Hi Guys,
I wanted to firstly thank anyone who has given me advice in any of my past posts. Specifically, Rich.C and Bill@VeritasPrep.
I recently took the GMAT after studying for around 5 weeks and scored a 570 (34Q,34V). My score was somewhat consistent with my Practice Exams (1st CAT - 530(31Q,32V), 2nd CAT - 560 (35Q, 32V). At the outset, I was extremely weak in quant. My hand computation speed was terrible, and I could not remember 10% of the mathematical rules tested. I completed the foundations of GMAT Math, and then began going through the MGMAT Guides systematically. Most of my time was spent on the quant section. I went through each book systematically, then tried to do most of the practice problems from the OG13 that correlated with the specific MGMAT guide I had just went through. The problem with this was that by the time I took the GMAT, cramming it in 5 weeks, I had forgotten half the material I learned from the first 3 guides.
Looking back, I do not think I grasped what the questions were asking well enough. I felt on test day I couldn't figure out how to solve half of the questions. I felt confused exactly what the question was looking for, and baffled as to how to go about solving the question. It seemed the wording through me for a complete loop. My Verbal score is fairly raw, I was only able to spend around 2 days reading various parts of the CR/SC/RC books in order to soak up some material. I am not really concerned about the verbal section (not to say that I won't try to improve it a bit), but I have a May 1st deadlines for applying to a few Masters in Accounting programs and want to improve my Quant as much as possible.
So, I am sort of confused as to what I should do strategy wise. I feel that my previous strategy fell short in addition to burning out toward the end trying to study 4-5 hours a day. I know that I need to really grasp the how to answer specific questions (setting up the problem and grasping the concept from the GMAT's odd wording). I also know that I need to review some of the concepts I forgot and make sure that I keep reviewing previous material.
My question is, what is the best way to go about doing this? I have 4-5 weeks at most and want to improve my score to at least 620+. I have the entire set of MGMAT Books and the OG13. I have done a lot of problems from the OG13, but don't quite remember most (even if I did, its unlikely that I'd be able to reproduce my results). Should I spent my time going through the OG13 questions, one by one, not paying specific attention to question type, and then go back to the MGMAT Guides and refresh myself on concepts and material as I need it? Should I potentially try a score booster from one of the prep programs (cheapest one - I am short on $$), or will that somewhat mess up the strategies I've developed from MGMAT? I am really torn on what I should do...I have the dedication to stick to a plan....I am just not sure what my plan should look like......any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Kyle
I wanted to firstly thank anyone who has given me advice in any of my past posts. Specifically, Rich.C and Bill@VeritasPrep.
I recently took the GMAT after studying for around 5 weeks and scored a 570 (34Q,34V). My score was somewhat consistent with my Practice Exams (1st CAT - 530(31Q,32V), 2nd CAT - 560 (35Q, 32V). At the outset, I was extremely weak in quant. My hand computation speed was terrible, and I could not remember 10% of the mathematical rules tested. I completed the foundations of GMAT Math, and then began going through the MGMAT Guides systematically. Most of my time was spent on the quant section. I went through each book systematically, then tried to do most of the practice problems from the OG13 that correlated with the specific MGMAT guide I had just went through. The problem with this was that by the time I took the GMAT, cramming it in 5 weeks, I had forgotten half the material I learned from the first 3 guides.
Looking back, I do not think I grasped what the questions were asking well enough. I felt on test day I couldn't figure out how to solve half of the questions. I felt confused exactly what the question was looking for, and baffled as to how to go about solving the question. It seemed the wording through me for a complete loop. My Verbal score is fairly raw, I was only able to spend around 2 days reading various parts of the CR/SC/RC books in order to soak up some material. I am not really concerned about the verbal section (not to say that I won't try to improve it a bit), but I have a May 1st deadlines for applying to a few Masters in Accounting programs and want to improve my Quant as much as possible.
So, I am sort of confused as to what I should do strategy wise. I feel that my previous strategy fell short in addition to burning out toward the end trying to study 4-5 hours a day. I know that I need to really grasp the how to answer specific questions (setting up the problem and grasping the concept from the GMAT's odd wording). I also know that I need to review some of the concepts I forgot and make sure that I keep reviewing previous material.
My question is, what is the best way to go about doing this? I have 4-5 weeks at most and want to improve my score to at least 620+. I have the entire set of MGMAT Books and the OG13. I have done a lot of problems from the OG13, but don't quite remember most (even if I did, its unlikely that I'd be able to reproduce my results). Should I spent my time going through the OG13 questions, one by one, not paying specific attention to question type, and then go back to the MGMAT Guides and refresh myself on concepts and material as I need it? Should I potentially try a score booster from one of the prep programs (cheapest one - I am short on $$), or will that somewhat mess up the strategies I've developed from MGMAT? I am really torn on what I should do...I have the dedication to stick to a plan....I am just not sure what my plan should look like......any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Kyle
