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Retaking the Gmat in 40 days. Any advice?

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Retaking the Gmat in 40 days. Any advice?

by backup » Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:33 am
Hello everyone!
I'm new to the site. I need some advice.
First of all, here's my story:
About 5 weeks ago I scheduled a Gmat appointment for today. Then I haven't opened a book until last Saturday, when I decided not to cancel the appointment, since it was too late to ask for a refund, and to give it a try.
I have the 13th edition of the Gmat Review. Regarding the Quantitative part, I went through the Math Review and practised only some Data Sufficiency questions (the first 70 questions), making 17 mistakes. For the Verbal part, I practised the first 41 Reading Comprehension questions (6 mistakes), the first 30 Critical Reasoning q. (3 mistakes) and only the first 10 Sentence Correction q. (1 mistake).
Then I read the answer explanations of all the questions I got wrong. That's all I could do, no IR pratice, no AWA and, most of all, no mock tests.
This morning I took the test and I got 620 (Q39, V36), a lot more than I expected. I'm planning to retake the test no later than March or I will miss the application deadline of the program I'm interested in. And I need to score at least 680. So now it's time for me to focus. I will finish the Gmat Review 13th, but then? How can I practice more or get a more in-depth review of the Math or Sentence Correction concepts? Where can I found advanced practice questions? Also, about the Prep Tests, I read many comments about most of them not being reliable to predict the performance on the actual test. Maybe their questions are too easy, I don't know. Are they worth the cost?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.
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by [email protected] » Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:56 am
Hi backup,

The fact that you were able to score so well with so little studying is a strong indicator that you could very well hit your score goals. There are some variables that need to be better-defined though:

1) When exactly are you planning to retest? Since you have to wait 31 days between GMAT appointments, you have time to continue studying for the Test. Any extra time that you can put towards you studies (by pushing your Test Date back) would likely be beneficial.

2) Your practice has been limited. The material in the OG that you've worked with is ordered in terms of increasing difficulty (although not every question is harder than the one that came before it). This means that you haven't really dealt with much challenging material yet.

3) There are plenty of sources for decent practice CATs, but YOU are responsible to make the CAT-taking process as realistic and test-like as possible. You should plan to take 1 CAT/week, take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections), in a test-like environment, away from your home, etc.

Since your 620 is based on 'your way' of doing things, it will be interesting to see if you can make the necessary adjustments on your own to increase your score or if you'll need to change your tactics. Over the next week, you should continue to study as you have been, then take a FULL CAT. From those scores, we'll have a better idea of your progress and whether you'll need to invest in some new study materials or not.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by backup » Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:26 am
Hi Rich,
Thank you for your reply.

I'm thinking of March 26th or 27th. So I have 5 weeks.
I'll take Gmatprep exam 1 next week and exam 2 the following week.
Then I think I'll buy Manhattan CATs. Or are there better CATs?

About the Quantitative section, I'm wondering if OG 13 Math Review is complete or there are formulas or other things missing. In that case, are there more comprehensive books or online resources, something including tactics for example?
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by backup » Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:42 am
Regarding "my way" of doing things, I did most of the practice I mentioned the night before the test, because I hadn't been able to do it before. So I only slept for 3 hours that night. I don't know if that has affected (negatively or positively) my performance on test day.
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by [email protected] » Fri Feb 20, 2015 11:00 am
Hi backup,

Any of the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT or Veritas are fine - just remember that it's up to you to make the experience of taking those CATs as realistic and 'test-like' as possible.

The OG13 is a great book of practice questions and will certainly show you a lot of the math "rules" that you might need to use on Test Day. However, it's not designed to teach you tactics nor is it designed to teach you all of the patterns, secrets, etc. that can help you to score at the highest levels and in the most efficient ways possible. Those are materials that GMAT companies (such as ours) can provide.

For what it's worth, 'cramming' the night before the Test and not getting a full night's sleep probably did have a big impact on your performance. With a bit more planning, you can eliminate those things from your routine.

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by VivianKerr » Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:37 pm
Hey backup,

I'd put some serious focus on RC. If you can move quickly and efficiently through RC, not only will you have extra time for CR, but you will be a lot less stressed for pacing! It's amazing to me how people ignore RC, or think that simply because they are good readers in real life, those skills will easily boost their GMAT Verbal.

If you do not get above 90% accuracy on RC when you work untimed, I'd DEFINITELY make RC a big part of your next few weeks. Here's a few more specific thoughts on how you can boost that area:

Begin with the Topic and the Scope. The topic should be obvious within the first 1-2 sentences of the passage. Look for the noun that appears to be the focus of the sentence. Is the topic a historical figure, a scientific phenomenon, a business plan, a social theory, etc? The scope is a little more specific than the topic. What about the topic interests the author? Think of the topic as the top of an umbrella. The scope shows the parabola of the umbrella and describes what would and would not fit under it. For example if our topic is "radiocarbons" maybe our scope is "theories about how carbon dating works."

Take short notes while you read. You can't possible remember every piece of information from the passage, but note-taking as you read will help you recall much more information than memory alone.
Don't skim. If you only read a sentence here and there, you'll never grasp the "big picture" of the passage. It can be tempting to rush through the passage to get to the questions more quickly, but then you'll be going back through the passage inch-by-inch, searching for the answers to those questions! Read at a relatively efficient pace, but read thoroughly the first time around.

Write down a Prediction. For each question (except for very specific Inference questions) you should be able to come up with your own answer based on your notes and your understanding of the passage. Trust that you can come up with a reasonable approximation of the correct choice on your own. Process of elimination is a much more effective method than simply reading and re-reading each choice.

Remember that Details support Functions. If a question asks you why the author includes a specific detail from the passage, consider that all the details within a paragraph are generally used to support the function of that paragraph. To answer specific detail questions, sometimes you need to take a step back and ask, what's the function of the paragraph that the detail is found in?

Focus on structure - go back for detail. When you read the first time, think more about HOW the passage is put together, structurally. How does each paragraph fit into the author's main idea? How does the author develop his discussion of the topic? You can always go back for the nitty-gritty details, and if you worry too much about the subject matter it's easy to get overwhelmed, especially if it is especially complex or unfamiliar.

Rephrase confusing answer choices. If you're having a hard time making sense of a difficult set of answer options, you can always "dumb them down" by simplifying them in your own words. You have a scratch pad for a reason - use it! It will help you cut through the verbiage and see the choices for what they really imply.

Hope this gives you a few new ideas on how you can step up RC. It's really not that challenging, it's just that most people ignore it. :-)

Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

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Vivian
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by BestGMATEliza » Fri Mar 06, 2015 8:12 pm
I'd also like to follow up on what Rich said about about making the tests as realistic and test like, because this is really important. In order to make the practice tests an accurate predictor of your score and to get the most out of the practice, you need to only take only the allotted 8 minute breaks, but also do the AWA and Ir sections to the best of your ability. Many people skip over theses sections and it ends up hurting them on test day, because they haven't gotten accurate practice of what the test experience is like or built up their mental endurance, so that they could get through the whole test without getting mentally fatigued.
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by backup » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:03 pm
Thank you Vivian and Eliza.
I really appreciate your inputs.
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by manyaabroadtpr » Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:36 pm
Hi Backup,

To get an idea on which study material to refer to,you can read our blog on "Best Books For GMAT and GRE Preparation" on the below link.

https://blog.manyagroup.com/detail.html?authorid=59

Good Luck
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