540 on first mock test

Question

Hi,

I have been studying Manhattan guides and OG(Quant) from past 4 months and decided to take a mock test from Veritas. I got a score of 540  (Q37, V27) . I am aiming for 730 to 750 (by November,2021) and I understand that, it will take a lot of hard work. At the moment, I am studying Verbal guides from Manhattan to strengthen the foundation. 
But, I don't want to waste my time on the wrong approach. Is it feasible to improve so much by November? Could someone please guide me in the right direction?

Regards,

Kinshook · Answer

lovikansal

Manhattan guides are good to build fundamental concepts.
OG questions are good for practice. You can take the latest OG guide for practicing questions.
You can also make a study plan and filter OG questions from GMATclub question bank for specific topic and different difficulty levels.
Time of completion of the activities will depend on your efforts and dedication.
Hope it helps!

egmat · Answer

lovikansal – GMAT 540 with Q37 and V27 implies that your current ability is below the 50th percentile. This means that you need to put in significant effort in both Quant and Verbal. I estimate that you need to put in about 250 hours of effort. Once we do the next level of diagnosis, we can figure out where you need to put in these efforts.

Considering that you have exhausted the books, I would recommend that you first focus on learning the right methods. Attend the SC Webinar that we have in the near future to learn how to apply the meaning-based approach to Sentence Correction Questions.

SC webinar link: https://bit.ly/3zF0kdG

Study Plan
I am sharing two videos below. Watch the first video to learn how to build your personalized study plan. Watch the next video to learn how to execute on that plan.

Video 1: Personalized Study Plan

Video 2: 570 to 740 score improvement

Good luck for your GMAT attempt. I will see you in the session.
-Rajat

GMATinsight · Answer

lovikansal If You have got such a score after OG then I hope you can understand that the absorption of the concepts is not as good as it should be. Your Quant section seems extremely poor looking at the current score which needs to breach a score level of 49 minimum considering your target score and Verbal should touch a minimum of 40 It seems that you are not much close to the target score so while tremendous hardwork is an essential component of preparation, you must have clear focus and clear understanding of what is of your benefit. Manhattan books are very good source for both quant and verbal but the amount of practice is scarce there. OG are wonderful books for Verbal but are not as good for Quant because they don't offer plenty of hard problems students encounter in exam. My opinion is that if you wish to succeed with your target score then you must consider taking professional help with preparation. Among many other competitors, we have been training students such as you with great success over longer than a decade. For any free demo class, you may get in touch. I strongly recommend that you contact other test prep companies and choose the best option for yourself. A demo class will help you assess the the strength of help you can expect from any test prep companies. Our strength lies in our focus, approach and teching methodologies. Numerous testimonies are the evidence of the same. I wish you all the best.

Don't forget to check my Quant video course on website (Link givenbelow). You might find it one of the best value products.

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MBAaustralia · Answer

TTP for Quant and GMATNinja + OG Book for verbal.

Keep and error log so that you can drill down areas where you're weakest.

Sometimes recognising a single rule can greatly improve your performance.

Posted from my mobile device

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello lovikansal,

GMAT club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, and many more.

Your current GMAT mock score is shaky. You can schedule a free counseling(https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session) session for 20 mins with one of our experts to have detailed advice on your current study plans.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• Not detailed knowledge of GMAT Math pattern and Question types
• Inefficiency by using time-consuming Conventional method to tackle DS and PS questions still
• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Precisely, there has to be one end-to-end solution encompassing all the points mentioned above. We also want to understand your approach to solving PS and DS questions. You can try our free diagnostic test https://www.mathrevolution.com/diagnostic/dtExamMember and receive a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas.

Your study plan will now change as you are already ready with the vital concepts and their application. The diagnostic test report will give us detailed insight into various topics and your performance. After an in-depth analysis, we will draw out the category of the topics in which you are already better and those where you need more improvement. Also, we will be able to compare your performance while solving the PS and DS questions.

Also, make a note of various possible combinations to achieve a score of 700 or 700+. The possible scores will help you track your performance after taking the mock or practice test. It will also help you maintain balance in both the sections, and you will always be in a great position to allot the study hours to a specific area accordingly.

The possible score combinations for 700 or 700 +: Q should be Q 46, 47, 48, and V should be V38, 39, 40.

We recommend that you must learn the Variable Approach for solving DS questions and the IVY approach for solving PS questions in order to improve your accuracy and save time while solving the question types.

The most important for you will be learning and commanding the Variable Approach for DS questions and IVY Approach for PS questions. These approaches are the robust self-designed time-saving techniques that will help you learn efficiently, thus raising your score in the quick nick of time.

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-days on-demand course (27 topics, 490 subtopics, and 1,500 questions) for free trial lessons.

700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too. Start with the learning of the concepts. Make a habit of taking notes during the initial learning of the concepts.

After registering, you will have access to the practice section. Initially, try solving the DS and/or PS questions from very easy and easy category questions on the topic(s) you have learned. You may also connect with one of our experts to get one of the best tutoring supports, which will help understand the topic(s) and solve questions and learn how to manage time and accuracy.

Adding to the same, mastery of the Variable Approach to solve DS questions and the IVY approach to solve PS questions would add a feather to the cap. Below is the useful link we will recommend you to visit on GMAT club to experience the power of DS and IVY approaches.

Ultimate Q51 guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ultimate ... l#p1613600

Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

Regular tests will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and hence will be able to learn time-management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi lovikansal,

From what you've described, your studies so far have been "book heavy"; unfortunately, many GMATers who study in that way end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. Even the best books are limited in what they can teach you; they also can't force you to approach questions in a certain way and their explanations are often one-sided. As such, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in some new, non-book study materials for this next phase of your studies.

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:

1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Is this 540 the first CAT/mock that you have taken? If there were others, then on what dates (or approximate 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)?
3) 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

lovikansal · Answer

1. I am currently employed full-time so I put in about 30 to 35 hours per week on an average.
2. Yes, this was my first CAT/mock test
3. I completed my Bachelor's in March this year so I am still not sure when will be the best time for me to apply (because the course requirements vary from each other). However, I am planning to apply to business schools by next year. I want to apply to: ISB (PGP), UBC (MBAN), ESSEC (DSBA) and a few more, depending on my score.

In any case, I want to get done with GMAT by the end of this year.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi lovikansal,

I've sent you a PM with some notes and additional questions.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi lovikansal,

I have a few great articles for you to check out:

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

GMAT Study Plan: The Best Way to Study for the GMAT

Feel free to reach out with any additional questions.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi lovikansal,

I have a few great articles for you to check out:

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

GMAT Study Plan: The Best Way to Study for the GMAT

Feel free to reach out with any additional questions.

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi lovikansal,

It is sad to see that even after 4 months of preparation, your score is not upto the mark. You are certainly not on the right path. But its really nice that you have reached out addressing the right problem and you have adequate time in your hand to make things right. Let me help you out here.

How to prepare for GMAT in the right way? 
So, the right way to prepare would be to first:
  Deal with one topic at a time 
 learn the concepts of a topic 
 learn the right methodology to solve questions of that topic 
 practice a few questions of that topic making sure that you use the right methodology to solve questions 
 Repeat the process for all the topics

And working on weak areas is equally important. You move to the next topic only if you get a decent accuracy in the previous topic. If not, you revisit the concepts, fill the conceptual gaps and then move to the next topic only when you are 100% confident. I recommend you to follow a structured way of learning things and follow the right strategies to solve the questions in order to reach your goal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36TZ2nGlXRg

The need for a personalized study plan: 
I understand that maintaining a balance between work life and studies can very challenging. To do so efficiently, it is always advisable to follow a study plan with clear deadlines.

As you are a working professional, a generic study plan wouldn’t suffice. You need something more personalized so that you can finish your preparation in given time. By personalized, I mean something which takes into account the number of hours you can dedicate in a week and creates a study plan based on that. It should have clear deadlines so that you can focus on finishing those tasks scheduled for the week. This will help you concentrate better.

I understand that creating a study plan can be a tedious task, so you can check GMATWhiz which can help you create a personalized study plan. There is a free trial for which you can register and create  a study plan with weekly deadlines  based on the number of hours you can dedicate in a week. This way it would be easy to follow that and also you can completely focus on the preparation instead of spending time on making study plan. And the best part about the plan is it is  totally integrated with the course . All you need to do is click on the Start button and it will give you the right lessons and quizzes as you’re supposed to go through in the right order.

I can help you in a better way, if you can provide me a little more background about your GMAT prep. To give you a specific suggestion, it’s important for me to understand your current study strategy, your weak areas and the exact reason for not scoring well.

You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

There are probably some fundamentals on both Quant and Verbal you can still learn. For Verbal, memorizing the common idioms tested on the GMAT can be helpful as well as some of the Critical Reasoning issues that pop up (i.e. causation issues). As you continue to study, try to note some of the red flags in questions. For example, in CR, if you see the word "volunteers" in a passage you should be on high alert those people are not a representative sample of a group.

All the best.

All the best.

Gmatisking · Answer

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