Hi,
First up, a little about my background: fresh chemical engineering grad from NUS. I want to apply to colleges in the US and in India (IIM-B mainly).
GMAT 1st attempt:
670 (Q45, V35)GMAT 2nd attempt:
710 (Q50, V36)My GPA is 3.13/5 and I have a strong internship and co-curricular profile. I don't have any full time working experience yet, therefore I am not applying to the US just yet, but I know with a 710, I may be able to get through with a strong profile. Nonetheless, I know a higher GMAT score would really help compensate for my below average GPA and that could really help. But mostly, I am uncertain about Indian colleges, as they give a higher weightage to GMAT scores than internships or extra-curriculars.
My target GMAT score is 750.For my first attempt at GMAT, I scored
670 (Q45, V35). I have to admit, I gave myself very little time (just about 2 months, interrupted that too) and rushed to book the test date, without having scored my target score on practice tests. Nonetheless, I did take time to cover the
MGMAT booklets for CR, RC, SC and for some topics in quant. I also did
OG, Verbal Review and Quant Review.
My scores on practice tests were as follows:
MGMAT 1-6: 670, 680, 690, 680, 680, 690
GMAT prep1: 680
GMAT prep2: 690
By this time, I had recognised my weakness was CR and RC. While preparing for GMAT the second time round, I gave myself an additional 3 weeks wherein I focussed mainly on the Verbal section, using GMAC's question bank, and 2 additional tests from GMAC. I began to feel a lot more confident on verbal and my scores on test preps looked positive. I retook the free GMAT practice tests and my scores were as follows:
GMAT prep1 (retake): 750 (Q49, V42)
GMAT prep2 (retake): 760 (Q50, V44)
GMAT prep3 (exam pack 1): 750 (Q50, V41)
GMAT prep4 (exam pack 1): 720 (Q49, V39 - very disappointing)
For my second attempt at GMAT, I scored
710 (Q50, V36).
On the main exam, I felt really uncomfortable during quant (but still got the score I needed) and was fairly comfortable through verbal (but look what I got
). I am extremely disappointed with my Verbal score, as I had put in a lot of effort into it, which reflected on test preps, but then didnt get much better than my first attempt in round 2.
I want to retake GMAT but I'm not sure how to improve upon my score ie. what do I study? and what are the odds that my score will improve? I know my weakness is CR, but I have gone over all the listed material atleast twice and almost remember the answers without even looking at the question. I have about 2 weeks before I can retake GMAT for a third time, before I can still make a timely submission for my target colleges in India. I would really appreciate if the experts could recommend a suitable study plan.