530---->710. Almost there

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530---->710. Almost there

by eyelikecheese » Wed Jan 12, 2011 9:02 pm
Hey guys. First off I would like to thank everyone one this site for their input in my various posts. I have been studying for the GMAT since November 1st. It has been a very long and arduous journey, but my determination and willpower have paid off greatly, up till this point at least. I have put in well over 500 or so hours. I stopped keeping track after 450, which was a few weeks ago. I don't know what happened, but sometime over the past 3 months being in the GMAT Cave, sometime just clicked. It seemed like overnight I was getting mid 500's and then BOOM -high 600's consistently. I will be taking it in about a month or so, I just have a few kinks to work out. I've been using MGMAT and the 3 OG's, which are absolutely awesome. My weaknesses are as follows: geometry, reading comprehension, and sentence correction. Does anyone have any advice for reading comprehension? I read various books all the time and have recently started reading the most boring material I can get ahold of on The Economist. My quant is about an average of 48 while my verbal is average 38, which is weird because I am a native speaker, and the verbal was what I thought would be my strongest subject. I am not a quant guy at all.

In effect, I guess this a pre de-brief. I am hoping my efforts pay off when I take the test. I still have yet to set a firm date, as the testing center doesn't fill up quickly, nor am I under any time constraints. Any advice on how to improve those areas will be greatly appreciated!
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by eternal_optimist » Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:33 pm
I'd highly recommend that you don't overstudy and burn out yourself by the time you take the GMAT. It is a good indicator that your scores are going northwards ; however at the same time, in a bid to take it even higher, you may actually start stagnating and you don't want that.
Did Did you go through the MGMAT Geometry Strategy Guide properly. I think it should be helpful to tackle Geometry. In addition,if you have specific queries or problem in Geometry, you may wanna put your questions in the Quant forum. I benefited immensely by googling the questions I faced difficulty in and for each question I googled, the learning was immense.
If you're struggling with SC and RC ,you may wanna see SC Grail and RC99. I especially found RC99 to be helpful as it has 99 GMAT type passages which will really help you improve your understanding of complex passages, and this will help you in devising strategies to tackle those passages. This will also help you figure out your strengthens and weaknesses ie. which topic/area are you comfortable with ,which area do you usually struggle in, and accordingly you can take remedial steps to improve on those areas. Hope that helps!

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by iridebikes » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:05 am
The mgmat geometry guide isn't thorough enough for one to fully grasp geometry fundamentals. I would suggest buying gmathacks geometry questions, they have helped me immensely. BTW I am an econ major and well, econ papers can get a bit dry sometimes. If you want to strengthen reading comprehension skills, read up on game theory or quantum physics that should give you a challenge. Also, think about what you're most interested reading about, then google it and select "scholarly journal articles." I am no GMAT expert nor do I claim to be but I think reading over difficult material that is edited really solidifies you're ability to recognize sentences that are structured correctly. Hope this helps and good luck next month!

Also, schedule the test soon. If your goal is 700 and you have already reached it on your practice tests, you should take the test before you either A)burn out, or B) forget material. Be the person who gives it their all till the very end, not the one who slows down when they see they're in the lead.