Wow - 230 in a weekend is pretty impressive, Bara...congrats! I think my "record" is 220 in a weekend...I had a guy go from 490 to 710 both on official test back in around 2004 or 2005 when you could take the test once per calendar month and his Thursday/Tuesday test dates (if I remember the days right) were on like the 29th and the 1st of a month. So it definitely can be done!
To ellochewy's overall question - I definitely think it's possible, and while 700 is a high threshold for me to make any gambling-style predictions I'd say that a significant improvement is probable. There are plenty of ways to miss questions on the GMAT, and only a few of them include "not knowing" content. More often, you're making a series of repetitive mistakes (making assumptions, answering the wrong question e.g. x instead of y, etc.) for which correcting one helps you answer several more questions correctly. Or you just need to train yourself to think through the lens of the GMAT - I was tutoring a friend last night who mentioned that she had just never learned to think in terms of prime factors and divisibility...in a few hours she went from really just getting her head around the topic to correctly answering some really tough Data Sufficiency questions. Which also brings up that Data Sufficiency is a really unique problem type - when you start to click with the format and understand the format-specific strategies, it's a whole new game. (since I mentioned gambling above, it's like the quantum leap you make in blackjack when you realize that getting the dealer to break is just as valuable as reaching 21 yourself...you stop playing your cards and start playing the table. With Data Sufficiency, when you start to understand the test's "advantages" over you, you can play the game and not just hope to do the math.)
So if you're starting from a fairly beginning spot, already scoring above average, and about to embark on a two-month study plan, I think it's pretty likely that you make some big gains. Just a word to the wise - the test is about a lot more than "knowing formulas", so make sure that as you study you pay attention to:
-Which concepts tend to come up the most and what are the unique ways they're tested
-Which mistakes do you tend to make frequently and how can you correct them
-How are the trap answers baiting you
-Which thought processes work best for you on different problem types
-How can you work more efficiently to make sure you have a chance to solve all 37 math and 41 verbal problems
When you think about the GMAT strategically you can make some giant gains. Jason, the guy who went 490-710 in my class, clicked on all of those - any time I pointed out a trap answer or a subtlety of a question format his eyes lit up and he'd talk about how he remembered probably making that mistake or missing that nuance. I was surprised he broke 700 so quickly but not at all surprised that he improved quite a bit - he really clicked with the strategy of the test and not just "the steps to solve that example". So while it's true that huge score gains are definitely possible, they don't happen accidentally, nor do they happen just as a result of "studying more" or "studying harder". It's about how you think, so keep that in mind and I expect you'll start to see some pretty marked progress.
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
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