GMAT Strategy

Hi All,

I am preparing for gmat for the last 3 months..started in mid August 2009. I was never good at maths or english grammer.So, I started by learning concepts first. I strongly feel that I can reach my target score by effort and practise. I need to do some serious changes in my study pattern looking at the scores I got in mock tests.

I took 3 prep tests but my score is NOT AT ALL improving and this is making me feel worse and harder it is to put greater effort.

My scores till now---

test prep1 - mid august-510( without any prior preparation)
MGMAT 1 - 10/13/2009 - 500 (Q39, V20)
MGMAT 2 - 11/06/2009 - 490 (Q35, V23)

All the more depressing ...downward scores.

I am solving problems from OG 11th edition and also Verbal and quant reviews. Recently 1 week back, I purchased 6 MGMAT books to study from.

Till now, I have been trying to understand concepts and solve problems but no other strategy other than this.

can anyone help me figure out whats going wrong with my study pattern?

Actually, your scores are in range and here's why: the GMAT is designed to have a 30-point standard deviation, meaning that if you get a 500 in one test, your true level is somewhere between 470 and 530. A variation of only 10 points does not necessarily mean that your score is going down - it's actually largely the same.

You say you've been studying the concepts - but from where, if you've just bought the Manhattan GMAT books? Don't forget to carefully pick your study material, since not all test prep is created equal.

I say focus on high quality material like the books you've just bought and official practice material and you should see some improvements pretty soon.

Thank you DanaJ for the reply to the post.

Only after my third mock test scores, I seriously tried to understand whats going wrong. Here's the split up of my results from 2 of MGMAT scores indicating the % of right answers.


DS - 28%
PS - 64%
SC - 33%
CR - 50%
RC - 46%

Quant break up is as follows:


Geometry - 45%
-----------------------------
Co-ord plane - 0
Triangles and diagonals - 33
lines and angles - 50
polygons - 50
circles and cylinders - 67.


number properties - 10%
-------------------------
positives and negatives - 0
divisibility and primes - 0
odd's and even's - 0
consecutive integers - 0
exponents and roots - 25


FDP's - 46%
-----------------------------

percents - 0
fractions - 50
decimals - 50
fdp connections - 67
digits - 100

word transactions - 61%
----------------------------
combinatorics - 0
non-std word problems - 33
rates and work - 50
statistics - 50
algebraic translations - 67
overlapping sets 67
ratios - 100
probabilities - 100.

I realise these are some pretty embarassing results.I have created a study plan for this week.

Starting today: MGMAT books 4th edition.
Monday - geometry chapters 1,2,3,4,5.
Tuesday - geometry - 6,7,8,9.
Wednesday - Number properties-chapters 1,2,3,4
thursday - Number properties-chapters 5,6,7,8.
friday - Sentence correction chapters 1,2,3.
saturday - sectence correction 4,5,6.

So, by the end of this week I should be good in goemetry, num properties and much better in SC.

I do have enough time all through the day to focus and complete the material mentioned.

Please let me know if you all have any suggestions or advice for me.

In continuation, here's my verbal score situation:

Avg difficulty right answers: Avg diffi wrg ans's.

CR - 620:630
RC - 600:670.
SC - 610:640.
PS - 560:620
DS - 610:640.

verbal:
CR - 50% right
RC - 46%
SC - 33%
So, I need to study equally for verbal and quant.

Well, your plan seems pretty solid for me - but be careful about how much effort you really put into it, you don't want to burn out. I'm saying this because it looks and feels a bit too intense, but if you think you can handle it and you can properly absorb all information, then go for it.

Yes, indeed, you do need to work on both sections, probably in equal portions. What you can immediately notice is that your weakest part is actually the basics, which you seem to be having more trouble with as compared to more advanced stuff. Number properties is one of the most basic material you'll see on the test and I'm pretty sure that once you get this section down things will flow even better for the rest. I understand MGMAT is great for the quant part and I also liked their SC guide, but I have not tried their other verbal books. I personally used the PowerScore CR Bible for both CR and RC improvement and it did wonders for me - I ended up with zero mistakes in both sections on my very last GMATprep.

Hope this helps!