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Less than 1 month to go - what should I be doing?

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Less than 1 month to go - what should I be doing?

by cs97mmr2 » Tue May 11, 2010 12:15 am
Hello everyone,

Really appreciate this forum and the advice provided on it, it's an absolute lifesaver!

OK so I've been prepping for the GMAT since early 2010 and have it booked for Friday June 4th. That is my absolute drop dead date as due to personal circumstances I know I won't be able to study after that. I do about 2 hours everyday, then 3-5 hours on Saturdays and do a practice test on Sundays.

My recent test scores have been:
GMATPrep 1 - 640
Manhattan - 660
Manhattan - 700
Manhattan - 680

My target is 650 and if I get anything higher than that then it's a bonus. Of course I am willing to try and do everything I can to boost that score between now and the big day.

So my question is, do you have any tips on what I should be doing in the home straight to get my score at and above 650?

And for the last week leading up to the test, what would you recommend? I know people say that you should wind down your efforts but if I go more than 2 days without looking at my GMAT material I feel like I've forgotten everything!

Any help is much appreciated.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Tue May 11, 2010 5:25 am
650...MLT?

In this last month, I would recommend shoring up the weaknesses that you can shore up, while reviewing your strengths at least twice a week. I would recommend spending 3 hours a day five days a week studying. 2 days a week focus on quant, 2 days a week focus on verbal, and one day a week going over things that consistently give you trouble. Try to take a CAT once a week until the big day. You'll do fine and will avoid having to take it again in Sept. Good luck.
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by cs97mmr2 » Tue May 11, 2010 6:17 am
Many thanks for the advice osirus0830.

I definitely aim to take a CAT once a week and was even thinking of taking one on the Tuesday before the test because as I mentioned I prefer to be doing GMAT related stuff rather than not.

Pardon my ignorance but what did you mean by '650...MLT?'
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Tue May 11, 2010 6:19 am
Oh, its a program that I'm in, and I was wondering if you were in it as well. They require us to get a 650, so when you were so firm that all you needed was a 650 that sounds like all of the people in the program with me, plus the second deadline for taking the test is approaching so I know a lot of people are about to take it.
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by cs97mmr2 » Tue May 11, 2010 6:26 am
No, not in the MLT program.

I think 650+ will make me competitive where I want to get in to and I guess I'm trying to take some of the pressure off myself so that if I get 650-ish I won't be too unhappy. But if I get over 650 I'll be rather pleased :o)
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed May 12, 2010 4:53 pm
Hey, cs97mmr2 - first off, congratulations on some great practice test scores!

My advice to anyone scoring well and counting down the days to test day is to work on minimizing mistakes. Arguably the smartest guy I know teaches for us in New York City, and he and I were talking about the GMAT the other day and how we'd study if we had to take it in the next week or so. He said his biggest fear would be that "it doesn't matter how smart you are; they can always catch you napping somehow." I agree - with a month to go, Osirus' advice to find a few areas of emphasis that you know can be improved is a great idea. As you get down to the last week or so, though, you'll gain a lot more from "minimizing mistakes" than you will from "learning more", so I'd say that over the next month you should spend a little bit of time on each study session or practice test to identify the mistakes that you made, and to determine which ones come up most frequently. Be aware of those on test day - I had a quick checklist of my most-common mistakes when I took it - and you'll keep all of the points that you've earned with your hard work thus far, instead of giving them back with mistakes that you should have preempted.

It sounds like you're in great shape to hit that 650 and beyond - keep up the great work!
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by cs97mmr2 » Thu May 13, 2010 2:52 am
Hi Brian, thanks a lot for the valuable tip!! Fingers crossed it all goes well now in the final weeks :)
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by cs97mmr2 » Fri Jun 04, 2010 11:32 am
Just wanted to give the forum an update. So I took my GMAT today as scheduled and got a 710 (Q45, V42). I am over the moon with this score... :o) Now to apply to some business schools!

Hope BTG keeps on rocking!
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by uwhusky » Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:25 pm
Congratulation! Little less than 3 weeks left for me, and hopefully I can achieve the same result!
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by btgmat_2010 » Fri Jun 04, 2010 6:02 pm
cs97mmr2 wrote:Just wanted to give the forum an update. So I took my GMAT today as scheduled and got a 710 (Q45, V42). I am over the moon with this score... :o) Now to apply to some business schools!

Hope BTG keeps on rocking!
many congrats. so what were ur stats in the last few weeks before u took the test today? i mean what were ur practice test scores? that would help many.
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by cs97mmr2 » Sat Jun 05, 2010 2:12 pm
Sorry, I should've written! I was a bit elated yesterday.

So as mentioned in my original post my scores up until then had been:

GMATPrep 1 - 640
Manhattan - 660
Manhattan - 700
Manhattan - 680

I then took another two Manhattan tests where I scored 720 and 690.

I then retook GMATPrep1, on the Sunday with my test on the Friday, in which I got 720 (Q45, V44). There were only a few quant questions I recognised but I recognised quite a few verbal questions so I knew the score was inflated.

Then I took GMATPrep2, on the Tuesday, and scored 700 (Q42, V44).

After this I thought I was at a 680 level as my scores had ranged from 640 - 720 in my most recent practice tests.

I mistimed the break between the essay section and the quant section and actually went back to my PC over a minute late. I had an inkling I was doing OK as I saw a probability and a combinations question. The level of questions felt about the same as the ones I had experienced in GMATPrep.

I found the sentence correction questions in verbal much trickier than in all my practice tests! The CR questions were about the same and although the RC passages ranged from 2 paragraph simply concept questions to 5 paragraph complicated concept questions, I actually thought the questions were quite straight forward and had none of that testing of subtle ideas that usually leaves me umming and aahing.

I think the biggest tip I can give to anyone taking the test is just focus on the question in front of you. There is no way you can judge the difficulty of a question or if it's a dummy question so try not to worry about it! Just focus on the question in front of you as if your life depended on it. There were a couple of times on quant where I got a question that just seemed far too easy but I tried my hardest not to let that affect me.

I can finally breathe a sigh of relief!
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