Improving GMAT score from 690 --> 760+

[KhushbuJ998]

Hi Stacey,

I have given my GMAT official exam on 3 Aug and scored 690 (V34, Q49) and I am pretty disappointed with my score. I am now planning to go for a re-take and am targeting 760+ since I plan to join only if I get selected in Top 10 US B-schools.

I have prepared for 3.5 months before my exam and used following resources for studying -
Quant - OG 2018, Jamboree (a local institute) Course material
Verbal - OG 2018, Manhattan SC Guide, PowerScore CR Bible - I read both SC Guide & PowerScore CR once, made my own concise notes, revised them more than 3-4 times and also referred them during practice

My score in practice tests were as follows:
29 Jun - Manhattan Free Prep Test - 640 (Q47, V31)
[Practiced 3 non-adaptive Jamboree tests in between]
19 Jul - GMAT Prep-1 - 740 (Q 50, V 40)
[Practiced 2 non-adaptive Jamboree tests in between]
27 Jul - GMAT Prep-2 - 750 (Q 51, V 40)
30 Jul - GMAT Prep-3 - 720 (Q 50, V 38)
31 Jul - GMAT Prep-5 - 710 (Q 50, V 35)
1 Aug - GMAT Prep-6 - 720 (Q 50, V 37)
I always followed the sequence as Quant, Verbal, IR/ AWA in practice tests as well as in official test. Though I gave all the tests in actual test-like conditions with no pauses or time extensions, I gave first 3 tests at home while next 3 at Jamboree institute center. Also, couple of questions in my GMAT prep-1 repeated in GMAT Prep-2.

My ESR: Q 49, V 34, IR 8
Verbal
Percentile - CR 84, RC 76, SC 50
Time Mgmt - CR 1:41, RC 2:00, SC 1:41
CR - 75% Analysis/ Critique, 100% Construction
RC - 80% Inferred Idea, 60% Stated Idea
SC - 60% Grammar, 42% Communication
Quarter wise % inaccurate - Q1 (38%), Q2 (29%), Q3 (14%), Q4 (50%)
Quarter wise time spent - 1.49 min, 1.33 min, 1.45 min, 2.00 min

Quant:
Percentile - PS 73, DS 63 (Arithmetic 72, Algebra/ Geometry 72)
Skills - Geometry 100%, Rates/ Rato/ Percent 60%, Value/ Factors 75%, Eq/ Ineq/ Alg 80%, Counting/ Sets 71%
Quarter wise % inaccurate - Q1 (0%), Q2 (14%), Q3 (29%), Q4 (57%)
Quarter wise time spent - 2.11 min, 2.10 min, 1.56 min, 1.10 min

My analysis about my exam experience is as follows:
Quant - I followed 2 min/ ques mark for first 50% of test. Then I started getting hard questions including couple of concepts that I had never seen before and I lost track of time while solving them. Next thing I know, I had around 10 questions remaining with 10 minutes left. I panicked badly, guessed 3-4 questions that I thought are tough and solved rest in a hurry to finish all.
- My strategy - I am now planning to solve much more variety/ high level of questions on GMATclub to reduce the surprise element and will ensure to keep better track of time.

Verbal - I was very cautious of tracking time, solved all questions smoothly and finished my test 2 min early. The tricky part is - I felt i am doing good and not sure what went wrong here. But that has always happened to me during practice tests until I start seeing the solutions. In all my tests, there were always 3 issues: I missed application of a known issue due to time pressure, there were idioms/ word combinations unknown to me, and sentence was too wordy/ complex to find the mistake in meaning. I find all these issues are based on luck to some extent and hence there has always been inconsistency in my verbal performance.
- My strategy - Unlike Quant, I am not sure how to ensure my progress in verbal. So far, I am planning to solve OG again with more emphasis on analysing every question and solve more high level questions with timer available on GMATClub. And keep practicing till I achieve 85-90% accuracy on a consistent basis.

Please suggest how should I focus my study to reach my target score. Are there any specific resources that I should use?

Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

First: You already scored a 690! And an 8 on IR! I know you want more, but a 690 is already a really good score—so give yourself credit for that!

Q49 is close to the top of the Q scale (51 is the top score). In order to hit well into the 700s, though, you do need to max this one out, so your goal here needs to be 51.

V34 is the area with much more room for improvement. The top score there is effectively a 45—it's very hard to score higher than that on V. Still, that gives you 11 points to work for on this side.

(One note: Nobody needs a 760+. Well—if you want to teach for us, you do. But a school that wouldn't let you in with a 740 on your record is also not going to let you in with a 770—as long as that's the only thing that's changed on the application. Once you hit a certain level, the school knows you can handle the work at that program. At that point, they're going to be looking at everything else in your application. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a 760+ goal...just that you don't really need to go to that level.)

From your ESR, SC is the obvious area for improvement, as you noted. (Though you would need to improve all three types in order to hit a 760+ kind of score.)

You mentioned three primary issues:

I missed application of a known issue due to time pressure,

This could happen on any of the three types—you're basically going too fast and miss something or make a mistake. Part of the answer here is to identify the 3-4 hardest questions in the section as you go, and then guess / get out of those questions relatively quickly and save that time for other questions that aren't quite as hard.

You also need to do this on Quant (more on that below), and doing this on both Q and V will also save you mental energy. If you're less mentally fatigued, you're going to make fewer mistakes.

there were idioms/ word combinations unknown to me, and

Again, this could happen on all 3, though most likely to happen on SC, followed by RC. First: You can't win them all. When this does happen in practice, you've uncovered something that you need to study. The next time you see this thing, you'll get it.

sentence was too wordy/ complex to find the mistake in meaning

Yes, SC can get really intricate sometimes. This article talks about deconstructing complex sentences:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ce-part-1/

Try that out and then go apply it to some harder OG problems that you've solved in the past. Do you have access to our GMAT Navigator solutions? Look for our discussions of meaning issues, even on problems that you answered correctly. You don't have to deal with every issue in order to get to the correct answer—but there still might be something good for you to learn even if you didn't have to use it on this problem.

And I would also use this to help guide your analysis of problems:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

For verbal in particular, try to articulate:
(1) Why was the wrong answer so tempting? Why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
(2) Why was it actually wrong? What specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
(3) Why did the right answer seem wrong? What made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? Why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
(4) Why was it actually right?

Quant:

to reduce the surprise element and will ensure to keep better track of time.

Actually...expect the surprise element. Go in there assuming that they will throw something at you that you can't do. When this happens, recognize it and guess and move on.

This is not a school test—you'll never be 100% prepared. They don't even want you to be! They actively want to put you in a situation where you don't know what to do—so that they can see how you handle it. A good business person is able to take risks, yes, but a good business person is also able to cut his/her losses and walk away from a high-risk situation. They want to see that you have the presence of mind to recognize a low-ROI situation and that you have the discipline to move on.

You will have to guess on this test. Be in charge of when you guess. Do so well that you earn those crazy hard questions—and then guess and get out of there. If you don't, then you'll have what did happen on your official exam—your score dropped at the end. From your ESR data, I would bet that you were already in the 51-range up through the 3rd quadrant. Then your score dropped in that 4th quadrant.

And the GMAT is a Where You End Is What You Get test. Better to guess on the 3 to 4 hardest ones when you see them—so that you can actually answer those ones at the end that you really do know how to do in normal time.

If you are looking for more support, we do have an Advanced Course with a minimum score requirement of 650 (on an official test or one of our tests). It costs money of course—you can find details on our website if that sounds of interest to you.

[KhushbuJ998]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for your reply. It's really helpful, especially your suggestion to expect surprise element and walk away from a high-risk situation and to articulate what went wrong with my verbal questions. I would surely practice it thoroughly before my next attempt.

I am now looking at the articles suggested by you, Advanced course is a bit too pricey for me, so I would skip it for now. Are there any specific resources/ books/ question banks that you would suggest me to use?

Best regards

[StaceyKoprince]

Given that you scored a 49 on quant, you could use our Advanced Quant strategy guide (it's designed for people already at a score of at least about 47-48 and looking to get 50-51).

You might not need that, though—it might be that, if you make better decisions about what *not* to do on Quant (so that you're better able to do what you can do and get those right), you're able to get yourself up to 50-51 based on what you already know.

For SC, I would start with the two activities that I gave you last time—how to deconstruct complex sentences and how to analyze problems. Apply this to old OG 2018 or other official problems that you've already done before. Basically, learn how to learn better.

Then you can try out your new skills on new problems. If you need more new problems, I would try the extra Question Pack that you can buy with the official practice tests online—it has about 200 each of Q and V (and some IR). But don't immediately go to new problems. You first need to learn how to learn better; for that, you might as well use older problems first, since you haven't yet learned everything that you could have learned from them.

[KhushbuJ998]

Thanks Stacey for your advice. I will surely follow it.

For SC, I am now practicing from OG-18 again and there are quite a few points that I seem to have missed. I am also watching videos by Ron on ManhattanPrep and they are gold - they are helping me learn nuances of various concepts.

I am considering to retake exam in Sep beginning though would decide exact dates based on my progress in next 2 weeks.

Best regards

[StaceyKoprince]

Good luck with everything—keep us posted on how it goes!

[KhushbuJ998]

Hi Stacey,

I took a break from GMAT for a year or so, started my preparations again few months back - Revised everything I studied last time, watched Ron's videos, worked with a local tutor for Verbal and practiced questions on GMATClub. Finally I gave my GMAT yesterday and am happy to share that I scored 760 (Q49, V44, IR 8). Will start working on my applications now.

Thanks for your guidance.

Regards
Khushbu

[StaceyKoprince]

Wow! That's fantastic! Congratulations!!

Thanks for coming back and sharing your results. If you have any ideas around things you thought were especially helpful to making the jump from 690 to 760, please share—I'm sure your fellow students here would like to know. (And similarly, if you realize now that there was something that wasn't useful, let us know that, too.)

Good luck with applications—let us know how it goes!