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Studying again after 2 months of not doing it

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Studying again after 2 months of not doing it

by augusto » Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:17 am
Hi All,

I was studing for the gmat fom July to September but then I got some issues at work that prevented me from studying (at that time I was going to take the exam on the 30th of September)

Now I've been 2 months without thinking about the GMAT at all and I rebooked the test for the 1st of December, so I have 4 weeks to study.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice about how to start again. Maybe if it's better to go through the OG books or use a general book like the Kaplan Premier or Kaplan 800.


Thanks a lot,
Augusto
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by austin » Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:34 am
augusto,

Start with OG 11.. DO all the questions in math and verbal section..

Verbal: Read the explanations in OG.. you will know what GMAT expects from test-takers...You can use Manhattan for SC and Kaplan for CR..For RC, OG 11 has a number of passages from different topics...If you need some good stuff, mail me at: [email protected]

Quant: If you want to improve speed and accuracy fairly quickly, you must strengthen your basics... especially in GMAT's favorite areas such as number theory, inequalities, probability, geometry etc..

I strongly recommend 4GMAT's math e-books..
https://www.4gmat.com/prep_courses/gmat_ ... load.shtml
starts from basics, lots of short-cuts, concept based problems...will definitely help you..

If you can spend 4-5 (quality) hours for the next 20 days, you should be fine (assuming you have done some hard work between July and September)

Computer based tests: Take only Gprep and powerprep!!!
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by Toph@GMAT_REBOOT » Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:02 am
Augusto,

What materials did you use/cover and how did you study during your initial two-month period?
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by augusto » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:39 am
Thanks for your reply austin!

Riprop: I went though all the main topics of the quant section. I didn't practice a lot here because I have an engineering background, so it was quite easy for me.
In verbal (for me the most difficult part of the test by a big difference), I followed the following books
- SC Correction Bible
- CR Bible
- MGMAT SC Guide
- MGMAT CR and RC Guide
- OG Verbal (of the purple and yellow book)
- Part of the Kaplan Premier 2008

In quant I used to get really good scores, but, again, Verbal is my weak point and I would like to score above 720.

One of my "problems" is that I have quite a good memory, so I can remember the correct answer of the questions I already answered :S... so I can't go through the same book twice :(

Thanks for your advice!
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by Toph@GMAT_REBOOT » Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:26 pm
Practicing number theory and DS questions is a good idea regardless of quantatative background, in my opinion. Really, you should practice all aspects of quant regardless of your background. I scored pretty well in math when I started taking practice exams, but I'm glad that I practiced it the whole way through. I think that seeing how the GMAT writers present the questions and keeping this fresh in your mind can be very helpful.

It looks like you have a lot of material for verbal. For SC, I recommend going to the resources section of this site and looking at Spidey's and/or Sahlil's Grammar notes, in addition to the Manhattan guide (which is good for overview and fundamentals). This site's flash cards are useful too (for everything, not just for SC). Make sure you understand why each wrong answer is wrong and each right answer is right. Another tip is to review what you (and others) type. See if you can find any errors that break SC rules. It's annoying at first, but I think this process was good practice and helped to show me some grammatical errors that didn't instantly click in my mind as incorrect. Also, scrutinizing your own typing will be helpful for AWA.

Learning the critical reasoning types and the common types of wrong and write answers for each type of question is the best way to go for CR. Then practice, practice practice. I had studied for the LSATs (even though I ended up not taking that exam), and that helped me a lot with GMAT CR.

Having a good memory is a good thing, in general. I had couldn't use the OG books more than once either (other than for review), but a good memory should help you to learn and remember the SC rules. Also, a good memory is helpful for remembering where a certain piece of information was in an RC paragraph.

Use the prep books for the areas that you feel you need to strengthen the fundamentals, but make OG the core of your studying. I liked to time every question (and do sets of 10-30 questions at a time). Then I'd look at how much time I took. Even if I got a question right, it was still nice to know where I got hung up on. Knowing how to do something quickly and right is different than just knowing how to do something right. So just because you know how to do a question, doesn't mean you're done learning. If a certain question type tends to take you 2:30, 3:00 during OG, you want to practice them even if you always end up getting that type of question right.
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