Achieving the 730 GMAT Score - From zero to hero, how?

Question

Hi team!

I am aiming to put in 3 hours per day for 3 months to achieve a 730 GMAT. My background is in STEM and I have studied engineering. I am not native English, and I think the verbal part is where I will struggle.

Through having a background in consulting I have been in a similar situation regarding preparing for something important from scratch. When preparing for case interviews, there were tons of material, also often public material from firms and top business schools, but I also quickly realised that there was a lot of noise, and some methods/sources are better than others. I am certain that the situation is similar for GMAT, there is a lot of prep material, but it is hard to find the Gems that allows you to maximize your chances by only preparing for 3 months.

What would be the most suitable strategy to maximize the chances of scoring well on the GMAT be? Has anyone cracked a somewhat of a good path to take? E.g. do X courses 10 dollars each on udemy, then do old problems until it is time for test.

I am sure there are a lot of guides and methods out there, I am just yet to find them since I am starting my research now. What I have seen is this course for the verbal section: "Dominate the Gmat vertbal" from Udemy do you guys think this course is good? Do I need to complement it with something else for the verbal section? I have also briefly heard of TargetTestPrep, anything to recommend?

Also Anything similar to the Udemy course for the math section that is somewhat overpowered to go through?

Very thankful for any advice! Thanks

bb · Answer

Hi. Welcome to GMAT Club.

Three months is a good timeline. Usually you want to take a diagnostic test to figure out where you actually are and how much effort you need to put into each area. After that you can figure out what you need to improve. Most people need to improve everything and at that point you can choose whether you want to get books or you want to get a course.

I would suggest against combining multiple products or courses. You can use one course for verbal and another book for Quant example but I wouldn’t use a course and a book and another course for verbal. It’s kind of like riding 2 bicycles vs one - it’s not really faster or better

Posted from my mobile device

Franals2 · Answer

Hi  bb  - any specific method for training on 700/700+ questions? From this forum bank maybe?

Thanks in advance.

bb · Answer

I think about how you want to prepare yourself to fight someone like Mike Tyson. He has not been fighting for 20 years now but let’s assume he still in the ring. If you were going to fight him, whwre would you practice? With whom? If you’re completely new to boxing, he probably want to start was just basic punches raven trying to do a fight. you want to make sure to pick the right level.

At the same time, you want to practice a mix of questions. I you want to get some easy ones and medium and hard ones. People make a lot more mistakes and easy questions than they think.

My suggestion is that you arrange your practice around your learning. If you learned a particular topic, practice the topic. Don’t try to structure learning based on questions you missed. That’s a good way to review and get an indication of where your week but that’s also a frustrating and a much longer journey.

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Target Test Prep would be perfect for you! Why don't you check out the trial then reach out to us on live chat and we can discuss your situation in detail.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi FrozenPizza28,

We last discussed your plans a little over 4 months ago (back in early-June). Did you end up doing any studying during these last 4 months? If you have, then what materials have you used?

Many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so giving yourself that type of time is a smart choice (and you don't necessarily have to study every day - but you will have to hone some really specific Quant and Verbal skills to get to the point that you can consistently score 730+).

If you have not already done so, then I suggest that you take a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT Test; you can access 2 for free at www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). If you want to do a little studying first, so that you can familiarize yourself with the basic content and question types, then that's okay - but you shouldn't wait too long to take that initial CAT. That score will give us a good sense of your natural strengths and weaknesses and will help provide a basis for comparison as you continue to study. A FULL CAT takes about 3.5 hours to complete, so make sure that you've set aside enough time to take it in one sitting. Once you have that Score, you should report back here and we can come up with a study plan.

1) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) 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

760+: What GMAT Assassins Do To Score at the Highest Levels

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello FrozenPizza28,

Welcome to the GMAT Club. It is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, etc.

To assist you better, we would request you to write back with the following questions:

1. What are your current score and target score? (You can mention the Diagnostic test score also)
2. How do you rate yourself in Quant and Verbal?

In a generalized way, to crack GMAT, you need a disciplined study plan, command on basic concepts, exposure to agile approaches, reliable resources, updated comprehensive material and mock tests, and an expert with whom you will be connected throughout your preparations.

You may also see to connect with experts online for your preparation.

As a GMAT instructor, I will first recommend taking our Free diagnostic test https://www.mathrevolution.com/diagnostic/dtExamMember and receiving a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas. There are also many free materials available in the GMAT Club.

Time is precious and unstoppable at the same time. You can schedule a Free counseling session for 20 mins with one of our experts: https://calendly.com/mathrevolution for detailed advice on your study plans.

If you have a recent mock test score available with break up, kindly send it back to me.

Your diagnostic score will clarify what plan you should adopt to beat the GMAT. An initial mock rating will help to understand your concept knowledge of both sections.

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

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!

Math Revolution Team

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi FrozenPizza28.

The verbal section of the GMAT is designed to be fair to non-native speakers of English. So, while you may experience some language-related challenges in preparing for and taking the verbal section of the GMAT, you should be able to handle GMAT verbal just fine, and in fact, many non-native speakers with not particularly strong English skills score high on GMAT verbal.

At the same time, the key for anyone to score high on the verbal section is effective preparation. You have to understand what the section tests and how to prepare for it in order to master it, and this aspect of mastering GMAT verbal, the understanding of it aspect, is where people often run into trouble regardless of their English language skills. In other words, people often work hard to prepare for GMAT verbal without getting the results they seek because they don't quite get what it tests and what they have to do to prepare.

So, an important question for you to get the answer to is not just what materials to use to prepare but how in general to go about preparing for GMAT verbal.

To get the answer to that question, you could read this post, which disucsses in detail various aspects of preparing for GMAT verbal.

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

FrozenPizza28 · Answer

Hi again team,

Regarding:  Three months is a good timeline. Usually you want to take a diagnostic test to figure out where you actually are and how much effort you need to put into each area. 
A: My goal is to first learn the basics of the Verbal section, since I feel that my current level of English is good for communicating, but vocabulary and SAT type of questions English is something I have never practiced.

I would suggest against combining multiple products or courses. 
A: Great idea, let me jot down my current plan and Highlight question marks from my end and you or other people can perhaps give input.  bb .

We last discussed your plans a little over 4 months ago (back in early-June). Did you end up doing any studying during these last 4 months? If you have, then what materials have you used? 
A: Unfortunately caught up in work, but will have 3 hours per day to spend for GMAT going forward. No resources used.

Overall my goal is to get into an MBA program
 Extracurricular activities:  Should score very high here to the admission teams
 Work experience:  Should also be pretty spot on, top-tier consulting internship + top tier BB job in Investment Banking
 Academics:  Weak spot, 3.7 GPA + unknown uni. However, STEM candidate.
 GMAT:  This is a question mark so far, but I 100% need 720+ in order to compensate for bad GPA.

Here are the steps I plan to take so far, but need guidance to improve them:

Step 1:  Verbal:   Take the Udemy verbal course to learn the basics, start of with doing that in a few days.   Maths:   Not practice any maths, just perhaps go through the geometry formulas 
Step 2: Take the first practice test from CAT 
Step 3: Note down every problem and area, and quantify my strengths and weaknesses.  Question 1:   Is this feasible, and is this smart to do?
Step 4: Crunch work, actually go over practice problems in my weak areas, one area at a time, always write down in a spreadsheet when I get a question wrong, why I got the question wrong, and what the correct way to do it is. My intention is to never make the same mistake twice   Question 2: How do I actually find practice problems to grind? And how do I find problems at different levels? E.g. level 500 type of questions, level 600, level 700, and level 700+ type of problems in the same area, think this would be efficient to check my understanding of a topic     Question 3: What way is the best to crunch practice probelms??  
Step 5: Take my first official GMAT test
Step 6: Crunch more
Step 7: Take official test 2..
Step 8: Learn essay (template) and critical reasoning in a few days
Step 9: Buy the 2 extra practise tests from the official GMAT think this costs 60 USD , then continue to crunch problems in between and always write down where I get things wrong.  Question 4: Is it worth buying the 2 extra tests?

Question 5: I have access to Manhattan books, are they good? Someone said it is 9 different books, if so? Which ones do I fire through, I am not going through 9 books, isn't it a main one that goes through what I need to know?

Question 6: What main aspects of prep am I missing?

Bonus question: I would also need to take TOEFL to get into MBA, is this easy after GMAT verbal prep?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi FrozenPizza28,

You brought up a number of different subjects in your last post - and it's important that we discuss all of them.

First, if you have a specific 'weak spot' in your overall profile (such as your undergraduate GPA) there are ways to compensate for that - but to make sure you are crafting your overall application in the most effective way, 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/

Next, if you also have to take the TOEFL, then you would likely find it beneficial to train for that Exam first (as the skills that you would hone to score at a high level on the TOEFL would also help you to perform better on the GMAT; doing the GMAT first and the TOEFL second would not be quite as beneficial though).

Third, regardless of which Exam you are focused on, keeping a Mistake Tracker/Error Log IS a great idea - and you should plan to do so. In addition, when training for the GMAT, it's important to take FULL-LENGTH CATs at regular intervals (since there are Test-taking skills that take time to develop, but that can really only be learned by taking CATs over time). From what you describe, it's not clear how much time you're planning to study between your 1st CAT/mock and your 2nd CAT/mock - but it looks like it could be a LOT of time (and that's not a great idea).

1) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

760+: What GMAT Assassins Do To Score at the Highest Levels

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

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