GMAT Strategy

Hello,

i have exactly 60 days to my GMAT test, and i have finished studying all the topics i used Veritas books and videos, i didn't solve much from the OG as Veritas has a lot of drills, i did a CAT and my score is 400 which is a disaster because i want 600+ score, and in solving problems from CAT i found myself forgetting many things from what i have studied earlier and i panicked, so i started solving more OG problems and i'm answering wrong to must of them and i find myself going back to what i have studied before, isn't that a time consuming strategy, is there any better plan to follow for the next 2 months ?

Thanks for replaying, but what you are saying means that i should start studying everything all over again.
plus if i focused on on topic and solved dozens of OG questions and didn't move on until i master it that means that by the time i finish all the topics of GMAT i would forget about what i have studied first, which is happening to me now.
an to master a topic i'll need to focus on it for 2 days or more, which is time i don't have.

Azizakaria wrote:Hello,

i have exactly 60 days to my GMAT test, and i have finished studying all the topics i used Veritas books and videos, i didn't solve much from the OG as Veritas has a lot of drills, i did a CAT and my score is 400 which is a disaster because i want 600+ score, and in solving problems from CAT i found myself forgetting many things from what i have studied earlier and i panicked, so i started solving more OG problems and i'm answering wrong to must of them and i find myself going back to what i have studied before, isn't that a time consuming strategy, is there any better plan to follow for the next 2 months ?

First, use your old practice exams to diagnose issues. Some test-takers, even once they've mastered all the topics individually, struggle on tests for a variety of reasons. Sometimes timing is an issue. Sometimes the issue is that they've become accustomed to seeing the questions grouped by category, and when the exam hits them from different angles, it's disorienting. It's one thing when you get to do 15 rate questions in a row. You get into a rhythm. But when you have to do a rate question followed by a geometry question followed by a number properties problem, it's another story. Sometimes the issue is forgetting to use strategies. It's one thing to know, intellectually, that picking numbers can be helpful; it's another thing to have the wherewithal to actually do it under pressure.

But you can't resolve the issues before you know what they are. So that's the first thing: go over old exams and make notes to yourself. Make a list of three or four strategic adjustments you can make before the next test. Maybe do some drilling in problem areas. Then take another test. Wash/rinse/repeat.

[email protected] wrote:Hi Azizakaria,

With 60 days remaining, you still have plenty of time to study and improve. Before I can offer any advice, I'd like to know a bit more about how you've been studying so far:

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What specific study materials have you used?
3) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this CAT?
4) Is this the only CAT that you've taken? If not, then what were your scores on the other CATs?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

1) i have been studying for more than 2 months now.
2) i'm using Veritas Books & videos & OG 2015.
3) my score was Q20 and V25
4) i took CAT once before from 2 months and scored 350 Q20 V17.

i have much more time to study now, but i just need to know what to do, i want to use the remain 60 days effectively, as i can't effort another attempt.
Thanks for your help.

[email protected] wrote:HI Azizakaria,

From your last post, it sounds like you've used a 'book-heavy' study approach. Many Test Takers get 'stuck' at a particular scoring level when studying in that way - since you've been studying for over 2 months, it's possible that this has happened to you. Since your two CAT scores are fairly close to one another, you'll likely need to make some big adjustments to your studies to achieve your 600+ score goal in 2 months time.

Have you considered investing in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led). You would likely find the expertise and consistent guidance to be quite helpful.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

i already took a GMAT course for a month and it was intensive so i had no time to solve or study what i learned in the course, and that's what i want to do now.

1) i'm planning to apply for the September 2016 but the deadline is end of April.
2) i'm planning to apply to HEC in france, a high GMAT score will be an advantage for my application.

so what's the adjustments i should make ?

Hi.

To add to this conversation, I see some things going on, and maybe it all comes down to the same basic thing.

You have studied to understand, which is good, but it does not seem as if you have fully trained to score high on this test. For one thing, over all that time you took only two practice tests.

Scoring high on the GMAT is in the end really about two things, being good at getting right answers and being good at handling the test itself.

So I think that now that you have gone over the ideas that underlie the test you need to make your training going forward more results driven.

For instance, now you can go over that test, and see what you did easily and what you did less easily, and work on the stuff that was more challenging for you, one topic at a time, as some others have mentioned.

For instance you mentioned things that you felt you basically were better at than your test results would indicate. So maybe you need to get some more practice getting right answers to those types of questions so that next time you see them on a test you are more confident and a little tighter.

For quant, I tend to recommend the question bank at https://bellcurves.com, which you can access by going to the GMAT area and setting up a practice account. You can get lots of topic by topic practice using that question bank.

When you do topic by topic practice, be sure to realize that understanding is not the end goal. Getting RIGHT answers by whatever means you can come up with is the end goal.

Another thing that you can do is take more CATs, one a week or something. As David mentioned, taking a test is not like doing sets of questions.Among other things, the questions on the test are mixed, there is time pressure and the test is feeding you more difficult questions as you get right answers. So one thing that will get your score to go higher is taking more tests, playing the GMAT like a video game.

You can play the game various ways. For instance, one thing I have seen done is taking one's time, seeing how many questions one can get right toward the beginning and middle of the test, even if one has to guess on some at the end. Then one seeks to stretch out the winning streak more in following practice tests. Another thing you could do is just get psyched to get a few more right answers each time you take a practice test. You look over the last test you took and see what you could have done better, do some prep, and then take another one.

See how it's like a game?

One person working with me was having trouble getting her score to go up. So she just started taking CATs, looking over her last CAT, preparing some, then taking the next one. She used official CATs, Manhattan CATs, Veritas CATs, 800Score CATs, and maybe even others too. So she was really getting practice taking the test, and by analyzing her performance she decided what to work on between CATs.

If she saw that she would have scored much higher had she been better at, say, rate problems, remainders and critical reasoning, she would work on those things, and then take another CAT and see how she did.

So she was addressing just the right things and getting very accustomed to handling the test, and working that way worked like a charm, as she drove her score all the way up to 750.

You don't have to worry too much about forgetting things, because in working that way, you are always addressing the areas that need work. So if you aren't remembering something, that weakness will come out in your test results and you will work on it.

Overall, the thing to realize is that the GMAT is not asking you whether you know about a list of things. In fact you could score well into the 700's and totally blow off learning about certain things that show up on the test. All you need to do to hit your score goal is to be good enough at enough things to hit that goal. Right? So, so what if you forget how to do certain things. As long as you remember how to do enough things to score over 600, you are set.

So maybe my message is to let your preparation from now on be more right answer driven and test driven and less list driven.

You might get some more insight from this post.

https://infinitemindprep.com/raising-you ... the-board/