Given the large number of applicants to Harvard, Wharton, and the other top 10 business schools, a strong GMAT score is required to keep your application competitive. Read four steps to achieving a score of 750 or better on the GMAT.
Given the large number of applicants to Harvard, Wharton, and the other top 10 business schools, a strong GMAT score is required to keep your application competitive.
You’ll probably want to wow an admissions committee by scoring higher than 98 percent or 99 percent of other test takers, which means you’ll need a GMAT score of at least 750.
It’s likely that even after taking a couple of GMAT practise test your score isn’t quite there.
The good news is that getting a GMAT score in the 98th percentile or better is simple, if not easy—all you need is hard work, dedication, and GMAT prep!
Here are the four steps to achieving a score of 750 or better on the GMAT.
- Commit 60 to 100 hours of your time.
The best strategy to improve on the GMAT is to devote a significant amount of time to GMAT prep.
Do you need to go over the ideas that were examined in the quantitative portion again? Spend a few weeks devoting hours every day to getting to know these like the back of your hand.
Do you have trouble keeping track of time on the test? Plan on doing timed GMAT mock tests so frequently that you don’t notice the clock ticking.
Prepare for the GMAT by putting in 60-100 hours of overall work. For four to seven weeks, this translates to 15 hours of effort every week.
- Relearn all the relevant content
After you’ve completed your first GMAT prep, go over all of the questions you missed on the quantitative portion and jot down the subject. When you’re finished, make a list that includes terms like “ratios, triangles, prime numbers,” and so on.
Spend the next few weeks going over each of these arithmetic fundamentals again. To successfully complete all of the questions on time, you’ll need to know these fundamentals inside and out. Your ability to understand a math idea intuitively can make or break your accuracy on data sufficiency problems.
The official GMAT study guide provides all of the necessary arithmetic and is an excellent refresher tool. Take advantage of the bundle that includes the supplemental quantitative and verbal books. GMAT online coaching is also an option.
The GMAT does not assess grammar, however for the sentence correction problems, make sure you know everything covered in those books.
- Practice and recheck
This is where you’ll spend the majority of your GMAT prep time. When it comes to actual GMAT questions, the official GMAT books are the gold mine, thus these will be your best bet for practise exercises.
Focus on a certain sort of question and time yourself throughout a practise session. Give yourself 60 minutes if you’re going to answer 30 questions. Keep an eye on the clock and make a mental note of any questions that are taking too long to answer—these will need to be reviewed
If you’re having trouble with more theoretical question types like data sufficiency or critical thinking, the only way to figure out how your approach to these types of questions differs from what the GMAT requires is to study the problems you got wrong. You’ll progressively understand the test’s rationale if you spend a lot of time looking over your incorrect answers.
- Consider GMAT coaching
A great tutor can identify your individual strengths and weaknesses and create a GMAT prep schedule for you, which is by no means a last resort.
Sure, GMAT online coaching can help you re-learn important content. But, perhaps more importantly, they will point out errors in your test-taking logic or assist you in identifying the specific types of questions on which you spend time.
If you’re the type of person who has trouble maintaining to a strict routine outside of work, GMAT coaching can also help you stay on track with your GMAT preparation.
