Need help, scored a 555 with a Q72 on my official exam.

Question

Hi everyone,

It is my first post on the forum.

I am currently reaching out to ask for some help on how to proceed from there for my GMAT. I took the test today and scored a 555 (V82, DI79, Q72) which is way below what I am aiming for (585-605), mainly driven by a terrible score in QUANT.

I would like to retake the test in 3 to 4 weeks maximum because the application deadline is the 7th of October. I am planning on studying around 6 hours per days until then, fully comitting to the gmat.

My question is, how can I improve my QUANT ? Realistically speaking, in 3 weeks, how do I make sure that I am able to score a 78/79 regardless of the test ? I am ready to learn the basics again, even maybe considering taking a private tutor or enrolling in a new program now that I went through all of TTPs material.

I. Studies:

1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week? 
 
  I started to study middle of May , I would study minimum  4 hours per days  in general. Could be more, could be less depending on my schedule, but I would always arrive around  30 hours per weeks  minimum. I completed my master 1 in strategy and management in France and I decided to take a gap year of 1 years between my master 1 and 2 to work for one year. I did not do any real maths since the bachelor which was 3 years ago. Only some statistics but not really related to the GMAT. Therefore, my maths level was very rusty.  
 2) What study materials have you used so far? Have you used any other “brands” of CATs/mocks besides the Official ones? 
 
 I took a diagnostic test that was very low: 485 (Q72, D.I 73, V.77) and then decided to enroll in Target test prep. I went through the whole course, setting up the objective on 585 to 615, in more or less 3 months. At the end, I did the 31 quant question review tests, and the weakest topic review test and I was always scoring more than 80% on these tests, most of the time +90%. Target test prep helped me a lot, lot, lot - I was lacking every foundation in almost every topic and it helped me build a very strong understanding for the GMAT. 
 Once I was done with the course, I bought the GMAT official guide book 2024-2025, and did all of the questions of Quant, Verbal (C.R) and Data sufficiency. I tried to keep an "error log", to be honest some questions really felt like extremely easy after what I had done in TTP, sometimes I really also struggled with the wording. Always did the question timed ( I struggled a lot with the timing ). 
 I watched some videos of GMAT Ninja, on some QUANT topics where I felt not that strong, and I realized that most of the time, I could solve the question without problems until when they started to say "these questions are +49Q etc.". I also watched some of their videos for the reading comprehension and for some C.R. 
 Recently, I also did some questions on GMAT club and I was watching Bunuel's explanations posts on certain topics. 
 I always kept an error logs, and took a lot of notes on what went wrong and how I can avoid it in the future.  
 3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks? 
 
 11/08/2024 GMAT official mock 1: 595 (Q81,V83,D.I 74) 
 19/08/2024 GMAT official mock 3: 575 (Q76, V83, D.I 77) 
 25/08/2024 GMAT official mock 4: 585 (Q76, V82, D.I 79) 
 28/08/2024 GMAT official mock 5: 545 (Q79, V83, DI 69) for the DI part, I was distracted during the test and did not press pause which ended up with me not being able to complete all questions. 
 30/08/2024 GMAT official mock 6: 575 (Q79,V83, DI 74), with last question on D.I not answered (I had the correct one selected but I clicked 0.3 secs too late).  
Overall, I think that I am struggling a lot in the quant, 76 is low, I manage to get Q79 or 81 but I feel like I am really lacking in Quant. When I review my tests sometimes I want to scream at the easy and stupid mistakes that I make. I do not even look for the solution on GMAT club, just by reading the question again, I can figure it out by myself. Not being a native english speaker, I always struggle with the Quant, as I do not always fully understand what is being asked in a question. I would say that thanks to TTP I acquired the knowledge necessary but I just don't know sometimes when to apply it.

II. Goals:

4) What is your specific overall goal score? 
 
 As mentionned in the beginning I am aiming for a 585 minimum, ideally I would like to get a 605. The business school that I am aiming for requires a 565 minimum, I know that quite some people got in last year with grades around 640 (normal GMAT edition).  
 5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to? 
 
 The deadline is the  7th of October  for the first round, everybody told me to apply in the first round because it is way, way, easier to get in, therefore I would like to retake the GMAT in 3 weeks maximum.  
 III. Regarding my official test:

I took the online exam, I slept 8 hours, I woke up, ate a good breakfast, did 10 mediums O.G questions in Quants (timed) to get my head in it. Did the exact same with 10 CR verbal questions timed as well. I drinked a lot of water, practiced some breathing etc ... so when the exam started I felt like I was in good conditions. I answered every questions in Quant, I even felt like the questions in Quant were quite easy, I finished with 2 minutes in advance. I found the verbal quite hard especially the reading comprehension the texts were awfuls but I still scored in the range of what I usually score.

I am a shocked by the 72 in Quant, knowing that it is what I scored without any preparations on my first mock exams 4 months ago ...

Thank you for reading !

Looking forward to hear from you.

kingbucky · Answer

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum! First off, it's great to see your commitment to improving your GMAT score. Scoring a 555 is a solid starting point, and with focused effort, you can definitely reach your goal.

Given your timeline of 3-4 weeks, I recommend concentrating your efforts on a couple of key strategies:

1.  Focus on TTP:  Since you've already gone through Target Test Prep (TTP) and found it helpful, stick with it. Revisit the sections where you struggled and ensure you fully understand the concepts. TTP is designed to build a strong foundation, so make the most of it.

2.  Practice with GMAT Club Forum Quiz:  Use the GMAT Club forum quiz to practice. They offer a variety of questions that can help reinforce your learning. Focus on timed quizzes to improve your speed and accuracy under pressure.

3.  Error Log Review:  Continue maintaining your error log. After each practice session, review the questions you got wrong and understand why. This reflection is crucial for avoiding similar mistakes in the future.

4.  Timed Practice:  Incorporate timed practice sessions into your routine. This will help you get used to the pacing of the actual test and improve your time management skills.

5.  Stay Positive:  Keep a positive mindset. It's normal to feel frustrated at times, but remember that improvement is possible with consistent effort.

By focusing on TTP and the  GMAT Club Forum quiz , you can maximize your study time and make significant progress in your Quant score. Best of luck with your preparation, and keep us updated on your journey!

Mayank2024c · Answer

Can you share the ESR Report to check where do you lacked

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Thank you for putting some of the answers ahead of time! This helps to give you a better direction.

I think the most impressive aspect is that you have been able to study four hours per day. How were you able to do this? I feel most people can find a couple hours and I was able to find maybe two hours per day.... It was pretty fast pretty clear to me that I could only study before work early in the morning and that was the most productive time for me. If I try to study after work, I was distracted and nothing was sticking.

I would recommend it maybe for two or three days you spend less time but higher quality time and maybe spend an hour and a half and see how that works for you.

I don’t think you need to study everything again and over. I would in on the areas you feel squishy about.

Since you’re doing this second time, you probably don’t want to do this the third time, for the areas you’re focusing on in quant, make sure you do notes I suggest either you type them or you hand them. No Screenshots. This is creating your own notes. it does take time and it’s a very ancient way of studying but it’s extremely effective. I would suggest that you make notes during your study time and that you also review yesterday‘s material at the start of the following day. Spend a few minutes, maybe five flip through the notes and sort of give yourself a tour and check yourself if you remember some of the traps and some of the gotchas you run into the day before.

Also, finish your study session with a quick quiz of five or 10 questions of various mixed difficulty, not just easy and not just hard but easy and medium and hard.

Finally perhaps the biggest culprit, timing can really kill your score if you had to guess a bunch of questions because you got stuck on a few and likely still got them wrong, pretty good you can improve your score without studying a single hour and simply not spending so much time on a single question or two. so I would recommend looking at that and becoming much more disciplined. This doesn’t mean you become better at solving math, it just means you cut the bait. You spent two minutes and if you cannot solve and the solution is not within the grasp of next 15 or 30 seconds, you just guess and move on.

PS. if you post your quant school report, we can see how much timing had an impact.

Posted from my mobile device

thomas1307200 · Answer

Hi everyone, thanks a lot for your answer !

kingbucky  I will follow your advices, I think practicing more with GMAT Club is a great idea.

bb  " I think the most impressive aspect is that you have been able to study four hours per day. How were you able to do this?  " stress and adrenaline mainly ? I think that when I did the first test, I realized that I was litteraly starting from 0 in quant which made me study even when tired or unmotivated. I realize now how bad it is because I was not focused enough and I did not go in depth on certain subjects, especially on reviewing my wrong "hard questions". I will try to reduce the study time and improve the quality.

Mayank2024c  &  bb  you can find below my report:

Quant:  I finished 4 mins in advance and spent all of my extra time on my first question because I struggled a lot on it.

Performance by Content Domain: 
Arithmetic: 100th Percentile ranking
Algebra: 5th Percentile ranking

Performance by question type: 
Pure context: 14th percentile
Real contexts: 32nd percentile

Performance by fundamental skills: 
Ratios/Rate/Percent: 22nd
Values/Order/Factors: 22nd
Equal/unequal: 15th

Verbal:

Performance by question type: 
Critical Reasoning: 85th percentile
Reading comprehension: 65th percentile

Performance by fundamental skills: 
Analysis/critique: 59th
Plan/Construction: 100th percentile
Identify Inferred ideas: 78th
Identify state ideas: 39th

I also attached my verbal because I was quite disappointed, even if it is in the range of my mocks, not sure how to improve.

Thanks a lot for your help !

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi thomas1307200,

A great way to improve your quant skills is with topical practice.

For example, let’s say that you want to practice Number Properties. You can do so by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc.

After each problem set, thoroughly analyze your incorrect questions. For example, if you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question?

By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to fix your weaknesses efficiently and, in turn, improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant, verbal, and DI topics.

For some more advice, here is a great article you can check out:

How to Improve Your GMAT Score

Mayank2024c · Answer

Can you please share the ESR Report screenshot for the DI . Like you shared for quants and verbal

Posted from my mobile device

thomas1307200 · Answer

Please find below my D.I results

Need help, scored a 555 with a Q72 on my official exam.

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

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