GMAT Quant up from 42

Question

Hey! Just wondering if you could give me some tips on how to increase my GMAT quant score from 42? I took the test last weekend and score a 650 (42 Q and 37 V). For verbal, I am decent at CR and RC. I am awful at SC. In my last GMAT Prep practice test, i got all the CR and RC correct, but 2/3 of the SC. I am planning on retaking the GMAT in a month.

For quant prep: I went through all the Manhattan books and the Veritas online course. When I first started 3 months ago, my diagnostic Quant was 29, and that improved to the low 40s and that is where it stayed for the last 3-4 weeks. I make some silly mistakes and there is some gaps in my basics. I tried going through the GMAT Club quizzes. I am decent at the 500 level questions, but I think they are more challenging than most 600 level questions I have done from other sources. Any ideas or suggestions would be great for Quant. Would love to increase my score to the upper 40s.

For verbal prep: I am re-doing the Manhattan Sentence Correction book. I am really hoping it clicks together and can push up my verbal score to the lower 40s. For verbal, I practiced the OG mostly.

Thanks!!

bb · Answer

How about from Q44 to Q50? how-to-improve-your-quant-from-q44-to-q50-141670.html Also consider this discussion: how-to-review-and-analyze-your-mistakes-167118.html

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ruggerkaz,

First off, a 650 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary.

Raising a Q29 to a Q42 is a significant improvement. Raising it to a Scaled Score in the high-40s will be a bit more difficult though. At that level, you will have to know the content reasonably well AND you'll need to know Tactics AND you'll need to eliminate as many little mistakes from your work as possible. All that having been said, this goal is attainable, but you'll likely need to invest in some new materials and learn/practice some new Tactics.

1) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
2) When are you planning to apply?

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

ruggerkaz · Answer

Thanks for your response!

The goal is to enroll in fall 2017. So, I have 3 or so months to get my stuff ready. The date for my next GMAT is 23rd July. For the content, I feel like I know most of the basics (maybe a bit weak on combinatorics- I guess not a big factor at the score I am at currently). However, whenever I try to do a 700 level questions, I do not know how to proceed with the solution. So, the tricks are something I need to learn and start utilizing for the advanced questions. I have done almost all of the OG questions and I thought apart a handful of questions, they all were pretty simple. And, the only mistakes I made was of the careless, silly nature. I would love to bump it up to 46-47. When combined with a good verbal score, I should be at 700.

As for schools, Fuqua, Ross, Johnson and Darden are my top ones. Besides them, I am looking at Foster, Carlson, and Notre dame. I have a GPA around 3.4 from a liberal arts college and have been working in supply chain for a leading industrial distributor. Looking into a MBA with a focus on environmental sustainability. With my supply chain skills and the MBA coursework, I will be ready to be a consultant practicing in the renewable energy area.

Thanks for all advice and tips. Appreciate your help.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ruggerkaz,

You seem to understand that making silly mistakes is hurting your performance and overall score. Right now, you don't need to be focused on handling "700-level" questions - you need to eliminate the little mistakes from your work. In general, that almost certainly means that you need to be better organized (take more notes, label your work) and you need to NOT do work 'in your head.' With a Q42, you would have made little mistakes throughout the Quant section and you would have missed out on lots of 'strategy-based' points. This is meant to say that beyond honing your current skills, you would likely benefit a great deal by learning/practicing some new Tactics.

With a July 23rd Test Date, you have about 3.5 weeks of study time remaining. You could potentially make some big gains during that time, depending on the materials you're using and how you're studying.

1) What materials are you currently using for your Quant prep?

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

ruggerkaz · Answer

Thanks Rich for the detailed response.

I am trying to curb the careless mistakes as much as I can. However, these mistakes took me an entire lifetime to develop…

For prep: Currently, I am redoing the ‘strategy’ chapters out of the Manhattan and Veritas books. And, then I am practicing OG questions (timed). I let excel randomly choose 10 problems and I try to do them within 16 minutes. Besides OG, whenever I find some time, I go through the Gmatclub question directories. And, I have tried to do a few of the Gmatclub Test quizzes.

I will take a practice exam this weekend and evaluate the mistakes I am making for.

Thoughts? Suggestions on anything else I should be doing on?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ruggerkaz,

While there's some benefit to redoing questions that you've already faced, if that work represents the bulk of your future studies, then that might not be the best use of your time (you'll likely continue to work in the same general ways as before, without properly addressing the specific issues that you need to work on). Using DIFFERENT methods to answer prior questions could be significantly beneficial though, so you could use that time as an opportunity to build up other skills.

When you say that you're going to randomly do 10 questions in 16 minutes, what types of questions will they be exactly? And WHY would you limit yourself to just 16 minutes (that is something of an unrealistic time limit)? On Test Day, your goal isn't really to be 'fast', it's to be 'efficient.'

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

MathRevolution · Answer

Hi,

Since your verbal score is 37, if you hit Q49, your total score could be 710.
If your target is over 700, hitting Q49 is the easier way to achieve your goal.
In order to hit a high score like 49, you should be strong at solving final hard 4-5 questions which are difficult to solve.
We call them CMT questions (Common Mistake Type).
In fact, these hard 4-5 CMT questions are given on actual GMAT. If you get 1-2 questions wrong, you can definitely hit 49. Or, if you get 0-1 questions wrong, you can hit 50-51. So, you should get 3-4 right out of hardest 4-5 questions.
These questions usually take 4-5 minutes to solve per question. This is a big pressure because we have to solve solve 37 questions in 75 minutes.

For re-takers like yourself, we have a course called "All-In-One 51”.
Based on your current score, If you study the course for 1 month, investing 4-5 hours a day, you can surely hit at least 49 or above just like 90% of our students as long as you follow our study guide properly.

Particularly, you can learn Variable Approach of DS, which enables you to solve DS questions with quickness and accuracy. With our Variable Approach, you can solve all DS questions. You can solve even hard questions in 2 minutes per question.
Also, we would like you to focus on DS as DS is a quick win.
Plus, for short-cut, focus on studying the key questions, 5 chapters (Integer, statistics, probability,inequality, absolute value), which completes 80% of your study for GMAT.
For hard questions to determine a score of 49-51, you can learn CMT 3 and 4 that we provide extra tips to solve the question in 2 minutes.
If you’re interested, please visit our website below.
https://www.mathrevolution.com/

We also have a 7-day money back guarantee, a risk-free purchase. You can cancel anytime within 7 days.
Please try Trial Pack (4 hour lesson) that reveal our secret approaches of DS+PS core theory that you have never seen. You can test whether you like them or not before you enroll.

ruggerkaz · Answer

Hi Rich,

What materials do you suggest I should be working with? I have the OG and i think that is good for time trials. But, the questions are on the easier side. I tried to do GMATClub Tests (the quizzes) and I am usually getting 2-3 out 5 correct.

As for the types of questions, I pick a topic out of the manhattan guide (number prop, exponents, ect), read a chapter, and solve OG problems. As for 16 mins for 10 questions, since the problems are on the easier side, I am forcing myself to be fast and not make silly mistakes. So, this way I do quite a bit more mental math and trying to get out of the habit of doing wrong calculations and making mistakes.

Thanks,

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ruggerkaz,

Considering your timeframe, and based on everything that you've described, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Quant Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients complete that Study Plan in under a month, so it should fit your schedule perfectly. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an account.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

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

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