Hello BTG,
Over the past couple of months, this forum has been extremely helpful for me to figure out study plans, tactics, materials, questions, etc. I have been consistently scoring 36/37 on Quant. I think one of the reasons is that I am able to solve only easy questions but no tough questions. I am sure that I can increase my score to 49/50. Time also another factor. Easy one I am solving within 1 min where as for harder ones either I am unable to solve or it or solution time is crossing 2 mins!!! I have completed the OG 2015 for PS and DS.
Can you please suggest the materials that I can use to improve my Quant score? I am planning to take my GMAT during first week of May.
Regards
minniemba
5-Day Free Trial
5-day free, full-access trial TTP
Available with Beat the GMAT members only code
MORE DETAILS
How to improve Quant score from 37 to 50. Suggestions Pls.
This topic has expert replies
-
MartyMurray
- Legendary Member
- Posts: 2131
- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:26 am
- Location: https://martymurraycoaching.com/
- Thanked: 955 times
- Followed by:140 members
- GMAT Score:800
Hi minniemba.
Now that you have the basics down for the most part you need to go through GMAT quant topic by topic, becoming basically an expert in one topic and then moving onto the next.
You can tell which topics to work on by looking at your practice tests and seeing which questions you didn't get and which took you longest to get.
The OG has official questions but does not have many difficult quant questions and does not really have categorized questions, and you need categorized questions in order to do topic focused training. One source of categorized quant questions is this site, https://bellcurves.com. You can access the quant question bank there by going to the GMAT area and setting up a practice account.
Another good source of quant practice questions is the Veritas Question Bank, here, https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/.
I realize that you want to speed up, but to become super good at handling the question types, during practice you need to take as long as it takes to get RIGHT answers. Scoring high on the GMAT is all about getting right answers.
As you develop facility in answering questions, you will naturally speed up. Also, you can analyze the way you handle questions to find ways to be more efficient. Many questions can be answered in two minutes one way and in thirty seconds via another path, if you see it. Even the way you read a word problem can take more or less time depending on how you do it. Meanwhile, fixing errors in calculations sucks up a lot of time. So another thing you can do to speed up is to work on being accurate the first time you do calculations so that you don't have to go back and fix your work as often.
Now that you have the basics down for the most part you need to go through GMAT quant topic by topic, becoming basically an expert in one topic and then moving onto the next.
You can tell which topics to work on by looking at your practice tests and seeing which questions you didn't get and which took you longest to get.
The OG has official questions but does not have many difficult quant questions and does not really have categorized questions, and you need categorized questions in order to do topic focused training. One source of categorized quant questions is this site, https://bellcurves.com. You can access the quant question bank there by going to the GMAT area and setting up a practice account.
Another good source of quant practice questions is the Veritas Question Bank, here, https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/.
I realize that you want to speed up, but to become super good at handling the question types, during practice you need to take as long as it takes to get RIGHT answers. Scoring high on the GMAT is all about getting right answers.
As you develop facility in answering questions, you will naturally speed up. Also, you can analyze the way you handle questions to find ways to be more efficient. Many questions can be answered in two minutes one way and in thirty seconds via another path, if you see it. Even the way you read a word problem can take more or less time depending on how you do it. Meanwhile, fixing errors in calculations sucks up a lot of time. So another thing you can do to speed up is to work on being accurate the first time you do calculations so that you don't have to go back and fix your work as often.
Marty Murray
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.
GMAT/MBA Expert
-
[email protected]
- Elite Legendary Member
- Posts: 10392
- Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pm
- Location: Palo Alto, CA
- Thanked: 2867 times
- Followed by:511 members
- GMAT Score:800
Hi minniemba,
Since the Quant section of the GMAT requires that Test Takers face 37 questions in 75 minutes, many people THINK that they should spend 2 minutes (or less) on each of those 37 questions. However, that is impractical and not strategic. Certain Quant questions can be answered relatively quickly (in under 1 minute) while others actually require 3 minutes of 'work.' Your goal should be to be 'efficient' with how you approach each prompt, even if that means spending more than 2 minutes on it.
With a Q36/Q37, you likely have some gaps in your knowledge (or you cannot remember what math rules to use when dealing with certain questions). Raising that score to a Q49+ will take some serious time and effort. Beyond making sure that you know the necessary content/rules, you also need to learn Tactics and patterns AND eliminate the little mistakes from your work. As such, you would likely benefit by enrolling in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).
1) Have you used any other materials besides the two OGs?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Since the Quant section of the GMAT requires that Test Takers face 37 questions in 75 minutes, many people THINK that they should spend 2 minutes (or less) on each of those 37 questions. However, that is impractical and not strategic. Certain Quant questions can be answered relatively quickly (in under 1 minute) while others actually require 3 minutes of 'work.' Your goal should be to be 'efficient' with how you approach each prompt, even if that means spending more than 2 minutes on it.
With a Q36/Q37, you likely have some gaps in your knowledge (or you cannot remember what math rules to use when dealing with certain questions). Raising that score to a Q49+ will take some serious time and effort. Beyond making sure that you know the necessary content/rules, you also need to learn Tactics and patterns AND eliminate the little mistakes from your work. As such, you would likely benefit by enrolling in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).
1) Have you used any other materials besides the two OGs?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
GMAT/MBA Expert
-
Brent@GMATPrepNow
- GMAT Instructor
- Posts: 16207
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pm
- Location: Vancouver, BC
- Thanked: 5254 times
- Followed by:1268 members
- GMAT Score:770
To improve your quantitative score, I believe that you should compartmentalize your learning and take the time to master each topic (e.g., percents, ratios, exponents, statistics, etc.). This means that, for each topic, you should:
1) Learn the underlying concepts (rules, attributes, notation, etc.)
2) Learn GMAT-specific strategies related to that topic
3) Practice dozens of questions all related to that one topic.
4) Don't stop working on that topic until you have mastered it
Then, and only then, move on to the next topic.
To help you focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.
While completing questions from the Official Guide (OG), you should you use an Error Log (aka Improvement Chart). You can find a free downloadable Improvement Chart here: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/sites/all/th ... G2016.xlsx. This will help you identify and strengthen your weak areas.
You should also spend a lot of time reviewing the responses from the Experts on this site. They model the steps one should take when tackling math problems.
In addition to learning the core concepts and GMAT-specific strategies, be sure to work on your endurance and test-taking skills (e.g., time management) by taking several practice tests. If you're interested, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244
Finally, early in your prep, there's a danger in focusing too much on your timing. In my view, this focus has the potential to actually hinder your preparation. I feel so strongly about the whole timing issue that I wrote two articles about it:
- Making Friends with Time on the GMAT - Part I (https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/mak ... %93-part-i)
- Making Friends with Time on the GMAT - Part II (https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/mak ... 93-part-ii)
Executive Summary: Use a timer, but only to get an idea of what 2 minutes feels like. Later on (once you've covered all of the content), you can start working on your speed.
Executive Summary of the Executive Summary: Content First - Speed Second
Cheers,
Brent
1) Learn the underlying concepts (rules, attributes, notation, etc.)
2) Learn GMAT-specific strategies related to that topic
3) Practice dozens of questions all related to that one topic.
4) Don't stop working on that topic until you have mastered it
Then, and only then, move on to the next topic.
To help you focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.
While completing questions from the Official Guide (OG), you should you use an Error Log (aka Improvement Chart). You can find a free downloadable Improvement Chart here: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/sites/all/th ... G2016.xlsx. This will help you identify and strengthen your weak areas.
You should also spend a lot of time reviewing the responses from the Experts on this site. They model the steps one should take when tackling math problems.
In addition to learning the core concepts and GMAT-specific strategies, be sure to work on your endurance and test-taking skills (e.g., time management) by taking several practice tests. If you're interested, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244
Finally, early in your prep, there's a danger in focusing too much on your timing. In my view, this focus has the potential to actually hinder your preparation. I feel so strongly about the whole timing issue that I wrote two articles about it:
- Making Friends with Time on the GMAT - Part I (https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/mak ... %93-part-i)
- Making Friends with Time on the GMAT - Part II (https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/mak ... 93-part-ii)
Executive Summary: Use a timer, but only to get an idea of what 2 minutes feels like. Later on (once you've covered all of the content), you can start working on your speed.
Executive Summary of the Executive Summary: Content First - Speed Second
Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
