GMAT Strategy

Hi everyone,
First of all, I would like to thank everyone in advance for taking the time to check out my post and offer any type of useful advice.

I am 23 years old, and I obtained my undergraduate degree about a year ago. For the past year, I have been focusing on work, and haven't really had a chance to think about a graduate program (I work for the Pepsi Bottling Group as a sales rep). Recently, I have had the chance to check out a few programs, and have my heart set on Stern NYU for my MBA. I have a 3.85 GPA from a respectable private university, and some decent extra curricular activities to go along with about 3-4 years of work experience. I got a little cocky and registered for my GMAT a few weeks ago without studying a lick. I took the test today, and received a 590. I am going to retake the exam on October 10, in an effort to raise the score up to around a 710-720 (Stern Average), so I can still make the November 15th deadline for next year. I got a month of prep, and was wondering if any of you guys could give me some advice on how to tackle the prepping?

I have listed my unofficial GMAT scores below for reference:
Quantitive- 36
Verbal- 35
Total- 590

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks,
Matt

Hey Matt, welcome to our community!

First off, go ahead and download the free software available at mba.com - it contains two CATs that are the closest thing out there when it comes to simulating your real test. Take GMATprep 1 and see how well you do - your score doesn't really matter at this point, you should just figure out your weaknesses:are you having more trouble with sentence correction or with critical reasoning? do you stumble when you see a geometry problem with circles?

Next, you'll need to buy the Official Guide 12th edition - or OG 12. It's the best resource for practice questions. You could also buy the OG supplements (the green&blue books) for more practice, but that's up to you. You'll also need a strategy guide, since the OG does not have a tips/strategy section. I see quant is your weakness here (naturally, since you're a native speaker), so maybe you could try the Kaplan Math workbook or the Manhattan GMAT strategy guides (they have 5 for quant sections and 3 for the verbal sections). The SC (sentence correction) guide is particularly appreciated around here, but if your diagnostics CAT says you're having trouble with CR (critical reasoning), I would recommend PowerScore CR Bible instead of Manhattan GMAT CR guide.

Lastly, you need to cook up a plan for yourself. I used this post to develop my strategy and it served pretty well. Remember: once you come up with a plan, stick to it!

Do remember to not waste the second CAT of GMATprep (the software from mba.com): we usually take that one close to the real test so as to have an accurate prediction of the score. I took it some days before the big day and scored a 760 - pretty close to my official 770!

Good luck!

hello danaJ
some how i am unable to download the stuff , can u provide me the material specifically for RC or suggest some way

thanks in advance

Well, here's the software... I don't really know what else you have to do to download.

Dana,

I greatly appreciate your advice and will definitely be taking the exam much more seriously this time around. As is evidenced by my quant score, I could use quite a bit of practice on the math portion of the test. Truth is, I was actually pretty good in math in school, but haven't taken a math class in over 3 years. I struggled mightily with the geometry questions, and will probably start with those.

I appreciate your advice on downloading the free software from mba.com, and will most definitely be doing that eventually. However, my main computer is my macbook, and I was wondering if there is any Mac OS compatible software I might be able to download.

Thanks again,

Matt

Sorry, but I honestly have no idea... Maybe you could search the forum for threads discussing this? I'm pretty sure we also have Mac users around here...

hi danaJ
actually the link which u have provided of the gut twinsplitter.....has some stuff over improving RC , some error is showing in downloading those material.

even though i am a meber of urch , i am not able to download . if u have that and can share then i will be greatfull to you

thanks

Sorry - I actually did not download any of the RC material there since I had a 100% hit rate for RC when I started.

matthew_james wrote:
I took the test today, and received a 590. I am going to retake the exam on October 10, in an effort to raise the score up to around a 710-720 (Stern Average), so I can still make the November 15th deadline for next year. I got a month of prep, and was wondering if any of you guys could give me some advice on how to tackle the prepping?

I have listed my unofficial GMAT scores below for reference:
Quantitive- 36
Verbal- 35
Total- 590

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks,
Matt

Wow, 590-720 in one month? You are much more ambitious than me! However, it can be accomplished. Your scores right now are very balanced. You just need to raise them up about 8 points each. (2 points each per week) This will give you a 710 that you are looking for. (https://www.800score.com/score2.php) Take a practice GMAT CAT. Analyze you weak spots and fix them. That might be the fastest way to raise your score.

Don't feel discouraged if you don't make your 710-720 goal in one month because you still have a great GPA and work experience. You should still apply regardless your score in October.

Good luck!