Improve Your GMAT Score in Just Two Weeks!

Sorry, we couldn't resist creating a "Seven-Minute Abs"-like title. If you've landed here while looking for a way to boost your GMAT score in two weeks' time, you've got your work cut out for you. But, we are the GMAT prep experts, and we received this question from an applicant recently, so let's dig in:

The surest way to improve quickly on the GMAT is by identifying the mistakes that you're making, and being aware of them on test day so that you don't make them again. The writers of the GMAT craft incorrect answers around a series of commonly-occurring mistakes that examinees tend to make –- things like misidentifying the conclusion on a Critical Reasoning problem, or skipping a last step on a Problem Solving question (e.g., solving for x when they actually ask for y), or making an assumption on a Data Sufficiency problem (e.g., assuming that x is positive when they don't specify it, and it could in fact be negative).

If you're aware of the mistakes that you tend to make, you can make quick notes to yourself at the beginning of the exam on your noteboard, and remind yourself at the end of each question to double-check those mistakes.

Another relatively-quick fix to scoring problems on the GMAT is a better pacing strategy. On your most recent practice test, did you have any time left over at the end of either section? It's likely that you didn't based on your score, and if you either failed to answer any questions at the end of a section, or had to guess on a series of questions just to complete a section, the penalty affected your score substantially. Again, go back to your practice tests and/or homework sets and determine which types of questions create the biggest timing problems for you. If you can identify 1-2 of those on test day and avoid spending an undue amount of time on them (guess early if you have to), you'll have sufficient time to answer more of the questions that you can get right in a limited amount of time, and increase your score.

(Note: this advice assumes that you truly only have a couple of weeks to prepare for the exam. If you have more time, we advise spending more time to become quicker at any questions that take you a long time, but if you're in a rush, simply knowing that you can guess on a question that would take you 4-5 minutes in order to have a shot at 2-3 or more questions that you can do in under 2 is a great way to make a quick improvement to your overall score).

If you have more time, we suggest working with a GMAT program that will help you master the individual question types. In addition to the "common errors" mentioned above, each question on the GMAT is written to be similar to a series of others, and you can learn to spot quickly what you're being asked to do and how to break down the steps of each question systematically. Even having a thorough understanding of one third of the questions on either section (say, Critical Reasoning on verbal and Data Sufficiency on quant) will drastically increase your odds of getting those questions correct, and also give you more time to carefully work through other questions.

Ideally, if you're armed with the strategic blueprint of each question type, plus a good understanding of the types of errors you're likely to commit on each, you'll work through the test methodically and confidently with time to spare at the end.

For more GMAT preparation tips and resources, give us a call at (800) 925-7737. And, be sure to follow us on Twitter!