GMAT score boost 1 month before Exam

Question

Hey All,
I've just booked the GMAT exam (1st attempt) for the 1st of May. I would need some advice in order to maximize my chances of getting the score I want.

Where I am now
I actually started studying roughly one year ago. I only did a course for SC and then stopped after one month due to other commitments. Then, at the end of November 2020 I started again my preparation from scratch. I bought a course from EAS Milan (got a voucher with 50% discount) - 40hrs of lessons going through all the topics. 800Bob, the instructor's name, is great, but that preparation alone is not enough.
Around January, when the course ended, I kept studying (8-10 hrs per week, not very consistently) mainly relying on real GMAT official guide/questions.

Verbal: I've done all the Easy questions + some Medium + few Hard (around 300 in total). I have an error Log on excel and through that, while making mistakes, I tried to read/look video on internet to resolve my errors. I am quite decent in CR, have problems in RC only with very long/very hard passages, and quite inconsistent with SC (my major weakness).
Quant: I am quite good in logic and math - I've mainly look videos on youtube or read articles to learn strategies. I did not more than 100 questions from the official GMAT questions.

Mocks
I did my first (official) Mock on the 27th of February and scored 680 (Q47, V36). I was quite surprised, especially because I kind of haven't done any real math exercise (apart from following the course) before that moment. Probably I've also been quite lucky. I made a lot of errors in Data Sufficiency (8 out of 13) and Sentence Correction (8 out of 12).
I did my second (official) Mock on the 27th of March and scored 700 (Q48, V37). I've studied 80% of the time Quant in this month, and for Verbal I've only tried to improve my SC capabilities. The main problem I've had was related to time: I had to guess at least 3-4 questions per section in order to finish on time.

Objective
My real (and I would say realistic) objective is 720. I have one month to study and I am looking for advice, suggestions, feedback.
I have one full-time job + some part-time activities. The max I can dedicate to the GMAT in April would be 1.5/2hrs/day +6/8hrs/weekend. Let's say 15hrs per week + full-time the week before the exam (I take holidays): so probably 5/6hrs/day. In total, I can commit 70/80 hrs of study from now 'till the day of the Exam.
I would prefer to avoid one-to-one tutoring or too expensive stuff - unless absolutely required.
Still, a concrete study plan + useful resources could surely maximize my chances of getting the score I want. For free, would be better, but that's not strictly necessary.

Thank you a lot for reading and looking forward to hearing useful advice!
Vittorio

P.S: It is obvious, I am not native English - I am Italian

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

"...inconsistent with SC (my major weakness)"

One thing that may help SC is a good idiom list for the GMAT.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi vmonferrino,

Regarding resources, in addition to seeking advice in this thread, take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for  the best quant  and  verbal courses , and also read through some  GMAT success stories  to see what materials have worked well for other test-takers.

Also, would you like some general advice on how to improve your verbal and quant skills?

You also may find it helpful to read this article about  how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

Good luck!

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi vmonferrin,

Your mock scores seem to be consistent and you are almost there. You might be faltering in a few areas on which you have to focus a little more. I hope you got the questions right using the right methods. I understand that you can get lucky with a few questions but if that happens too often, your score might be inflated. So, it's very important to correctly assess your level and to know whether you are using the right approach or not.

The path ahead:  
Before suggesting you anything, it's important to know your weak areas and at which step in the process you are faltering. For example, solving CR questions involves a lot of steps such as:

Reading the argument 
 Identifying the premise and the conclusion 
 Reading the question stem and understanding what is asked exactly 
 Pre-thinking the assumption and identifying the missing link 
 Eliminating incorrect answer choices which are out of scope, irrelevant or distorted

If you make a mistake in any of the above steps, the entire process goes wrong and you will most likely choose the incorrect answer choice. So, it's important to identify that and then proceed to work on your weak areas. And practicing more questions is definitely not the way to do it. It's important to identify what is actually tested and then prepare accordingly. Let me give you an example.

How to approach SC questions? 
SC questions test your ability to convey the intended meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from the meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect. So, it's important to comprehend the meaning the original sentence is trying to convey, identify errors if any and then eliminate answer choices which are grammatically incorrect or which do not convey the intended meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM

So, to suggest you in a better way, I would like to know

the way you approach questions,  
 your current preparation strategy

This information will help me understand your concerns and guide you in a better way. I prefer getting in touch over a zoom conference call as it would help me analyze your approach of solving questions and then suggest you what to work on. You can use the below link to get in touch with me.

Click here to schedule a call

vmonferrino · Answer

Thank you for your feedback!

I am reading/watching the material you provided, and looking at some other videos on Strategy I defined a quite precise daily Plan from now 'till the exam day. However, a new idea came to my mind. Your suggestions would help a lot - again.
May will be a crazy month for my work and I would not be able to study at all. As far as I've understood, mentality and anxiety play a fundamental role in the final GMAT score, especially compared to mock tests. So, having a "one-shot" only could increase my expectations and therefore decrease my effectiveness. I was indeed planning to take the exam twice exploiting the Test Center/Online misalignment. I put here my plan and I look forward to hearing your viewpoint:

- Exam at the Test Center Monday 26th of April. I would see immediately the result+take the ESR to drill down my performance.
- Exam online either on Saturday or Sunday (1st or 2nd) of May. It will NOT be the "enhance online" - it will not be implemented yet.

Now, taking twice the exam in a week surely has pros and cons. Considering that the week 26 April - 1 May I will be on vacation from work, I will be studying full-time the GMAT.
What do you think? Is that doable, or I maximize my chances of failing twice in a very short time?

Thank you a lot again in advance,
Best,
Vittorio

Thank you a lot again in advance, Best, Vittorio

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