Cursed at 640 - 15 days to go. Help to improve score

Question

Hi ,

My exam is scheduled on 6th April 2021. My target score is 700+ but stuck at 640.

I was preparing for GMAT on and off for the last 6 months.

Official GMAT prep test 1- 640 V-31, Q - 47
Official GMAT prep test 2 - 640 V-33, Q-46
Official GMAT prep test 3 - 640 V-30, Q-48
Manhattan prep free mock - 640 V-35, Q-42

(I dont know why the total score is always 640. Its like GMAT gods cursed me with 640)

I consider myself good in both quant and verbal foundations. I am having difficulties while applying the strategies. Whenever i review the questions that was incorrect, i am sure i could have made them correct.

Fresh tests available:
official GMAT prep test 4
official GMAT prep test 5
official GMAT prep test 6

Only 15 more days to go. Any tips to improve from this stump is appreciated.

For the next two weeks i can dedicate maximum of 5-6 hours per day and not going to postpone the exam.

CEdward · Answer

I am in the same boat. My first exam was a 530 and went up to 590 on my second test, but I know I still got A LOT more ammo in the chamber. The prep tests are too easy. Anyway.

I think you said it yourself: "I am having difficulties while applying the strategies". Well what difficulties are you having? I'd start there...

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello Deepaparthi,

A score of 640 in the GMAT mock test tells the entire story about how well prepared you are for the GMAT official test and how to change the gear now to meet the target score in reality.

With my GMAT tutoring, guidance, and counseling experience, we have to accept the fact with a pinch of salt that diagnostic/ mock test scores are above then what one should expect in a real test. There is often dropping in the score. Some students have even experienced a drop of 100 pointers. It is one of the realities, and your preparation should not sideline this fact.

You can schedule a Comprehensive counseling session for 30 mins with one of our experts:https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session for 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.

• 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 especially on hard level questions while stably hitting middle-level questions.
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Since we are a math expert, we will recommend you go through our post on the GMAT club: Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-day full 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.

The day regular mock tests show the consistent score of Q48+ with V37+, then it 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 therefore, 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!

Punit Joshi
Math Revolution Team

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

it is hard to increase your score within this 15 days! my suggestion: just practice with official questions.

if you share your weakness in gmat section expert can help you a bit, probably. all the best.

if you face RC and CR problem you can watch few videos from 'Thursdays with Ron' from youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTQlKd ... /playlists

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Deepaparthi,

Depending on how long you've been performing at this level, you may indeed have gotten 'stuck' at 640 - and you will have to make some fundamental changes to how you "see" (and respond to) the Exam before you will be able to consistently score at a higher level. 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) What type of study routine have you followed over the last 6 months? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) Did you take any additional CATs/mocks besides the 4 that you listed? 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)?
4) 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

Deepaparthi · Answer

Hi Rich,

1. I did not follow a disciplined study routine as with an infant and busy husband. I studied whenever possible. I would say typically around 5-7 hours a week.
2. I used Gmatwhiz course to brush up my fundamentals. I have Manhattan books but not able to go through them all completely.
3. I took One Mock before 6 months and i got 590 - V-28, Q-43.
4. I am planning to start school by second half of 2022. INSEAD and IIMs are my target.

Now for this last two weeks I have made arrangements with my parents to help with the baby, so I can study at least 5-6 hours a day.

Thank you

EducationAisle · Answer

Verbal seems to be a bigger issue, based upon your performance in the official exams.

Considering that you are not able to postpone, focus enormously on your weaker areas in Verbal, in the next couple of weeks.

Good luck with your exam, and do let us know how things turn out Deepa.

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Deepaparthi,

I see that you have used GMATWhiz course. If you are still using it, I would suggest you to take sectional quizzes (one each for Geometry, Algebra, WP, NP). Once you do that, if your accuracy is below 50% in any topic, go through the concept videos. If the accuracy is somewhere between 50-80%, then you can just practice the concept booster and practice quizzes of that topic and then move to QWizard.

You can do the same with verbal as well. Take module wise quiz for SC, CR and RC and follow the same process as above. This should ideally help you identify your weak areas and work on them. One thing to keep in mind is whenever you solve questions, make sure to analyze the solution of that question in depth. Identify at which step you made the mistake and understand what led you to take that decision at that point of time.

Hope it helped. If you need any more help on how to proceed, you can get in touch with the mentor or schedule a call with me using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

640 is a very nice start. To improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you have to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

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, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take 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 correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take 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, strengthen some more areas.

You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, 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. 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 had to know 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.

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.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

vamshikaithi · Answer

Happens when you don't work on your weak areas. You must be probably practicing more and more questions. But unfortunately, that doesn't help much. Your quant and verbal scores are consistent which is a positive. But identify your weak areas and work on them. That's the only way you can improve your score. For quant, you can probably go through the solutions of the questions you have solved because 47/48 is decent enough. For Verbal, there's a lot of work to do. You must be struggling with two modules of the three. So, focus on those two modules. Learn the right methods to solve questions and strategies to eliminate answer choices. Because, GMAT Verbal is more about eliminating four incorrect answer choices rather than choosing the right one. I'm not sure if you can do all this in 15 days. If you can postpone your test, that's better. If not, do whatever you can. Focus more on Verbal because you don't want to score too less in that. You can get in touch with me if you need any more help. All the best

RetaketheGMAT · Answer

Hi Deepaparthi,

I know the timing of your next attempt must be creating a lot of pressure but you can channel that into more focused approach to your prep. Based on your past results, I doubt you have big gaps in your knowledge of the content / principles. Your main problems are all about process.

Our 90 minute FREE diagnostic session with a GMAT performance coach will create tremendous focus for your remaining prep days. When you know exactly what process improvements you need to make, the 5-6 hours you have per day unto the 6th of April will be plenty to make a big jump in your score.

Let me know if your interested in the FREE (no obligation) diagnostic session.

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