Instead of beating the GMAT, I decided to join it (if you can't beat it..join it).
I am coming back from my test and happy to report I scored 730 (Q49, V42).
Background: Non native (from Nepal) Engineer, been in the US for last 15 years.
I gave the first test on December 8th, 2011 and scored 640 (Q39, V38). My AWA then was 6/6.
I took a break for few weeks, then started preparing for it again around the second week of January. In this one month I raised my Quants from 39 to 49 and verbal from 38 to 42. Here's what I did:
1. I first realized I cannot beat the GMAT, I have to join it. I tried to understand what it is actually testing, specially on Quants. This also meant accepting that some problems take longer than 2 minutes for few people.
2. Quant-DS was my weakness. I am an Engineer and thought I don't need much practice on Quants. Wrong!! Data Sufficiency is a different beast. I then realized that I was taking easier routes on DS; instead of answering if the choices are sufficient or not, try to answer how to make them sufficient and exhaust all your options before giving up...all within 2 minutes frame. This was the key to my raising points.
3. Practice-practice-practice. I took a week off from my work and practiced all the Sackman's problems. I retook Gmat PREP tests, Power Gmat, FOCUS and paper tests. I made sure I understood what I was doing wrong.
Lastly I think I have figured out the key to AWA section, I scored 6/6 on this last time. I will share it here if there is more interest.
I'd like to that all the people in this forum who made the whole process worthwhile; I got answers to few of my questions promptly. Other materials I used were MAGOOSH (these guys are super helpful) and the free section from e-GMAT (the only reason I didn't buy the full version is because I was already scoring over 85% in verbal). Jeff Sackman's challenge problems are also helpful. For the books, I totally recommend Manhattan series of books, specially Sentence Correction. I had Power Score's book on CR.
One last thing I want to mention is that some resources out there go beyond the scope of GMAT. If you want to efficiently manage your time, you want to concentrate on the types of question GMAT asks.
Good luck and yes, it is possible.
I am coming back from my test and happy to report I scored 730 (Q49, V42).
Background: Non native (from Nepal) Engineer, been in the US for last 15 years.
I gave the first test on December 8th, 2011 and scored 640 (Q39, V38). My AWA then was 6/6.
I took a break for few weeks, then started preparing for it again around the second week of January. In this one month I raised my Quants from 39 to 49 and verbal from 38 to 42. Here's what I did:
1. I first realized I cannot beat the GMAT, I have to join it. I tried to understand what it is actually testing, specially on Quants. This also meant accepting that some problems take longer than 2 minutes for few people.
2. Quant-DS was my weakness. I am an Engineer and thought I don't need much practice on Quants. Wrong!! Data Sufficiency is a different beast. I then realized that I was taking easier routes on DS; instead of answering if the choices are sufficient or not, try to answer how to make them sufficient and exhaust all your options before giving up...all within 2 minutes frame. This was the key to my raising points.
3. Practice-practice-practice. I took a week off from my work and practiced all the Sackman's problems. I retook Gmat PREP tests, Power Gmat, FOCUS and paper tests. I made sure I understood what I was doing wrong.
Lastly I think I have figured out the key to AWA section, I scored 6/6 on this last time. I will share it here if there is more interest.
I'd like to that all the people in this forum who made the whole process worthwhile; I got answers to few of my questions promptly. Other materials I used were MAGOOSH (these guys are super helpful) and the free section from e-GMAT (the only reason I didn't buy the full version is because I was already scoring over 85% in verbal). Jeff Sackman's challenge problems are also helpful. For the books, I totally recommend Manhattan series of books, specially Sentence Correction. I had Power Score's book on CR.
One last thing I want to mention is that some resources out there go beyond the scope of GMAT. If you want to efficiently manage your time, you want to concentrate on the types of question GMAT asks.
Good luck and yes, it is possible.
