Bombed GMAT - Scored 530 - Retake Study Plan/Strategy

[MunaA519]

So I started my journey back in June with a different prep company. Around September I got a hold on Manhattan Prep GMAT guides. I went through the quant and helped me tremendously to understand concepts especially Inequalities. I went through the verbal SC guide. I skimmed through CR and RC.

These are my scores: (mock test were from the prep company not Manhattan's CATs)
Mock Test 1 - 340 Q-17 V-19, IR-1
Mock Test 2 - 450 Q-31 V-21, IR-3
Mock Test 3 - 540 Q-40 V-25, IR-2
Actual Test - 530 Q-35 V-27, IR-1


Any strategy or study plan on how to improve my score? I'm targetting late 600s - early 700s. I'm awful at Verbal and IR

Any advice would be appreciated

[StaceyKoprince]

You've made a very good improvement so far—nice work. (I know you want more, but I think it's important to make sure you're giving yourself credit for how far you've already come!)

The Q and V scoring scales both use the number range 6 to 51, but the scales themselves are not the same. A V score of 27 is about the mean score, while a Q score of 35 is a little below the mean score (on Q, the mean is 39). So you're not awful at verbal. Your skills in Q and V are pretty similar, actually.

If you are targeting a high 600 / low 700 score, you are going to need to improve both Q and V a significant amount. If you are able to increase both subscores by 10 points (to V37, Q45), for example, your overall score would be around a 670.

It sounds like you haven't done much yet with CR and RC, so my first recommendation there would be to actually work through that material and see how that affects your V score.

On Q, it sounds like you've gone through all of the books already? Then the question is whether you think you would get more out of going through them again or whether you need to add another level to your study in terms of classroom instruction. There are live classes (both online and in-person in certain markets) as well as on-demand Interact lessons (these incorporate videos but are a lot more than just videos—they're interactive lessons that have you actively participating / interacting with the platform in order to proceed through the lesson).

Most live classes teach both Q and V. For the on-demand Interact lessons, you can choose to do just Q, just V, or both. I do think you probably have more you can do just with the books to lift V, since you didn't do CR and RC—but note that you do have to increase V (and Q) quite a bit to put yourself in the 700 range, so you may need more on V, too, than just the books.

Take a look at this for more on how to build a study plan. It's an older post but the overall advice is still relevant:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... our-score/