Hello eternal_optimist:

I may have been a little late to get my hands on your incredibly inspiring post! I am currently neck deep in my quest to beat the beast (GMAT) especially the frontal QUANT beast. Although it has been 4 years from your amazing GMAT accomplishment, I thought I will ask you to share your quant strategy to progress from your 500s to 600s and eventually to an illustrious 700+. Given that I have provided myself a 5 months time to master the test (or may be close), I am currently 1 month into reviewing MGMAT materials and have been close to 460 only (very low quant score!). I plan to extensively review it a couple of times in another 3-4 weeks and also strengthen myself by purchasing the "MGMAT Advanced Quant guide". Do you think it to be a worthy guide to spend time on, help in content strategy and GMAT score building in the long run?

Your "competency building program" did a wonderful job in inspiring me, self realizing and establishing the significances of "reading" in our lives, per se, specifically in my mind. "Off-material" reading is something I secretly despise and I would really look forward to know the kinds(examples) of newspapers and reading archives you laid your hands on to build your requisite verbal competency and also eventually start to enjoy the process. Will look forward to your response

[email protected] wrote:HI knowurweakness,

Since it sounds like you've just started studying, your 460 score is not too bad. If your Quant score is on the lower side, then working on 'Advanced' Quant is not something that you should be focused on just yet (if at all).

If you can answer a few questions, then I'll be happy to advise:

1) Is the 460 the only CAT score that you have?
2) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on that CAT?
3) During the Quant section, did you run out of time (and did you have to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish?)?

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

Hey rich-i'm halfway through my prep..struggling with time..get stuck in some questions which throws my timekeeping away..how do i time myself better?

sameer.pinto wrote: Hey rich-i'm halfway through my prep..struggling with time..get stuck in some questions which throws my timekeeping away..how do i time myself better?

Conceptual clarity is what i needed to improve my speed. it's very important to be clear conceptually to improve speed

Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote:

sameer.pinto wrote:
Hey rich-i'm halfway through my prep..struggling with time..get stuck in some questions which throws my timekeeping away..how do i time myself better?

You must be prepared to abandon questions that are taking wayyyy too long in order conserve time for questions you CAN answer.

I suggest that you use the following Milestone Charts to keep you on track:

These times are easily remembered so you can quickly jot them on your noteboard on test day.

This (and more) is covered in our free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

Also, early in one's studies, it's a good idea to use a stopwatch to help get an idea of what 2 minutes feels like. This tip and others can be found in these articles on "making friends with time on the GMAT"
https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/mak ... %93-part-i
https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/mak ... 93-part-ii

Cheers,
Brent

Awesome advice brent and great resources there

Thanks Brent for those insights and links. Really helpful.

Great post, it was inspirational!