GMAT Strategy

Hi Fernando,

Planning your studies in this way is fine, as long as you have enough time for each "phase" of the process. When are you planning to take your Official GMAT?

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

Hi Fernando,

With the additional information that you've provided, I can offer some additional perspective.

Since you've been studying for just a month, pacing should not be a concern just yet. Pacing should naturally improve with time and repetition though. If you find yourself taking an abnormally large amount of time on any particular questions, then you have to do some analysis to figure out WHY that's happening. Are you staring at the screen and doing nothing? Is there another approach that could be used to answer the question? Are you just not familiar enough with the concepts? Etc. You can attempt to "fix" these individual situations as they occur.

With a Test Date on October 11th, you have 6 weeks of study time remaining. While that seems like a lot of time, many Test Takers need 3 months (or more) to hit their scoring goals. By the time you get to October 11th, you'll have spent about 10 weeks. I only bring this up because if your goal is to score at the 700+ level, you might not have given yourself enough time to succeed. Are you open to the idea of pushing back your Test Date?

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

Hi Fernando,

Your prior posts didn't offer any information about your goals.

1) What is your goal score?
2) What schools are you planning to apply to?

Since you mentioned an interest in scholarships, do you know what range of GMAT scores you'd need to apply for any particular scholarship? If the first Round deadline is November 3rd, then you have some "wiggle room" to push back your GMAT and still make Round 1; this would likely mean that you'd have to work on your applications while still studying, but it's an option that I think would help you to improve your GMAT score. If needed, you could push back further.

As to your studies so far, what have your scores been on your practice CATs (include the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

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

Hi fermar84,

It sounds like your plan is reasonable, so now we need to get a better sense of how much your studies have helped you to improve. You should plan to take a FULL LENGTH practice CAT sometime in the next week (or so) and report back with your scores. That data will give you an idea of how close you are to your goal and what areas you need to spend some extra time on.

Any specific questions that you have about the 60-day plan should probably be posted in that sub-Forum.

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

Hi Fernando,

Since this is your first realistic CAT, I'm actually not surprised that your score has stayed the same. The act of taking a CAT measures a number of skills that doing practice problems and drills simply can't account for - pacing, endurance, consistency, focus, etc. Now, all those practice problems, etc. are what you need to do to IMPROVE, but you now have additional (non-content) areas to work on.

The score report stated that you finished the Quant section 17 MINUTES early. That is a HUGE amount of time on this exam. Imagine what you could have done with that time IF you had used it correctly. Of all the Quant questions that you got wrong, could you have gotten ANY of them correct if you had spent a bit more time on them? How many? Be honest.

You should plan to do a full question-by-question review of this entire CAT (even the questions that you got correct). You're looking for things that you did right (so you can repeat those same steps again) and silly mistakes that you can fix.

You still have 6 weeks before your Official GMAT, so it's not time to panic. If you're looking for additional resources to help, then I can offer some suggestions.

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

Hi Fernando,

I've sent you a private message with some personal suggestions.

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