GMAT Strategy

Hey Eric,

I am really thankful to you for this benevolent effort for having to dedicate a blog to the GMAT test takers community. I am very excited to use this resource to the fullest extent and make the most of it. Its inspiring, extremely helpful and very detailed.

Here's sincerely thanking you for your effort.

best regards,
Viraj

hey thanks for all the advice. i want to write the GMAT this year. its been really hard settling down to study. i havent even purchased my OGs. I need serious help!

Hey Guys,
I plan to take the GMAT again this year. I've taken it once before, but that was more than 5 years back (scored 650) and have to take it again for an MBA later this year. I have about two, maybe two and a half months to study and I work full time, though I do work regular hours. A couple of questions for you all :
1. What is the minimum time that I will need to spend with my books and tests everyday in order to ace this test ?

2. My current strategy is to study and only study; no tests. Once I have given all the material a once over, I plan to take a test to gauge the level that I am at and then adjust my battle strategy accordingly. Any thoughts/advice/pointers ?

I just started studying yesterday (2hrs) and went over the Reading Comprehension section. Seemed to do ok but could obviously do a better. I started with this because I recall having trouble with reading comprehension the last time round. Math shouldn't be too much trouble but I will have to do my due diligence. Eric's advice of pretending to be interested in the passage really helped. I actually took it one step further and pretended I was preparing for a round of Jeopardy. That seemed to help a little too. Turns out the passage really was interesting at the end of it all.

K guys ... didn't do as well as I thought I would against the GMAT in round one. Need your help to get me ready for round two. The gloves are out and the bell goes off in 2 months.

Let the training begin .........

GRrrr

puninder wrote:Hi Eric, ....
Another good news is i have started gyming 10 days ago and i have started to feel more healthy than before, my concentration level has increased.
....

Puninder's old post has me starting gyming everyday starting today.
Thanks buddy.

Hi Eric,

I have been preparing for the GMAT for the past 5 months and I recently took the test and did poorly. I'll give you some background on my preparation. Initially, I bought a practice book and at this point I realized that my math skills had severely eroded so I took the Kaplan math refresher course. I followed the math refresher course with the Kaplan GMAT advantage class-on site. After I finished the class I spent a month drilling on problems from the OG and then took the test. Unfortunately, I was completely burned out from working 80 hour weeks and studying so when I went to take the test I realized that I was too tired to think (I didn't report my score). I followed this by spending the next month doing the Kaplan practice tests on the weekends and during the week I would spend 2 days on quant followed by 2 days of verbal. My average test scores were around 600, but when I took the GMAT I scored a whopping 430!!! I had been scoring 50+ on the quant sections of my practice exams and my verbal was lower as I have been struggling to keep pace on the SC questions. I'm down to the final application deadliine for my school of choice so I have to retake the test by 4/29. Do you have some advice as to how I should structure my study sessions? Should I do Quant and Verbal on the same day? Should I do DS and PS on the same days? I know I can perform much better than I have and my lack of results are not from a lack of effort, but I do know that I need to make adjustments or I'm going to wind up with the same results.

Thanks,
Rob

Gave my GMAT on 1 July,2011. gmat score 590 Q41 V28. Poor score way beyond my expectations.
Planning to give GMAT again in a month's time. Target score : 750
There was a problem when i was giving the GMAT test. During the quant section, there were few tough questions in the beginning and then the question were very easy. I was able to complete the test in 8 mins before time. But as I was getting easy questions in the middle of quant section, I had the feeling that I have done blunder in the initial questions. I honestly attribute my mistakes to the speed and to the negative feeling.
That feeling was not short lived and persisted till the verbal section.
Verbal Section : Started this section with a bit of caution and hence devoted more time on the individual questions. And hence landed up with 15 questions left with 5mins to go situation. At that moment only option left was to make guesses on the remaining questions, with the intention of completing the exam on time. Rest all is in front, Q41 and V28
Plan to give the test again in a month's time. Please suggest way to plan for my exams and also suggest on the prep time to be devoted.

...

Hey Eric,

Great Post, I have under one month left for my GMAT exam(4th August).

I have been preparing since last month and I have completed Manhattan GMAT 8 study Guides, but my preparation has been getting hampered with work/relatives/vacations.

With just one month left, I am left with Kaplan 800 and OG 12th Edition and plus need to give loads of practice tests. In total these books have 1000+ questions ... which need dedicated effort to finish.

I had done OG 11th Edition last year, So there is some backup knowledge in my brain..

Lets see if this time crunch brings out the best in me !!

With your suggestion, I am thinking that I will attack OG first and then K800

Do you think that sounds ok ?

All the best to me

Champ

Hello Im vani from india i would like to get some valuable tips regarding GMAT math prep cause I'm preparing on my own and Im appearing for the GMAT on 13th of december 2012.At this moment i cant afford for coaching classes I've purchased GMAT official guide and Im going through the verbal and Math sections mentioned in the official guide though i do that I'm able to score only 435 during my first Practice test. I would atleast prefer a descent 700 score. For scoring 700 what should be my structure/schedule for preparing Verbal and Math during this 2months period. I'm thinking to purchase Kaplan GMAT which comes along with the practice CD's.I even have Barron's with me. I'm a student aspiring to study in Canada or Uk where there are descent universities which accept potential students with or without work ex if the candidate possess a good score in his/her GMAT. I've got conformation mails form the respective colleges too so now i don't want to risk making any mistake in GMAT.I am willing to do hard work in-order to crack GMAT with 700 and above score. Please help me or gudie me

Vani,
Stay on course. You have sufficient time for preparation, I detect commitment on your part and your goals are also set. That's good. However, I would advise you not to dip your hands into too much material from different institutes. Do some research and figure out which material and strategy works best for you and stick to it.
Make sure you give adequate number of mock timed tests (at the least 7-10).
The MGMAT and GMAT Prep tests worked well for me.
All the best...

Cheers!

vanimadhavi91 wrote:Hello Im vani from india i would like to get some valuable tips regarding GMAT math prep cause I'm preparing on my own and Im appearing for the GMAT on 13th of december 2012.At this moment i cant afford for coaching classes I've purchased GMAT official guide and Im going through the verbal and Math sections mentioned in the official guide though i do that I'm able to score only 435 during my first Practice test. I would atleast prefer a descent 700 score. For scoring 700 what should be my structure/schedule for preparing Verbal and Math during this 2months period. I'm thinking to purchase Kaplan GMAT which comes along with the practice CD's.I even have Barron's with me. I'm a student aspiring to study in Canada or Uk where there are descent universities which accept potential students with or without work ex if the candidate possess a good score in his/her GMAT. I've got conformation mails form the respective colleges too so now i don't want to risk making any mistake in GMAT.I am willing to do hard work in-order to crack GMAT with 700 and above score. Please help me or gudie me

Hi all,

Thanks for all postings. I'm going to take the test in 5 weeks. I've restarted the prep few months ago but haven't been on strict schedule yet (I took the test last Jan and scored only 600 though I scored 620, 680 in Kaplan pratice test).

What should I do to study efficiently in this crunch time? Go with OG or take a Kaplan GMAT advanced prep course? I also bought Manhattan GMAT ( not full set but only the parts I'm not confident at:Reading Comprehension, Word Translations, Sentence Correction, Number Properties, Critical Reasoning)

Please give me suggestions. Thanks all

can anyone please post links for free tests online with or without AWA. So that i can keep on practicing with tests and improve scores steadily. Please help me out people im in no position to spend much on study material any more. and any tips please share with me

Hi,

I found your article to be very useful. I have only 3 weeks to study for gmat exam as I only found out yesterday that I need a gmat to apply to this university!! I also took an online test to check my knowledge and I scored an embarrassing 370. I need 600 points. Is this achievable to reach in 3 weeks?!

Many thanks,
S

Hi,
How do I get access to your blog "https://beatthegmat.blocked " ?
It says access only by invite, can you please give me access ?

Thanks,
Samarth