Quantative Prep Advice

Problem Solving — algebra and arithmetic (GMAT Focus Edition)
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Quantative Prep Advice

by mjohnson » Sun Jan 31, 2010 4:50 pm
I would greatly appreciate some advice on how much to prepare for the QS section of the test. I need to score around 600-650 on the test (which I know doesn't seem that difficult). But I have been out of school for almost 8 years and my math skills were rusty to begin with. After working through Cliffs Math Review for Standardized tests I started to gain confidence and moved on the the GMAT QR (skipping OG 11 because I thought I needed more math practice before working those problems). As I work through the QR book (both PS and DS problems) I am getting ~ 70-80% of the questions correct...until I get about 1/2-2/3 of the way through the question bank. My % correct drops from ~75% to 55% (which I am starting to worry about). I know the questions increase in difficulty and I am not sure where to draw the line with studying QS considering I only need ~600 on the actual test. Here is my question - should I continue to drill into the QS problems to increase my aptitude for the more difficult problems (get additional material, study longer/differently/etc.) or keep on going with my study plan (moving on to verbal soon) because 600 level questions are more like the easy questions in the QR book? Currently, my errors are all over the place (some concept, some careless, different concepts, etc.)

Any feedback would be great!
Source: — Quantitative Reasoning |

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by papgust » Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:35 pm
Hi,

If your math is too rusty, then one of the greatest mistakes you are now making is working out problems straight away. If you are not confident in your basics, then you should start working on your basics.

Ideally, i would suggest you to either go for MGMAT Quant guides (5 books) OR Kaplan Math workbook. Although i've not personally tried Kaplan Math Workbook, i've heard that this book has right mixture of content that one needs to know for GMAT Math. I've tried few of MGMAT Quant guides and they are awesome.

If you do not want to spend some money in these books, then you must search for your high school math book and read it. It will really help you. Go to amazon.com and then just note down the prices of all guides and take a call on it. To see a sample content of these books, go to Google books and see what book is right for you.

Bottomline: Spend some good time in basics (say 1-2 months). Do not rush over to problems unless you are really confident in your basics.

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by harsh.champ » Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:58 am
yeah,i second papgust's opinion....if you keep on just solving the problems,you keep on committing the same mistakes....and overall your score seems to hover around the same level....

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by harsh.champ » Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:06 am
sure,practice is a must...but its perfect practice that makes a man perfect....repeating the same errors in the practice is going to do no good......i would say,even if you practice 10 questions per day,give due thought as to how you proceeded in that question,what was your mindset,what was the reason behind your slow speed or whatever.....this way you can identify and rectify your own mistakes....my own guide is that i have made a grid chart in which i have noted down all the mistakes and my frequency of repeating them.....just make sure that your count never goes beyond 5