Retake 730 GMAT Score in 2 Weeks to 750+

Question

Hi all - I just took my GMAT today for the first time and scored a 730 (Q50 V39). I understand it's a great score but I'm only aiming for HBS and Stanford so I'd like to maximize all parts of my application. I'm also part of an overrepresented group of applicants so a higher GMAT score can only help me. I've already signed up for my next exam in 2 weeks and was wondering what steps I can take to improve.

I've been studying for about 3-4 months now, with the past month incredibly concentrated.
I've taken all 6 GMATPrep tests within the past month all under exam conditions and scored 770, 760, 760, 770, 760, and 740 in that order. Verbal scores ranged from V41 - V46.
I've also taken all 6 Manhattan CAT tests in the last two months and scored 690, 660, 730, 650, 730, and 710.

The actual exam score is lower than all my GMATPrep scores and my verbal hasn't been below V41 in all the GMATPreps, but it dropped to V39 on the actual exam. I cancelled the score immediately so didn't order the ESR. Any suggestions on how to improve my verbal score on the actual exam?

Businessconquerer · Answer

Tell me about the exam day, what was it like during the verbal section?
Were u nervous?
Was it the same as the other days.
MGMAT test scores are remarkable. Which coaching did you take classes from?

Also, you're definitely a high IQ type if you're scoring in that range in 4 months of prep

Now as for other things, I'd really not suggest Retaking the GMAT, not because of a great score but because you've exhausted the official material (trust me mate you need to know where you truly stand)
If I were you, I'd not sweat it because 730 is more than or equal to the median GMAT of almost every Bschool out there. Also I believe in two weeks it will be September, You'll need time to prepare for you application too. If you start today, you can still get into a great Bschool, even Harvard, if it is in your list

moneyneversleep · Answer

Businessconquerer

Thanks for your response. To answer your questions:
Were u nervous? I was more nervous than the other times when I took the mocks and found it difficult to concentrate on the prompts, especially for CR.

Was it the same as the other days. Felt it was similar to other days - maybe I got more anxiety but everyone gets anxiety and I don't feel like it should have affected my scores to bring my verbal down to a V39. One point is I always start off with Quant and I felt like the Quant in the actual GMAT was much tougher than the quant in the GMATPreps so maybe that affected my concentration and focus for verbal? Even if that were the case, I'm not really sure how I can fix that.

MGMAT test scores are remarkable. Which coaching did you take classes from? Didn't take classes - just self-studied

As for applications, I'm not going to be applying to business school for a few years. I just did 2 years in IB and am going to start in PE soon. I know I won't have time to study when I start my new job so I wanted to get it out of the way first. I figured I'd retake it in 2 weeks because my mock scores have been consistently stronger and I already have a 730 as a baseline.

Based on the above info, what do you think is the best way to improve on verbal in the next 2 weeks? Thank you!

Businessconquerer · Answer

moneyneversleep 
Well... For starters, Jamboree.online site has all official material there is, so that could help you with the deficit of official mocks, not as much but something is better than nothing. They have extremely difficult quant questions, so that can help you get to 51. Verbal is great too. Moreover, you can buy Veritas tests as there's no use in repeating Your old tests(trust me on this). Buy them both... You just need to develop momentum and strike. Take a subscription from the websites jamboree.online and veritasprep.com

I would still not recommend you retaking the Test. 
Anxiety drops your score by atleast one point. Two in my case...

You can rely on both the things I suggested. It will be enough along with whatever you usually do...

Veritas also has a free Question bank for all. So if you ever feel adventurous, you can give it a go.

Posted from my mobile device

freedom128 · Answer

Try and analyse your performance on both Veritas' 7 practice tests and Manhattan tests. Learn from mistakes you make in those tests.

Both give quality verbal questions and explanations. Btw. Manhattan Quant is harder than the real tests. Veritas Quant is arguably on par with the real tests.

Nonetheless, neglect the scoring by those non-official tests. Trust ony the scoring from official mocks (GMAT practice Exams 1-6).

Good luck

Posted from my mobile device

Businessconquerer · Answer

Not to steal feom him but he is completely right... Practice and revision are two of the essential components of learning.
 
Idk if he'll reply but  bb  is really good at giving tips, may be you can use his help.

moneyneversleep · Answer

Businessconquerer   chondro48

Thank you very much for the replies - I'll definitely take a look at those resources and practice and revise per your suggestions.

bb  - wondering if you had any tips?

Thanks a lot again for the suggestions. They're incredibly helpful. One reason I'm taking it again so quickly is I feel like I can definitely score slightly higher (10-20 points more) given my practice scores. Wondering if maybe I just underperformed today?

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

730 with Q50 is a great start! That said, to improve your verbal skills, you need to go through GMAT verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to find weaker areas, learn all about how to answer questions of types that you aren't that comfortable with now, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving your score up point by point.

For example, assume you begin studying Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, 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 you didn't get it right. 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 would have had to know in order 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.
 
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 and types that you would rather not see and that there are types questions that take you 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 efficiently answer questions that currently take you 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, make some more areas stronger.
 
When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of the questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to at least around 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.
 
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.
 
Feel free to reach out with questions.

Good luck!

moneyneversleep · Answer

I just ordered my ESR and for verbal, I scored 91st percentile on CR and SC (42 and 41 respectively) and 51st percentile on RC (28) so RC dragged down my score... I'm surprised by this result because I've never had to practice RC and always got 1/at most 2 questions wrong on RC in my mocks. I'm a native English speaker and read WSJ/NYT/books pretty consistently. I did feel that RC on the exam was tougher than on the mocks and all the answer choices seemed right.

I can't spend as much time per day studying for the GMAT as I did this past month and a half (moving/starting a new job) so I'm going to keep focusing on SC and CR just to maintain my level. Do you think perhaps the RC was an anomaly or is the actual GMAT RC much tougher than the prep RCs?

ScottTargetTestPrep   AjiteshArun

RashedVai · Answer

Wow! Great score. What/how did you studied ? I am studying for an year and still can not break 600. Give some tips.

Posted from my mobile device

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi moneyneversleep , That's a great first score. Here are a few things you could consider: 1. If your official practice tests were "fresh" (that is, they did not include any questions that you were already familiar with), the scores that they generated are reliable. 2. The GMAT is not built to be very precise at scores like 770 (question "difficulty", number of questions...), and there is no way to eliminate measurement error. This means that the margin for error is very small in the highest score ranges. That is not very important in itself, but what it means is that anyone who is capable of getting a very high score could need multiple attempts to get that high score. 3. Your RC is most likely fine. The ESR is an extremely blunt tool, and we must be careful not to overanalyze it. Send me the link (or an edited PDF if you'd like to remove any personal details from your ESR) if you can, either here or at ajitesh@ascore.io. 4. You're doing the right thing taking the exam again in two weeks. You won't feel as much pressure this time, because the first attempt is out of the way, and because you have a "cushion" (the 730).

	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

Retake 730 GMAT Score in 2 Weeks to 750+

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards