I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello

I am taking the GMAT on Dec 2. I have nt yet started taking mock tesst. But I will from next week.
My questions is: knowing that I have 90 days to the test and my target is a simple one 650 - 680.. How can I go about achieving it? Which books should I refer to? I have done the kaplan and now doing the OG. I am a marketing manager of a MNC and do not find time to study!! I study 3 hours a day somehow. SO pls dear experts, I am quite desperate to know how i can reach this target. your valued responses will be highly appreciated.

Looking fwd.

Niketa

Hi Niketa,

First and Immediate thing you will need to do is to take a GMATPREP test. This will help you analyze what your current position is. Only based on this information, you can sketch your strengths and weaknesses.
650-680 is certainly not an easy target if you are scoring currently between 550-580.

I would strongly recommend you to take a test first and only then move to the study materials.
As for materials, as you have kaplan already, that would suffice for now. Until we know your strength/weakness areas not much can be advised.

3 hours a day is more than enough for preparation. Many working people find it difficult to devote 3 hours a day too. with 90 dyas, it turns out to be atleast 270 hours preparation, which is very very good.

So, post back your scores and the experts will chip in with their comments..

Good luck with your preparation and All the best for your test!!

Good advice...I took the GMAT in july and got a 620 very disappointing...Q41 and V35

I studied really hard and studied my Quant weaknesses with Manhattan GMAT books and took the GMAT AGAIN in October and got a 600.....what do you think I should do kvcpk? My target score is 670-690....

This time in October my scores were 39 Q, 34 V

siddaggarwal wrote:Good advice...I took the GMAT in july and got a 620 very disappointing...Q41 and V35

I studied really hard and studied my Quant weaknesses with Manhattan GMAT books and took the GMAT AGAIN in October and got a 600.....what do you think I should do kvcpk? My target score is 670-690....

Hi Agarwal,

There is something seriously wrong with your prep strategy. Quant is the tricky section of GMAT. Not many people have conceptual troubles in Quant. But, doing under time pressure is altogether a different game. It requires lot of practice to tune the mind to work under time pressure.

with 41 and 39, I think you still have conceptual troubles in quant. Just going through books will not help.
I can suggest you a strategy:
Its a difficult strategy to follow. But is a proven one.

Do a set of 40 problems at a stretch. Remember to use stopwatch. 80 mins for 40 questions.
Divide the mistakes into conceptual and careless mistakes.
Take a relook at the careless errors. You need to make sure that you dont repeat them ever again.
For conceptual errors, make sure that you learn and understand the concept. Get that into your flashcard.
Review these flashcards daily/weekly until the concepts sink in completely.

This work requires sheer discipline. But, no pains..no gains.

What if you cannot solve a problem in 2 mins??
When you are exceeding 2 mins for a problem, take 20-30 seconds to make an educated guess and move on.
Not all problems are solvable under time constraints. So, its very important to keep the ego aside and move ahead.

Your Verbal looks pretty decent to me. If you can raise your quant score to 48+, you have a very fair chance of reaching the 700 mark, with little work on verbal.

Check out some articles on this site about increasing your quant score and attacking your timing issues.
I remember one thursdays with Ron video which discussed about the timing issues. Its a very good one.
I highly recommend all of those videos. Have a look at them whenever you get time.

Let me know if you need more information. All the best!!

My Quant score in October was a 39 and Verbal was a 34.....for your information in depth now....As for Quant....I don't have a set of 40 questions at my disposal but I have a membership with Kaplan Premiere which includes a set of 5-6 computer tests and 10 sets of 30 math questions each....in addition to the 6 practice tests/multitude of study materials from Manhattan GMAT after you buy ONE book (I bought 3 for my 2nd gmat prep...Equations, Word Translations, Number Properties)...my fears of Math were reduced and I have gotten better but still my Quant is worse..

Do you think the 10 sets of 30 math questions (doing at least a few) is a good barometer and indicator what I need to do?

Thanks kvcpk I really appreciate your correspondance and diligence in responding...It will be taken very seriously

siddaggarwal wrote:My Quant score in October was a 39 and Verbal was a 34.....for your information in depth now....As for Quant....I don't have a set of 40 questions at my disposal but I have a membership with Kaplan Premiere which includes a set of 5-6 computer tests and 10 sets of 30 math questions each....in addition to the 6 practice tests/multitude of study materials from Manhattan GMAT after you buy ONE book (I bought 3 for my 2nd gmat prep...Equations, Word Translations, Number Properties)...my fears of Math were reduced and I have gotten better but still my Quant is worse..

Do you think the 10 sets of 30 math questions (doing at least a few) is a good barometer and indicator what I need to do?

Thanks kvcpk I really appreciate your correspondance and diligence in responding...It will be taken very seriously

You can pick up the problems from any Prep company material. In case you are confused where to pick the problems from,
here is what you can do:
OG12,11,10
OG Quant suppliment.

Only after these are done, you move to prep company materials.
You can use Grockit for practice.
I would recommend Beat the gmat practiice questions as the qns will be new and different from what we have been seeing.
I do not know about which 10 sets you are referring to. But, I think they should be OK.

If you still need material, I would suggest you to buy veritas prep books. they have decent number of practice problems in their books. You can also find some problem sets on this forum, like the 198 problem set and 300 hard math problem set.

Hope this helps!! Let me know if you need more info.

Good luck.