710 (Q50 V34) Done, Done, and Done! w Comments

Question

Gave the exam today and scored 710. This is an update from my previous post: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/t50592 ------------------------------------------- Okay… here are my 2 cents. While some folks on this forum might not be satisfied with 710, the score is good enough for me. I am a foreign student with a lot international experiences so I can try to leverage that in my application. It would be nice to get an 80-80 split but I really don’t think that I can get above 40 on the Verbal (only 35 is needed for 80th percentile) given the time that I have. So I am satisfied with my 34. I am an engineer by training and so my strategy has basically been to ace the Math part and perform sufficiently well on Verbal part (my score actually reflects this). So since my previous exam with Q score of 45, I realized that I need my Math score to be between the 49-51 range to get a shot at 700. As an engineer, I felt that this was not hard to accomplish - I just needed to study more. And so since last exam, I studied a lot more difficult math questions with the aim that I would feel ‘at ease’ when I see the upper-bin questions on the exam. This strategy actually worked pretty well for me. In my previous post when I was down on my knees (so dramatic :-D

), CookieMonster, a member of this forum, commented that he (or she?) treated his exam day just like any other day. I took this comment to heart. This is because I felt that nerves was one of the major factors for my poor performance during my previous exam. Thinking that the exam day is just another day really clamed my nerves. I was able to focus on the task at hand during the exam rather than thinking about a lot of useless stuffs. Thanks CookieMonster. If we met in b-school then I should really buy you a drink (but for my preparation I need to know first if you are a guy or a gal :-D

). For the Verbal part, the only thing that I did differently this time was thinking that the exam day was just a normal day (that's right, I did not do anything different). This is because in my practice tests, I scored in the 33-37 range and thus in no way that the V score of 28 in my previous exam reflects my actual ability. Another reason that justified my case is that I felt that I couldn’t process much information during my previous exam. So did I perform to my ability in my previous test? My conclusion is no and thus I underperformed. So my only suggestion here for those who are taking the test is to be clam. Do whatever that works for you. I think that verbal skills are strongly related to how you feel and the ability for you to think clearly and so try to be clam when you do Verbal questions. Last but not least, I would like to thank the people in this club for what I learned and all the inspirations. Without this club I am sure that my score would not have been possible. I also welcome any questions you may have. Good luck to you all on your exam and application process. Best, SJ

gluon · Answer

Holy cow!! From 600 to 710 in 1.5 months. Good work... genius!!!

Ravshonbek · Answer

I think u would have done better at ur first test as well if u controlled urself well. GMAT made u nervous when u took it for the first time.

good job. good luck with ur B-school application

collegesenior · Answer

Congratulations.

combres · Answer

BCC145, I am going the same route as you and retaking in about a 1.5 months. 

I got a 640, q42, v35. and I am going to try to improve both with:
- Sc 1000
- Math challenges
- Manhattan SCs
- and redo OG11

I am not sure whether I should take a full test during these study periods, since I already know what the full test is like, and I would rather focus on a per question time limit on both V and Q. I might take a full gmatprep a week before I take the exam to see where I am, but I think I burnt out before taking too many of these (5 total 2 week period). 

I am also aiming for close to 700, what do you advise?

BCC145 · Answer

Hi Combres,

I actually think there are two strategies for you. One is to significantly improve your math and try to keep your verbal at the same level. This is because your V score is already 35 and thus if you can achieve 50-51 Q score then you should be able to break 700. So for this strategy, I suggest you study a lot of medium and difficult math questions and try to throughly understand them so you can get more comfortable with these questions are thrown at you in the real test. Your Q score is 42 and so I think you are still at medium level when it comes to math. 

The second strategy is to significantly improve your V score and try to improve your Q score a bit. If you can improve your V score to, say, 45, then I think you can break 700 with math score of 45.

I have heard and I agree that it is easier to increase your math skills than verbal skills on GMAT but this is just my opinion. So the benefit of the first strategy is, given that you have 1.5 months, you might be able to improve your Q score to 49-51. Of course, the drawback is if you don't have strong fundamentals for math then this might be hard to achieve. I think the Math Challenges should be excellent (although I have never seen the questions but many 700+ members here said so) to try to achieve this, provided that you really understand them. Keep in mind here though that there are many ways to do a problem and you need to know the quickest way to do it to do well in Q. This is especially true for harder questions since you can't spend 10 mins to solve one problem as many of this will just kill your time and score. 

The benefit for the second strategy is if you can actually score well in V (V46 ~ 99%tile) and maintain your Q score then you have a good chance of braking 700. I have seen Q42 V 46 translated to 720 on this forum. Many people do not do well in V and so GMAT rewards those who do - remember, the score is based on somewhat predetermined distribution curve. So if you are good at verbal then this is the strategy you might want to take. As for me, I knew that I wasn't going to get V above 40 given the time that I had so I took the first strategy instead but of course this really depends on the person taking the test.

You can also opt to improve both math and verbal which is probably the best strategy in terms of learning. I just felt I had only 24 hours a day and there were 1.5 months before my test and so I needed to maximize my return from my investment in time (I am working fulltime). Hence, I chose to focus on my strength. 

All the best to you and good luck on your exam.

Dilshod · Answer

Strange, I also got 710. but with Q50 and  V36 .

Ravshonbek · Answer

Perhaps, BCC's got some of the hard V question correct even if he got few as a whole

b14kumar · Answer

Congratulations buddy!!

- Brajesh

BCC145 · Answer

Yes, I thought Q50 V34 = 710 was a bit strange. I agree with Rav though. Brajesh, thanks.

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