Improve GMAT score

Question

Hi GMAT club,

I have improved my GMAT score from 560-590 to 650-670. Now, I want the GMAT score to move to range 720-750.
While giving mocks, I have realized that after solving hard level question incorrect, the following questions be it of medium level of easy level start getting wrong. Can you please advice how to approach 700 level questions of verbal. 
Also for quant, please suggest material that can help to gain accuracy in the 700 level data sufficiency question.

hemantbafna · Answer

Following for same query.

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hastowingmat,

Many Test Takers become too fixated on the 'implied level' of the questions that they're working on - instead of what really matters: defining WHY they're getting questions wrong and becoming more efficient at approaching the overall Exam. It's also worth noting that just because a 3rd party describes a question as "700 level" does not necessarily make it so.

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? 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 take the GMAT?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

HASTOWINGMAT · Answer

Hi Rich,

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
 I have been studying for past 3 months and during weekdays I usually give 2 hours and on weekends upto 5 hours.

2) What study materials have you used so far?
 I haven't followed any particular study material. I am comfortable with Quant concepts, therefore, I just practiced the gmatClub questions. For verbal, I didn't use any guide and just followed on the experts guidance and it helped me a lot to improve RC understanding. For SC and CR, I have used Manhattan book. 
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)?
 First mock GMAT in March and score was 590(Q46,V25) and the next mock GMAT last week and score was 660(Q48,V31).

Goals:
4) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
 I am planning to take GMAT in Aug 2020 . Currently due to Covid-19, the GMAT centres are closed and online based exam allows only once to appear for exam. Under these circumstances, I am okay with spending more time in preparation.

5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?
 I am planning to apply in Round -1 for ISB, UCLA this year.

GMATinsight · Answer

HASTOWINGMAT   hemantbafna 
 HASTOWINGMAT

The best paper based resource to practice quant is Manhattan and Veritas source.

However, I have created a very large repository of the modulewise DS and PS questions where a great number of DS question (all with detailed video solution) help students understand the weak area and guide you on how to handle question. So you might check them out as well.

The jump from 670 to 720 is the toughest task so you don't want to leave any scope of improvement and want to work on every aspect of GMAT prep.

WHat are you Quant and verbal sectional scores???

Subscribe to my  YouTube Channel  for FREE resource (1000+ Videos)

Subscribe Topic-wise UN-bundled Video course.  CHECK FREE Sample Videos

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi HASTOWINGMAT,

If you have not worked through any GMAT Courses or books, then it's not clear what 'steps' you take while working through Quant and Verbal questions. With an overall Score Goal of 730+, you will need to consistently do precise, organized, strategic work to consistently earn that type of Score. Based on the information that you have provided, I have a few follow-up questions.

1) What 'steps' do you go through when working through a typical RC, SC and CR question?
2) Did you take two different practice CATs/mocks or did you take the same CAT twice?
3) Did you take your CATs in the same 'format' as the At-home GMAT (Quant, then Verbal - in one sitting with no break, then an optional break, then IR)?

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

HASTOWINGMAT · Answer

Hi Rich,

1) What 'steps' do you go through when working through a typical RC, SC and CR question?
 RC: One of the GMATclub expert guided me through this.
Read each para and summarize it and then check how each para is related to each other. Observe the author's tone and how he concludes the topic.
CR: Used Manhattan CR guide. Read the Statement and then the question. Based on the type of question, I use the prethinking process and try to resolve the question. What I observed with the 700 level queries is that these require deeper thought process to eliminate each option as compared to 600-700 level questions.
SC: I am struggling with the approach to resolve SC correction. I started with Manhattan SC and recently started following GMATNinja SC tutorials. GMATNinja's lessons definitely helped to improve my concepts and provided more clarity of the SC. Earlier I used to get around 30 percent SC correct. Now I have 60% accuracy.

2) Did you take two different practice CATs/mocks or did you take the same CAT twice?
 I took two different practice mock test.

3) Did you take your CATs in the same 'format' as the At-home GMAT (Quant, then Verbal - in one sitting with no break, then an optional break, then IR)?
 Yes, both the CATs were in same format but I skipped the IR for the time being. I didnt take the optional break after each section. I always start with Quant and then move to Verbal.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi HASTOWINGMAT,

To start, I want to make sure that you are clear that the At-home GMAT has a 'fixed' format - meaning that the Quant section is first, the Verbal section is second and there is NO break in-between those sections (re: you have to work through both sections in one sitting). After completing the Verbal section, you have an optional break before you begin the IR section.

Based on your 2 CAT Scores, your focus right now should NOT be on '700-level' questions (since you are missing out on other, 'easier' points in both the Quant and Verbal sections). In addition, from what you describe, there are some 'inefficiencies' in terms of how you are handling the Verbal section - and those same issues might actually be impacting how you work through the Quant section (and costing you points there as well).

1) What 'brand' of CATs were your first 2 CAT Exams?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

HASTOWINGMAT · Answer

1) What 'brand' of CATs were your first 2 CAT Exams?
Manhattan GMAT
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?
I can give around 30 hours per week.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi HastowingGMAT,
The good news is that you are in a pretty solid spot with a 650+ GMAT score. Since you have a number of questions regarding how to move forward, here is some general advice you can follow to improve your GMAT quant and verbal skills.
To improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you need to go through GMAT quant and verbal 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, types that you would rather not see, and types 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.

You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you had to know to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.

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 and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses . You also may find it helpful to read the following article about  The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT .

Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!

sonkarnishant · Answer

Hi,

I have a question here. Which mocks are the best to give that are close to the offical exam?

ar07 · Answer

No doubt - the official mocks.

Posted from my mobile device

sonkarnishant · Answer

Ok thankyou. I gave kaplan test and score 670 but majority of the questions were of hard category.

Is there a difference in kaplan’s scoring? I have heard that kaplan has a very rigours scoring method

Posted from my mobile device

sonkarnishant · Answer

Hi

Can you please recommend me some books for both quant and verbal to practice medium and hard level range of questions?

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi HastowinGMAT,

To start, you have to be careful about confusing "quantity" of study with "quality" of study. I've never asked anyone to study 30+ hours a week - and while it's great that you might have the available time to study that much, with that number of study hours, you would run the risk of 'burning out' before Test Day (and that is something that we want to avoid). If you are going to try to study that much, then I suggest that you take one hour "off" for every two hours of study. For example, you could study for 2 hours, then stop for an hour, then study for another 2 hours, then take an hour off, etc.

Since your first 2 CATs were 3rd-party Exams, we need to see how you perform when you take one of the Official GMAC CATs. Thus, you should plan to take one of those CAT this weekend (and make sure to take it in the same fashion as you will take the At-home GMAT (in the same section order, at the same time of day, etc.). Once you have your Score, you should post back here (or you can feel free to PM me directly) and we can discuss your results and how you might best proceed with your studies.

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

HASTOWINGMAT · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC

Hi Rich,

Today I scored on the official GMAT mock test as follows:
V30 Q49 IR5
Percentile: V59 Q75 IR55
GMAT score 660 and percentile 78

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ***,

I responded to your PM with some notes and additional questions.

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

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