How to start?

This topic has expert replies
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:58 pm

How to start?

by mott » Sun Oct 23, 2011 7:26 pm
Hello at all.

I am a completely new member from Germany. I am still in my undergraduate studies (3rd year). That means, that this will be my last year (graduating in May 2012). At the moment I am doing 2 exchange semester in the USA in order to improve my English language skills (which aren't really good ;) ).
The main reason is, that I am attending a dual degree program, which means, that I will get a Germany Bachelor and a US Bachelor at the end.

I am a business student, with a major in Finance. My goal is to get into a reputable business school in Europe (Master in Finance or Management. MBA most likely not). This goal is highly competitive for me, because my "GPA" is only average and I also wouldn't consider myself as extraordinary smart ;). But nevertheless - try and error ;)

In the last few days, I read several threads in this forum. I am quite sure that it will help me a lot, but at the moment, there are too much information out there...so I need some basic advises how to get started :).

1) So far, I didn't made any test to check out in which range I score at the GMAT. My goal is to achieve 650+. Can you give any tips on how much time I should slate for the preparation? As I told you, I am a student, I am sure I can study for a couple of hours every week, but the school keeps me quite busy :S

2) I read through threads in which people recommended books. But I never found a current post in which someone recommended the best/latest books you definitely should have for preparation.


This two questions would be my very first one in this forum :). It would be very nice, if someone has an opinion for me. I think getting the books is one of the most basic and important steps for a successful GMAT preparation!? Following that step would be thinking about the right strategy, right?

Best regards,
mott
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 510
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:15 am
Location: London
Thanked: 122 times
Followed by:22 members

by throughmba » Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:57 pm
Hi

Welcome to BTG. You have come to the best place to know more about GMAT.

I will give two tips to your GMAT start.
1: First, You should familiarize yourself with the GMAT structure and principles.
2. Take a practice test to find out how far you are from your target. First appear for a Mock GMAT and see your score. If you are getting around the 650 levels then you will certainly get above 650 in actual GMAT. You just need to keep practicing for an hour everyday. Lets keep the Mock GMAT score as the benchmark score. If its less then strategize. For every 10 points that you wish to improve on the GMAT, you should study at least 1 hour/week for at least a month. (For example, if you want to obtain a 650, and you are currently scoring a 600, you should study 5 hours a week for a month.)
3. Find out what GMAT score you actually need. Just to give you an idea - You need 700 for Top 10 schools, 680 for Top 20, and 650 for Top 50
4. Find your weakness and choke it out.
5. Make a calender and put in the number of hours. Then calculate the number of hours and set your test date based on the time you get after studies.
6. Avoid the pitfalls of preparation.

2 I will give you a list of books

The Official Guide for GMAT Review 12th Edition
Manhattan GMAT Guides
The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review 2nd Edition
The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2nd Edition
Kaplan GMAT 2012 Premier with CD-ROM
The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction
Manhattan GMAT Test Simulation Booklet w/ Marker
Advanced GMAT Quant
Manhattan GMAT Foundations of GMAT Math
Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook
Manhattan GMAT Number Properties
Kaplan GMAT Advanced (Kaplan 800)
Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension
GMAT Ultimate Grammar
Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook
Manhattan GMAT Word Translation
Great Applications for Business School
The PowerScore GMAT Sentence Correction Bible
Manhattan GMAT Foundations of GMAT Verbal
ThroughMBA Consulting
The No. 1 B-School Admission Consulting of U.K. is now the most Affordable.

https://throughmba.com
email : [email protected]

Alex Wilkins
Senior Admission Consultant, ThroughMBA.com
Panelist | MBA Admissions Achievers Meet
Interviewer | MIT Sloan | Former
Management Consultant | McKinsey & Company | Former

"Regardless of who you are or what you have been, You can make what you want to be."

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 311
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:42 am
Thanked: 45 times
Followed by:18 members

by FutureWorks » Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:03 am
Hi Mott,

You can look for the books like official GMAT guidelines, Manhattan and Kaplan for your GMAT preparation. You have enough time so keep on taking practice GMAT tests to see how you are doing. If you cannot do that don't worry. What might work instead is to set aside 1-2 hours at night on weekdays and major part of your weekend to study and prepare for GMAT- in this case we will suggest a good 2-3 months preparation. However we recommend you to keep taking practice tests to gauge your performance. It will help you in identifying your weak areas and you can focus on them accordingly. You might be able to study more than the given hours and that would take you less than 2-3 months. It all depends on your potential really.
There are various ways you can use to practise for your GMAT. You might need to change your practise style and try this combination to provide you flexibility and different styles to practise so it doesn't get monotonous.
It could be combination of-
1-Books- Books like- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review etc could be used.
2-Online Study Guide: Websites like Knewton, Grockit etc provide you with practise questions online.
3-Smart phone applications- Kaplan, Veritas etc offer applications to prepare for GMAT on your smart phone


Hope this will help you � Any further queries? Feel free to ask us :)

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 1035
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanked: 474 times
Followed by:365 members

by VivianKerr » Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:22 am
BTG offers this nice Intro: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-intro

I would plan to study for 3 months to be safe. You'll want to use books like the OG's, MGMAT SC, Powerscore CR, MGMAT Number Prop, etc, and couple it with online resources like BTG, GMAT Club, and Grockit.

You'll need to study at least a little bit each day. I would aim for a bare minimum of 1-2 hours, with longer blocks on the weekends. It can be hard to juggle GMAT and school, but a good GMAT score requires a lot of diligence.

Good luck!
Vivian Kerr
GMAT Rockstar, Tutor
https://www.GMATrockstar.com
https://www.yelp.com/biz/gmat-rockstar-los-angeles

Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

Thank you for all the "thanks" and "follows"! :-)

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:58 pm

by mott » Sat Nov 05, 2011 4:28 pm
Thank you for your answers.
Yesterday I took my first mock GMAT test. The result was disappointing. I got 430 with 39 in Quantitative and 12 in Verbal.
What I recognized was, that my biggest problem was the long period of concentration. The first mistake was to answer the essay questions (they didn't counted in the result at the end, right!?) -> that costed me in total 1 hour.
Then I started with the quantitative problems and realized very soon, that I a) have often no clue of how to solve it or/and b) know how to solve it, but don't know the short-cuts, or how to calcualte it in the mind. That was the reason why I guessed a couple of questions.

The verbal part was hard. I guessed nearly 95% of the questions, because I had no idea which solution is the right one. In the end my motivation was down and I randomly choose answers for the last 11 verbal questions.
That was my first mock GMAT test. I didn't prepared me for anything.

Now, I have a couple of questions for you:
- How should my preparation should start? I propose with buying the basic books!?
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 025&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 049&sr=8-2
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 071&sr=8-3
I am thinking of buying these 3 books at first. I expect from them to give me tips and tricks how to solve the questions the best way. And they should provide me with more exercise questions. Am I right in thinking that these 3 books are kind of "standard"!?

- How would you go on? Are there any more detailed strategies of managing the time until GMAT here in the forum? In my opinion a well developed strategy will help me a lot, right?

I really appreciate your thoughts on my questions :)

Regards,
mott