GMAT Strategy

Hi everyone,

I recently gave my GMAT on 29th Feb. I scored a pathetic 570!

Q40,V28
55, 48 and overall- 54.

Well this time I couldnt study much because of a very hectic job. I studied bits everyday for around half hour/one hour for about 15 days and then I took a leave for around 11 days to study. During this time, I studied the following:

GMAT OG 12th Edition - I could not do all the questions though. Did the questions which were on the Manhattan 8 books.

Manhattan 8 book Series - If any some has an idea, in all the books I could not do much Advanced part, but the rest I was pretty much at ease with.

Kaplan Math and Verbal - I found the questions pretty simple in these books. This gave me a false sense of satisfaction.

3 days before the exam, I gave the GMAC preptest and scored a 610(Q32,V37). I was shocked!! Then i panicked and again scrolled through quickly all the manhattan books.. tried to do the advanced part but there was not much time.

Then gave the exam again and scored a 580(Q33,V36). That was it. I was so tense that i have no words. On the night of the GMAT too I could sleep only for 2 hours..

To be honest, I have not been much of a serious student all my life, and have never taken any exam seriously, but I guess this got to my head.

I have rescheduled the GMAT on 10th May, considering the new pattern being introduced in June.

But now I really want to target a score of 700. Please help me out !!

Hope this doesn't appear like a rant.

Will be grateful if someone could help me plan a strategy to study, taking into account that only two months are left for my next attempt at a 700.

Thanks and Cheerz

Varun.

570 is a 54 percentile score, which puts it above average. Congratulations, you're already above average. The language you are using indicates to me that you have assigned an arbitrary success threshold of 700. 700 is a 90 percentile score. Very difficult to achieve.

The biggest thing you'll want to do is adjust your expectations. That is, pick an improvement goal that makes sense for a 3-week time frame. Below is a chart relating scores and percentile values. How many percentile points do you think you can climb in three weeks? 10 is good, 20 would be great.


ref: https://www.mba.com/the-gmat/gmat-scores ... means.aspx

I recommend 610 as your goal (an improvement of 10 percentile points)
I recommend 650 as your stretch goal (an improvement of 20 percentile points)

Now, how to move forward.

Your explanation of what you have done so far is mostly a list of books you have read. Instead of reading more books and doing more questions, I suggest you start using an iterative model. You should be taking a MGMAT CAT every week. Then, run the "assessment reports" on your data and look for your weakest areas. Then, begin doing deep, reconstructive work on your worst area in a focused way. As your worst area improves, so will your score. The advantage of this method is that it is very time efficient. Every hour you spend on your weak area is worth 5 hours spent randomly reading or doing problems.

Let me know how it goes.

T

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the reply.

Pretty encouraging, but just to reaffirm - I have a time of 8 weeks to prepare. I have my GMAT on 10th May.

What do you think should be an ideal improvement target?

Thanks.

Varun

Hey Tim,

Could you please post a reply?

Also, I have a question:

For Math, I found the Kaplan Workbook pretty easy and finished the book in a few days. So would the preparation from Manhattan Books and OG 12 be enough?

Also please assist me with the Verbal preparation.

This help is really appreciated.

Thanks,

Varun.