GMAT Strategy

Hey,
I have been studying for GMAT since last 3 months. I have given 6 MGMAT practice tests and 1 Kaplan test. In all of the tests I have been scoring in the range of 520- 590. I am referring MGMAT for Quant and Kaplan essentials for Verbal. My weaknesses are IR,RC and CR.

The thing is I first studied all the books and then started taking tests in the since last one week. I'm not getting the confidence.

Could some one please advise me where am i failing in the planning?

Prernasrk wrote:Hey,
I have been studying for GMAT since last 3 months. I have given 6 MGMAT practice tests and 1 Kaplan test. In all of the tests I have been scoring in the range of 520- 590. I am referring MGMAT for Quant and Kaplan essentials for Verbal. My weaknesses are IR,RC and CR.

The thing is I first studied all the books and then started taking tests in the since last one week. I'm not getting the confidence.

Could some one please advise me where am i failing in the planning?

I was in the same situation couple of months back. I would highly recommend to watch RON's Video for CR and SC.
Also for RC, I tried every possible book on the market to improve my RC but it didn't get me anywhere. Ultimately I started with Veritas prep books. Initially I thought of buying only RC book but later I bought the whole set. It makes a lot of difference when you practise with wrong approach and when you practise with right approach. After reading the books and doing enough practise on each topic I realised that the right approach with ample practise is the way to go with GMAT. I am currently scoring 710 on mock full gmat. But couple of months back it was 580-600. I must tell you I was so bad in RC and CR that sometimes I was getting 7-8 questions in a row wrong.

If you could afford, Buy the Veritas material and read them and practise their strategies. You will see the difference in couple of weeks.
Target your weak areas.
Analyse every single question you practise irrespective of if you get it right or wrong.

If you do these see how you go with that.

Thanks
Rakesh

My score on practice tests have been 570-590. And because of RC and CR i'm falling. Just like Rakesh said. I get 7-8 questions wrong on each RC and CR. which is like more than 50% wrong. And this dooms my ocnfidence. I get scared when I see this section on screen and our of nervousness I hit the worng answer. Even I tried lot of books but nothing has improved my RC and CR. My GMAT is scheduled next week and I dont know how will I be prepared for RC and CR by then. Can you tell me how much time is needed to improvise on these 2 sections? Even I'll buy veritas prep and see how it affects my score. Also I have heard that MGMAT is good for verbal too. Sometimes its confusing what to buy and what not. Because i dont have much time left to figure out what is the right approach.

Thanks Rakesh. How much time did it take you to hit 710? I mean how many effort months or days did you put in?

rakeshd347 wrote:

Prernasrk wrote:Hey,
I have been studying for GMAT since last 3 months. I have given 6 MGMAT practice tests and 1 Kaplan test. In all of the tests I have been scoring in the range of 520- 590. I am referring MGMAT for Quant and Kaplan essentials for Verbal. My weaknesses are IR,RC and CR.

The thing is I first studied all the books and then started taking tests in the since last one week. I'm not getting the confidence.

Could some one please advise me where am i failing in the planning?

I was in the same situation couple of months back. I would highly recommend to watch RON's Video for CR and SC.
Also for RC, I tried every possible book on the market to improve my RC but it didn't get me anywhere. Ultimately I started with Veritas prep books. Initially I thought of buying only RC book but later I bought the whole set. It makes a lot of difference when you practise with wrong approach and when you practise with right approach. After reading the books and doing enough practise on each topic I realised that the right approach with ample practise is the way to go with GMAT. I am currently scoring 710 on mock full gmat. But couple of months back it was 580-600. I must tell you I was so bad in RC and CR that sometimes I was getting 7-8 questions in a row wrong.

If you could afford, Buy the Veritas material and read them and practise their strategies. You will see the difference in couple of weeks.
Target your weak areas.
Analyse every single question you practise irrespective of if you get it right or wrong.

If you do these see how you go with that.

Thanks
Rakesh

Rich,
My scaled scores have been between Q41,V28 to Q44,V30. I am thinking the same to reschedule my GMAT. What is the procedure for the retest? Can we give it anytime after the real GMAT?

I think somewhere there have been gaps in my planning. I work full time and after coming home at 6.30 in the evening, I start studying at 7 p.m until 1.30 a.m everyday with two breaks in between. ANd on weekend, i spend entire day taking 2 full length tests and reviewing them. Still, i am not getting a good score in practice tests and I'm lacking in confidence. I am very disappointed and nervous. I am not getting confidence at all for the test and inspite of so much of hard work for 3 months, I'm still losing on RC and CR. I am unable to figure out the gaps in my planning and I dont have any MBA friend. Please guide me on how should I plan my studies and what should I refer for verbal topics.

Prernasrk wrote:Rich,
My scaled scores have been between Q41,V28 to Q44,V30. I am thinking the same to reschedule my GMAT. What is the procedure for the retest? Can we give it anytime after the real GMAT?

Prernasrk wrote:Thanks Rakesh. How much time did it take you to hit 710? I mean how many effort months or days did you put in?

rakeshd347 wrote:

Prernasrk wrote:Hey,
I have been studying for GMAT since last 3 months. I have given 6 MGMAT practice tests and 1 Kaplan test. In all of the tests I have been scoring in the range of 520- 590. I am referring MGMAT for Quant and Kaplan essentials for Verbal. My weaknesses are IR,RC and CR.

The thing is I first studied all the books and then started taking tests in the since last one week. I'm not getting the confidence.

Could some one please advise me where am i failing in the planning?

I was in the same situation couple of months back. I would highly recommend to watch RON's Video for CR and SC.
Also for RC, I tried every possible book on the market to improve my RC but it didn't get me anywhere. Ultimately I started with Veritas prep books. Initially I thought of buying only RC book but later I bought the whole set. It makes a lot of difference when you practise with wrong approach and when you practise with right approach. After reading the books and doing enough practise on each topic I realised that the right approach with ample practise is the way to go with GMAT. I am currently scoring 710 on mock full gmat. But couple of months back it was 580-600. I must tell you I was so bad in RC and CR that sometimes I was getting 7-8 questions in a row wrong.

If you could afford, Buy the Veritas material and read them and practise their strategies. You will see the difference in couple of weeks.
Target your weak areas.
Analyse every single question you practise irrespective of if you get it right or wrong.

If you do these see how you go with that.

Thanks
Rakesh

Hi Prerna,

When I gave my 1st Gmat and was disappointed by my score, I took 15 days and didn't do anything because I was so disappointed that I couldn't think off anything. But just now about 4 weeks back I thought that I already have foundation for gmat (considering I scored Q49 in real Gmat) but I scored V21 in verbal which was disappointing. It took me 4 weeks with 5 hours daily. Now I gave 4 hours to verbal and 1 hour to quant just to practise. But the main difference I saw when I gave more time analysing than doing more questions.
4 Weeks and 5 hours a day on week days and 7 hours on weekend should get you to 700 if you do it right way but if you do it wrong way I have seen people preparing for 2 years and still don't get it.