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For me, beating the GMAT means beating geometry
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Hi jgpb410,
You've self-identified Geometry as an area that need to work on, but I'd like to know a bit more about your studies so far (there might be OTHER areas that also need to be worked on).
1) How long did you study before each of your Official GMATs?
2) What resources did you use each time?
3) What were your scores (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you next planning to take the GMAT?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
You've self-identified Geometry as an area that need to work on, but I'd like to know a bit more about your studies so far (there might be OTHER areas that also need to be worked on).
1) How long did you study before each of your Official GMATs?
2) What resources did you use each time?
3) What were your scores (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you next planning to take the GMAT?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Jim@StratusPrep
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Here are some good geometry lessons: https://gmatanswers.com/posts/tags/Geometry
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Brent@GMATPrepNow
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We have a free Geometry module with 42 videos - https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-geometryjgpb410 wrote:I have taken the test twice now and one of my main weaknesses is geometry. Going to really focus on it this next week and was hoping to see if anyone has some good strategies for mastering the subject.
Cheers,
Brent
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MartyMurray
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One thing that helps with consistently rocking geometry is being already set up with certain things and clear about certain things.
For instance, you need to be clear about how to get from the area of a circle to the circumference. You should be good at working with equilateral triangles. Can you quickly and accurately get from the length of a side of an equilateral triangle to its height? You need to be quick with 3 - 4 - 5 triangles, and other Pythagorean triples. By having all the basics down in advance, you enable yourself to concentrate on the more complex parts of the questions, more easily see paths to answers and more quickly get to answers.
A good source of practice geometry questions is the geometry category in the question bank here, https://bellcurves.com. To access the question bank, just go to the GMAT area and set up a practice account.
For instance, you need to be clear about how to get from the area of a circle to the circumference. You should be good at working with equilateral triangles. Can you quickly and accurately get from the length of a side of an equilateral triangle to its height? You need to be quick with 3 - 4 - 5 triangles, and other Pythagorean triples. By having all the basics down in advance, you enable yourself to concentrate on the more complex parts of the questions, more easily see paths to answers and more quickly get to answers.
A good source of practice geometry questions is the geometry category in the question bank here, https://bellcurves.com. To access the question bank, just go to the GMAT area and set up a practice account.
Marty Murray
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.
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Hi jgpb410,
Is that 45 a score from the Official GMAT or from a practice CAT? Either way, how did you score overall on the Test (including the Overall and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Is that 45 a score from the Official GMAT or from a practice CAT? Either way, how did you score overall on the Test (including the Overall and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
It's from an official GMAT sitting. Overall score was a 670. I scored a (lower-than-expected) 37 on verbal and am retaking the test later this month. Took longer than expected, but i feel like I'm closing in on my goal of 700.
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Hi jgpb410,
In some of your prior posts, you mentioned the various books that you were studying from. Many Test Takers end up getting 'stuck' at a particular scoring level when taking a 'book-heavy' study approach, so you might benefit from focusing on some non-book resources. With a Q45/V37, you have the potential to pick up some points in BOTH sections of the Test, so you don't have to necessarily put all of your energy into one section of it.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
In some of your prior posts, you mentioned the various books that you were studying from. Many Test Takers end up getting 'stuck' at a particular scoring level when taking a 'book-heavy' study approach, so you might benefit from focusing on some non-book resources. With a Q45/V37, you have the potential to pick up some points in BOTH sections of the Test, so you don't have to necessarily put all of your energy into one section of it.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Thanks Rich!
Any specific advice on how to proceed. I'm currently A)Going through all of my incorrect problems over the past month, B) Doing random gmatclub question bank hard problems, C) Reading spidey's notes thouroughly, and D) outlining the MGMAT SC book. Will also do all of the hard OG problems once I'm doing with everything else, while mixing in full-length practice tests.
Any specific advice on how to proceed. I'm currently A)Going through all of my incorrect problems over the past month, B) Doing random gmatclub question bank hard problems, C) Reading spidey's notes thouroughly, and D) outlining the MGMAT SC book. Will also do all of the hard OG problems once I'm doing with everything else, while mixing in full-length practice tests.
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MartyMurray
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GMAT verbal is in a way a test of vision.
To develop vision, you could do questions slowly, on an untimed basis, seeking to achieve a high hit rate. Speed up once you are getting over 90% of them right.
Another thing that you can do is go over each question and without looking at the explanation determine why each wrong answer is wrong and the right answer is right. I mean get very clear about this. For instance, on CR questions, don't just say like, "This answer choice is extreme." Figure out exactly why logically the answer choice does not fit the prompt and question.
For more practice questions, you could use the Veritas Question Bank. https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/
To get your quant score to go up, find areas other than geometry to work on and go over them topic by topic, learning more about each topic and doing dozens of questions of each type until you are expert in handling that topic. Doing quant questions on a topic by topic basis is pretty much guaranteed to drive your score up. It stands to reason that if you get much better at handling questions of, say, six different types you will get a higher score, both because you will better able to get right answers and because you will work faster, giving yourself more time to figure out more answers and make fewer errors.
While geometry may have been your weakest area, now there are other areas in which you could still be stronger.
To develop vision, you could do questions slowly, on an untimed basis, seeking to achieve a high hit rate. Speed up once you are getting over 90% of them right.
Another thing that you can do is go over each question and without looking at the explanation determine why each wrong answer is wrong and the right answer is right. I mean get very clear about this. For instance, on CR questions, don't just say like, "This answer choice is extreme." Figure out exactly why logically the answer choice does not fit the prompt and question.
For more practice questions, you could use the Veritas Question Bank. https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/
To get your quant score to go up, find areas other than geometry to work on and go over them topic by topic, learning more about each topic and doing dozens of questions of each type until you are expert in handling that topic. Doing quant questions on a topic by topic basis is pretty much guaranteed to drive your score up. It stands to reason that if you get much better at handling questions of, say, six different types you will get a higher score, both because you will better able to get right answers and because you will work faster, giving yourself more time to figure out more answers and make fewer errors.
While geometry may have been your weakest area, now there are other areas in which you could still be stronger.
Marty Murray
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.
GMAT/MBA Expert
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[email protected]
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Hi jgpb410,
How did you score on your last CAT before you took this recent GMAT (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
After reviewing this CAT, how many questions did you get wrong because...
1) of a silly/little mistake?
2) the question was too hard?
3) you narrowed the answers down to 2 choices and 'guessed wrong'?
4) you were low on time and had to blindly guess?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
How did you score on your last CAT before you took this recent GMAT (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
After reviewing this CAT, how many questions did you get wrong because...
1) of a silly/little mistake?
2) the question was too hard?
3) you narrowed the answers down to 2 choices and 'guessed wrong'?
4) you were low on time and had to blindly guess?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
So I spent more time focusing on SC these past couple of weeks and now I'm feeling a little rusty on math. Any thoughts on refreshing myself on all of the topics? Is it better to go subject by subject or to go through random problems to cover the most ground?
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Brent@GMATPrepNow
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To improve your quantitative score, I believe that you should compartmentalize your learning and take the time to master each topic (e.g., percents, ratios, exponents, statistics, etc.). This means that, for each topic, you should:jgpb410 wrote:So I spent more time focusing on SC these past couple of weeks and now I'm feeling a little rusty on math. Any thoughts on refreshing myself on all of the topics? Is it better to go subject by subject or to go through random problems to cover the most ground?
1) Learn the underlying concepts (rules, attributes, notation, etc.)
2) Learn GMAT-specific strategies related to that topic
3) Practice dozens of questions all related to that one topic.
4) Don't stop working on that topic until you have mastered it
Then, and only then, move on to the next topic.
To help you focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.
While completing questions from the Official Guide (OG), you should you use an Error Log (aka Improvement Chart). You can find a free downloadable Improvement Chart here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-error-log. This will help you identify and strengthen your weak areas.
You should also spend a lot of time reviewing the responses from the Experts on this site. They model the steps one should take when tackling math problems.
In addition to learning the core concepts and GMAT-specific strategies, be sure to work on your endurance and test-taking skills (e.g., time management) by taking several practice tests. If you're interested, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244
Finally, you might consider signing up for Beat The GMAT's free 60-Day Study Guide (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide).
Each day, you'll receive an email with a series of learning activities that guide you, step-by-step, from Day 1 to test day. This will ensure that you will cover everything that the GMAT tests.
Here's an outline of all 60 emails: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide-outline
Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
