GMAT Strategy

Hi All,

Hope everyone is fine.

I'm here to ask for help!

I had my 3rd attempt (or 4th including last year's) yesterday, scoring a disappointing 610 (44/30). Btw, I canceled this score.

Background info: non-native speaker (south america), engineer, work for consulting Co.
In general I believe I have a fairly good english (toefl 114 recently - though on this post I'm writing informally)

Below my past scores:

550 (41/26) - August 2013 - 8am
660 (47/34) - July 2nd, 2014 - 8am
650 (48/31) - August 6th, 2014 - 8am
610 (44/30) - Sept 8th, 2014 - canceled - 11am

Used a mixed of resources (had some local classes here).
GmatPrep CAT scores (in 2014):
650 (49/31)
660 (42/39) - I think I was sleepy in Q
650 (48/31)

For this 3rd attempt I took 2 MGMATs 640 (42/35), 630 (39/37) and 1 Veritas 670 (48/35)

re: the Q section, I have some weak areas (e.g.: some geometry, sets), but in general not bad.
In V I'm better at SC (usually miss 2 questions, in MGMAT/Veritas none), then probably tied between RC and CR (but RC probably better).

re: timing, in my CATs I was ok with time. In MGMATs Q was really tough to keep up with time and V was right on it.
In the official tests (in 2014), on the first I had to rush slightly in the end in Q, in V was ok (although i guessed the 3rd RC). On the second test, I had to really rush in the end in Q (but managed to score higher!) and was ok with V.

Thus, to be honest, I believe I need to improve in both sections, but definitely more in Verbal.

I really don't know what else to do / resources to use. I keep track of my errors in Q and in SC. I admit that in RC and CR i don't have an error log, for in RC I like to read the whole thing (I tried the skim read technique, didn't work) and CR I just try to grasp the idea and see the choices (I can spot easily now OOS choices). I know I know, there's room for improvement here. I just need something to break the bad habits and make me believe in these approaches for CR especially

I will try again (the last time) in Mid-October. So roughly 5 weeks (I need some rest until the next Monday)

Resources I have:

-OG13
-3 MGMATs
-3 Veritas
-404 (little less) Q bank for gmatprep software
-GMAT 800 (old of Kaplan)
-Guts
-Willpower
-Faith
-Open mind to try new approaches!

Any ideas? Rich, as you are more active in this section, any thoughts? It's late here, but I'll leave a pm tomorrow to you.

Happy to hear everyone's advices!

Thanks

Hi!

First of all, what is your goal score? That might help us better give advice.

You're doing well in quant! I would recommend now trying to work with the most difficult material to help you get it up that last little bit. I used the MGMAT advanced quant book. It has useful strategies for the most difficult types of quant questions and lots of practice.

For verbal, I would definitely recommend keeping an error log for RC and CR. It is really important to keep track of exactly where for weaknesses are for example, global, inference, specific detail, etc.

For RC, I always recommend to my students that they read the passage first and then go to the questions. When reading, jot down a few notes about the structure of the passage so you know where things are, but you don't need to write down anything specific.

For CR, read the question first so that you know what to look for when your read the passage. Then go to the questions. For the more difficult questions instead of looking for why an answer is right, look for why the other four are wrong. It is easy to convince yourself that the wrong answer is right, but there are often subtle problems that make the answer wrong. If you eliminate the four wrong answers, you are less likely to fall into the common traps the test makers set for you.

The overall strategy for CR and RC is practice practice practice! Unlike the other sections, you are not learning anything new to help you take it, you are just learning how to take the test, so your best strategy is doing a lot of practice and making sure you review the answers thoroughly, so you know what you are doing right and you know what you are doing wrong.

For SC, you do need to learn a lot of rules. I recommend getting a good sentence correction guide and reading through it and taking lots of notes.

Hope this helps!!

Hi Eliza,

Thanks for the quick response!

Indeed I did not mention my target. It is 700+ (honestly with a 700 sharp I'm happy).

Before restarting, I'll make this error log (with the type of error) for RC and CR then.

In terms of sources, any tips for improving Verbal?

For Quant I'll keep using MGMAT...but still wondering the best for Verbal! Kaplan?

Thanks again!