GMAT Strategy

Hi,

I wrote yesterday and got a 620 broken down into 39 for quant and 47 for verbal. It put me 43 percentile for quant and 83 percentile for verbal which is too much of a disparity. I would like to improve on quant to have a more balanced score. I am trying to figure out if i should retake considering this is my third attempt and while its progressively improved (from 530 to 580 to 620), its still taken a lot out of me financially and mentally. If i do retake it needs to be quick (in a month or so) so that i do not lose momentum with what i know already but also to try and get in early with schools. Anyone got any tips to improve quant relatively quickly (while not compromising on quality). I will keep working on my verbal too but clearly that isnt my weakness.

Thanks!

John

How is your data sufficiency?

People that score well on the verbal, particularly on Critical Reasoning can often do well on data sufficiency without having to become math experts.

If you are under-performing on Data Sufficiency you can probably make up some ground rapidly.

David

Hi Rich and David,

Thanks for your replies. Yes there was a typo in the heading. I scored a V37 and a Q39 in my test.

To give some background, i have been studying for approximately 3 months this time. I am using the manhattan book set and all 3 OG books. In addition, i went back to the basics and used the manhattan foundation book. As my study guide, i used the beat the gmat 60 day program. I do feel that i have improved in quant certainly but it just wasnt enough. What bugs me though is that during the gmat, i felt confident that i had done enough. More so that i felt that i wasnt as strong as usual in verbal but had done enough on quant to maintain a high score.

In respect of my scoring, i took the GMAT prep CAT on september 12 and scored a 550 (V 35, q30). On October 1st, I scored a 670 (V40, and Q42). On October 4 i scored a 700 (V40 and Q47). I also did a Manhattan test and scored 640 (Q36, V41). Finally, i did a kaplan test and scored a 650 (Q42, V38). My sense was that i had improved sufficiently in quant to get a satisfactory score. However, that didnt pan out clearly.

My goal score is between 650 and 700 and i didnt feel that was too high when i was studying. My aim was to apply in the second round for schools (applications closing in early january so if i am to rewrite, i wanted to do that by mid november). The schools i want are London Business School, Columbia, Rotterdam Business School, Imperial in London, Georgetown and possibly as an outlier, Stanford.

David, I do feel that i am weak on Data Sufficiency as i am never certain as to whether i have missed something in answering the question. It certainly is a weak spot. However, i honestly dont know if that is what is catching me out in my exams.

Hope this gives some clarity about myself and what i was hoping for.

Thanks again guys,

John

Small mistake in the above. It was a Veritas CAT not a Kaplan CAT that i took.

One way to improve on quant quickly is to pinpoint your weaknesses and address them. In order to do this, meticulously go through your last few CATs and document which type and topic you are getting wrong the most (for example DS: circular geometry). Then, focus on reviewing those topics. In order to get a 47, you will also need to learn strategies for and practice with problems of a high level of difficult. The MGMAT advanced quant and Kaplan 800 books are both good resources for that.

[email protected] wrote:Hi John,

First off, I think there might be a typo in your post. Did you score 47 or 37 for Verbal? Based on your Verbal percentile and overall score, I think that you probably scored V37.

I agree that it's probably best for you to retest sooner rather than later, but before I offer any advice, I'd like to know a bit more about what you've done so far and your goals/timeline:

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What materials have you been using to study?
3) How did you score on each of your practice CATs (including Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
4) What is your goal score?
5) What schools are you planning to apply to? And when?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Rich,

Thanks for your replies. Yes there was a typo in the heading. I scored a V37 and a Q39 in my test.

To give some background, i have been studying for approximately 3 months this time. I am using the manhattan book set and all 3 OG books. In addition, i went back to the basics and used the manhattan foundation book. As my study guide, i used the beat the gmat 60 day program. I do feel that i have improved in quant certainly but it just wasnt enough. What bugs me though is that during the gmat, i felt confident that i had done enough. More so that i felt that i wasnt as strong as usual in verbal but had done enough on quant to maintain a high score.

In respect of my scoring, i took the GMAT prep CAT on september 12 and scored a 550 (V 35, q30). On October 1st, I scored a 670 (V40, and Q42). On October 4 i scored a 700 (V40 and Q47). I also did a Manhattan test and scored 640 (Q36, V41). Finally, i did a kaplan test and scored a 650 (Q42, V38). My sense was that i had improved sufficiently in quant to get a satisfactory score. However, that didnt pan out clearly.

My goal score is between 650 and 700 and i didnt feel that was too high when i was studying. My aim was to apply in the second round for schools (applications closing in early january so if i am to rewrite, i wanted to do that by mid november). The schools i want are London Business School, Columbia, Rotterdam Business School, Imperial in London, Georgetown and possibly as an outlier, Stanford.

I do feel that i am weak on Data Sufficiency as i am never certain as to whether i have missed something in answering the question. It certainly is a weak spot. However, i honestly dont know if that is what is catching me out in my exams.

Hope this gives some clarity about myself and what i was hoping for.

Thanks again
John