Improving GMAT School and Realistic Target Schools

Question

Hi All,

I just finished taking my GMAT; my goal was to hit 700+, but I ultimately scored a 680. This was pretty disappointing given my extensive studying habits during the holiday season. My score of 680 was Q48 and V35(36) not too sure as I canceled it. This was my second attempt after I got a 660 my first time (Q47, V34).

Here is some information on me:

College GPA: 3.84; UT Austin 
Major: Finance
Target Schools: M7; UT and Rice 
Company: Strategy Consulting Firm
Time at Firm: 3 months (for now); planning to stay 2-3 years before applying
Extracurriculars in the Firm: Leadership Speaker Series, Talent Council, and Training Lead for Newcomers

Resources: Manhattan Prep Practice Exams, Magoosh Subscription, GMAT Forum Club

Study Habits: 
6 AM - 7:30 AM: review Manhattan prep (All the Quant/Verbal)
5 PM - 6 PM: Magoosh Problems and GMAT Forum Club top expert reply questions
8 PM - 9 PM: Magoosh Problems and GMAT Forum Club top expert reply questions

Identified Weaknesses:
Timing; longer term - I try to pace myself but when I see myself with +4 minutes I panic and slow down on each problem; thus, I have a rushed ending. 
Verbal: I know from my 660 test (680 results were canceled and I don't have the ESR yet) that my CR and RC need help.
Math: ESR from 660 said my Algebra was weak; I don't know how I've been able to score so high 47+ on both of my scores though.

Given that I've utilized all the questions from Magoosh and a majority of Manhattan prep, I am not sure how else to practice and also improve myself. For a tracker page, I just started using the GMAT Clubs error tracker and Magoosh note tracker (but I genuinely rarely use them as I am not sure of the best way to correct myself).

I genuinely think the test is easier than I expected compared to all other types of practice exams from Manhattan Prep and Magoosh (I got a 610 and 530 respectively). I try to stay away from taking practice exams (I know really bad) but the lower scores than the OG GMAT confuse me and make me lose confidence in myself.

Just started work and its starting to ramp up more,  I was hoping to get some more advice on how to get better and improve my score and where you think I can realistically land with my job, score, and history. I appreciate anything you might have.

I want to change the world for the better by becoming a leader in it and to me it starts with MBA school; thanks for helping.

bb · Answer

Welcome to GMAT Club! I guess you finally pulled the trigger to register

I like your study schedule! Great job! It is normal to end in a rush. Nobody has perfect timing except a few folks who annoy the heck out of me but in general, I rushed on my tests at the end too. The positive side is that the last few questions (as long as you answer them) don't really make that much of difference so I would not stress on that too much. I would not take it as far as skipping them or wildly guessing but our experiments showed interesting results with old GMAT Prep: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-prep-so ... 46146.html and new GMAT prep: https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-format-g ... 69682.html. Note that it would be very hard for someone to repeat this kind of a feat and answer 21 questions in a row correctly even with ample time. You are bound to make a mistake here or there. Only Bunuel was able to accomplish that (in half the time of course). I see you have not included any practice test results. Is that on purpose? Have you taken too few/too many tests? Are they in line with your official test score? The reason I ask is that we have seen people's scores jump all over the place. It seems your scores are very consistent between 660 and 680 but we have seen folks take the test a month later and get 80 more points. Not advocating that approach but that's why some of the practice scores help. Also, I would say you may be doing a lot/too many questions potentially.... I know that may surprise you or shock you but I feel if you know something then you know it and if you don't then you don't (Granted some questions may ask it in a diff way but in general, you sohuld be either good or not and after 10-20 questoins that approach the same topic from diff sides, you should pretty much have seen most patterns of that specific topic)... With Q48 and V30-something (based on this grid https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-scores-83890.html, you are around V35/V36 but it is not exact as calculations are not the same for scaled and total scores) or so you can improve both Quant and Verbal. Not sure if you find Q or V easier than the other but as you can see on that scale, you have to go up a few points on Q/V to get to 720.... Ultimately I would look very hard at yourself and look deep into your soul and ask, what is your greatest fear and greatest weakness on the GMAT?

hendrickliaw · Answer

Thanks for the advice; to answer your question; I do think you might be right on doing too many practice problems and that once I understand a problem I get it. My fear is that if I stop doing practice problems my score will drop due to not having practice with it. I will start to build practice exams into my schedule  if you have any recs on when and how to build them in that would be appreciated.

I was also curious if how to better improve my verbal score; I am just not sure how to get better and identify weaknesses. For math, it is my lack of confidence and seeing that the exam might be too easy making me think I am performing worse.

Overall my fear is that my score will only go down or plateau and I will just burn money by taking then canceling my exams.

bb · Answer

There’s a good questions. I would say that you don’t need to keep refreshing how to do basic things. You probably remember the multiplication table. OK that is a silly example but it illustrates a point. You only need to focus on questions that you got wrong and actually reviewing questions that you’ve already taken. That saves quite a bit of time and allows you to review them once or twice a week.

I am low tech with my studying because I don’t want to be distracted by notifications and emails and YouTube videos so I printed out all of my mistakes and questions that I thought were clever and tricky and I wanted to remember. Maybe it was a slight or subtle shift in the CR passage or maybe it was an overlapping sets question in math. For some reason if I thought it was important, I will print it out and put it in a folder. Then in the evening during my downtime, I would look at every question, name the mistake or the trick that got me or peaked my interest and basically review them that way. After a couple weeks, I would retire the boring ones and only keep the ones I fell tour important meaningful. At any given time I probably had no more than 10 or 15 sheets of paper was 10 or 15 questions. I would retire them after a couple weeks. Sometimes I would go and review them again and that’s a personal thing, whatever you’re more comfortable with.

I would not take too many tests. I would recommend to take them only when you’re ready to start practicing timing and rehearsing your strategies and figuring out how not to freak out. My word of caution for you, don’t try anything you on the actual test. Something may sound like a good idea on the test day, but all new ideas are bad on the day of the test.

If you are concerned about staying fresh and in good shape, I would recommend taking sectional tests. For example, if you are done working on Quandt, and shifting to verbal then every week or if you’re only studying a month, maybe twice a week, I would take the Quant portion of the GMAT. GMAT Club tests and some other tests allow you to do that. This is a much better exercise than leisurely going through questions on the forum. There’s no use in leisurely doing anything. I’ve been leisurely working out for years and you wouldn’t be able to tell that by my physique. The same applies to GMAT 🤦‍♂️😂

Posted from my mobile device

hendrickliaw · Answer

This is the best type of forum I have ever worked on; I really appreciate your insight, and I want you to know how grateful that there are people like you willing to help people like me. I'll write about my progress over the coming weeks.

Thanks,

-H

Thanks,

-H

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi hendrickliaw,

First of all, sorry that you could not get your desired score. But not to worry. An improvement is definitely possible. Even after spending months of time in studying, if your score doesn't improve, it means that there is some flaw in your approach. It's important to identify that and rectify it. As you said, GMAT is not very difficult. it's just that you have to understand what is actually tested on GMAT and prepare accordingly.

How to approach? 
GMAT is test of application of concepts. So, your prep has to be more focused around learning the right methods and strategies. There can be 'N' number of ways to solve a particular question. But as GMAT is a time based test, you have to use the best method to solve the question under the optimum time. I see that you are mostly struggling with verbal. Let me tell you how to improve your verbal score.

How to rightly solve verbal questions? 
Verbal questions can be very tricky. You will often come across close answer choices which are worded similarly. So, it's important that you are conceptually clear and that you use the right methods and strategies to solve questions. Remember that,  GMAT Verbal is all about eliminating four answer choices rather than choosing the right one .

So, I suggest you to focus on the methods along with the concepts. When you finish learning the concepts of any topic,   make sure that you learn the methods to solve question types tested from that topic.  
 Once you do this, practice a few questions to solidify your learning.  
 Repeat the process for all the topics 
 Once you are done with all the topics, start taking timed quizzes to get used to the time constraint

The path ahead: 
Do not just focus on practicing questions. Instead, go through the quizzes and mocks you have taken till now. Analyze the solution of each question and compare your approach with the right one. Identify at which step you faltered. This will help you learn the right approach. Once you are confident about the methods and strategies, practice a few questions without any time limit to get used to the methodology.

You can start taking timed quizzes once you are done with all the topics. I hope you have understood the structure. You can go through the below recording to understand the approach better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sD35ZuGgD4

I see that you are mainly struggling with CR and RC. There is a certain process using which you solve CR and RC questions. You can check out the   recordings   of the same to understand the process better.

Hope it helped. I suggest you to focus more on the process than on practicing questions. If you wish to have a detailed discussion regarding the same, you can get in touch with me using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

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