble

GMAT improvement is about addressing your trouble spots.

Therefore, you will need to devise ways to address the issues of incorrectly answering first 1-2 questions. There is little point in taking full length tests that will not address these particular issues.

Try taking a handful of questions (say 3-5), set a timer and make a goal to get all of them correct within GMAT time limits. Take a break and repeat multiple sets spread out over days and weeks.

Examine the results after every set and make corrections for next set.

You may come up with other ways that suit you. GL!

Hi ansarkhan1,

You've posted a number of different times recently - describing different concerns and issues that you're facing. I'm going to try to answer all of those concerns in this one post:

To answer your immediate question: if you find that you are making some careless errors during the first couple of questions of your Exam, then the root 'cause' is likely your 'organization' (how you take notes, the Tactics that you use, etc.); in addition, doing work "in your head" is the WORST way to approach a GMAT question, so you should NEVER work that way. You might find it helpful to do a few 'warm up' practice questions BEFORE you begin your CATs - in that way, you can get yourself mentally prepared for the work that you'll have to do over the next several hours.

Beyond that, raising a 520 to the point that you can consistently score 670+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. Trying to make all of those improvements in just 1 month is likely be too difficult to be considered realistic, so you might want to consider pushing back your Test Date. There's no harm in taking the GMAT in one month, but you can save some time, money and aggravation by rescheduling.

Since you've been studying for 6 months already, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what 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)?

Goals:
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

1) 25-30 hours per week
2) Coaching material OG
3) alternate days for a month before exam
4) Cat score Quant 44-45 consistent, verbal 27 consistent

Planning to join school around January 2020.
B school- Top 50

Posted from my mobile device

Hi ansarkhan1,

In a prior post, you stated that you had taken 16 practice exams. From what you describe in this last post, you took ALL of those exams over the course of the last month. That was NOT a good idea.

A CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. In addition, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically shouldn't take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. By taking so many practice Exams in such a short period of time, there's a strong chance that you experienced some 'burn out' on Test Day.

If you've been consistently scoring at the same level during your studies, then it's likely that you have gotten "stuck" at this level. By extension, you've probably developed some 'bad habits' that are keeping you from scoring higher and will take time to fix (and replace with new 'good habits'). While I understand that you want to take the GMAT in 1 month, if you need a 650+ to properly apply to Business School, then that Score is what matters - and you have to give yourself enough time to earn that type of Score.

1) What is the minimum GMAT Score that you would apply with?
2) What are the exact application deadlines that you are facing?

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

Hi ansarkhan1,

Honestly, you can incorrectly answer the first few questions on the verbal and quant sections and still end up with one heck of a GMAT score. Furthermore, I don’t think the reason you are scoring around Q44 and V27 is that you are getting the first few questions wrong in each section. I think the bigger issue is that you have numerous quant and verbal weakness that must be strengthened in order to improve your GMAT score. Certainly, if you'd like specific advice on how to improve your quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out.

Good luck!