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How do I improve from 490 to 700+?

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How do I improve from 490 to 700+?

by [email protected] » Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:33 am
Hello everyone.I'm new to 'beatthegmat' fraternity and this is my first post here.So please excuse me if the did not dot the i's and cross the t's of posting etiquette.

I took my GMAT on the 26 of Oct'12.I scored a 490.To me, it was the end of the world.I blacked out for a while since I was hoping for a far better score.This was even worse since I had 3 months of preparation behind me.For two month, I attended tutorial classes to get a hang of verbal and quant. It was on 1st Oct that I started my self study plan.I put in about 4 hours everyday and a week before exam I invested 8 hours everyday.Took about 6 mock test and scored an average of about 570. In my first CAT I scored 550 and the last one I score 590.And I was confident that I will get atleast 600 in my real.

Surprisingly, my quant was stronger than my verbal.I scored 40+ in all my mocks in quant and average about 25 in verbal.But a score of 490 shook my confidence completely.I'm aiming at a score of 700+ to get into a decent B school.

I have scheduled my GMAT on 30th Nov'12(since I don't want to lose out on applying for ISB) and have exactly 1 month.
Can someone suggest me where do I start from and how do I build my competency to be able to cross 700?I'm not working and I can dedicate 8-10 hours everyday towards GMAT since I've quit my job.I've finished the OG 13th and 12th edition apart from the study material that my tutorials(Manhattan Review) provided.What other material should I review to beat the gmat?
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by pbrmoney » Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:14 pm
Hey Irfankool,

I literally just accomplished what you are looking to do, well, almost. I went from a 490 to a 680.

My post is just below yours:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/490-680-i-m- ... 28046.html

I read on GMATHacks that the best resource is the OG itself. I first went through a handful of the Manhattan GMAT books. I wish I had focused more on number theory, but their foundations books are superb. I was pretty comfortable with verbal and focused mainly on the quant side of things. Just a handful of questions more correct and I would have pushed through the 700 mark.

One cool quote I read was "If you want a 700, you have to practice 700 level questions." But until you can confidently slam dunk the 600 level questions, doing only insanely hard questions will do nothing but wear down your confidence. Of course, the flip side of the coin is that someone else said that by practicing the hard questions, the easy questions become even easier.

When I got slapped with my 490 I went back to the beginning and focused on the fundamentals. I found the practice sessions at the end of each Manhattan Quant chapters to be really helpful, especially for getting comfortable and quick with exponent questions, quadratics and geometry. I am still terrible and confused when it comes to number theory. I wish I had picked up their book for that.

Another thing to remember is that when the test comes around, go after the "low hanging fruit" concept. There will be easy questions and hard questions. You cannot afford to miss the easy questions. When I was cycling through the OG, I marked each question easy, hard, and tricky. The first couple of go arounds I found maybe 20 questions hard. When I investigated the answer explanations in the OG and here on BTGMAT, I got that number down to about 5 questions that I never quite got the hang of.

When I first took the GMAT I felt like it was all or nothing, if I didn't pass, I don't know what... I was nervous and ill prepared. The second time around, I was as ready as I was ever going to be and I told myself, if I fail this time, I will just try, try again. Realize that there are tons of people out there who screw up the first two or three GMATs before they beat it, so you're not alone.

Practice the fundamentals, practice speed (repeating questions your confident on is a great way to achieve this), and space out your practice tests (every 3-4 days).

Of course, the difference between you and I is that you mentioned you are trying to take the test over in a month. I gave up for a few months, slowly started studying here and there, and then studied like crazy for the last 2 months before the test.

But, I did it and I'm not genius, trust me. (not genius, joke, meant to write 'no genius'). If I can do it, anyone can.

Best of luck!
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by [email protected] » Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:28 pm
Thank you pbrmoney.
Your success story was much needed for my confidence to soar.Maybe you can recommend what books do I follow for quant and English?Also how many hours do I need to put in everyday for my prep?
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by pbrmoney » Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:04 pm
I started with the Official Guide Companion 12 edition Quant by Manhattan and answered every single PS and DS question. Next I went to Foundations of GMAT Math by Manhattan, that one helped a tremendous amount. From there I went over and over and over the PS and DS sections of OG 13 until I could run through 400 questions real fast, like under 2 minutes per question for most of the questions. Even though I knew the answers, I forced myself to write out all the math, step by step.

I had Advanced GMAt Quant by Manhattan, but I never really go into it. If I had more time, I wouldn't have moved into that text and it would've helped with plugging in and all of the tricks that are necessary for 700+ scores, I also would have really benefited from the number theory text, but I never purchased that.

Again, I basically spent 4-5 months doing an hour or so a day and then two months doing one hour of study at lunch and from 9-12 at night after I got the baby to sleep. It gets grueling, but you build up a tolerance after a while. I wish I could've busted past the 700 mark, but for the program I am trying to apply to it is unnecessary. I'm happy I got the 680 on the second attempt. Friends have told me that it doesn't look good to take the test over and over again. But I don't really buy that. If you want a certain score, you should keep going until your satisfied. Beware of burnout. When I first studied for the test, the one I scored a 490 on, I was studying non-stop, but not really getting anything out of it. Make sure that you are actually learning when you are studying, it's a tricky thing to get the hang of.

Good luck
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by AristotlePrep » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:53 pm
We just answered a similar query on this thread.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/advice-neede ... 28641.html

Studying for 8-10 hours per day over the next one month will actually prove counterproductive so you may not want to do that.
It is quite possible that you may have under performed on your last attempt because you studied too hard during the last week. 8 hours per day in the last week is something that should be definitely avoided.
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