Need advice on how to improve from 460 to 600 in a month

Question

Hello guys, I'm starting to lose hope! I just took a practice test and scored 460 (Q28, V26)

it's my 3rd practice test and I repeated the 1st test of the GMAT Prep software. I know that isn't ideal but .... If you have recommendations where to get additional prep tests, please let me know. My test is in less than a month (28 February 17). How can I possibly improve to >600? I work full time and can max. study 17h a week. (10h on weekends, 7h during the week) After 2 month of self study with only the OG books and no improvement and 1 week of the economist trial around xmas, I signed up for the empower gmat course early January 2017 and really like it as I am finally learning how to tackle each question type. I thought I was improving. I have finished 20% of the empower course. My test is scheduled for February 28th and I need >600. gmat prep test 1 - 1st attempt - 420 (Q19, V28) 2nd gmat prep test: 440 (Q27, V23) economist test: 330 (Q16, V22) here, I was burnt out and took a few days off afterwards) gmat prep test 1 - 2nd attempt: 460 (Q28, V26) My biggest problem is that I am not improving at all in Verbal, even though verbal should be my strong part. As I studied English Literature, I am really surprised that I suck so much at Verbal - I was hoping for a high Verbal score. My verbal score actually decreased since I started studying for the test! I took the first cat without knowing anything about the gmat. I know what my weak points are in quant, but I am unable to decimate them even though I take notes, reread sections and review Rich's awesome explanation videos. I usually get lost in work rate problems, percent questions, geometry questions. I feel confident about number property questions. I haven't checked what went wrong on this test yet but I will evaluate it later today. Right now I am really discouraged and need a break first but I don't think I can score >600 on the 28th. I am not sure how to move forward now?! Any ideas what I can do to fix this?! Thank you! Anne

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Anne,

Since you've been studying with us for just a little over 3 weeks, you should not expect to have mastered any subjects just yet (in addition - Rates, Percents and Geometry, Reading Comp and Critical Reasoning ALL appear later on in the Course - so you haven't properly learned about those subjects yet). As a way to gauge your progress though, there are some things that you can look for in your most recent CAT - and you can work to define WHY you're getting questions wrong so that you can fix those issues (have you completed a Mistake Tracker yet for that CAT? If not, then it should be your next task).

Regarding your other questions:
1) Retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a good idea. You should be taking new, realistic FULL-LENGTH CATs each time (with the Essay and IR sections). You should look to purchase any of the Official GMAT CATs or any of the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT or Veritas.

2) While an overall score goal of 600+ is achievable, you will likely need at least another 2-3 months of consistent study to get to that level. February 28th is just a little over 3 weeks away - and that likely isn't enough time for you to raise your current score to that level.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly (via PM or email).

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

musunna · Answer

Improvement in verbal takes time.

It's hard to radically improve (100+ point) in a month.

still if you are strict to your exam schedule, then first start from you recent CATs and device your own test taking strategy. In many cases, tuning in this arena significantly improves the score. The following two links may be helpful in this regard.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2014/02/11/4-steps-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-cats-part-1/

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2011/05/23/evaluating-your-practice-tests/

rishit1080 · Answer

If you want to improve 100 points in a month only you know how you can do it. It has to come from within you. The people here can give you the best material to prep, but the material is not as important as your mindset of wanting to improve. If you work on GMAT 8 hours a day doing practice problems for 6 hours and reviewing for 2 hours on concepts you consistently made mistakes on then take practice exams every 3-4 days and you are serious about it then you will shock everyone including yourself with your score.

It's just like training for anything else. You practice hard, you will see results eventually. And when the results start happening it's going to make you chase even higher scores/goals.

aboeck · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thanks so much for your reponse. I've been reading posts in this forum the last four weeks and that's how I found the empower course. I really like it. I feel like I've learned so many tactics to tackle the different question types. I think the time pressure might have thrown me off in yesterday's cat, as I haven't been timing my training much up til now. I was busy trying to understand what was going on in the first place and getting to the solution.

Here's some background info:
It took me years of back and forth until I finally decided to embark on this journey to decimate the GMAT. Math is one of my big weaknesses and therefore the GMAT was the #1 obstacle that held me back from even trying to get into business school. In October 2016, I finally decided to do it despite the difficulties I knew I would have, accepted the challenge and started full force. I booked the test for January 10th, 2017, as I thought 3,5 month would be enough study time.

Unfortunately, I didn't prepare a good strategy, so after 8 weeks of using every free hour I had next to my full time job to study with the OG, doing problem after problem, and reviewing mathconcepts for hours and hours, I was burnt out and hadn't improved an inch. I thought I could tackle this by self-study, but I was wrong.

So I accepted that I wouldn't be able to do this without a course. I rescheduled my test to February 28th, 2017. After some research, I chose the empower course and I love it. For the last couple of weeks, I've finally been learning strategies. It was going really well, why this isn't shown in my cat - i I do not know. I was shattered, as I had hoped I was already at the 600+. How naive!

Thanks to this forum, and your help, I again am encourage to push foward and continue this journey:

1. COMPLETE the mistake tracker for yesterday's Cat. I have been doing that before and then read up on the subject in manhatten or watched videos by khan academy. It seems that this hasn't helped. How can I "fix those issues"?

2. MOVE the test date to end of April 17, application deadline is mid May 17 (it's first come, first serve and usually the course is full at the end of march, hence my initial test dates)

3. CONTINUE the empower course. I am confused by the timing of the study plans. How much weekly study time is needed to complete the 2 month study plan in 2 month?

3. PURCHASE and USE full-length cats.

Greetings from Berlin

Anne

EMPOWERgmatRichC

Hi Anne,

Since you've been studying with us for just a little over 3 weeks, you should not expect to have mastered any subjects just yet (in addition - Rates, Percents and Geometry, Reading Comp and Critical Reasoning ALL appear later on in the Course - so you haven't properly learned about those subjects yet). As a way to gauge your progress though, there are some things that you can look for in your most recent CAT - and you can work to define WHY you're getting questions wrong so that you can fix those issues (have you completed a Mistake Tracker yet for that CAT? If not, then it should be your next task).

Regarding your other questions:
1) Retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a good idea. You should be taking new, realistic FULL-LENGTH CATs each time (with the Essay and IR sections). You should look to purchase any of the Official GMAT CATs or any of the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT or Veritas.

2) While an overall score goal of 600+ is achievable, you will likely need at least another 2-3 months of consistent study to get to that level. February 28th is just a little over 3 weeks away - and that likely isn't enough time for you to raise your current score to that level.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly (via PM or email).

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

Anne

aboeck · Answer

Hi musunna,

thank you for sharing those links. I have definitely not been learning enough from my cat-resulsts. Those are good articles, I especially like the second one. Thank you for sharing.

Anne

Improvement in verbal takes time.

It's hard to radically improve (100+ point) in a month.

still if you are strict to your exam schedule, then first start from you recent CATs and device your own test taking strategy. In many cases, tuning in this arena significantly improves the score. The following two links may be helpful in this regard.

aboeck · Answer

Hi Rishit,

thanks for your reply. That was exactly my mindset for the first two months. I thought if I only work extraordinarily hard and with a lot of dedication, I can beat the gmat. But I was doing something wrong and this approach didn't work for me. I know now that studying 8h a day for the gmat is way too much (it was for me anyway) and it had a negative effect on my perfrmance. I was burnt out and scord 330 on my 3rd cat. My issue is not a lack of dedication and hard work. I was doing something else wrong. Did this approach work for you?

Kind regards
Anne

rishit1080 · Answer

Every time I do not succeed in my attempt for 650 I try to study harder and pay attention to my weaker areas. Learn from each CAT test you take and find what types of problem you are getting wrong. I will find out if my study till drop method works when I take my 4th GMAT Feb 23rd. First: 510 Second: 580 Third: 540.

Good luck in whatever method you choose Anne. And my name is Rishi fyi.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Anne,

One of the big 'issues' that many Test Takers deal with at some point is a broad category of errors that can best be described as 'silly/little mistakes', so it's important to acknowledge those errors when they occur. In real basic terms - how many questions did you get wrong that you COULD have gotten correct? Be honest with that assessment. Those missed points are essentially about your note-taking and organization; if you could have gotten those questions correct, then you weren't careful about how you did the necessary work (and that should be relatively easy to 'fix' - do all of the work on the pad, take lots of notes, do nothing 'in your head'). You shouldn't worry about any subjects that you haven't learned about yet. For example, don't jump into Geometry just yet (it's covered later on in the Course); you can note why you got any Geometry questions wrong (re: couldn't remember the formula, etc.) and revisit those questions later on once you've learned the necessary content.

Beyond those issues, it's also important to note that to hit YOUR score goal you won't need to correctly answer ANY of the questions that you think are too hard or too weird - so you should 'dump' those questions as quickly as you recognize them. You can use the time that you save (by not working on those hard prompts) working on all of the other 'gettable' questions.

The amount of time needed to complete the EMPOWERgmat Course will vary from person-to-person. Based on what you've described, you're working at a reasonable pace right now, so you should continue on with your current study schedule. By pushing back your Test Date until the end of April, you've given yourself plenty of time to continue to study and improve.

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

TA89 · Answer

I am in a similar spot. I took my first GMAT on 28th Jan this year with not much preparation and scored a disappointing 500 (Q37 V20). I did not prepare for the verbal. However, I have been studying for the GMAT since last 2 months and my Quant score is right there at around Q46-Q47 now. However, my verbal score is still a sad story. I even enrolled for the E-GMAT verbal course but it did not make much of an improvement. My current verbal score hangs around 23-24. I am desperate to get at least V29-30 so that I can cross the 600 mark. Please suggest what BASIC strategies I should use to improve on the verbal section. I am an non-native and CR and RC are my biggest fear. 
I have been using the E-GMAT course and OG 13 questions for the preparation.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi TalalAzam,

To start, you would likely get more responses/advice if you started your own thread in the Shared Experience Forum:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/share-gmat-experience-8/

You should also provide a bit more detail about how you've been studying over the last 2 months, your practice CAT scores, etc.

1) When was the last time you took a FULL-LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections)? How did you score on that CAT?
2) What 'steps' do you go through when dealing with a typical SC, RC and CR prompt?
3) How often do you just 'narrow it down to 2-3 choices' and then "guess"?
4) Do you have to 'rush' to finish the Verbal section (and if so, then how many questions do you rush through at the end?)?

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

TA89 · Answer

Hi Rich,
I took my last CAT just 2 days back. Scored a 580 on the practice test (Full test including IR and Essay). Breakdown was Q46 V23. 
My first official GMAT score was 500 (Q37 V20) on 30th Jan which I took without preparing for the verbal studied for just a week. Seeing my actual score and the one I was getting on practice tests, I enrolled for the E-GMAT verbal course because as far as I can remember there were hardly 8-10 verbal questions on the actual GMAT where I was sure on my answer, the rest was just guess work.

Now the course is good and starts from the absolute basics, but at the end of every section there are quiz's and I scored poorly on most of them. I have completed the RC and CR section on the E-GMAT. Attempted several CR and RC questions from OG13 (topic wise) and realized that my accuracy was at around 50% for both the RC and CR and without even timing them. I am good on the SC, and generally struggle with just the 700 level questions.

For the CR, I would read the question carefully. Identify the conclusion and how the premise was connected to it. I would then pre-think the answer and very often my prediction would differ with that of the author. This typically happens in the Assumption, Inference, Bold face questions. As for RC, I read a few lines and summarize them in my own words on paper. This way I would summarize the whole passage, this is quite helpful but takes a lot of time and I struggled a lot on the Structure and detail questions.

One thing that has improved is that 80% of the time, when I narrow down to 2 options, one of them is the right one and I somehow end up marking the wrong one. Though my understanding of the questions has improved, there are still conceptual gaps.

My timing was way off on the test as well. I remember, I rushed through the last 5-6 questions on the CAT.

All this is very frustrating and painful as I expect this course could help me improve but still there has been very little progress. I have seen people move from V20s to higher V30's within a month, so either my approach is not right or I struggle at the absolute basic level. The CR and RC just seem too difficult. I was scheduled to take my GMAT on the 10th of May but I have rescheduled it for the 30th of May now. I want to en-roll for the Spring admissions. My target score is 600+

Need advice on how to improve from 460 to >600 in a month

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