Best Resource to move from 700 to 750

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Best Resource to move from 700 to 750

by joseandresp » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:37 am
Hi Everyone!

I just started studying for the GMAT this past Saturday. I went through the free 90 questions on GMATPrep the first day. On day 2 I took Exam 1 from GMATPrep and got a 700. I am looking to take the test 6 weeks from now, so I have to get organized soon. I have researched most of the courses and practice sites available, but still find myself confused on which one to pick. I am not interested in 1 on 1 tutoring or reading books. I like learning by practicing, so I am looking for the best practice problems with the best solutions in case I don't understand something. Any Suggestions?

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by [email protected] » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:03 am
Hi JPM,

A 700 is an exceptionally high initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years), so it's likely that you already have much of the knowledge and critical thinking skills that you'll need for Test Day. All of that having been said, I'd like to know a bit more about how you took this CAT:

1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores?
2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
3) Did you take it at home?
4) Did you do ANYTHING during this CAT that you can't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Had you taken this CAT before? Had you seen any of the questions before?

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by joseandresp » Wed Apr 27, 2016 10:51 am
Thanks for the response Rich,

I took the whole practice test except for the essay. I did respect the pauses and used nothing more than a pencil and a piece of paper. I got a 46 in cuantitative, 40 in verbal, and 8 in IR. I did notice after the test, that i was having trouble with some geometry concepts I haven't seen in a while.

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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:11 am
joseandresp wrote:Hi Everyone!

I just started studying for the GMAT this past Saturday. I went through the free 90 questions on GMATPrep the first day. On day 2 I took Exam 1 from GMATPrep and got a 700. I am looking to take the test 6 weeks from now, so I have to get organized soon. I have researched most of the courses and practice sites available, but still find myself confused on which one to pick. I am not interested in 1 on 1 tutoring or reading books. I like learning by practicing, so I am looking for the best practice problems with the best solutions in case I don't understand something. Any Suggestions?

Thanks,
JPM
If you're looking for good official practice questions, check out the Question Pack and the additional GMATPrep exams you can purchase from mba.com: https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ction.aspx

And for additional drilling here's our free question bank: https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/
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by [email protected] » Wed Apr 27, 2016 3:12 pm
Hi JPM,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become. By skipping the Essay section you took a shorter Test that required less energy and effort, so this score result is likely a bit inflated. Thankfully, this is a relatively easy issue to fix - you just have to make sure to take each of your future CATs in full and under conditions that mirror what you'll face on Test Day.

With a Q46 and V40, many of the missing points that you're looking for are going to be 'nitpicky' in nature (even though you've self-identified Geometry as an area that you need to work on, that one category is not likely to be the source of all of those points). The Q46 does imply that you missed out on a block of 'strategy-based' points though, so you might want to focus a bit on Quant Tactics going forwards.

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by OptimusPrep » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:14 pm
joseandresp wrote:Hi Everyone!

I just started studying for the GMAT this past Saturday. I went through the free 90 questions on GMATPrep the first day. On day 2 I took Exam 1 from GMATPrep and got a 700. I am looking to take the test 6 weeks from now, so I have to get organized soon. I have researched most of the courses and practice sites available, but still find myself confused on which one to pick. I am not interested in 1 on 1 tutoring or reading books. I like learning by practicing, so I am looking for the best practice problems with the best solutions in case I don't understand something. Any Suggestions?

Thanks,
JPM
Hi joseandresp,

Getting a 700 on the very first mock CAT is a good start for your GMAT preparation.
The best way to find out about a course is by going through the reviews of the people who have already taken the course.

GMAT tests you on certain concepts and fundamentals. You need to build the concepts/fundamentals before you jump in solving the problems. You can do so by choosing one of the following ways:

1. In person classes/private tutoring
2. Online classes
3. Self paced online preparatory course
4. Book heavy approach

Whatever you choose, make sure that you choose one. Because GMAT tests you on some concepts and fundamentals that you can learn from a course. Most of the preparatory companies including ours offer a free trial of our course. You can take the trial and see if the course suits your needs.
In addition to the preparatory material, buy the Official Guides(both the Official Guide and the Verbal Review), Question Pack 1 and the 4 official mock CATs. They should be an indispensable part of your preparation.

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by ceilidh.erickson » Sat May 21, 2016 2:43 pm
A 46 on Quant indicates strong content knowledge. If you want to push yourself to a top score of 49-51, though, you'll need to become an expert in strategy. Manhattan Prep has an Advanced Quant Guide designed to help students in your exact position: those who are already in the 700 zone, but want to push to the 750+ zone.

You can order a copy here: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/stor ... mat-quant/
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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:14 am
ceilidh.erickson wrote:A 46 on Quant indicates strong content knowledge. If you want to push yourself to a top score of 49-51, though, you'll need to become an expert in strategy. Manhattan Prep has an Advanced Quant Guide designed to help students in your exact position: those who are already in the 700 zone, but want to push to the 750+ zone.

You can order a copy here: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/stor ... mat-quant/
No doubt you've already taken the exam and done well by now! For any students in a similar position, though - starting with a high score, wanting to get in the high 700s without taking a beginner course - I wanted to share with you an exciting new Manhattan Prep offering in addition to our Advanced Quant strategy guide: an ADVANCED COURSE only for students who already have a 650+ and are looking to score well above a 700.

Who is this course for?
Students who:
- already know the basics (taken a course or studied on their own) and have scored a Q44+ and V35+
- know they can score above a 700 or even 730 if they had the right strategies
- will benefit from being in a class with other high-achieving students working at a fast pace

This course will focus on expert-level strategy (e.g. when to do algebra v. when to pick numbers) rather than just covering content (rate formulas, etc). It will assume that you know your rules already. The goal of this course is to show you how to approach the test in new ways.

I am personally a lead on the curriculum team that's developing this new course, and I will be one of the instructors for one of our 2 pilot Online Advanced Courses: one starting March 25 and the other starting April 18. I'm very excited to see what students think about it! More information here: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... at-course/
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Best Resource to move from a 700 to a 750+

by Bara » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:26 pm
Hi JPM,

Numbers and percentages are one thing - - identifying what you get wrong (like you do so with geometry) and HOW you get questions wrong are another. This practice will deepen your knowledge of the material and will help identify the best materials to work with. I recommend you take inventory of your incorrect answers and go through questions you guessed on, whether you got them correct and incorrect, and identify what worked or what didn't. You can work backward from the correct answers to understand how you did answer incorrectly...and you'll be doing yourself a favor. This is the kind of inquiry, and process, that I'd recommend as you move forward through material and diagnostic tests.

GO YOU!
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Re: Best Resource to move from 700 to 750

by MartyMurray » Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:01 pm
Hi.

Here are two key things to do to increase your score.

For quant, figure out what types of questions give you the most trouble, and learn to get questions of each of those types right, type by type. You can drive you quant score up point by point this way.

For instance, if you aren't good at work questions, learn all about work questions, and then do work questions until you always get them right.

Same thing for triangle questions.

Then overlapping sets questions.

You do that for 15 of your weakest types over the coming weeks, and you are almost certain to score in the upper 40's to low 50's in quant.

For verbal, slow way down in your practice, and learn to see what you have to see until you get 90 percent or more right. Only once you are getting 90 percent or more right should you speed up. Getting them wrong and then reading explanations will not drive your score up. Learning to get them right will.
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