GMAT 620 to 700+ Strategy Required

Question

Hello everyone,

I recently started preparing for GMAT. As most people do, I first took an official GMAC mock test to see what my current level is. I got a 620(Q49,V26) without any prior preparation.

I wish to make the best use of this lockdown period. I wanted to know how much prep time it would take for me to reach a 700 score level.

I am currently subscribed to Magoosh's Premium account and have bought the OG e-book . Along with this I am also planning to study from the Manhattan Books for verbal(CR,SC and RC).

Would it be possible for me to reach a 700 with a month of study? How should I go about it?

Thanks in advance :')

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Businessconquerer · Answer

Feel free to PM me for personal guidance but just refer this article before

https://gmatclub.com/forum/beginner-to- ... l#p2313182

If it helps bookmark it, and if you want I can provide you personal guidance to achieve your score.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Pratt3103 
You can easily cross 700 as your your score is 620 without any prior preparation. Your quant score is perfectly fine. It seems that you are from math background, doesn't it? 
You have to do hard work for verbal part and I assume you can. You can watch the
  Thursdays with Ron videos from youtube.   It'll surely help you. 
Thanks__

Pratt3103 · Answer

Thanks Asad! 
Yes I am from a maths background. My biggest weakness in verbal is the SC. I am trying to watch the lesson videos on Magoosh and read from Manhattan Books too. I hope I would get Better. I will also try Thursdays with Ron videos. Thanks!

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EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Pratt3103,

A 620 is a strong initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 550 most years), so you already have strong critical-thinking skills in certain areas. Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores though, so if you are going to study for just 1 month, then there might be a limit to how much you can improve on this recent Score. Statistically-speaking, you will likely need at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study before you can get to the point that you can consistently score 700+.

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Pratt3103 · Answer

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC , I plan on applying to Business Schools for the 2021 batch. So that would be August/September onwards. I can allot at least 5-6 hours per day(about 30 hours a week) for the next month as I am currently having summer vacations. After this one month, I might not have a lot of time to prepare, I could try for a 10hr/week i guess. I am currently studying from the Magoosh's 3-month verbal focused schedule. Planning to cover it within 2 months. I wish to give the GMAT latest by August end. So although I have time, most of my prep will be in the next one month. I would also like to point out that in the GMAC practice test I took, I had got 8 SC, 6 RC, and 4 CR questions wrong. So clearly my SC & RC skills need to improve in verbal. In Quant, I got 7 DS and 4 PS Questions wrong. Do you think mastering SC, RC and DS would increase my chances to score a 670+ at least in the next month? What do you think my action plan should be? Thanks

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Pratt3103,

Great job with Q49 on your practice exam! Regarding your timeline, while it’s possible to make a nice improvement in just one month, you may find that you need more time. Is there a particular reason why you have to take the GMAT in just one month? Also, would you like some general advice on how to improve your GMAT quant and verbal skills? In the meantime you may find it helpful to read the following article:

How to Score a 700+ on the GMAT — A Mini Guide for Success

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Pratt3103,

It's certainly possible that you could hone the necessary skills to raise this 620 to a 670+ in just one month, but no-one here really knows how quickly you might learn the necessary content, Tactics and patterns to earn that type of Score. A 670+ Score is above the 80th percentile - so clearly most GMATers never score that high (regardless of how long they study), so choosing to measure your progress by a relatively short timeframe will almost certainly limit how much you can improve.

Since you currently have some study materials to work with, I suggest that you study as you choose for the next 2 weeks, then take a new FULL-LENGTH CAT under realistic testing conditions. Once you have that Score, you should post back here (or you can feel free to PM me directly) and we can discuss the results and how you might best proceed with your studies.

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

Pratt3103 · Answer

Hi ScottTargetTestPrep

I don't plan on taking the GMAT in June. However, I might not have enough time after May as my college would resume and that would be a hectic affair. I would continue studying if can't get a 670+ in the mocks by May end.

I would love to get some tips for the test. Especially Verbal. As you can see I have a bit to improve in it.

Thanks

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ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Partt3103,

I’m happy to help! Here is some general advice you can follow to improve your verbal skills. I’ll start with CR.

When studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various question types. Do you know the importance of an assumption within an argument? Can you easily spot a conclusion? Do you know how to resolve a paradox? Do you know how to properly evaluate cause and effect? Do you know how to properly weaken or strengthen an argument? These are just a few examples; you really need to take a deep dive into the individual Critical Reasoning topics to develop the necessary skills to properly attack any Critical Reasoning questions that you encounter.

As you learn each Critical Reasoning problem type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you incorrectly answered a Weaken the Argument question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be stimulating. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such bland passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the New York Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.
 
Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
 
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending less than two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
 
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and none of those reasons are that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
 
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to put in the necessary time to see the differences between answers and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
 
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could do differently to extend your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
 
Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

Pratt3103 · Answer

Thank you  ScottTargetTestPrep  for such an elaborate answer. I will definitely them in mind while preparing :')

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

My pleasure!!

Zeldatheone · Answer

You are on the right track.
But just log your errors.Solve official books after you feel confident about your prep.
Definitely use Manhattan.The test difficulty has changed from the six mocks to almost Manhattan level that many feel is difficult than GMAT.
I am speaking from my experience as I improved my score of 600-710 in two months by usi g Manhattan sentence correction,CR,Power CR Bible too,Advanced Quant Manhattan to get an extra push in Quant,and their tests too.If you can buy all of them,spend that time and study each of them.Otherwise just pick the ones you need to improve.
The whiteboard might need to be practiced as it's changed,but I bet on Manhattan's quality of content that made the difference for me.I seriously wished someone had told me that.
And GMAT club tests are a holy grail!Watch out for Bunuel's explanations and try to change your way of approaching problems.That will make a difference later.
Good luck!

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Pratt3103 · Answer

Hi  ScottTargetTestPrep   EMPOWERgmatRichC  and everyone else reading this post.

It's been effectively a month since I started my GMAT Prep(Had to pause for a while due to my exams). I decided to give another attempt at the official GMAC Practice test. I am glad to see improvement in my score as I got 650(Q49 V30) this time around. Although my Quant score is still the same, I am glad to see improvement in my Verbal Score.

In the verbal section, I wasn't able to finish all the 36 Questions. I only did 31. So I guess that means I could have scored much more in Verbal if I hadn't got the penalty. Out of the 31 questions, I got 11 questions(5/11 SC, 3/11 RC, 3/9 CR) incorrect. Although I spent most of my time working on SC, it was still the sub-section I got most incorrect answers in.

I primarily watched Magoosh SC videos in this one month and solved Magoosh and OG problems(will continue to do so). What would your advice for my next phase of prep be? As of now, I plan to continue watching the Magoosh videos and in addition, start reading the Manhattan Books for CR and RC.

Thanks in advance :')

P.S: Any idea how the penalties in verbal section work?

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Pratt3103,

Great improvement! When do you plan to take your next practice exam?

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