Scored a 680, Retaking the Test Soon; Any Tips?

[vp101]

Hey All,

I just gave the GMAT and scored a 680. The split is as follows:
IR - 5
QA - 49
VA - 34

I'll be retaking the test soon. I've already chalked out a plan to prepare for the verbal section as this seems to be clear area of weakness.

I know 680 isn't bad, but I seriously want to get it up by 60 points at least. Any tips that might help me improve my score?

Also, what exactly is a good score in IR? 5/8 isn't pathetic, but I'm sure it's not a good score.

Thanks

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Hi vp101,

I saw your post in another Forum, so I won't rehash any of that discussion here.

To answer your immediate questions, many Business Schools have publicly stated that they don't use the IR score as part of the application process, so you really have nothing to worry about there (if you're curious, the average IR score on the Official GMAT falls in the 4-5 range).

Before you jump back into your studies, it's important to define HOW you studied the first time, so you can figure out the 'adjustments' that have to be made to increase your scores.

1) How long did you study?
2) What resources did you use?
3) When are you planning to retake the GMAT?

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

[MartyMurray]

Getting a higher verbal score is often a challenge for people and much of the reason for that is that they are studying rules and strategies without really learning how to get the right answers to the questions.

So one suggestion I have for you is to slow way down and figure out what you have to do to get right answers.

Theoretically a person who speaks English fairly well should be able to answer most GMAT verbal questions without learning anything other than how to hack his way to answers. You can hack your way to the right answers to quant questions. Take those skills to verbal, which is really mostly a logic game, and figure out how to augment and apply them.

[DavidG@VeritasPrep]

Do you have a sense of what types of verbal questions tend to give you the most trouble? The kind of study schedule that someone might use if he were only struggling with Sentence Correction would be different than the study plan he might use if he were struggling with Reading Comp, or seemed to perform equally well in each section.

(And if you aren't sure, you can consider shelling out the $25 to get an enhanced score report. It will give a breakdown of how well you performed in each section.)

[mindovergmat]

Just messaged you. What types of problems are you missing in particular within Verbal? To echo previous replies: get the enhanced report to understand your results.

[Rich@EconomistGMAT]

Hi vp101,

I'm also curious to know more about the specific types of verbal questions you found to give you the most trouble. Refer back to your previous practice exams (if any) and try identifying patterns in your test-taking habits. While it's great that you've identified verbal as your biggest challenge, try narrowing that down even further to make sure you get the most out of your study time.

Best,
Rich