Erika here with PrepScholar GMAT. If you're taking the GMAT, you might be aiming for a total score of 700 or above. A
700+ score can open doors to many top schools,
distinguish you on applications to slightly less competitive programs, and provide opportunities to earn MBA funding from merit scholarships.
However, according to data from GMAC, those are the makers of the GMAT,
only 12% of GMAT test takers score 700 or above.
So how can you get that coveted 7 at the beginning of your score? In
this video, I'll go
over the top 9 tips for cracking 700 on the GMAT,
including general strategies for every test taker and more specific strategies based on common issues.
Tip number one: Be
Realistic. If
you're trying to boost your score by a hundred points the night before the test, you probably aren't going to be successful.
Good GMAT study takes time.
Similarly, if you've done a lot of study so far and already improved your score by a significant margin,
you're going to have a harder time improving your score even further than someone who just learned What Data Sufficiency means.
Know what s good score means for you and for the schools that you're interested in.
Tip number two: Be Consistent and Intentional.
Like I mentioned before, you can't cram for the GMAT.
10 hours of study spaced out over 5 days is more effective than 20 hours of study in 2 days.
Aim for consistency and repetition of concepts to help your brain make the connections it needs.
make study goals based on accomplishments, not time-spend. For
example, rather than saying, "I'm going to study for an hour", a better goal would be "I'm
going to take and review 20 Data Interpretation practice problems."
Tip number three: Use the Best Materials.
There are a lot of GMAT materials out there,
but not all of them are good. You want to make sure that you're studying the right skills,
the right traps, the right difficulty, and even the right phrasing for the real GMAT test.
Official GMAC material is the best for this. I
highly recommend using the free GMATprep software for practice tests. If you need more practice,
be sure to pick material that is up-to-date and accurate to the test itself.
Tip number four: Focus on High Quality Study Over High-Volume Study.
Taking a practice test or drilling practice problems is good prep,
but the most effective prep comes afterward, when you carefully review the problems you missed, skipped, or guessed on.
It really isn't useful to drill more problems if you're just going to make the same mistakes all over again.
If you make a mistake in your study, your next goal should be to figure out: 1. why the correct answer is right,
2. why your answer is wrong,
3. where you went wrong, and
4. how to never make that mistake again.
Individual tutoring with a GMAT expert can be incredibly helpful for doing this kind of analysis.
However, if you're self-studying, GMAT-focused forums and online communities are a great resource for
explanations of problems that you are struggling with.
Tip number five: Practice Self-Analysis.
Pretty much everyone has patterns.
To study effectively, you need to figure out what your patterns are. If you
don't, you'll often end up focusing your time and memory on things that aren't important for you to study and missing things that are.
Test study is not one-size-fits-all.
As you study, keep track of what kinds of questions you're missing and why you're missing them. A
superficial analysis like "Critical Reasoning is hard"
really isn't going to do you a lot of favors, but something like "I get tripped up by passages without obvious transition words or
wrong answer choices that focus on misreadings of the text," will actually get you somewhere.
To do this, you need to think like a test maker.
With a lot of effort and the support of free resources, you can often do this kind of diagnosis on yourself.
But if you're still struggling to pinpoint and improve your weaknesses, get help.
Tutoring and some personalized programs can help you build the kind of study plan that will work best for you and no one else.
Tip number six: Prepare for Test Day, Not Just the Test. A
really common thing that I hear from students is that they do well on practice tests, but then
on test day, everything goes wrong, and their score plummets.
So what happened?
Students often neglect to prepare for test conditions in addition to test material. It's critical to get used to standard testing conditions.
For example, in your practice, you should time yourself, you
should practice doing the whole test in one sitting, do the test on a computer, don't use a calculator,
etc. This will make sure that nothing throws you off on tests day.
This kind of study can also help you practice managing your testing anxiety and keeping calm under test conditions.
Be sure to take steps the morning of the test (like doing a few practice problems, eating a good breakfast, and taking a quick walk)
to make sure that you're at your best when you start.
Tip number seven: Put the Right Amount of Emphasis on Time Management.
The key here is "right amount". Not too much, not too little.
On the test, you don't want to spend too long on each problem, but you also shouldn't rush.
You don't want to lose track of time, but you shouldn't let the timer distract you. I
recommend calculating exactly how many minutes you get per question, per section before the test.
Then on test day, keep this in mind, and check on your progress only every few problems.
Similarly, keep the same balance in your study.
Doing entirely timed practice will hurt your learning, but you shouldn't let it slip through the cracks.
Tip number eight: Don't Let the Adaptive Structure of the Test Get in Your Head.
A lot of test takers feel paralyzed by hard problems because they know they only have one chance to get them right.
They especially get worried about the first 10 questions because someone on the internet said that those are the most important.
Then if they get an "easier" question next, they get distracted thinking about how they "must" have missed the previous question.
This kind of thinking is: 1. a really great
way to waste time on the test, and 2. based on some serious misunderstandings about the GMAT.
First, the "first 10 questions thing is a complete myth — don't buy into it, and don't let it distract you.
Second, you can miss a lot of questions and still get above a 700 on the GMAT. For example,
when i took the GMAT, I missed about seven questions across verbal and quant , and I ended up with a 770.
Finally, what you think of as an "easy" question might not actually be an "easy" question on the test.
Turns out, you might be a better Solid Geometry test taker than the average person who takes the GMAT.
The big takeaway here is don't try to figure out the algorithm. It's a waste of time.
Do your best on the problem you're working on and then move on.
Tip number nine: Give Yourself a Break and Guess.
A lot of people aiming for top GMAT scores are perfectionists, but perfectionism is the enemy of a high GMAT score.
Like we discussed, you can miss quite a few questions and still end up with a high score. In
fact, not finishing a section is much more detrimental to your score than missing a few questions. A
couple quick tips on guessing:
Don't waste time on questions you're pretty sure that you're going to get wrong.
Save that time for questions that you're pretty sure you're actually going to get right
but that might take a little bit more time to finish.
Also, use Process of Elimination to rule out obviously wrong answer choices. If you end up needing to guess between two,
three, or even four answer choices,
you've still got a way better chance of getting it right than if you guess between all five.
And those are our top 9 tips for cracking 700 on the GMAT! If you have any questions, on what we talked about,
please leave a comment below and I'll be happy to respond.
If you liked this video, you can hit the button to subscribe — we'll be having more come out very soon.
Also, feel free to head over to our blog at prepscholar.com/gmat
/blog for even more great GMAT content.
Thanks for watching, and happy GMAT studies!