Help Required !!

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Help Required !!

by aayush2012 » Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:29 am
I took my GMAT recently and probably have never been so depressed and helpless in my life. My score was 640 (50 Quant and 26 Verbal). I was completely shocked to see my verbal score as I was already getting verbal score in the range of 33-35 in the practice test. I was so depressed yesterday that I was feeling that this GMAT thing was beyond my scope and abilities. But, thanks to my flat-mate who motivated me a lot and even encouraged me by saying that it is the last roadblock between you and you beauilful career ahead after MBA.

I was preparing for GMAT for the past 6-7 months and this was my second attempt: 1st attempt : 600 (50 Quant and 22 Verbal) and AWA 5.5 . The GMAT is really important for me as wanted to start off next year with my MBA. But, given the circumstances that seems a distant reality now.

I have just one chance now that I give my GMAT after 2-3 months and score atleast 700 in it.

The problem is that I could not think as to why it happened. Even the questions I was facing this time around in exam was quite similar to the ones that I had in GMAT prep. I have to admit that I prepared very honestly for my second attempt for about 3-4 months. The material I completed was :

OG 12th ed. and verbal 2nd review
700-800 questions of both SC, CR and RC (37 passages)
I also attended a coaching institute and religiously followed their material too. I taken tests from Knewton and GMAT prep.

Please help me in suggesting what material should I follow and other strategies. The strategy is most important now because in my first attempt I was thinking that I had a bad day ! But, after my second attempt I realize that it was just not about a bad day, but I was seriously lacking something....the aptitude, knowledge etc.

Please reply as your suggetions may be helpful for me in achieving a 700 in GMAT that has become a sole aim of my life now for the time being.
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by Jim@StratusPrep » Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:54 pm
Your decision depends on where you would like to apply. If it is a top school then yes, but you really don't want to take in more than 3 times...
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by Jim@StratusPrep » Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:58 pm
Sorry, was a bit off on my post, was looking at the wrong title.

What you really need to do is study up on the verbal. There is a website called Grammar Girl (just google it) that will help with sentence correction. Then for the rest you should be looking at the economist, WSJ and other sophisticated publications to practice on your comprehension. Do this before you cram more GMAT problems into your diet...
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-- 100% Free Trial and less than $20 per month after.
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by aayush2012 » Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:00 pm
Thanks for your comments @Jim. Yesterday, I sit back and realized what went wrong with me during the second attempt. I realized that there while answering SC questions in my exam, I was not feeling confident and definitely there was exam pressure. I realized, since RC was my weakest section...I took more time to answering them and was confident about it. This might have left me with less time for SC questions. But definitely, there should be more than these problems as the score was too low....Score of 26 really needs lot of justification.

For the past 2 days, I am browsing this site intensively and was really impressed to see great articles on how to tackling this tests through your practice tests at home. The article on "How to evaluate your practice tests -1 and 2 were indeed spectacular and was really surprised to see how people put in so much efforts to analyze each and every aspect of the exam.

The article on "timing out every question you do" was also amazing as that person stressed out need of doing questions right within time is the key to this exam.

I have a list with me on what I need to do..... especially taking practice exam each week and following the evaluation technique quoted above to know my strengths and weakness and thereby improving upon. I am going to start my prep. from this week onwards itself with a MGMAT first practice test.

It's difficult to see that I have failed twice now and gathering motivation for the third attempt is definitely easier said than done. But, then another article on beat the gmat (people never fail, they just give up) was truly inspirational in every sense. I plan on giving my third now in 2 and half months from now and will try not to think but GMAT during this time frame.

I hope to get 33 from 26 in verbal. Inputs/ suggestions from other members/ experts and really welcome on tips to proceed.

Thanks
Aayush