Target score of 700. Exam in less than 3 weeks!

[adunke]

Hi,

Doing my GMAT on 19th November and really need to score a 700 or above.

I am applying for a postgraduate degree at a European business school. GMAT is not a criterion for my degree however the admissions director hinted during the open day that a GMAT of 700 or over will improve my chance of acceptance.

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to study and deadline to apply for the degree is 24th November so doing the exam on the 19th and will include unofficial scores as part of my application.

I am using OG, OG verbal, OG quant and Kaplan Premier.

Started studying around 1st October with OG but nothing too structured. Did the Kaplan diagnostic test in the textbook on 18th October and scored 580-630. I also made a study timetable that started from the 19th October using the Kaplan book. The tests I have done so far are

-26th Oct - Kaplan CAT1 - 640 Q50, V24, IR5 (**I assure you I do speak English despite what this verbal score may suggest**)

-27th Oct - Official GMAT - 690 Q48, V37, IR7

-30th October - Kaplan CAT1 Retake - 710 Q50, V35

-30th October - The Economist Simulation Test - 640 Q44, V35 (weakest topics are sentence correction in verbal and data sufficiency in quant).

Ok I would please like to know from other members what I can do to improve my verbal. Maths is consistent and with maths there's formula and theory that can be applied whereas with verbal I don't seem to be getting it. I have studied the RC method given by Kaplan but this is not too fool proof, also studied the Kaplan chapters on SC and CR but still making mistakes. Did 100 Hard SC questions with OG GMAT Prep software and still did woefully on The Economist exam.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated. With less than 3 weeks to go don't know if I should switch textbooks (although 3 weeks is more than half my actual study to date so not an impossibility)

Please help!

Thanks

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Hi adunke,

I'm hoping that you can answer a couple of questions about what you've done so far:

1) You mention taking an Official GMAT on 30th October - was that a practice CAT or the actual GMAT?
2) When you took these CATs, did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time, including the Essay and IR?
3) How exactly was it hinted at that a 700+ GMAT score would help you? What if you scored 650? Was it hinted that it would be better to submit a 650 than to submit nothing?

Retaking a CAT almost always leads to an artificially "inflated" score, so we have to ignore the results of the Retake on 30th October. Considering that you've been studying for just 1 month, you have a strong natural ability in Quant. The Verbal section is just as predictable as the Quant section, but you have to learn to "see past" the words and spot the underlying patterns in the grammar and logic. Right now, it sounds like you haven't committed to a particular approach for the major question types in the Verbal section and you're just feeling around for answers that "sound good."

4) Do you have a pacing problem in the Verbal section? Did you have to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish? Or did you finish early?

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