Retaking 720 GMAT. How do I improve quant from 48Q to a 50Q?

[eMpHIL]

I recently scored a 720 (48Q,41V) on the GMAT and I am seeking advice on how I can improve this score to 750 or above. My goals, reasons, constraints and expectations are outlined in the following paragraphs. I would greatly appreciate your help.

Goals: I am happy with my verbal score but I think my quant score needs improvement. Ideally, I would like to score a 50 in the Quant section and 40+ in the verbal section. As far as the composite score is concerned, I would like to get a score around 750 or above.

Reasons for wanting to retake the GMAT: Firstly, my Quant score is in the 75th percentile and is considered low for many of the top MFin programs (I am looking at the MFin programs in MIT and LSE, and the MSc in Financial Economics at Oxford). I believe this could have a negative impact on admissions to these programs. Secondly, my composite of 720 (94th percentile) puts me right in the middle/lower-middle range for most of these programs. I feel that a higher comp score will give me a better shot at securing merit-based scholarship.

Preparation leading up to the first GMAT: I spent about a month preparing for the first GMAT. I spent about 2-3 hours/day on average working on the math section and did not spend a single minute looking at verbal. I went through all of MGMAT's books on math and completed every single problem in the OG. For the OG, I recorded my performance for every single problem. After going through all of them, I redid every single problem that I had taken too long to complete or had gotten wrong. I also did both the official GMAT tests and a couple of MGMAT tests. By the end of this one-month study period, my Math score was consistently hovering around the 47-49 range.

How did I feel about the real GMAT: I thought my performance on the GMAT was reflective of my performance on the practice problems and practice tests. I wasn't anxious and I did not get a score that was extremely high or low as compared to the practice tests. Based on this experience, I feel that I can consistently score in the 700-730 range given my current level of preparation and understanding.

Current Strengths: I think I have a fairly good understanding of the basic concepts tested in the GMAT. Through repetition, I have become good at answering common questions within a minute or less. I have also been able to develop a good sense for when to ditch a problem that is taking too long. Combined, these two skills have allowed me to become good at finishing the Quant section on time.

Areas for Improvement: Firstly, I think there still is room for me to become better at identifying common problems and applying a tested method to solve these problems. This should increase the number of problems that I can solve in 1 min. Secondly, I need to become better at solving the tougher 700-800 level questions. I think I wasn’t able to solve a majority of these in the real test.

Going Forward: I am thinking of giving the GMAT again in about 3 weeks. I think I will be able to devote 2 hours a day during the weekdays and up to 5 hours on the weekends. This should give 50-60 practice hours in total by the new GMAT date. I have purchased the MGMAT Advanced Quant book. I plan on going over the book to learn these advanced concepts. In addition, I am considering working on the GMATClub questions that many people seem to find difficult. Lastly, I will be redoing all of the OG Quant questions just to make sure that I do not get rusty on the easier type of questions. I do not plan on spending any time working on the Verbal section since I have done well on this section on a consistent basis without any prep (scored >40 on all practice tests as well as on the real GMAT).

Can you please let me know how I can tweak my study plans to get the most out of these 3 weeks of preparation? I really want to score in the 750’s and would greatly appreciate your help on how I should approach prep. I am sorry for the long post. I just thought that being detailed would help you make a better recommendation.

Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

As you know, you do already have a great score (nice work!).

As a first step, I would suggest talking to an admissions consultant to see what they think - just to make sure that lifting your quant score actually is something that may make a difference in the ways that you're hoping. MBA Mission offers free 30 minute phone consultations to discuss application-related issues.

Next, you'll need a mindset tweak. Your time will be much better spent learning how to think your way through a smaller number of questions vs. doing a huge number of questions (which it sounds like - you want to re-do the 400+ OG questions plus the entire ~400-page AQ book plus GMAT Club...in 3 weeks).

Your goal here isn't to do 1,000 questions - you can't memorize 1,000 problems, nor can you remember 1,000 new takeaways (nor will those specific problems be on the real test!).

Rather, your goal is to learn broadly applicable takeaways about the best ways to solve classes of problems, so that you have good ideas about how to think your way through the new problems that you'll see on the test.

Read this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

That 2nd level of thinking is what's going to lift you to the next level. The AQ book is perfect for this and you're at the exact right level to take advantage of it, so it's a good plan to use that.

I do also think it's a good idea to do some practice out of OG (or another source of official questions) to keep your skills up - and to push yourself, both. I would skip GMAT Club just because you already have enough on your plate.

Other good sources of official problems (if you want some new ones):
- GMAT Focus (www.gmatfocus.com); this is adaptive, so it will give you the questions that you earn!
- Question Pack #1, an add-on that you can purchase for the GMATPrep software

Also, pay attention to timing. Everyone has some timing issues - the question is just what yours are.

Use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do (taking into account the 2nd Level article). Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

[eMpHIL]

Stacey,

Thank you for your reply. I agree that this "second level" of thinking is exactly what I need to boost my score. At this point, I am trying to figure out how I can best spend the next 20 days to learn this 2nd level thinking. I have yet to open the Advanced Quant book and am not sure whether it teaches this second level of thinking. Could you briefly explain the contents of this book and tell me the specifics of how it will help me improve my q48 to q50? What are the things that it will teach me? I would like to know why I should read the AQ book instead of redoing the OG problems. Since I did not give my 100% on analyzing the OG questions last time around, I feel that redoing the OG problems and analyzing their ins and outs would help me develop this 2nd level of thinking. (By ins and outs, I mean figuring out alternate solutions, identifying the tricks planted by the test makers, etc.).

On another note, I have come to the realization that it might be worthwhile for me to read some of the MGMAT books on the verbal section. As I had mentioned in my first post, I seem to be naturally good on the verbal and was able to score a 41 without spending a single minute preparing for this section. As of now, I am mostly selecting answers based on whether they sound natural/good to me or not (i.e., I don't have a formal method such as consciously breaking the sentence into different parts and analyzing whether they have all the required parts, etc). This method has worked very well for me in the past as evidenced by my consistent performance on the practice GMATs, the real GMAT, and the SAT. However, I feel that putting in a day or two of work could actually help formalize this process a little bit and perhaps raise my score by a few points. Would you agree? Given my "play it by ear" method and my consistently good performance on the verbal, how do you suggest I go about trying to prepare for this section? Should I read all the MGMAT verbal books or would it be better if I actually did some OG practice problems and tried to do the "second level" of studying?

[StaceyKoprince]

The AQ book focuses pretty much 100% on the second level of thinking. :) It doesn't teach more advanced math; it teaches how to think your way through more advanced problems. Take a look at the first chapter or two and you'll see.

It's a long book, so don't plan to do the whole thing in just a couple of weeks. I also wouldn't work on that to the exclusion of OG - I'd do some of each.

For verbal, I would not go read all of the books, no. Your score is so high already that you would risk "breaking" your natural process and seeing a drop in score.

Here's what you can do: when you DO fall into a trap and get something wrong on verbal, go look up that particular thing (question type / grammar rule / whatever) and learn how to do it better. (Basically, retrain your ear on that issue.) Then try more problems of that type to make sure you've got it