BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

6 Weeks Part Time Strategy Needed for 600+(530on1st-No Prep)

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:37 pm
Thanked: 1 times

6 Weeks Part Time Strategy Needed for 600+(530on1st-No Prep)

by masri » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:48 pm
Hi All,
I have been visiting the forum occasionally while I was preparing for my test, I always found it useful but never thought that I will be posting, so please help me out!!

I took the test last Jan and scored 530 (Q39/V23), to be honest I didn't prepare enough then as I studied only the OG and did the two GMAT-Prep tests. I didn't prepare enough that I left the last 6 Q with no answer, realized my mistake when I went home stunned of my score and checked the forum to realize the importance guessing over leaving questions unanswered. I am not sure how bad that affected my Q score, please share your thoughts on this

I am scheduled for the retake on April 30th, with two "A" schools MBA conditional offers at hand provided that I score well in excess of 600, and secured a scholarship for any program of choice, so you can tell that I can not compromise messing up in this retake at all :? :?

I got PR/MGAMT/Kaplan/ and offcourse OG. Started my new preps two weeks ago with MGMAT SC, and did an MGMAT test and a PR test, in both cases I scored 43 Q and 25 V. (around 550) I need to do something about my verbal, and I only have 6 weeks now.

Can you please advise a good strategy for me, my major problem is that I work full time and my work is taking much of my time (a common problem I believe), so I am studying part time for 3-4 hours daily. Please help me setting a plan in terms of the studying strategy, which book to start with, how often and when to do practice tests, improving my verbal, and most importantly time management which I suck the most at (Although I get good scores in Q I am always left with 7 questions to guess at the end)

Thanks guys for setting the first corner stone in building our business careers!
Top
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3380
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am
Thanked: 2256 times
Followed by:1535 members
GMAT Score:800

Re: 6 Weeks Part Time Strategy Needed for 600+(530on1st-No P

by lunarpower » Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:09 am
masri wrote:Hi All,
I have been visiting the forum occasionally while I was preparing for my test, I always found it useful but never thought that I will be posting, so please help me out!!

I took the test last Jan and scored 530 (Q39/V23), to be honest I didn't prepare enough then as I studied only the OG and did the two GMAT-Prep tests. I didn't prepare enough that I left the last 6 Q with no answer, realized my mistake when I went home stunned of my score and checked the forum to realize the importance guessing over leaving questions unanswered. I am not sure how bad that affected my Q score, please share your thoughts on this

I am scheduled for the retake on April 30th, with two "A" schools MBA conditional offers at hand provided that I score well in excess of 600, and secured a scholarship for any program of choice, so you can tell that I can not compromise messing up in this retake at all :? :?

I got PR/MGAMT/Kaplan/ and offcourse OG. Started my new preps two weeks ago with MGMAT SC, and did an MGMAT test and a PR test, in both cases I scored 43 Q and 25 V. (around 550) I need to do something about my verbal, and I only have 6 weeks now.

Can you please advise a good strategy for me, my major problem is that I work full time and my work is taking much of my time (a common problem I believe), so I am studying part time for 3-4 hours daily. Please help me setting a plan in terms of the studying strategy, which book to start with, how often and when to do practice tests, improving my verbal, and most importantly time management which I suck the most at (Although I get good scores in Q I am always left with 7 questions to guess at the end)

Thanks guys for setting the first corner stone in building our business careers!
at this point you need to concentrate about 90% on time management, and 10% on EVERYTHING else. this test is primarily a test not of answering problems correctly, but of answering problems correctly under severe time limitations. you have admitted yourself, in this very post, that you 'suck at' time management - which is as important as, if not MORE important than, content (especially with 6 weeks remaining until test day).

learn the basic time management guidelines:
2 minutes average per math problem
1:00-1:15 average per sentence correction problem
2:00-2:30 per critical reasoning problem
3-5 minutes per reading comprehension passage, and then 1:00 max per problem (less on 'big picture'/'main idea' problems)

you need to start sticking to these guidelines on ALL practice that you EVER do, whether that be practice tests, homework, individual problems out of the OG, etc.

doing anything untimed, beyond simply getting used to the very basics of the test, is a very bad idea: you may unintentionally reinforce strategies and concepts that simply don't work within the time guidelines. time management uber alles!

here are a couple of strategies to get started.
(1) internalize the stopwatch: you need to learn what one minute feels like, instinctively, without ever looking at a watch. you should be able to call out one minute with good accuracy while you are working on practice problems. once you can do this, you'll be able to implement the following rule effectively:
(2) if you don't have a rule for solving a problem by halfway through the time, start the guessing process. this means that if you don't have a CLEAR idea how to solve a math problem by 1 minute, you should start guessing or using process of elimination. if you don't see the key to a sentence correction problem by 30 seconds or so, start examining random splits between the answer choices and eliminating some choices. if you don't see the key to a critical reasoning problem by 1:00-1:15, start going through the answers and doing process of elimination.
(3) do not deliberate. for many business-minded individuals, this is the hardest part to swallow: you CANNOT deliberate, on ANYTHING, in the time allowed by the test. you must make FAST DECISIONS about both strategy and content. this goes back to step (2) above: if a method doesn't work, abandon it immediately. also, NEVER sit there and try to think about whether a method will work; if you think it might work, just dive in. if it's not practicable, you'll find out in a hurry, and you can then switch over to guessing mode.

as you can see, time management is not simply a matter of learning to look at a stopwatch: it's a fundamental shift in your outlook toward the test. you need to pound these habits into your head, as difficult as that might be.

i will post more on the other topics if time permits, but be aware that time management is your Number 1 concern. at this point, everything else is completely secondary.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

--

Learn more about ron
Top
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:37 pm
Thanked: 1 times

16 out of first 18Q correct in 55 minutes - then I FREAK OUT

by masri » Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:35 am
Hi Ron,

I would say my time management problem is only with Q where I have an average 43 score, in verbal i do not have a time problem as I am left only with the last two questions to guess yet I am scoring a 25 average, so it's a content problem with verbal.

Now for Q, what makes me sad is that I hardly get any question wrong in the first 18 questions (usually 16/18 correct) before I start to mess thing up, i did a quick statistic on my practice test results and found that in the first 18 questions 1/3 of the questions take me 1 min, 1/3 take 3 mins and 1/3 take 5 minutes, after that I start to freak out and start having 2 wrong questions and one correct until I reach question 30 where I start answering randomly !!!

I find it really hard to use POE while knowing that if I spend 1 more minute I will get the question right, so I usually spend this 1 more minute, and I am afraid that if i drop this strategy I will compromise getting questions right to have time to solve more questions that I might still get wrong !!!! Please advise what shall I do when I practice to find a good balance between the two to solve my time management problem

Finally, the above discussion would solve my time management problem with Q which I score well at, but how about Verbal !!

Can you please also advise how shall I pace practicing with doing practice tests, now I am practicing two days, doing a practice test on the third, and evaluating my performance and answers explanations on the fourth.

Thanks for the motivation and help as I NEED IT BADLY :)
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1