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Frustrated with the GMAT- seeking help

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Frustrated with the GMAT- seeking help

by meeko » Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:21 pm
Hey,
I have tried studying for the GMAT in many different ways and nothing seems to work.....please advice

Here is my story

In Sept '08 i decided that i wanted to to apply to b-school. I was aiming for the Jan deadlines and decided to give my GMAT end of Dec....That was a horrible decision..since i had aldready started working on my apps before getting my GMAT score

After seriously prepping for abt 2months, i took the GMAT in dec '08 and was shocked to see my score.
I got a 480 (V 34, Q-22) . I guess i was really shocked because i was getting b/w 600-650 on all the Manhattan CAT's and the GMAT prep.

The course of study was :
1) Doing each of the 8 Manhattan guides and completing the OG/Quant/verb at the end of each section (untimed)
2) Manhattan question banks
looking back, i dont think i spent as much time analysing my wrong answers with OG. Also, i am horrible with timing. As you might have guessed, i did not apply to b-school last year

So here is my situation
Personally, i am much better at verbal than quant. In march i took a private GMAT course for 2 months. It was okay to revise the concepts and foundations but i dont feel like it has helped me much.

I have abt 25 days to go for my second attempt at the GMAT. So far, I have completed all the questions from OG 11 (except for CR). As recommended, i used the GMAT grid from beat the gmat to time myself and keep track of the hit rate.

I have analysed all the answers (right and wrong). i have made detailed flash cards in each area ( number properties, Geometry and so forth). i still struggle with timing and letting go of answers but i am getting better.
Here is the material that i have:

I took the GMAT prep today and i got a 650 (Q 36, V 42). Also, there were 1-2 math questions and 4-5 verbal questions that i had seen before.

I am disappointed and also very scared that i might do as badly as i did the first time. I am not really sure what i am doing wrong and how i need to best utilise the next 25 days. I am not working rite now, so i can devote myself to GMAT full time. My aim is to get a score of 700.
It would be great if you could give me your advice as well as share any tips on how you studied the last 1 month. Also, what is the best way to improve timing.

Do you recommend that i get any additional tests ( kaplan) or other material (GMAT focus)

Here is the study material that i have

Manhattan 8 guides
OG 10, OG 11, quant rev, Verbal rev
Kap 800
some IMS material
manhattan online question banks
access to manhattan challenge problems

TESTS
princeton- 4 tests
manhattan- 6 tests
IMS tests
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by meeko » Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:11 am
Since writing that earlier post, a lot has changed. I did give the GMAT last week and scored a 610 V 38/Q 36. Obviously this is a huge improvement from my previous score but it is not good enough to apply to any of the top schools. I am not really sure what i am doing wrong since I scored an avg of 650 on all the tests. Here is a breakdown of my tests

7/29/09- MCAT- 670 V 36 Q 45 8/7/09- Princeton review -650 V 41 M 40
8/11/09- MCAT-700 V 42 Q 43 8/9/09- Princeton -650 V 41 M 40
8/15/09MCAT-670- V41Q 40 GMAT prep 1 650 Q 36, V 42
8/19/09- MCAT-690 V- 37, Q 47

Since the Manhattan Test pool was reset before taking the tests, there were a few repetitions that might have inflated the scores. My goal right now is to get a 680...and i have 1 month to do this...Do you think it is possible to improve 70 points in 1 month. I am attaching my assessment reports from MGMAT....please help. How do you think i should use this next 1 month to study? Since i am not working right now, i can dedicate the next month completely to GMAT preparation.I am currently in the process of doing all the hard questions from OG 10. Since i am seeing a lot of repetitions with the Manhattan GMAT tests, would you recommend any other way to prepare....I also have aceess to the manhattan question banks
I would really appreciate your feedback.

Thanks,
meeko
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by DanaJ » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:32 pm
Well, it seems that SC is still a weak area for you. Have you studied the SC guide diligently? This is a very dense book and you just can't go breezing through it, you have to sit down with a pen and paper.

Fact of the matter is: you need new resources. If you start seeing questions over and over again, then your best bet is to go for the OGs, not MGMAT. While MGMAT has good questions, they're not perfect. Besides, CATs are only good for timing/stamina/assessment of level, not practice (or at least not to a significant degree).

There might be some value out of buying the new OG 12, since it's got about 300 new questions. Also, if you want more quant practice, try the GMAT Focus - it's pretty expensive for what you get, so weigh this one carefully.

Other resources you should use:
- CR Bible for CR and RC
- LSAT sets for advanced CR and RC practice (here are some)

However, remember that SC is your greatest weakness. Target this one first, maybe by using not only the SC guide, but also a good grammar book.

Good luck!
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by cramya » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:05 pm
Adding one more thing to what Dana has mentioned :

In addition to visiting the SC forum on this site also please look in to
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/gma ... l-f31.html (GMAT PREP VERBAL QUESTIONS) and read Ron's explanations and thought process as he approaches the various SC questions. I found this to be a great supplement to the MGMAT SC guide.
SC is one area where you can gain time in the GMAT for RC/CR.

Good luck!

Regards,
Cramya
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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:58 am
Received a PM asking me to respond. Good advice already, above.

First, really great job - you showed fantastic improvement already. I know you want more, but I also want to congratulate you for what you've already accomplished! :)

Re: your test scores, your MGMAT scores would definitely have been inflated if you were seeing repeated questions because the tests were reset. So we do have to discount those. GMATPrep is the best indicator, in any event, and it was fairly close to your official test score. The quant stayed the same but the verbal dropped a bit.

Did you do the essays on your practice tests? If not (or not often), then you may not have been fully prepared, stamina-wise, for the full length of the test, which can cause your verbal score to drop a little (since verbal's the last section). Alternatively, did you take practice tests very close to the real thing? When you take tests too closely together (and less than a week is too close), you risk burning yourself out, which can also cause your score to drop, especially in the last section (verbal!).

Also, Dana's right about the tests - you're taking too many and you're taking them too frequently. You don't learn much while in the act of taking tests or doing practice problems - you're just doing. You learn by reviewing and analyzing your work.

It will be challenging to improve by 70 points in only a month. I'm not saying it can't be done, but that would be more than typical. You should still go for it, but you may have to make a decision at some point to either (a) postpone your test, or (b) lower your goal. Just be aware of that possibility.

Take a look at the article I just posted today (if you check today, it'll be on the home page of BTG). It's called "Evaluating Your Practice Tests" and it's about, well, how to analyze your tests. (It's actually the first half of a two-part article, but it will get you going - then check back next week for the second half.) This will help you to figure out where, exactly, you need to be spending your time, and what to do (again, part of this will come in next week's article).

You can still take both GMATPrep and MGMAT CATs with repeats as long as you follow a few guidelines to minimize the chance of artificially inflating your score via question repeats. First, anytime you see a problem that you remember (and this means: I know the answer or I'm pretty sure I remember the answer, not just "hmm, this looks familiar..."), immediately look at the timer and make yourself sit there for the full length of time for that question type. This way, you don't artificially give yourself more time than you should have. Second, think about whether you got this problem right the last time. If you did, get it right again this time. If you didn't, get it wrong again. If you *completely honestly* think that you would get it right this time around if it were a new question (even though you got it wrong last time) because you've studied that area and improved, then get it right this time.

By the way, I totally agree with Dana that nothing is better than the official questions. And if you aren't yet scoring where you want to be, then you aren't done with the official questions - even if you've done them and know the answers and etc. You're not done unless / until you can answer these questions for EVERY problem (even the ones you get right):

Was I able to CATEGORIZE this question by topic and subtopic? By process / technique?
Did I make a CONNECTION to previous experience? Or did I have to do it all from scratch?
Did I COMPREHEND the symbols, text, questions, statements, and answer choices?
Did I understand the CONTENT being tested?
Did I choose the best APPROACH?
Did I have the SKILLS to follow through?
Am I comfortable with OTHER STRATEGIES that would have worked, at least partially? How should I have made an educated guess?
Do I understand every TRAP & TRICK that the writer built into the question, including wrong answers?
Have I MASTERED this problem? Could I explain every aspect, fully, to someone else?
How will I RECOGNIZE similar problems in the future?

Also, be careful about how you choose the problems you're reviewing. You said you're doing the "all of the hard" problems from OG10. What do you mean by "hard"? If you mean, "I'm not doing the first 30 or 40 problems because they're too easy," that's fine. If you mean, "I'm only doing the last 30 or 40 - the hardest problems in the book," then that's not fine. You actually have to lift yourself to that point. Learning how to do 700+ questions doesn't help if you are getting too many sub-700 level questions wrong - you'll never even see the 700+ questions on the real test!
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

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Thank you

by meeko » Wed Oct 07, 2009 9:52 am
I would like to thank Dana, Stacy and Ramya for your inputs. I will take your advice seriously and start working on my problem areas.

I would just like to ask you, in the quant section, would you recommend approaching the OG questions -topic by topic via the MGMAT books ...or just doing random questions from OG directly.
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