2 Months & 80 Points to Go: How Do I Lift My GMAT score? - Part 1/2
Most second-round deadlines are in early January, so around now, a lot of people are asking me how to eke out the last 30 to 80 points they need to reach their goal. Lets talk about what to do to try to lift your score that last bit in the final 2 months of your study.
Is this article for me?
This article is geared towards those who have already been studying for a while. Im assuming that you have already been through your core study material at least once, that you know how each question type works (DS, PS, CR, RC, SC, and all 4 types in IR), and that you have generally learned most of the math formulas, grammar rules, and question-type processes (e.g., RC/CR inference; choosing smart numbers or testing cases on quant; etc.). Im also assuming that you do have weaknesses and need to work more in various of the aforementioned areasotherwise, you wouldnt be trying to lift your score!
Yep, thats me. Okay, what do I do?
First, read about Executive Reasoning and the 2nd Level of GMAT Study. Think about how your prior study has and has not meshed with the ideas presented in those articles and what you may need to change in your approach going forward. Write that down somewhere.
Next, if you havent taken a practice CAT in the last several weeks, take one now. Im going to assume that youll take one of Manhattan Preps CATs. You can adjust the below based on some other CAT, assuming that the test does give you data you can use to analyze your performance.
You must take all four sections (yes, including essay and IR) and you must take all 4 sections seriously. (If you dont, then you may wind up with an artificially inflated score.) You get two 8-minute breaks: one after IR and one after quant.
Take the test under normal timing conditions as well (30 minutes each for IR and essay, and 75 minutes each for quant and verbal, unless you have extended time).
Okay, go.
What do I do with all this data?
Pull up the test results and give yourself about 1 to 2 hours to do your high-level analysis, using the process detailed in this 2-part article, Analyze Your CATs.
Now, whats in your Bucket 2? (If you dont know what Im talking about, then you did not click to the second half of the article. Go back and finish.)
You should have content areas and question types in three Bucket 2 categories:
Careless Mistakes
Right but a Bit Too Slow
Holes in your Foundation
Lets talk about what to do with each one.
- Careless Mistakes
These are so annoying. Okay, so after you slap yourself on the side of the head what are you going to do about it?
The most annoying thing about careless mistakes is that we tend to make the same kinds of mistakes over and over. So you need to figure out what your bad habits / patterns are, and then you need to practice new habits until they become second nature (and crowd out the old, bad habit). Follow this link to learn how.
Do NOT neglect to address careless mistakes. These are the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. You already know how to get that problem right! You just need to build a good habit that will let you perform under the pressure and stress of test day.
- Right but a Bit Too Slow
Youre already answering these correctly, but youre spending maybe 60 seconds longer than average for that question type. Can you learn to shave off 20 to 30 seconds without compromising your accuracy?
Start investigating alternative ways to do the problem. Are you doing more math calculations than are really necessary? Are you reading more / deeper than you need to on RC? Are you agonizing back and forth on your last 2-3 verbal answer choices? (No article for the last one. If youre agonizing, you dont know the answer. Just pick and move on!)
- Holes in your Foundation
The GMAT rewards generalists over specialists. If you have too many holes in your foundation, youll keep getting lower-level problems wrong and, as a result, youll never lift your overall score to a higher level. Get to be pretty good across (almost) everything before you look to lift yourself even higher in your stronger areas.
Identify a resource such as the MPrep Foundations of Math or Foundations of Verbal strategy guides. Start by going to the end of the first chapter and trying some problems from the problem sets. For anything that's wrong, takes a long time, or just feels funny, dive into the chapter and learn the relevant material. Then come back to the problem set and do the rest to drill your new skills. (Note: if you do use our books for this, you can find additional drill sets in your student center account on our website.)
As you work through problems in each of the above categories, make sure you are doing the in-depth analysis described in your 2nd Level article (the same one linked earlier).
Anything else I should do with the data?
Yes! Ive saved the most important analysis for last. Overall, you must make sure that you are making good business decisions as you work your way through the test. If you continue to take the old school mindset and try to get everything right, you wont maximize your score on the GMAT. Heres more on developing this business mindset.
Make sure you are practicing these skills regularly via timed sets of mixed practice questions. Dont forget to analyze your decision-making to ensure that youre learning how to get even better in future.
My timing is seriously problematic. Any tips?
Glad you asked. The second half of this article discusses time management (in the context of both individual problems and overall test sections), as well as what to do after youve improved on the things weve talked about so far, and what to do in the last 10 to 14 days of your studies.