One month strategy PLEASE HELP

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One month strategy PLEASE HELP

by Robin2014 » Sat May 11, 2013 1:10 am
Hi guys,

I have to write my GMAT on 18 June. Just left with one month and have not started ANYTHING. I wrote GRE last year and scores 322 (170Q,152V) so was kind of not sooo worried.
But today I started my prep and scored only 620 (48Q,28V) on GMATPrep Practice Test 1. I am feeling soooo low.Due to some personal commitments, I won't be able to postpone my test date.

Can someone please help with prep strategies. I really want to get at least 100-120 more than what I scored here.

Looking forward to replies eagerly.....
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by digvijayk » Sat May 11, 2013 10:40 am
One month is very less time. Strategies take time to implement and work. But, what you can do is that you can understand that unlike the GRE,where I have seen people memorize word lists and what not, the GMAT is 10% about memorized concepts (or less) and 90%(or more) about having an approach and KNOWING the traps that the test makers lay.

So IMO, here's what you can do:
1. Understand the question types for each section and sub-section. (you have done that, but more detailed look into this may be needed).
2. Use the official guide along with the mgmat or kaplan guides to practice and improve.
3. Consider that test score of 620 as a good starting point. I don't know which test you took (the old gmat prep or the new one), but analyzing your answers(which imo was possible in the old GMAT prep) and finding your weak areas can really help boost your score. Else just take the diagnostic test given at the beginning of OG.
4. Watch "Thursdays with Ron" videos related to your weak areas. Do especially watch the one about backup methods.
5. Finally, use the one month plan given under the section Self Study.

Analyze every question you solve and try to find alternative approaches to the same question. This applies to both verbal and quant questions. Just ask yourself, "Can I do this differenty".

Take plenty of rest and have your test-taking strategies in place. There may be a one month study plan, but I don't know if one month's enough time for the jump in score that you are seeking. All the best. Hope this helps.
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by Matt@VeritasPrep » Sat May 11, 2013 12:02 pm
With only a month to study, you ought to spend most of your time working on your test taking skills. I feel that most students would be happy with their scores if they could only avoid hasty or sloppy mistakes, and given your success on the revised GRE you should be able to bring your GMAT score up quite a bit. (170Q on the GRE vs 48Q on the GMAT is particularly promising.) Try to do a lot of challenging questions under time constraints, and make sure to really dwell on WHY your answer was wrong (not necessarily why the right answer was right, as valuable as that is). I've found that a NEGATIVE approach to verbal is better than a positive one: eliminating bad answers is much more reliable than trying to find correct ones.

Remember too that the GMAT isn't going to test a lot of exotic material - combinatorics, probability idioms, mimic the reasoning questions - so if you can master the bread and butter questions you'll be fine. A good grasp of arithmetic, algebra, common word problems (Venns, distance/work, min/max), strengthen, weaken, and fundamental sentence correction (verbs, modifiers, and pronouns) is enough to get you to 700, as long as you don't give away easy questions and avoid picking "easy" answers ... on a CAT there really aren't any of those!

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by 2014robin » Sat May 18, 2013 1:16 am
thanks dig& Matt..ur replies really help.