1st attempt 360, 2nd 400. How to get 600?

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1st attempt 360, 2nd 400. How to get 600?

by Sharla » Sat Jan 04, 2014 2:26 am
Hi,

I need help with a good strategy for my 3th attemp where I need to get a minimum of 600.

My first exam was at the end of November. I was really nervous on the testday. For preparation I started in September with the math basics, since that was my most weak spot.
I used the OG 13 and the MH guides 1 - 5.

Gmatprep1: 350 (Q20, V17) (took the test after one month of studying.
Gmatprep 2: 450 (Q31, V21)( (at the beginning of November)
CAT 1: 460 (Q32, V22)
CAT 2: 470 (Q33, V23)
CAT 3: 500 (Q32, V27)
Cat 4: 530 (Q32, V31)
Cat 5: 460 (Q28, V27)
Cat 6: 460 (Q37, V17)

I knew that I wasn't going to score near 600 since I only knew the basic, but I was hoping for a score around 450/500 on the testday. Well, on the testdat I scored 360.
Disharted, I made a second appointment.

This time I was really going to brush up my math skills, reviewed everything thoroughly. I also got the MH guide for sentence correction.
For 3 weeks I practiced a lot and in the fourth week I started with the CATs.

GMATprep1: 480 (Q30, V27)
CAT1: 540 (Q38, V27)
CAT2: 520 (Q37, V25)
CAT3: 540 (Q40, V25)

I was confident for the testday (which was yesterday). I was hoping that with a little luck I would get a 600, but if I would get a score of 550 that was well for me.
So I took my second exam yesterday and I got 400. I was totally shocked. My cats score were much higher....

I have studied for 4 months fulltime, did al the exercises from the OG 13, also I did all the exercises from MH guide 1-5 and a little of sentence correction.
However, in the cats I made a lot of mistakes in the RC questions and not so much in the SC part.
Also I'm not a native speaker. Math was always my weak side, so I did a lot of practicing on the Math and DS because I knew that would ruined things for me. Now my math is a little better than my Verbal, but its still not enough.

My first attempt I got 350 (Q17, V11)
2nd attempt I got 400 (Q25 and V20)

Now I want to give it one last try. I need to score 600, what should I do differently and what is a good strategy for me? Also how long should I take to study?

I was thinking to take my final attemp by the end of March or the beginning of April, but will that be enough?

Please help, advice needed!
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:39 am
Hi Sharla,

Your score breakdowns don't provide much information regarding what's needed to increase your score.

You took a lot of practice tests (which is great), but how much did you analyze the results?

When you take practice tests, you need to carefully analyze them to identify your area(s) of weakness. There are four main areas of weakness you should watch out for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the first two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. Learn the concept/skill and find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back (which appears to be the case), then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244.
We also have a free video on dealing with test anxiety: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1252

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes during your prep so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article for BTG: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/09/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by Sharla » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:15 am
Hi Brent,

Thanks for your advice!

What do you mean with that my scores breakdown don't provide much information?

After every practice tests I took a long break for two hours. Then I went through all the questions. Some questions that I got right but didn't understand I did those once again with the explanation. For the questions that I got wrong I just looked at the explanation and see if I understand it. If not, I would ask a friend for explanation.


What do you think that is a good time plan for me? I mean as an tutor what would you advice me regarding my 3th exam date?

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:36 pm
I mean it's tough for an outsider to look at a student's score of something like "530 (Q32, V31)" and be able to identify what the student needs to do to improve.

Learning how to solve a certain question is useful, but there's often an underlying knowledge gap that caused the student to miss the question in the first place. So, be sure to determine which concepts were missing from your repertoire and go back and relearn them AND look for related questions that you can answer to help reinforce the concept.

I suggest that you achieve your target score at least two times before you consider retaking the GMAT. How long that takes depends on how well you can identify and strengthen your weaknesses.

Cheers,
Brent
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by Sharla » Sun Jan 05, 2014 11:45 pm
Thank you Brent. This helps me a lot in regards for planning the exam.


Actually could anyone give me some advice in how to handle different study materials?

This time I'm going to use:
OG 13
MH guides
OG verbal foundations
Kaplan premier 2013 which includes 5 cats
MH cats
Gmatprep 1 and 2, and I'm thinking to get the additional gmat prep 2 full length tests as well.

But should I use one book at the time or everything together? I'm a little overwhelmed with everything now since I'm going to switch everything up that I did in my previous preparations.

I'm able to study fulltime for the next 3 months, is this a good idea?

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:38 am
But should I use one book at the time or everything together? I'm a little overwhelmed with everything now since I'm going to switch everything up that I did in my previous preparations
You might consider signing up for Beat The GMAT's free 60-Day Study Guide (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide).
Each day, you'll receive an email with a series of learning activities that guide you, step-by-step, from Day 1 to test day. This will ensure that you will cover everything that the GMAT tests.

Here's an outline of all 60 emails: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide-outline

Cheers,
Brent
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