Any Feedback on Increasing my GMAT score?

[maggie.paala]

Hi Stacey,

I have been "studying" for almost 6 months now and I'm so lost! The first month, I was not quite sure whether I was going to pursue my MBA but after experience and a lifetime benefit that I definitely could not pass, I decided that MBA is the best route. The first month, I started building or refreshing my math skills. First, I took the diagnostic test from the OG and took the GMAT Prep and I did horrible! I think I scored 320??! My Quant was barely in the 20s and my Verbal was around 28. That's when I decided I needed to build up my math skills. Right around the 1st and 2nd month, I used the Kaplan Workbook, took some notes, did all the questions and finished it in a month. Then, I moved on with the 12th Ed. OG, which was not easy at all. I finished the 230 Qs of the PS and the 170 Qs of the DS section. I am actually going on the PS section for the second time to refresh my mind and go back to the questions I had difficulty in solving. Right in the middle of going over the PS section, I decided to take the GMAT Prep test again just to see how much improvement I have had from studying. The questions were pretty hard but I was able to comprehend most of it (compared to the previous month, which I pretty much guessed all the way). I knew that I was getting better but I must have failed to manage my time since I did not finish the Quant section (I was in question 27 when my time ran out and likewise with the Verbal section, I was probably 5-7 more questions away from finishing the test). By the end of the test, I got a horrifying score of 400 (Raw score of Quant-38 and Verbal-12)! As you know, I was disheartened by the end result and feel that the efforts that I have made in the past did not quite paid off. I was also surprised about my Verbal score considering that I have almost done better in the Verbal section in the past. It seemed as if my Quantitative score has improved tremendously while my Verbal score has decreased. It is almost the 6th month now and I feel as though I have lost a lot of time because I failed to build a better strategy in studying. I also have scheduled my test on December 19th, which I almost want to reschedule since my score was horrid.

I'm seeking assisting to you fellow GMAT experts on how I can pull up my score. My goal is to get at least 680 on the actual test. I know that is far from reach from me at this time however, I am willing to make all the chances to get there

[StaceyKoprince]

The fact that you ran out of time with so many questions left really hurt your scores. Each question left blank, on average, results in a 3 percentile point reduction in score, and you had quite a number of questions left blank at the end of each section.

The good news: that means your actual ability is higher than the score that you got; the mismanagement of the time brought your score down a lot.

In order to reach your goal, your test-taking skills and time management need to be improved quite a bit, and you will also need to improve your content knowledge. You want to make an almost 300-point improvement and you have less than a month until your scheduled test. It would be very unusual to make that kind of improvement in that timeframe; most people would need several months. In addition, most people who want to achieve that level of improvement would probably need to take a class or work with a tutor (I don't often recommend this in the forums because I have an obvious conflict of interest in making this recommendation - but a 300 point improvement is substantial enough that most people would find it challenging to do that on their own).

If you think you may like to take a course or work with a tutor, attend whatever free sessions are offered by any companies that you think you might like to use. If possible, try to attend a presentation or class session given by the person who would be your instructor (so that you can see whether you like the person's teaching style). If you decide to look for a tutor, ask for the person's bio and see whether you can exchange emails or have a short conversation before you decide whether to work with that person. If you can, ask a few questions to see whether you think the person is trying to understand your strengths and weaknesses so that s/he can tailor a program to you - that's really important.