Scored 540 V26/M28 - Any Tips Moving Forward?

Question

I took my first exam today and unfortunately scored very low - 540. I've been studying for a few months using the Manhattan Prep books, and was scoring in the upper 500s range in practice tests. While I scored an overall 540, I got in the 89 percentile in IR (even though it doesn't mean much). I am aiming for a 650 and fully believe I can achieve that score, but do not know what else to do to improve. My study habits over the past few months has been to outline the Manhattan Prep books, do a lot of problems in an 2016 Official GMAT book, and watch YouTube videos for concepts I didn't really grasp as well. With working long hours during the week, does anyone have any suggestions/tips/ideas to get my score above 650 (hopefully higher)? My plan was to buy the newer version of the Official GMAT book and do as many problems as I can. I am still very motivated to succeed on this test and greatly appreciate any advice!

Answer 1

Hello Cheyenne:

Sounds like you've been working very hard, so I'm sure you were disappointed with not seeing progress. When I hit plateaus, I changed my strategy. Here are a couple of my top tips:

I think you're definitely on the right track--I always recommend the Official GMAT books since they are questions that have come from real GMATs. They're as close as you're going to get to test day.

Since the questions in the book are listed in order of increasing difficulty, I'd take 10 questions at a time, starting from the beginning. Answer those without time restraints and then check how you did. If you're doing well, go on to the next 10.

Once you get to questions where you're not answering them correctly, then spend time really going over those questions. Make sure you know exactly why you got the question wrong. I always knew I was ready to move on from a question if I could teach it back to myself--that way, I knew all what I was understanding and what I wasn't.

When you're getting the more difficult questions correct, add time constraints to make sure you can answer them in the allotted time. But don't worry about the timing unless you can get every question right first. There's no benefit to being able to answer a question quickly if you can't answer it correctly!

Lastly, practice every day! One hour, seven nights a week is much more effective than seven hours on a Saturday. If you're keeping the GMAT fresh in your mind all the time, you'll improve faster than waiting for the weekend to study. I know you're working long hours, so try and schedule your study for a time when you'll be most motivated to get it done.

Hope those are helpful. As always with the GMAT, there will be a lot of trial and error and tweaking things until you find what's working.