Help with improving GMAT scores in 6 weeks

Question

Hello everyone, I took my first official GMAT test middle of march and got a 650 score (Quant was 47, Verbal 32 and IR 7). I was aiming for 700+ and was already achieving that on mocks.

I want help to understand where to focus to go from 650 to 700+, my other exam is scheduled for june 16, I can study 2 hours every weekday and 6 hours on weekends.

What threw me off is that during all the practice I was struggling with quant and focusing more on that, but my verbal official scores were great (38-41), but on the official test day the result was the opposite, now I don't know if I continue to focus on quant a bigger portion of the time, as before, or if I focus more on verbal.

I have all of the GMAT official practice exams, Manhattan, gmat books and questions and also 1 month of access to the TTP.

Please find below the results of my last mocks, thank you!

1. 15.01.2023 - Official 
Overall = 650 
Q 42 | V 37

2. 09.02.2023 - Official
Overall = 710
Q 43 | V42

3. 14.02.2023 - Manhattan
Overall = 630
Q 38 | V 37

4. 17.02.2023 - Manhattan 
Overall = 630
Q 39 | V 35

5. 21.02.2023 - Official
Overall = 650
Q 40 | V 39

6. 26.02.2023 - Official
Overall = 710
Q 48 | V 40

bb · Answer

Hi. Sorry about the scores flip-flopping. It’s actually very common for your scores to go down in the area you feel strongly about. This is a common issue for those who retake for the second time. The reason is that GMAT relies a lot of small rules and skills and nuance for the harder questions and not keeping those fresh in your mind results into lower score. In basic terms

So I would recommend keeping an eye out for both quant and verbal in your next push. I also don’t think you need to wait two months to retake. It’s going to be a long slug and waiting that long has a further potential degradation because you may forget more and more each week without properly reviewing material and if you wait long enough at some point you’re doing more review the learning new things 😬 My recommendation would be to focus more extensively and intensively and only spend a month rather than taking two. I don’t know if that’s possible or not but that’s the recommendation. Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi RafaellaLellis,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned - although a 650/Q47 is still a solid Score, so it might be enough to get you into your first-choice School. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, 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) What study materials have you used so far?
3) Have you taken any other CATs/mocks besides the 6 that you listed?

Goals:
4) Is your overall goal score a 700 or something else?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

If you took your Official 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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Getting the ESR of the 650 may be helpful to get more insight into what happened/what to potentially work on.

RafaellaLellis · Answer

Hello, Rich, thanks a lot for your answer.

Regarding your questions:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?  How many hours do you typically study each week? I have Studied for 4 months, but more hours in the last month, around 25 hours per week in the last month prior t o the exam. I just came back studying after the first exam in march and now I am studying 2,5h per weekday and 6 hours weekend (since yesterday) 
2) What study materials have you used so far?  GMAT official questions from all books, videos from Indigo Prep, Foundations from Manhattan and mock exams. I also have paid for 1 month of TTP but have not used yet  
3) Have you taken any other CATs/mocks besides the 6 that you listed?  Yes, 2 more, basically I have done 4 from Manhattan and 5 from Official Gmat.

Goals:
4) Is your overall goal score a 700 or something else?  I need to score 700+ to have a more competitive application for the MBA, considering my background I probably don't need a high 700, but at least 700 would help a lot 
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?  I will apply this september, Stanford is the goal, but will apply to HBS, Wharton, Columbia and MIT as well.

I have decided to take your advice and purchase the ESR, but the platform does not allow me to attach it here, but I took the liberty to email you. It was insightful to see that SC dragged my verbal score down, specially a part that they call "communication"

Appreciate if you can provide anymore insights.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi RafaellaLellis,

Regarding TTP, contact us on live chat, and we can discuss your plan.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi RafaellaLellis.

Probably, at this point, you should focus more on Verbal than on Quant, and as you do so, you should make sure that you're learning things that you can use to answer ANY verbal question. The reason I'm saying that is that it could be that what you've learned so far for Verbal has applied more to the official practice tests than to Verbal in general. That would explain why you scored higher on the practice tests than on the real GMAT.

For some insights into how to prepare for GMAT Verbal effectively, see this comprehensive post.

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi RafaellaLellis,

Since you are interested in some highly-competitive Schools, 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 that you have to act on that advice, the better). There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

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

I've also sent you a PM with some additional questions.

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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi  RafaellaLellis

Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. There could be a couple of reasons for the drop in the score. Please go through the article below to find out the probable reasons.

Scored well on mocks but failed miserably on the test?

Having said that, it would be too early to conclude anything without knowing the actual reason. To understand what could have led to the drop in the score and to suggest you the plan of action, I need a little more information about your GMAT preparation.I would like to know more about

the way you prepared till now (your study strategy) 
 your weak areas 
 your approach of solving questions

Answers to these questions will help me guide you in a better way. And I personally suggest to go for the retake only after you prepared well and are 100% confident.

Having said that, since you're looking for a quick turnaround, I would like to have a one-on-one conversation with you. The discussion would be mostly around the answers to the above questions and the revised strategy. As you have an ESR, I can definitely help you in analyzing it. We can get in touch over a zoom conference call and we can analyze it together. This way we can figure out what exactly your weak areas are and then make a plan of action. You can reach out to me on DM for the details if you wish to connect. Would be happy to help!

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