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Altabor
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2016 10:49 am
- Thanked: 3 times
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Hey guys,
The first thing I have to say is thank you to all of the people who have posted GMAT Prep questions to this site and thank you to all of the people that have answered those posts with great detail! I could not have been successful without understanding many of those problems from the practice tests.
Second thing I have to say is thta self-study is able to get you to a 700 if you start low (like I did) as long as you put in the work!
So here is my progress... my first practice test was on May 2nd after just going over the basics of the gmat material that would be on the official test. this is how I did...(the image below also shows my improvement to my second practice test)
To say the least I was disappointed, I thought I would be starting at 600+ and all the post I had read said that most people could increase their starting score from 50-100 points but its pretty difficult to go up more than 100 points. But I said screw these posts because I am willing to give it all i've got!
Heres what I did to study: (Keep in mind I just graduated and had two and a half months of summer to study for the gmat- I understand most people complete this studying while they are working)
1. Went through every single MGMAT (manhattan guides)!! This (in my opinion) is the #1 thing to do before you start doing practice problems randomly. I wasted weeks doing practice problems before I started the manhattan books. The ones that are especially important are the sentence correction, geometry, and number properties.
2. Do every single problem from the official guide book 2016 edition(big book) and both of the small books (green and orange). Do them timed, then highlight all the ones you have gotten wrong and once you review over your notes and manhattan guides again I would go through those problems that are giving you trouble.
3. Go through and do all the problems in the 800 Kaplan book (specifically the math problems) because it goes over the hardest problems you will probably face!
4. Finally, take a practice test for every 30-40 hours of study time (this doesnt necessarily mean for every 30-40 hours of practice problems) you need to understand the basics too of every theory that the GMAT tests. Take these tests under the EXACT circumstances of a real exam.
***Also, my recommendation is to spend 89.00 and get the pack of 4 practice tests from the GMAT software if you can. Because the first two tests are free, but if you reset them you still will probably see fluctuations in your score due to repeating questions (some will be familiar). BUT if you get new tests completely then you know you are practicing with the best practice tests that will help you prepare AND you know your score will be accurate.
Heres my progress during practice tests:
So test day, I went in and reviewed at starbucks with ear plugs in for a full hour before my test. I just reviewed general DS problems giving me trouble and overview of concepts that I needed to know! Every practice test I took I took under the EXACT circumstances of the real GMAT. I got there at 7am to a public library, used ear plugs, took the timed breaks, and started the essay portion at exactly 8 am. SO the real test day felt familiar but was still scary.
I ended up getting a 740 on the actual exam! with a 8 score on Integrated Reasoning and haven't gotten my actual essay score back yet! So for all the people who start low on their first practice test DO NOT WORRY! you can do it!! Because I can promise you, it did not come easy for me at all!
ALSO: Forgot to add this in the original post!!!! But my sentence correction score was struggling... and I ended up finding this slideshow that had an amazing overview (better than any overview from any book) that explained what EXACTLY misplaced modifiers were, how to improve a sentence, etc. Without this I dont think I could have improved my sentence correction score so I need to let Brent@GMATPrepNow know that his slideshow is amazing!! And After the slideshow, I would recommend going through the manhattan guide (very slowly) and making flashcards for any idioms or redundant phrases you might miss in the future. *I've attached the slideshow!
The first thing I have to say is thank you to all of the people who have posted GMAT Prep questions to this site and thank you to all of the people that have answered those posts with great detail! I could not have been successful without understanding many of those problems from the practice tests.
Second thing I have to say is thta self-study is able to get you to a 700 if you start low (like I did) as long as you put in the work!
So here is my progress... my first practice test was on May 2nd after just going over the basics of the gmat material that would be on the official test. this is how I did...(the image below also shows my improvement to my second practice test)
To say the least I was disappointed, I thought I would be starting at 600+ and all the post I had read said that most people could increase their starting score from 50-100 points but its pretty difficult to go up more than 100 points. But I said screw these posts because I am willing to give it all i've got!
Heres what I did to study: (Keep in mind I just graduated and had two and a half months of summer to study for the gmat- I understand most people complete this studying while they are working)
1. Went through every single MGMAT (manhattan guides)!! This (in my opinion) is the #1 thing to do before you start doing practice problems randomly. I wasted weeks doing practice problems before I started the manhattan books. The ones that are especially important are the sentence correction, geometry, and number properties.
2. Do every single problem from the official guide book 2016 edition(big book) and both of the small books (green and orange). Do them timed, then highlight all the ones you have gotten wrong and once you review over your notes and manhattan guides again I would go through those problems that are giving you trouble.
3. Go through and do all the problems in the 800 Kaplan book (specifically the math problems) because it goes over the hardest problems you will probably face!
4. Finally, take a practice test for every 30-40 hours of study time (this doesnt necessarily mean for every 30-40 hours of practice problems) you need to understand the basics too of every theory that the GMAT tests. Take these tests under the EXACT circumstances of a real exam.
***Also, my recommendation is to spend 89.00 and get the pack of 4 practice tests from the GMAT software if you can. Because the first two tests are free, but if you reset them you still will probably see fluctuations in your score due to repeating questions (some will be familiar). BUT if you get new tests completely then you know you are practicing with the best practice tests that will help you prepare AND you know your score will be accurate.
Heres my progress during practice tests:
So test day, I went in and reviewed at starbucks with ear plugs in for a full hour before my test. I just reviewed general DS problems giving me trouble and overview of concepts that I needed to know! Every practice test I took I took under the EXACT circumstances of the real GMAT. I got there at 7am to a public library, used ear plugs, took the timed breaks, and started the essay portion at exactly 8 am. SO the real test day felt familiar but was still scary.
I ended up getting a 740 on the actual exam! with a 8 score on Integrated Reasoning and haven't gotten my actual essay score back yet! So for all the people who start low on their first practice test DO NOT WORRY! you can do it!! Because I can promise you, it did not come easy for me at all!
ALSO: Forgot to add this in the original post!!!! But my sentence correction score was struggling... and I ended up finding this slideshow that had an amazing overview (better than any overview from any book) that explained what EXACTLY misplaced modifiers were, how to improve a sentence, etc. Without this I dont think I could have improved my sentence correction score so I need to let Brent@GMATPrepNow know that his slideshow is amazing!! And After the slideshow, I would recommend going through the manhattan guide (very slowly) and making flashcards for any idioms or redundant phrases you might miss in the future. *I've attached the slideshow!
- Attachments
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- Every Sentence Correction Concept in 1 slideshow.pdf
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Last edited by Altabor on Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
