GMAT in 1-2 Month

Question

Hi Experts!

I want to ask your opinion about how to increase 200 points in 1 month-2 months (I know it sounds very unrealistic).

Here's a basic background about me.

I scored 540 in my Kaplan mock exam (V: 31, Q:31). My biggest problem is timing. I didn't answer 5 questions in quant section, and just randomly answered almost 20 last questions in verbal section.
I have studied GMAT fundamental for 3 months before (around 100 hours) with my private tutor. I am a non-native speaker; Thus, SC is also an issue for me too.

I plan to finish GMAT official (2018), and GMAT quant and verbal review (2017) in 1-2 months. Do you have any study plan recommendation or other materials to achieve 700-720 in 1-2 months?

Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Nad1810,

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:

Studies:
1) What type of study routine have you been following for the last 3 months? How many hours have you studied each week?
2) What study materials have you used besides the Official Guides?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

Raising a 540 to a 700+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Trying to raise your scores that much in just 1-2 months might be too difficult of a task to be considered realistic, so you might need to consider pushing back your planned Test Date. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

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

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi Nad1810, 2 months is good enough to improve your score. It’s a good thing you have taken your GMAT Mocks. You now know your weaknesses and work on them. If you are willing to study dedicatedly for 2 months, you are sure to achieve your goal. I believe you may benefit from taking a GMATPREP course. If you are willing, there are some great GMAT prep companies that can help you with your preparation. In order to make an informed decision I would highly encourage you to go to their websites and try on their free trial and decide for yourself which one do you like better. You try out free access to EmpowerGMAT, Magoosh and Optimus Prep as they have great reviews on GMATCLUB. Also for verbal, I would highly encourage you to consider e-gmat verbal online or the e-gmat verbal live course. They are both amazing courses especially designed for non-natives. They offer almost 25% of their courses for free so you can try out their free trial to decide which one you want to go for. Plus the e-gmat Scholaranium which is included in both the courses is one of the best verbal practice tools in the market. You can easily track your progress in that you can identify your strengths and analyze and improve on your weak areas. You can also try out the MGMAT guides they are phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus really well. MGMAT foundation of GMAT Quant anf foundation of GMAT verbal will particularly help you solidify your base. I must add that if you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in Quant; a subscription to GMATCLUB tests is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them. Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas. Further another advantage of taking many mocks is to build up your stamina. Apart from the GMATPREP tests, taking practise tests of any major GMATPREP company ought to do that. I would also encourage you to purchase the latest version of OG and the verbal review for some great additional practice. Here is a link that will help you with your decision. https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-ve ... ml?fl=menu Hope this helps. All the best.

GMATPill · Answer

Take a look at either our 1 month study plan or our 2-3 month study plan:

https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... study-plan

Timing is a critical part of the exam. That's why we specialize in answering questions in as little time as possible - oftentimes without reading the whole question or answer choices -- and still getting it correct -- but most importantly, having the confidence to mark that answer in a short amount of time. This is our specialty at GMAT Pill.

We also recommend a "Divide and Conquer" approach first.

That is - focus on specific sections - like Sentence Correction. Dedicate an entire day - heck, dedicate multiple consecutive days dedicated ONLY to sentence correction.

For example: tomorrow is "Sentence Correction Day" - and don't move on until you feel you've made a significant improvement and have results to show.

If you operate with that kind of work ethic - and apply that process to RC, RC, PS, DS, etc. -- then you will have individually made good progress in each section.

Then from there, it's about mixing and matching different verbal and quant questions - just as you would see them on the actual test. So take practice tests to simulate this mental switch between different question types under time pressure.

For practice, we recommend the practice tests from mba.com as was from supplemental resources such as this one from GMAT Pill:
https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... ctice-test

To learn more about GMAT Pill - read our stories at https://www.gmatpill.com/testimonials

Sajjad1994 · Answer

During you Practicing question don't forget to make an error log to track your weak areas after practice. Once you know your weak areas revise your Concepts related to those areas and do some more Practice. 6-8 CATs are enough for practice the real tests. Make your Stamina for sitting 3 hours in the test and don't study more than 2 hours in one sit and 4 hours per day

Top CATs for Practice

1. Official GMAC CATs
2. Manhattan CATs
3. Kaplan CATs
4. GMAT Club Quant CATs

Good Luck

Livelifeloud20 · Answer

Hello GMAT Experts

I am writing this to seek help from you all, I am planning to apply for MSBA(Master's of Business Analytics) in the first round of FALL'22 in schools like UCLA, Marshall Business School, Imperial. 
I scored 470 (Q-40 V-16) in the GMATPrep Mock 2 and as per the records I need 700+ for the schools I am targeting. I have completed 50% of OG 2021 and Currently solving questions from Q and V review books also from GMAT Club. 
As per my analysis I am week in tackling questions of DS for Quant and RC is achilles heel for me and CR I am doing fine with sub 600 level questions and 50% accuracy in 600-700 level.

Can you all suggest some study plan to boost my score ?
Also, It'll be really helpful if you suggest the timeline by which I'll be ready with the required scores.
Thanks in advance

Kind Regards,
LiveLifeLoud

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Livelifeloud20,

Studying for the GMAT now - far in advance of when you will actually "need" your Score - is a smart choice. Many GMATers become too fixated on the 'implied level' of the questions that they're working on - instead of what really matters: defining WHY they're getting questions wrong and becoming more efficient at approaching the overall Exam. It's also worth noting that just because a 3rd party describes a question as "700 level" does not necessarily make it so.

Since you are not facing any immediate application deadlines, 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 (and the more time you have to work on all of these areas, the better). There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

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

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:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Have you used any other study materials besides the books that you mentioned?
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)?

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

MBAaustralia · Answer

If you aren't already, keep an errorlog.

When attempting questions start with easy questions. You MUST learn the basics before moving to harder questions. In the GMAT exam, getting an easy question wrong is going to hurt your score a lot more than getting a hard question wrong.

Use your error log to drill down on areas/topics that you're struggling with.

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Looking at your study routine, I see that you are following a plan that I call “practice first and figure the rest out later.” In other words, you are doing practice problems before understanding the concepts on which those problems are based, and thus you are trying to learn solely from reading solutions to problems. Following such a study plan will lead to disorganized studying and ultimately hold you back from improving your quant and verbal skills. Thus, in addition to using your current resources, you may consider using a resource that allows you FIRST to learn the concepts and strategies related to GMAT quant and verbal and SECOND to practice with a large number of realistic questions.

If you decide to use some new prep materials, check out the reviews here on GMAT Club of 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!

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