Technique to improve really poor quant score

Hello and welcome to the forum,

The GMAT is a wonderful exam in terms of the careful use of psychometric to exploit a test-taker’s ability to reason. I see one flaw in your way of thinking, and that is attempting to compare the Quant section of the test to a regular math exam. I am sure that you attack questions by attempting to solve them mathematically because I too once tried that approach and failed miserably. Somehow, I've managed to score consistently in the 50-51 range and I am going to share with you how I did it.

First things first, are you timing yourself when taking GMATClub CATs? If you are, I am going to beg you to stop now. If your score is under 42, you still lack conceptual knowledge and timing yourself will only hurt your confidence and your ability to learn the material. I am a big believer of timing strategies and self-awareness; however, agility is gained by first acquiring some level of confidence. These things put together lead to mastery. I am sure you went over the guides, but did you take the time to truly analyze what they attempt to convey? Application and content knowledge are equally important for the GMAT. I advise you to review every question carefully and ask yourself “what can I learn from this question? what lesson can be useful to apply on similar questions?” Talk to yourself and note down the things that you think will be useful in the future. Enough with the BS and let’s get down to business.

1) Reset your question bank from GMATClub.
2) Put a pause on OG questions and focus solely on GMATClub CATs.
3) Use GMATClub’s Math Book since it contains rather useful shortcuts not taught by MGMAT and it will also offer you a different perspective on the same topics.
4) Make a realistic schedule and stick to it. For me it was 1 GMATClub CAT per day and 50-100 OG questions.
5) GMATClub CATs are significantly harder than the real thing. Leverage the difficulty level to learn about yourself and identify any tricky questions that can show up on test day. I personally have a journal divided in different sections and subsections (e.g SEC # Properties, SUB SEC Prime #s) and when I see a challenging question that teaches me something about that specific section I simply note it down.
6) Quality study time is better than long hours with no clear direction or strategy. So sit down and plan to spend 2-3hrs on each GMATClub test, take the first couple of them on Practice Mode forget about the timer (at this stages it is less important than you think). Attempt to solve every question as if your GMAT score depended on it (because it does) and I cant stress this enough... REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW.
7) Even though you should be reviewing every practice question daily, I like to allocate a day every week to review them as a whole and reflect on my weaknesses and strengths. You can’t learn something if you don’t know that you don’t know it... as dumb as it sounds this is the best advice I’ve ever received.
8) More about timing: Do MGMAT CATs untimed as well, they don’t matter, official GMAT Prep CATs do, so for the latter I recommend to start experimenting with timing and different scratch pad arrangements to keep you organized and aware of your pace.
9) Contrary to popular belief, every question matters, not on the actual exam, but during your prep. If you don’t see at least two different solutions to the same question, look it up on this forum and I assure you, you’ll find at least 5 different ways to approach the question. Get comfortable and develop a strategy... STICK TO IT.

Miscellaneous tips on Quant:

The more arithmetic you know, the faster you’ll be. Learn computation shortcuts, perfect squares and roots, as well as percentages and their fractions. Knowing that you can confidently solve fast will give you more time to think about the question logically, which in turn will yield more thoughtful answers and better results.

Once you get your basics straightened out, I encourage you to try and learn algebra templates. They are quite useful and will sometimes be disguised in arithmetic questions (e.g. x^2-2xy+y^2= (x-y)^2).

Lastly, only reason why I am recommending untimed practice is because I want you to focus on building your weaponry since speed and accuracy have a strong correlation. The more conceptual knowledge you acquire, the faster you will get through the section.

Best of luck!

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