GMAT Strategy

Hi,

Date of GMAT: Last week of Aug
Aiming at a score of: 700+
Weekly sittings: 25hrs

Materials completed till now
1. Overiview of GMAT: PR
2. Started OG 11, completed the diagnostic test without time limit. Got above average in Quants and Average in Verbal
Now, I have a fair idea about the GMAT and want to kickstart my study seriously.

Materials that I am planning to buy:
1. Manhattan turbocharge set of 4
- Acclaimed SC
- I liked the contents of the Math study guide and I tend to get more confidence when I read fundamentals before starting to practice OG.
2. Kaplan 800
- I took the cue from the list of recommendations here.
3. GmatTestPrep pack for tests

Please note that I don't aim to complete the above books. My main idea is to get exposure to their strategies, choose the ones that I get along with and practice on OG, OG V and OG M.

I took the other cue from gmattutor.com where I can pace my study across this way:
Cycle
- Get familiar with Quants from Kaplan / Manhattan
- Practice quants in OG 11
- Test (I aim to stick with GMATTestPrep + Manhattan only so that I can see a pattern)
Repeat this cycle for verbal the second time, then with both Quants+Verbal the third time and repeat till I complete OG11. If I can do that by July end, then I can start with OG V and OG M + Test + revisit fundas

Please review.
Thanks

Hi Bill,

Without knowing what your score is right now, I am not sure if this is underkill or overkill. I spent about 10 hours per week studying for two months, with one book, and I got a 750. Then again, I know I am not typical as I was a math major and a former SAT math tutor. I think it is really hard to judge the quality of a study schedule by volume of materials... and it is especially hard not knowing how far you have to go.

I would recommend taking a CAT as soon as possible so that you can better assess how much you need to study.

Best wishes,

Tatiana

I'd like to chime in and add to what Tatiana said: my GMAT study mantra is:

"It's not the quantity of problems you do; it's the quality of the studying you do."

Okay, so I just made that up. But it's true. Your goal should *not* be to do every GMAT problem you can. Rather, it helps more to truly analyze each study problem you work on, even if you got it right, so that you learn the test inside and out. I studied exclusively out of the orange Official Guide and found that it was all I needed - but sometimes I took 20-30 minutes to really take apart a question.

Good luck!

Hi
Thanks for your inputs. I know exactly what you mean. I am planning to give my first CAT (GMATPrep) today. I'll share my detailed scores with you.

Best Regards

Hi
Today I gave my first CAT from the GMATPrep. Here is my score:
Quants: 45
Verbal: 23
Score: 570

Score Review: Quants
20 correct, 17 incorrect. After the test I used the practice grid to review and understand my weak points. I can see that I got 9 questions in DS wrong. Also I am afraid of set theory. I am also attaching the practice grid. This is a good way to zero in the problem areas. I hope to continue with this practice.

Score Review: Verbal
21 correct and 20 incorrect To be honest, when I was doing exercises in PR and the OG diagnostic tests, I felt that no matter I am making mistakes in Verbal, yet I had this constant feeling of understanding the Q stems, semantics etc and thought that I was not making obvious mistakes. However; this time, I was completely lost. Not once did I understand any of the RC, CR or SC. After the initial few questions, I lost all the confidence and was merely clicking through the rest. I haven't reviewed my verbal scores as yet.

Regards

You're starting in a pretty good spot. At least you know that you're pretty solid in the math - still, don't neglect that section in your studying. Improving the math score a couple points is probably do-able and would bump up the total score nicely.

As for verbal, practice, practice, practice! As you start doing more problems, you'll realize that the same grammatical errors, logical structures, etc. keep popping up a lot. Get good at spotting those, and you're well on your way to a solid score improvement.

Good luck!

Hi
Thanks. I have now reviewed my verbal scores as well. The 23 in verbal actually makes me feel better as there is a lot of scope for improvement. I finally bought MGMAT turbocharge set of 4. Here is what I plan to do now before I give my second CAT.

Quants
Basic Idea: Keeping the score in Quants consistent. Read Manhattan Review math study guide chapters 5 - 11. Focus on the weaknesses from the 1st CAT [DS+others]. Practice few questions from MGMAT DS practice test and solve a couple of questions in OG11.

Verbal
Basic Idea: Focus on one area of improvement[SC] to see if I can make significant improvement in that area in the 2nd CAT, whereas showing moderate imrpovements in CR and RC. In the 1st CAT I got 6 out of the 15 Qs of SC incorrect, coupled with the fact that CAT would be throwing simpler Qs at me.
1. Complete Manhattan SC guide
2. Review RC and CR strategy from PR. Also I have come up with my own strategy for RC, after the analysis of 1st CAT. I would love to test it before reading further on them in MGMAT Verbal study guide
3. Practice verbal questions in MGMAT
4. Practice verbal questions in OG 11

Take the 2nd CAT.

Thanks again!
Best Regards.

That sounds like a good initial plan of attack - as you improve, you'll find more specific areas to focus on.

Happy studying!

Hey billu,

I just wanted to let you know that Manhattan Turbocharge is not a product of "Manhattan GMAT" but is actually from another company called "Manhattan Review".

See this link here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/manhattan-tu ... t4670.html

Hey
I have now ordered Manhattan GMAT and decided to return Manhattan Review Turbocharge set of 4. Thanks a lot for picking this finer point in the blog, educating me and pointing me to helpful links. (Looks like I just made a sentence logically and structurally correct avoiding the problems of parallelism in SC )

Regards

Hi Friends
I have almost finished my second round of study. In the next 1-2 days, I'll give me 2nd CAT. I was just wondering whether I should take the PR test or the GMATTest Prep CAT 1 again (I'm keeping the 2nd GMAT Test Prep CAT for the last week).
Here are the two lines of thinking:
1. I want to witness a rise in my score. I am confident that if I give PR CAT then I will get a good rise in the score. This will boost my confidence.

2. But I am cautious that this may not be realistic. I am also confident that if I give GMATTestPrep CAT 1 again then my scores should increase but may not be that much. I'm not sure if giving the CAT1 again is a good idea. I understand that the questions may or may not be repeated.

Any suggestions?
Best Regards