How to improve my GMAT from 700 to 740+ in three weeks?

Question

Hi everyone,

I just finished my 1st round test on 7/2. After a few days of consideration, I decided to give it another try.

The following is my GMAT prep, mock exams and Official scores,

Several mocking tests: 650~740 (Q48~50, V30~38)

Prep1: 760 Q50 V44

Prep2: 710 Q50 V36 (The day before the test)

1st Gmat: 700 Q49 V34

1. Quant:

I really want to improve my Quant score to 50+ because when I review my quant practice, I always find that I knew how to solve them, but I kept making careless mistakes. I would like to ask some tips on how can I stabilize my quant scores.

2. Verbal:

I finished MGMAT SC and OG 2021, and It's very helpful since I stabilize my verbal score at 30~34. As I review my scores, I found that I'm doing average good on each section, usually 3 wrong questions from SC, 3 from CR, and 4 from RC. So I really don't know how to improve my verbal scores since my performance in each section is too average.

3. Preparation:
 
I currently have a bunch of time, so preperation time isn't a big issue for me. But I still want to know how to organize my study plan, does anyone has suggestions?

homersimpsons · Answer

I would try the GMATClub tests. They are very tough- but if you can do those, you will have no problem with the actual.

Russ19 · Answer

Hi,

For your quant score improvement, you can consult with a great instructor, such as IanStewart, and for verbal, I recommend the video lessons in the link below:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmat-nin ... l#p2396353

Best Wishes!

GMATinsight · Answer

lawrencehu

1) Remember Careless Mistakes are not silly ones. They are the ahrdest to avoid because you are not wrong there, you are just careless.
2) FOr Verbal, you need very specific help to improve from 35-40 which can happen only if you work on finding out the error you make in exam. If you find it interesting then I can arrange a FREE demo session for you for Verbal discussion to find the flaw and the way forward.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi lawrencehu,

First off, a 700/Q49 is an outstanding Score, so you can comfortably apply to any Business Schools that interest you. As such, a retest is probably not necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

There's certainly no harm in retesting though - and you have a great opportunity to pick up points in the Verbal section. 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) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) 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?

If you took your GMAT at a Test Center, then you might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

700 is a great start! To improve your GMAT score to a higher level, you need 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!

bb · Answer

I would encourage you to do a few things (whatever strategy you use)

1. Make sure you break up your study sessions. Use the best time of the day. For example if you work during the day, try to study in the morning. Your performance even though the best time of the day will start going down after about an hour or an hour and a half. Take long breaks. You can actually cover a ton of material in an hour and a half. The key is not so much to cover but to remember it and make sure it sinks and make sure you can leverage it.

2. For the stubborn areas I suggest making hand written notes.

3. Every day start with a five or 10 minute review of Yesterdays material covered and hardest areas and little tips and tricks perhaps that you learn from your mistakes. Don’t worry too much about finding patterns in your mistakes. Treat each of your mistakes with respect. Think of it as a teacher some of them teach you rules and some of them may teach you how to be less careless. Don’t except any have your mistakes as normal. Give them All respect. Some of them may be very easy to fix. Others may not but they’re all fixable and solvable. For example, if you make careless mistakes and calculations, you can remember it to double check your math next time you do some thing because that’s where you always trip up so make sure you double check your math or perhaps take a five second break before you start working on the question. I did that. Every time I would submit a question in Quant, I will take a five second pause brief clear my mind and start reading the next question.

4. Know when to give up. This is very important for the overall well-being of your test. You can sync the whole test score was a single question. Not by answering it incorrectly. You cannot mess up the test was one incorrect answer but you can mess up the whole test with one correct answer that takes you for five minutes to answer. You can’t afford to spend more than three minutes with a question. Unless you have a lot of time left over, don’t chase questions that are too hard. If you have no solution in sight at two minutes, just guess and MoveOn. It’s just one question. It could be experimental question it won’t even count but if it’s a real question, it won’t penalize your score too much because it’s a question that is too hard so the penalty will be minimal.

5. Don’t worry about the overall test or how you’re doing. He wants to focus just on the question that is in front of you. You don’t want to think about the question that you solved before or worry about being tired. Just focus on the question in front of you. Don’t worry about being tired. Don’t worry about having enough stamina for the next section. That stamina will magically appear. Clear your mind so it’s just you and the question and all your mental notes about how not to get tripped up how not to get sucked in. Imagine you disarming a bomb. That should be the level of attention. Do you have a complex bomb in front of you and the only thing that matters is following the steps and nothing else 😎

Good luck!

Posted from my mobile device

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

For an in depth discussion of how to reduce your number of careless errors and increase accuracy, see this post.  Improving Your Accuracy on the GMAT

For an in depth discussion of how to increase your verbal score, see this post.  How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

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