2 odd weeks left - Help.. :( - The Beat The GMAT Forum - Expert GMAT Help & MBA Admissions Advice

2 odd weeks left - Help.. :(

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mohit11: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 293; Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:08 amFollowed by: 5 members; Location: India; Thanked: 36 times; GMAT Score:730

by mohit11 » Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:39 am

Hi everyone,

I have my GMAT on 6th March. I've been studying very hard but my scores are going from bad to worse.. I've attached a screen shot for reference.

As you can see, Quant scores are going down and verbal is stagnant, i mean.. its like day after day i toil, and yet don't even improve by a single point.. I just cannot understand what i do wrong.

The MGMAT analysis throws out random results. Help..Suggest.. Need to reach 700 score..

Advise will be greatly appreciated.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:39 am

DanaJ: Site Admin; Posts: 2567; Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:05 amFollowed by: 550 members; Thanked: 712 times; GMAT Score:770

by DanaJ » Mon Feb 15, 2010 7:57 am

The first thing that you should note when taking prep tests is that not all of them are created equal. The most reliable is GMATprep by far! Kaplan and Manhattan GMAT are considered among the toughest when it comes to quant, so I think that you should probably put these results into perspective and correlate them with "common knowledge" regarding tests.

In order to help you a bit more, please let me know what books you've been using up until now. Based on this and your specific weaknesses, I can offer you other pieces of advice.

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mohit11: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 293; Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:08 amFollowed by: 5 members; Location: India; Thanked: 36 times; GMAT Score:730

by mohit11 » Mon Feb 15, 2010 8:14 am

Many thanks for replying Dana,

For Verbal, I am using the following books.

1. SC - Have gone through Manhattan SC Guide, completed all the questions in OG 10. I have also reviewed various SC notes and made personal notes. I plan to do OG 12 questions next to further familiarize myself with question types. I feel i get the question right offline, however, in real test scenario, when SC are entangled with CR and RC's, i tend to get a lot of tough SC's wrong. Basically i get a lot of 650+ problems wrong.

2. CR - I did Manhattan CR book, however, i did not help much, completed reviewing the PowerScore CR bible today. I have made notes and they do make a lot sense. I will apply the these learning's from PR-CR bible on OG12 questions.

3. RC - I feel confident in RC's overall, in my first MGMAT1 i got a very tough RC and on MGMAT2 i was running short of time on my 4'th RC and ended up rushing it (did not take notes and hence did not understand the passage correctly) and got a lot of questions from that RC wrong.

I tend to complete my verbal section just in Time (after having to rush a little in the last few questions).

For Math,

For Math i am relying solely on OG10 thus far, since it has a large collection of problems, I've done tough and medium level problems in DS and PS, despite a lower score of 43 in MGMAT2 i am confident in doing well on Quant. Also i feel i need to iron out some timing issues in Quant.

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DanaJ: Site Admin; Posts: 2567; Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:05 amFollowed by: 550 members; Thanked: 712 times; GMAT Score:770

by DanaJ » Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:49 am

You seem to be using all the right books: MGMAT SC guide, the CR Bible and the OG... Your approach of relying strictly on the OG for quant is probably not the best, though, for one simple reason: the book does not contain an adequate tips and strategy section, which means that you're probably practicing with a less than perfect conceptual base. Even though practice is indeed important, you also need to have a firm grasp of concepts before delving into it.

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mohit11: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 293; Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:08 amFollowed by: 5 members; Location: India; Thanked: 36 times; GMAT Score:730

by mohit11 » Mon Feb 15, 2010 12:19 pm

Well, my approach with OG questions for Quant and Verbal has been the same, which is.. do the questions, review the answers, mark the questions i get wrong.Then i attempt the wrong questions again in a few days and if i still commit the mistake, then i make a note of it and learn the concept.

I guess the problem lies in application of concepts and not approaching verbal problems mechanically, now that i have noted down some frameworks that i can work with (SC notes and errors that i need to avoid making) and CR Notes (Strategies and Tips for CR Bible) i'll try and implement them in Tests.

I guess all i can do is consistently put in the effort and hope that verbal score catches up as soon as possible, which is 2 weeks or less

Thanks Dana. Your help is much appreciated.

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Osirus@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1578; Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 8:02 amFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 128 times; GMAT Score:760

by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Mon Feb 15, 2010 3:17 pm

I had trouble with verbal as well. On my official GMAT test I got a 38 in verbal. I would say see if you can get your hands on the Veritas verbal books. They are by far the best verbal books in the industry. I was really surprised how thorough the Veritas verbal was. I feel like I could get a 720 today.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-retake-o ... 51414.html

Brandon Dorsey
GMAT Instructor
Veritas Prep

Buy any Veritas Prep book(s) and receive access to 5 Practice Cats for free! Learn More.

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