You really should pick up better books: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/books

Unhusky .. Thank you for sharing your viewpoint.

I have checked the book list before I started my preparation.

I covered the following books :

CR bible
12 th edition
GMAT advanced
Mgmat SC

That is why trying to see as to what could be the next step for improvement.
I will do whatever it takes. Will give more hours of study if required. I am planning to re-do OG 12 though.

Cheers.
focusgmat

I would try a second test from a different provider. I am taking and retaking tests to get some pressure practice in and have had the following scores so far:

GMATPrep Test 1 (Attempt 1): 650
MGMAT Test 1: 710
Princeton Review: 640
GMATPrep Test 1 (Attempt 2): 720
MGMAT Test 2: 690
PowerPrep Test 1: 720
Kaplan Free Test: 670
GMATPrep Test 1 (Attempt 3): 720

My first GMAT Prep test was "cold". I didn't even know what the GMAT tested and I had not yet discovered BeatTheGMAT. So, as an outlier, it makes sense. From what I have read on here, Kaplan tends to lowball the score, so it makes sense that it is a little bit lower than the others (but even so, it is in line with them). And, even though I took a couple of retests of GMATPrep 1, I did *not* review any of the questions before retaking so that I wouldn't know which I got right or wrong. So even though there was some overlap of questions, I only remembered a couple from test-to-test. This may have helped some, but I imagine not too much.

The average of scores excluding my first "cold" test and the Princeton test is 705, with a standard deviation of 21. That puts Princeton a full 3 standard deviations away from my other scores. Two standard deviations if you include Princeton in the set. And, according to my Princeton score report, I missed 6 fewer math problems and missed on more verbal problem than my typical GMATPrep results.

Again, the above might be skewed by the repeat GMATPrep tests, but I don't feel as though I benefited greatly from them. I suspect that Princeton just lowballs your score. Try GMATPrep or MGMAT.

Hi focusgmat,

It really isn't a bad idea to take quite a few different practice to get a feel of where stand and how far you have to go to get your goal. It will also help familiarize you with the format of the test. After figuring out your approximate ability, compare that to where you want to be. You may realize that self study is not enough; or it may reinforce your decision. The Princeton Review has every type of class to suit your study needs; you can even consider private tutoring. You can check out our GMAT classes here https://theprincetonreview.com/business-school.aspx. Don't forget that you get a 15% discount for being a part of Beat the GMAT (I know we all like to save a buck)!

I saw that you are considering using Cracking the GMAT and 1012 GMAT Practice Questions; if you decide to self study, these will come in handy. They are both great because they are wide ranging and cover the entire GMAT; really good for beginner study. You can probably find some good deals on sites like eBay.

I hope this helps you out a bit. If you have any questions, please shoot me an email at [email protected]. Good luck!

Best Regards,
Anthony Russomanno
National Director of Educational Partnerships
The Princeton Review