GMAT Struggler

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positive soul 2: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:30 am; Location: Dallas, TX

by positive soul 2 » Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:43 am

I took the GMAT last Spring, and made a 430. I decided to give up because of discouragement. Finally, in November, I got inspired again, and decided to try again. I took a class at a local university, and hired a tutor. My post class prep tests (GMATPrep) are not looking any more encouraging. I got a 410 yesterday. My goal is to get up to 650-700. I have been working very dilligently, and don't understand why my scores haven't gone up after taking a class, and studying every day 2-4 hours, and 6-8 hours on Sat. and Sunday. I'm thinking about canceling the test ( I was going to take it on Thursday) and just continue with practicing and tests until my tests are showing much more improvement. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

Last Spring I studied Princeton Review on my own. This year I used Cambridge and Official Guide with the class. I just bought Manhattan, and have been reading through "Number Properties." The other MGMAT books are coming in the mail later this week.

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:43 am

hk: MBA Student; Posts: 532; Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:39 pmFollowed by: 9 members; Location: Barcelona; Thanked: 33 times; GMAT Score:640

by hk » Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:50 am

It would be helpful to if you know your weakness.. Are you weak in Math or Verbal? If you are weak in math, i recommend you to buy The ARCO Math review book -> https://www.amazon.com/ARCO-GMAT-Math-Re ... KQ9QER2CBR

This book is good for beginners who are math-phobic.. You can also consider using the Kaplan Math Workbook once you have finished this book.

For Verbal, like many have posted in this forum, the Manhattan GMAT sentence correction guide would be very helpful...

But, i seriously would consider postponing the GMAT test until i'm confident of taking it!!!! Result cannot be achieved over night.. But in a couple of months into it and i'm sure you'll hit your target!!!!

Good luck

Wanna know what I'm upto? Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/harikrish

siownschu: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 44; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 4:52 pm; Location: LA, CA; Thanked: 1 times

by siownschu » Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:45 pm

wow we must have taken the test and received the exact same score!

The exact same scenario happened to me too and although i haven't retaken the exam i'm combating the exam differently and so far it seems to have helped me a great deal

the trick is learning from your mistakes and/or subjects which you have trouble in. Its worthless just doing problems without going back to understand why you were right or wrong.

I found one of the best tricks is, even if you get something right, go back to the answers and see if they have a better way of doing it.. because a large factor of my "low" score of 430 was because i ran out of time in the math section and I still had 8 questions unanswered

hope this helps! FIGHT ON!!!

Wall.Street.Sweeper: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 13; Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 7:12 am; Location: New York; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:550

by Wall.Street.Sweeper » Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:33 pm

I agree, you have to go back to review even the ones you got right to know that your approach was correct. Sometimes i do a problem and think I am not sure if i was right or wrong, but then when i grade my answers I see that i got it right. Thus, i were to not go back and review I would be uncertain again if a similar problem comes up. You need to confirm with yourself that your approach was correct, very important to review all answers.

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Princeton Review, Cracking the GMAT*
Manhattan GMAT Books 1-8*
OG Yellow
OG Green
OG Purple
Kaplan 800
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