Want to take the GMAT in June, how to reach 550?

Question

Hi, I have loads of test prep materials, currently studying using Magoosh.

I'm okay in Verbal, sucky in Quant.

My score went form 340 --> 410 (using GMAT Prep software).

How can I ensure I reach 550? I have no hopes for 600, and other high scores.

Edit: SHould add, I'm extremely terrible in math. Quant has been a struggle for me. I'll learn a concept, but when it comes to application, it's insanely difficult. I'm not willing to enroll in prep classes because it's way too costly, and I've been simply downloading free material.

Edit 2: I'm currently following Magoosh's 6 month study plan -- tweaked it a little. Doing tests more frequently, once every 4-5 weeks.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi torontobound,

Your score goal (550) is modest and reasonable. With a June Test Date, you've given yourself plenty of time to study too, which is good. I'd like to know a bit more about your studies so far (and your plans):

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What study materials are you currently using?
3) Why is your score goal 550?

4) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on your practice CATs?
5) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

Most of the material that you need to know for the Quant section is math that you learned up to age of 15 or so, so the individual rules/formulas/etc. are not that complex. Most questions involve 3-5 "steps" and can be solved in a variety of ways, so you shouldn't 'give up' on the Quant section too early. You could hit your score goal with a much higher Verbal score (than Quant score), but there are plenty of points that you can pick up in the Quant section.

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

torontobound · Answer

Sorry for the late response, and thanks for following up!

1) My studying's been done in two parts. From August to December 2014 I self studied using Veritas Prep Guide 2013. It was helpful, but a lot of the times I had to "reverse engineer" answering the questions; that is, I had to learn the answer before I fully understood how to do it. This resulted in my 340 in the December Mock.

Currently, I've been studying since mid June using Magoosh and their video tutorials. It's very useful and it resulted in a 410 this past February.

2) Other than Magoosh, I still use my Veritas Prep Guide for additional questions. Additionally, I have a 2013 Edition of the Official GMAT Study Guide

3) My score goal is 550 because a lot of schools in Canada have that as their accepted minimum. Ideally, it'd be nice to get to 600, but through all the studying I've done, 550 seems much more suited to my studying method.

4) Scores on my last mock: 
Quant - 17 / 5th Percentile 
Verbal - 28 / 48th Percentile
IR - 5 / 52nd Percentile

I don't remember my scores from the last mock but I did bad overall in all areas

5) For the first mock, I did everything. For the second mock, I skipped the essay but did everything.

6) I'm planning to apply in September (start the process in August), and apply to schools in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa: Schulich, U of T, Ryerson, Mcgill, Carleton, and U of Ottawa

Edit: My main weakness is in Quant, but even within that, Data Sufficiency is a pain in the ass. Overall, my biggest issue is learning a concept and applying it to abstract questions. There's a huge disconnect. Quantum Prep has classes for $2000 but that's a bit out of budget for me!

ALSO, I work full time Mon-Fri. I study (watch vids, do questions), 3 weeknights, 2 hours -- then on Saturdays for 5 hours. I try to do questions but sometimes it gets too damn frustrating

KarishmaB · Answer

Considering both your posts together, here is my analysis of your situation:

1. You must increase your Quant score. Even if you reach 550-600 based on your Verbal score alone, the schools will find it very hard to accept you with a 5th percentile in Quant. The reason for that is that a lot of the MBA curriculum is Quant based. A very low Quant percentile makes them wonder whether you can handle the rigors of the curriculum.

2. To increase your Quant score, you might want to first try a high school Math book or websites such as purplemath.com and khanacademy.org to improve your basics. Focusing on GMAT relevant Quant will give you limited results if your basics are not clear. If you were successfully able to make a quadratic from a word problem after learning how to handle word problems in GMAT books, great, but it will be useless if you are not able to solve the quadratic you made to get the final answer.

3. Did you try out the skillbuilder section of your Veritas Quant books? If you found them hard, you know that you need to work on your basics first. Once your basics are solid, go through all your Quant books again. A lot of the curriculum will make much more sense.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi torontobound,

You're not going to need to spend $2,000 to achieve your score goal, but some adjustments to your approach are probably warranted. From the dates that you've provided, it looks like you've been studying for about 6-7 months. Is that a correct assumption?

I have a couple of follow-up questions about your CATs:
1) Did you finish any of the sections early?
2) Did you have to rush to finish any of the sections (and guess on a bunch of questions at the end)? If so, then how many?
3) Did you leave any questions unanswered?

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

torontobound · Answer

Yes. 6-7 months of studying is the goal. Anything more than that, and I'm more than likely not even going to be taking the GMAT. A year to study seems excessive.

1) I did! I don't have the times in front of me, but I did finish Quant pretty early -- bit of guessing, so I think I had 15-20 minutes to spare. Verbal, maybe 10-15 minutes to spare.

2) IR -- I always rush to finish that. The questions tend to be dense BUT I haven't done any practice with IR apart from the mocks, so I'm positive I can be better at that.

3) No. I attempted to answer each question and if I couldn't, I would make a guesstimate, based on techniques I learned... e.g. if the number spread for answers is large, guessing tends to be easier.

torontobound · Answer

khanacademy is a great resource. I've been told the same -- I need to grab a math textbook that somehow covers everything from highschool and really learn it. And yes, that's the thing: The Skillbuilder section of the Veritas guides were easy to learn -- I was successful in understanding the concepts and did the practice q's with ease. But when it came to application, there was a large disconnect

Edit: I checked out Khan Academy, what a great resource! It's very similar to Magoosh

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

HI torontobound,

This latest bit of information that you've provided is actually GOOD news. Finishing a section of the GMAT early is NEVER a good thing - it almost always means that you've rushed through some "gettable" questions and made some little mistakes along the way. Considering how early you finished the Quant and Verbal sections and what you COULD have done with that extra time, there's a potential here for some serious improvement (in both score and pacing). Part of your training will be for you to SLOW DOWN and do MORE work.

From a 'design' standpoint, most GMAT questions involve 3-5 "steps", so you don't have to try to do every step all at once (and you shouldn't be attempting to do work 'in your head'). Taking organized notes, doing work on the pad, being efficient, etc. is what you should expect of yourself on EVERY question. The GMAT gives you the score that you EARN, so be prepared to do the necessary work to earn those points.

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

torontobound · Answer

Hi everyone, I wanted to update you guys, and anyone else interested. I took the Veritas practice test, and these were my scores. Keep in mind, part of it was guestimating, answering logically, and just plain guessing (EINEY MEENY MINEY MOE)

IR: 4 / 8 - 37 Percentile
Quant: 35 / 60 - 36 Percentile
Verbal: 30 / 60 - 56 Percentile

Overall score - 540 / 44 Percentile

Compared to my last scores:
Quant - 17 / 5th Percentile 
Verbal - 28 / 48th Percentile
IR - 5 / 52nd Percentile

Pacing was good overall. I rushed in IR as usual, and my pacing for Verbal was great, and Quant I took my time.

Overall, I'm surprised at my score and wonder how much of it was due to luck and my own personal skills/studying abilities. I will say this, there are areas such as geometry which I haven't covered yet, so I'm confident I can up my Quant score by at least 1-3 points based on geometry alone.

Anyway, if there are further updates, I'll keep you guys posted. If there are any other tips, I would love to hear them.

Edit: Further information regarding my score -- I made maybe 5-6 guesses in total which is a lot better than I thought. The rest really was work and luck. Key areas to work out: data sufficiency, reading comprehension, and IR.

Here's a better breakdown:

Quant --> DS 60% / PS 59%
Verbal --> CR 100% / RC 40% / SC 62%

Overall, I thought the CR for Verbal was extremely easy. They definitely weren't questions from the "hard" testbank, which is disappointing. Reading comprehension was tiring, and it's reflective in my score. SC could've been better. I got tripped up by a few.

torontobound · Answer

Bump: No opinions from the experts??

manyatpr · Answer

Hi There, To improve on your quant we would advise you to study one topic at a time and solve all the questions related to it in a one go.Do prepare some notes of the formulas and numbers. Prepare all the topics in this manner. Once completed start solving only the quant section from the GMAT practice tests. Once you are able to score well, start solving the section setting time limits. Practicing this way will definitely pull up your quant score. Let us know if you need any further guidance. www.manyagroup.com

torontobound · Answer

HUGE BUMP

Thanks for the advice

torontobound · Answer

Hi everyone,

Took another CAT through Manhattan Prep -- boy did I screw up.

My last score was 540 -- my newest score: 480

Score Estimate Percentile
Quant 28 19 % 
Verbal 29 56 %

IR -- all wrong.

I didn't finish the math section this time around. How do I keep more consistent scores??

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi torontobound,

From this last CAT result (relative to your prior CAT result), it looks like something was off in your Quant performance.

I have a few questions about this CAT:
1) What time of day did you take this CAT?
2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
3) After reviewing it, how many of the Quant questions were "gettable" BUT you got them wrong?
4) How many questions did you essentially 'guess' on in the Quant section?
5) Did you finish this Quant section early? If so, then how early?

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

torontobound · Answer

Thanks for the reply!

1) What time of day did you take this CAT?

Morning -- between 9am and 1pm

2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?

Yes. I got 1/12 for IR. It was terribly difficult. As usual, I ran out of time for the IR.

3) After reviewing it, how many of the Quant questions were "gettable" BUT you got them wrong?

Couldn't tell you... it feels like I got most wrong :\

4) How many questions did you essentially 'guess' on in the Quant section?

A huge portion of them... maybe 15-20 questions?

5) Did you finish this Quant section early? If so, then how early?

I barely finished. Rushed the last 10-15 questions. Didn't finish 2.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi torontobound,

From what you've described about this CAT, something significant was "off"; your experience with this Quant section was considerably different from your experience on the first CAT Quant section. It could be that you came out of the IR section "unhappy" and that impacted your mindset for the Quant section. However, if there were other factors, defining all of the 'little things' that were different should help you to eliminate them and put yourself in the best physical and mental position for your next attempt.

Here are some things to consider:
1) Amount of sleep
2) What you ate for breakfast
3) Location where you took the CAT
4) Distractions during the CAT
5) The "reality" of how you took the CAT
6) Any physical issues (tired, headache, back pain, eye strain, etc.)
7) What you did during your breaks
Etc.

A lot of little things go into successfully dealing with Test Day. Defining those things, practicing with them in mind and ultimately controlling all of those factors will put you in a much better overall state of mind to face the Official GMAT.

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

KarishmaB · Answer

I don't see what the big disappointment is. At this point in your preparation (June test date and 550 target), you shouldn't be worried about the "score" a CAT gives you. A variation of 50 or so points could be because of many things and you don't need to worry. You should take practice tests to practice time management and to figure out the areas in which you do well and those in which you don't do well. After you go through 3-4 topics thoroughly, you can take a practice test to gauge whether you can now perform well in those topics under time pressure and in tandem with all other topics. There is absolutely nothing to panic and no need to over-analyze. In my opinion, scoring below your target is practice tests is positive since it encourages you to work hard, to realize mistakes and helps you learn from them. Scoring at or above target in practice tests consistently can lead to over confidence and carelessness in the actual test.
Let every test be a learning experience - recall how most people learn something - they read it, then close the book and try to recall. If they are unable to recall some lines, they read everything again with special emphasis on those lines. Practice tests are just the recall sessions. If you don't do well, you hit your books again with more specific ideas in mind - where do you mess up, what kind of questions you need to practice more etc. The only score that counts is the official GMAT score.

torontobound · Answer

Took another Manhattan CAT Practice:

Previous Score: 480
Newest Score: 530

Category / Score / Estimate Percentile
IR / 1.7 / 1-3
Quant / 33 / 30%
Verbal / 31 / 61%

Slight improvement over the last one, but nowhere near my peak of 540

torontobound · Answer

Took another Manhattan CAT Practice:

Previous Score: 530
Newest Score: 580

Category / Score / Estimate Percentile
IR / 1.7 / 1-2
Quant / 37 / 40%
Verbal / 32 / 66%

KarishmaB · Answer

Certainly looks like consistent improvement! Do work a bit on IR too. A 5 will be decent enough.

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