Struggling with the GMAT Quant

Question

Good Morning,

I am posting this because I am struggling with my GMAT Quant. I started studying a bit back in April of this year and I purchased the OnDemand form of TTP. While it has been somewhat helpful I am not seeing the "715" score guarantee that they post on their website. This is nothing against the platform (very user friendly and I enjoy the question bank and visually appealing UI) just that I am not benefiting from it, they breeze past certain quant things and in their videos often just show answers without showing the steps to get there. Which maybe the average student gets and it is on me to learn in my own time then dive into the coursework.

I took a practice test and got a 495 a few months back and I have to be honest I do not feel more confident since then. Any help is tremendously appreciated.

Do I keep with TTP? Do I get a tutor (prefer not to because 350 an hour seems outrageous when I want a 200 pt increase which would cost my retirement savings)

I am trying to take the GMAT in Nov and Dec. I have dedicated 2-3 hours a day and am prepared to continue to do so.

I hope this all makes sense and look forward to hearing from you all, hopefully come December this turns into a Cinderella story where I overcame this discouraging feeling.

Thank you all!

alamin8 · Answer

Keep TTP and as soon as you finish any part, say for example, fractions, you can do GMATClub's question bank (starting from 505 levels to 655). Then try to complete the OG Quant questions. It will help for sure. Scholars can give you better ideas.

counterclash1 · Answer

Interesting

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

First, I’m sorry you’re feeling discouraged. If you’ve been consistently putting in 2–3 hours a day and don’t feel that your Quant skills have materially improved, I want to understand why.

Before making any major changes, I’d want to get a much clearer picture of where you are right now:
What was your Quant section score on the 495 practice test?
Was that an official mba.com practice exam?
How much of TTP have you completed?
What are your recent Easy, Medium, and Hard chapter-test accuracies?

Those answers can tell us quite a bit about whether the issue is foundational knowledge, retention, application, pacing, or something else.

I also would not rush out and spend $350 an hour on a tutor yet. Tutoring can certainly be useful for diagnosing specific issues, but if there are still gaps in your Quant foundation, you may get much more value from identifying and fixing those gaps systematically before spending thousands of dollars on private tutoring.

Regarding the OnDemand videos, if there are specific lessons where you feel we show the answer without adequately showing how to get there, please send me the lesson or question numbers. I genuinely want to review them. You should not finish one of our solution videos thinking, “Okay, I see the answer, but I still don’t understand how I was supposed to get there.”

Regarding the 715+ guarantee, there are specific requirements associated with the guarantee, but I don’t want that to be the focus here. The more important issue is figuring out why you don’t yet feel that your Quant skills have improved and what we can do to change that.

For now, I would focus much less on the eventual 715+ and much more on mastering one Quant topic at a time. Are you truly understanding the concepts? Are you hitting the target accuracies on the Easy, Medium, and Hard tests before moving forward? If not, that is where I’d concentrate your effort.

Also, a roughly 200-point increase is a substantial goal. It is absolutely worth working toward, but I would be careful about putting yourself under unnecessary pressure to make the entire jump by November or December. Depending on your current Quant level and how much of the curriculum remains, you may need more time, and there is nothing wrong with that.

If you post the information above, I’d be happy to take a closer look and give you a much more specific recommendation about what I think you should do next. You can also reach out to me via email, and I'll personally help you to be sure you're on the right path.

And yes, I’m rooting for the Cinderella story too. We can get there.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer