All,
I have been reading about people getting scores above 700 and the amount of prep they did. It is very scary for people who are just getting started. Thankfully, I did not start haunting such forums until about a week from my actual GMAT or I would have crashed. So, I decided to add a little different perspective to people who are just starting. Depending on individuals, the key to the GMAT is not the number of prep books, videos, podcasts etc you can finish. You have to understand the logic behind the answer!
When I started preparing for my GMAT, I had no clue how difficult it could get. All I had was a gmatprep book that I picked from the city library. Then I was chatting with a friend and he scared me - told me to go find this and that and this...some 4-5 prep books. I was reluctant to buy all the stuff (or beg people for their material) because given my timing, I had just about a month to prepare and I knew that I could not possibly finish all that prep material.
This is what I did - bought the Kindle version of the Official Verbal, Quant and the Overall Prep Guides. Just focussed on finishing the problems in these three guides. That is it. I had about a month before my GMAT date of Dec 8, 2011. Thankfully, office was not super busy so I could use a lot of time in office to study. I got a pretty good score - 710 (47Q,41V) and I am happy with it.
The main thing that I focussed on, was not whether my answer was right or wrong, but whether my reasoning for reaching my answer was right or wrong. If you understand the reasoning, the logic, the step-by-step process of reaching a conclusion, be it maths or english, then you can easily crack the GMAT.
I don't have an engineering background (its almost a liberal arts background) but I am comfortable with Maths. English is my second langauge but I like to read a lot and that helped.
Believe me, if I can do it, so can you!!
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A little different perspective
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Brent@GMATPrepNow
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Very practical advice.
On these forums, I often see students who spend an inordinate amount of time devising elaborate study plans consisting of dozens of different resources. For many this is complete overkill.
This is why I think that everyone should take a practice test early in their studies. This will help determine how elaborate your study plan needs to be. For example, if you get 550 and you target score is 600, then your study plan can be quite simple.
As rjain5 suggests, it's not a bad idea to start with the official guides and see where things go from there. That may be all you need. If it turns out that you need additional resources/instruction, add them as you see fit.
Cheers,
Brent
On these forums, I often see students who spend an inordinate amount of time devising elaborate study plans consisting of dozens of different resources. For many this is complete overkill.
This is why I think that everyone should take a practice test early in their studies. This will help determine how elaborate your study plan needs to be. For example, if you get 550 and you target score is 600, then your study plan can be quite simple.
As rjain5 suggests, it's not a bad idea to start with the official guides and see where things go from there. That may be all you need. If it turns out that you need additional resources/instruction, add them as you see fit.
Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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Bill@VeritasPrep
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First off, congratulations!
Secondly, I agree with Brent, and I think your focus on reasoning was a big reason for your success. It's not enough to know that you got a question right or wrong; you must know why. Going beyond that, if you can figure out what led you to a wrong answer (misread the question, missed a step, etc.), it becomes much easier to address in the future.
Secondly, I agree with Brent, and I think your focus on reasoning was a big reason for your success. It's not enough to know that you got a question right or wrong; you must know why. Going beyond that, if you can figure out what led you to a wrong answer (misread the question, missed a step, etc.), it becomes much easier to address in the future.
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