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I'm giving up

by N:Dure » Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:54 am
After studying for about 1 month, I did the GMAT Prep 1 and scored very low on it (340) and now attempting the 2nd GMAT Prep and scored 460. I'm not dumb (I have a 3.5 UG GPA) so what's exactly wrong?

I'm studying from the OG only and saving Kaplan for the 2nd study month (my exam is on Nov. 29)

1) Should I postpone my exam?
2) Should I study now from Kaplan and save the OG for later practice?
3) Should I quit it all together and just do an EMBA that doesn't require freakin' GMAT?

I have posted a topic here about my study plan but no one answered: https://www.beatthegmat.com/exam-on-29-n ... 68553.html


Any help is welcome
Last edited by N:Dure on Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by uwhusky » Sat Oct 23, 2010 12:36 am
You must be going about it all wrong. I strongly advice you to hire a tutor if MBA is important to you.
Yep.
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by N:Dure » Sat Oct 23, 2010 5:10 am
I just did GMAT Prep 2 and got 460 (Q27, V28)...... is this considered an improvement or should I just postpone the exam?
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by DanaJ » Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:32 am
Your approach is wrong. Don't start with the OG, you need to work on theoretical part of the test before you practice. Just practicing a mix a problems (and that's what the OG is), you won't get anywhere because they won't teach you the underlying concepts of a problem. Kaplan is a general guide, so it doesn't go too deep on any one part of the text. Your score indicates that you need more than that.

Please consider buying the following:
-Manhattan GMAT set of 5 quant guides
- Manhattan GMAT SC guide
- PowerScore CR Bible

You will also need much more time to hit your target score. I'm sorry, but it's simply not possible to get from a 400-450 to 650-750 in a month. It would mean that you'd be spending all your time working on the GMAT and even then I'm not convinced you can do it.

You mention timing as an issue. There's no quick fix, but I always recommend that you time your practice. For instance, if you're working on a set of a few problems, make yourself stick to a certain time limit. It doesn't have to be 2 mins per question from the very beginning, but you should gradually get to that limit. I know it's hard and it's demanding, but...

Good luck!
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by N:Dure » Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:19 am
So what do you recommend... Should I postpone the exam till December? Or take the one I reserved in Nov. then re-take in case of very low score?

I went from 340 to 460 in 2 days is this an indication that I can improve by the end of the coming month? I just want 650 and I'm done. I'll invest in the books you recommended but hopefully they'll arrive to Egypt soon enough
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by DanaJ » Sat Oct 23, 2010 12:12 pm
About re-scheduling: don't really know. I think you are not going to hit your target score in Nov, so re-taking is probable. If you want to have like a "practice round," you can definitely do that. You can also get lucky and pull a 650 the first time! Who knows?!

Your score increase is extremely big for two days! I studied for quite a while and only pulled a 70-point increase... This is why I am inclined to say that this is not a "true score increase." You might have been a lot more tired the first time when you took the test, which is why your score came out as lower than you deserved. At the same time, the 460 might have been just luck... It's really hard to tell, you know? All I can say for sure is that huge leaps in score are very rare... I'm sure this is not what you probably want to hear, but I feel like I should be honest with you above all...
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by Whitney Garner » Mon Nov 01, 2010 11:36 am
N:Dure wrote:After studying for about 1 month, I did the GMAT Prep 1 and scored very low on it (340) and now attempting the 2nd GMAT Prep and scored 460. I'm not dumb (I have a 3.5 UG GPA) so what's exactly wrong?

I'm studying from the OG only and saving Kaplan for the 2nd study month (my exam is on Nov. 29)

1) Should I postpone my exam?
2) Should I study now from Kaplan and save the OG for later practice?
3) Should I quit it all together and just do an EMBA that doesn't require freakin' GMAT?

I have posted a topic here about my study plan but no one answered: https://www.beatthegmat.com/exam-on-29-n ... 68553.html


Any help is welcome
Hi N:Dure!

I've read your bio as well as the notes you have written in a few posts. Unfortunately it is very unlikely that the 100+ point improvement will continue at that pace. I definitely agree with the earlier post about contacting a tutor if an MBA is important for your future business plans. There might be a good bit of general advice we can give in forums, but for targeted strategies, in-person and one-on-one is the way to go.

Re: postponing your exam, that will simply depend on your preference. For the most part, business schools do not care if you take the GMAT multiple times so taking it and then retaking if necessary is not a big deal. The only issue is the cost and having to wait 31 days before you can retake (in the event that you have deadlines that will not allow the retake).

I would definitely say that 1 month is not enough time to go from a 400 score to a 650-700+ score but I have seen people make HUGE improvements. The earlier poster's comment about starting with content and then finishing with OG problems is your best bet. Focus your time on the algebra, geometry, and number properties concepts that are crucial for the quant and the 3 sections for verbal. Then make sure that you're working on timing when you get to the OG problems (it isn't just content, it is content under timed constraints). Think roughly 2 min per quant question and about the same for verbal (a bit less, 1 min or so on Sentence Correction, and a bit more on CR or RC).

Best of Luck!
Whit
Whitney Garner
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www.whitneygarner.com

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by KapTeacherEli » Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:57 pm
N:Dure wrote:After studying for about 1 month, I did the GMAT Prep 1 and scored very low on it (340) and now attempting the 2nd GMAT Prep and scored 460. I'm not dumb (I have a 3.5 UG GPA) so what's exactly wrong?

I'm studying from the OG only and saving Kaplan for the 2nd study month (my exam is on Nov. 29)

1) Should I postpone my exam?
2) Should I study now from Kaplan and save the OG for later practice?
3) Should I quit it all together and just do an EMBA that doesn't require freakin' GMAT?

I have posted a topic here about my study plan but no one answered: https://www.beatthegmat.com/exam-on-29-n ... 68553.html


Any help is welcome
Don't give up!

Unfortunately, the sharp increase from the very first test to the second one isn't likely a pattern that can be repeated. Your first test score was likely artificially low due to the time spend reading the instructions, and misunderstanding question types and tasks; once you've had a basic summary of the GMAT and a refresher of the content, you got a true baseline.

The good news is, you've chosen Kaplan. I've seen monstrous score improvements in my time here, and though your goal will be a huge challenge and there are no guarantees, I have had students in my classroom accomplish similar feats. And Kaplan material is definitely the best place to start, since the OG's technical explanations and lack of clear strategy can make it a mediocre resource for beginning students.

However, as other posters have said, books alone aren't going to be enough. Which Kaplan program are you signed up for? If you're not already a member, our Classroom Anywhere course will let you study with an expert Kaplan teacher from anywhere in the world, and will help to give you the support you need to accomplish your goal. Also, I definitely recommend postponing your test. Even the most accelerated Kaplan courses aren't going to give you the improvement you need instantly; give yourself as much time as you can manage without risking your application deadlines.

Let me know if I can help you out in any other way, and good luck on your prep!
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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