Improving from a GMAT Score of 650 to 700

Some GMAT students are able to get their score up to a 650 level without too much anguish. Using the most recent statistics from the GMAC, a 650 score is approximately the 80th percentile. The amount of study time required to reach this point can vary – it depends on your background in math, and whether you are a native English speaker. For most test-takers, I’d estimate that it takes at least 50 hours of study.

However, most GMAT students know that 700 is the magical number to be competitive at a top-20 school. Many students wonder exactly how to earn those last 50 points and go from 650 to 700. First of all, recognize that it may take an additional 1-2 months of study. The GMAT rewards preparation and efficiency, and these can only be achieved through a considerable investment of time. Next, examine your individual section scores (Quant and Verbal) and determine which you need to focus on.

Improve Your GMAT Quantitative Score: One reason you may be scoring about 650 is you’re very strong on verbal scorers, but have gaps in your math fundamentals. Remember, the GMAT is scored not only on the basis of how many questions you get right, but also on the difficulty level of those questions. If you’re scoring between 40-44 on Quant, it means you are missing the more difficult math questions. This may include number properties, overlapping sets, absolute values, inequalities, probability, and combinatorics.

It’s likely that you can improve by using more advanced test-prep materials such as Kaplan GMAT 800 or a Manhattan GMAT quant guide (“Number Properties” or “Equations, Inequalities & VIC’s” cover some more advanced topics). If you’ve only worked with the Official Guide 12th Edition (the red book), consider also buying the Official Guide For Quantitative Review 2nd Edition (the green book). The OG Quant contains hundred of additional quant examples. The regular Official Guide has only a few examples in the areas of probability and combinations, but you can find a few more examples of these difficult question types in the Quant book.

It’s also likely that you could benefit from working on your timing on the Quant section. You should be working at a measured pace of approximately two minutes per question – less for Data Sufficiency and more for tough Problem Solving questions. Work with a timer and make sure you get into this rhythm as you’re doing your test prep.

As I’ve written before, if you are completely clueless on a math question (i.e. have no idea how to approach it), simply make an educated guess and move on! The situation you absolutely want to avoid is encountering questions at the end of the section that you know how to solve, but don’t have enough time. You’ll have to guess on problems that you could easily solve if you had another 30 seconds. Any single question in quant is not that important – it’s possible to miss 10 questions on and still score a 48Q (97th percentile).

Finally, as you are doing practice problems, keep an error log of the ones you miss. Make a note of the question type, and try to find similar examples. Come back to the question in a week and see if you can solve it. You may also benefit from hiring a private tutor. Make sure any tutor you hire has experience teaching the GMAT itself – you should avoid hiring a math generalist, who may not be familiar with the specific math content of the GMAT.

Improve Your GMAT Verbal Score: Another group of test-takers are those that score very high on Quant but receive mediocre Verbal scores. Oftentimes, these are non-native English speakers. Many 650-level scorers fall into this category. I’ve seen very unbalanced scores such as Q49V33 (660) or Q46V27 (600). If this is the case, then you clearly need to spend your additional time working on your verbal fundamentals.

I have several recommendations. First, consider buying one of the highest-recommended verbal test prep books. These would be from Manhattan GMAT and Powerscore. These two companies publish highly recommend Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction books, such as Powerscore CR Bible.

Second, work on your timing for each of the three verbal question types. It is critical to get your average Sentence Correction time under one minute. Critical Reasoning times can vary, depending on the difficulty of the question – they can take between 45 seconds and two and a half minutes. Once you have your timing down on these two question types, you’ll be able to read through long Reading Comprehension passages without feeling time pressure. Some tough Reading Comprehension passages can take as long as ten minutes, and you’ll want to have sufficient time for these.

Getting from 650 to 700 can be tough for many GMAT test takers, and can often take an additional 1-2 months of study. However, if you can earn the “7” in the hundreds digit of your GMAT score, it may be worth the time.