GMAT Strategy

Hi,

I'm currently preparing for GMAT and require your valuable inputs to further practice the concepts learned.

Well, So far I have done (doing) below materials -

OG13 -
Good to start but not the best explanations. Nevertheless, I found this very valuable to set the directions.
Manhattan -
I'm currently doing this series to build upon my concepts and skills. Books are concise and well put but exercises part is too humble.
I need to know about various sources to immediately practice upon my concepts learnt thru this material. I repeat official material in parallel though.

I'm bit anxious if both of these materials prepares me for 700 level questions as I still haven't tested myself with full length practice test.

I follow different materials especially for verbal part as I'm weak on that side. I'm totally aware of online sources and follow various discussions.

Looking forward to your valuable suggestions from practice perspective for both sections. Hopefully I will continue working on my concepts.

Thanks.

Hope this is the right forum to put this question !!!!

Harisingh Khedar wrote:Hi,

I'm currently preparing for GMAT and require your valuable inputs to further practice the concepts learned.

Well, So far I have done (doing) below materials -

OG13 -
Good to start but not the best explanations. Nevertheless, I found this very valuable to set the directions.
Manhattan -
I'm currently doing this series to build upon my concepts and skills. Books are concise and well put but exercises part is too humble.
I need to know about various sources to immediately practice upon my concepts learnt thru this material. I repeat official material in parallel though.

I'm bit anxious if both of these materials prepares me for 700 level questions as I still haven't tested myself with full length practice test.

I follow different materials especially for verbal part as I'm weak on that side. I'm totally aware of online sources and follow various discussions.

Looking forward to your valuable suggestions from practice perspective for both sections. Hopefully I will continue working on my concepts.

Thanks.

Hope this is the right forum to put this question !!!!

Hi Hari,

Several inputs from my ends are as follows:

1) OG-13 is outdated now and doesn't contain all the practice stuff that one MUST practice to be prepared very well for the exam GMAT. Most questions (even from the latest editions of OG) are either easy or Medium level and don't provide you the material for 700 level.
Even Manhattan given you the practice of a specific set of questions with a small number of questions which even if qualified on level of difficulty, doesn't deserve thumbs-up as sufficient practice material of required level to be practised.

2) You must test yourself with a Full Length Practice to test your level and find my observations and suggestion more relevant and trustworthy.

3) Referring to any and every material is considered a bad habit for majority of students as they lack the real focus that GMAT preparation requires. While it's important to practice more material, it's also equally important that you practice relevant and good material. So please refer to the suggested and tested material only. (manhattan and OG are good stuff to practice from but not sufficient stuff to practice)

4) If you are weak at some specific part then you may consider taking expert help (suggestion) as I wouldn't suggest someone just to spend $250 just to have a feeling and not get a desired score in GMAT when the result is predictable to some extent.Expert help may be a little cheaper or equally expensive but it can help you get avoid any probably loss of time, effort and money all.

I hope you find the suggestions and observations helpful. In case, you consider taking expert help, I (being a 99 percentiler Tutor) offer you to take a FREE ONLINE ONE-ON-ONE SKYPE BASED DEMO CLASS with us and decide the quality of class on your own. You can reach me on [email protected]

Hi Rich,

Yes you may say that I'm in my early stages of preparation as I started only two months back.
After I took the official diagnostic test, I came to know about my weaker areas and started working diligently using specified materials.

Now that I'm about to finish with this material, I would take a full length test and gauge my performance. As I plan to score 700+, I realize I will require more practice(?) to consolidate on concepts learnt and acquire that precision needed to hit 700 level questions.

One possible way is to refer other sources (Online forums, practice tests, courses etc. ) to further consolidate the concept application. May be I'm trying to know how to prepare myself better for every other pratice test? I plan to take exam early next year (Jan-feb) and apply later same year.

Thanks for help !!

Hi.

For categorized quant questions, you could set up a practice account in the GMAT area of https://BellCurves.com. I have seen people get a lot out of those quant questions. The explanations are not always great, but in many of the categories there are great tricky questions.

There are other question banks that you can buy or use for free. In addition, if you just want maybe a half dozen more questions in a category, you could do a search for say "gmat overlapping sets questions" and find blogs and stuff that contain questions in that category.

On another note, it does seem to be time for you to take a practice test, partly because your prep will go better if it is to a degree test driven. I mean once you have taken a test and seen what about it challenges you and what you need to get better at to score higher, you will have a clearer sense of how your preparation should go.

Hi Rich,

I just took my first full-length practice test and you were right to predict that it could disappoint me at first.

Score - 520 (Q44, V19)

After I analyzed the reports, I found below set of problems -

1.
I just couldn't deal with timed test. I felt nervous throughout the test and found difficulty in applying concepts.
2.
Problem was more evident in verbal section where I faulted in series of questions (RC in particular) as I skimmed through last few passages. Also, I found it difficult to comprehend the CR questions and make suitable judgement given less time in hand. SC was OK.
I feel, series of wrong questions reflects too much on bad score !!
3.
I felt lack of practice in both sections (Verbal - I had worked much on SC) even though I have covered both OG and Manhattan Quant. Manhattan has given plenty of strategies but still i have not found enough sources to apply them all.

I feel obfuscated on how to take the preparations forward. Should I repeat the OG in whole? Should i continue to attempt other CAT from practice perspective? Should I look for strategy guidance? Should I start practicing using timed approach?

Please suggest. I want to improve upon the lacking skills and try another test in a 2-3 weeks.

Appreciate your help !!