I just Beat The GMAT!

I know this is not a great score to many of you who easily gets 600 in practice exam but for me it was an achievement. I was not strong in quant or verbal. English is my second language. I took the test before last year and ended up with a 480. This time I just changed my strategy for preparation. The reason I am writing this because I know there are many others who is just targeting to get a 550 or 600. I truly believe the preparation for a 600 is very different than 700. Also someone who is not strong in either quant or verbal better off preparing for a 600 strategy than 700. It is better to be good at few things than knowing everything in moderate level. This time I used grockit test prep and knewton. I work fulltime and go to school part time. I did not have enough time to spend for GMAT after work and school.

1. Used knewton for quantitative section only. It helped me to learn the concepts. It is highly recommended for those who need to refresh their memory and weak in quant. It covers all the basics. Also the home work problems were very helpful. I did not have enough time to spend for the verbal section in knewton.

2. grockit test prep was a great tool. It is fun and easy to use. It keeps track of your performance and it shows your improvement in each areas. If you are not performing well in certain ares, it allows you to practice more questions until you master it. For verbal I only used grockit.

3.Only book i used was princeton review math workout. I was very weak in quant and I needed something easy to read that focus on basic problems and the concepts. It helped me a lot.It is a easy read and helps you to master the quant section to get a score in 50th to 60th percentile. It is not for someone who is already performing well in quantitative section.

I bought several books including OG 12, Princeton review, Manhattan gmat etc. I did not really spend much time learning the OG 12. One of the reason being grockit includes most of those question in their question bank from official guide.I thought the manhattan books were great but I preferred knewton over manhattan books. Manahattan is great if you have plenty of free time and already has a strong understanding of various concepts. You can use knewton from any where as long as you have a laptop or tablet.

I studied for 3 months this time. Last time I took the test in 2009. So I had to start from the scratch this time again. I mostly used the knewton and grockit between work breaks on weekdays and on weekend I studied 1 to 2 hours.

I thought grockit and mock exam helped me to improve my skill as well as test strategy.

I think the reality for someone who is struggling to get a 500 is very different than someone who is scoring 650 without much preparation.

Hi shakil,
congratulations! I just got 610 two days ago and I'm happy too. It took me 5 months of hard study, but I need the score for Grad School 'only', a MSc, and that is sufficient. I really sucked in both Quant and Verbal, and I too used Knewton to prep for maths. I hope our stories encourage others to work hard, because that's the only, but a guaranteed way to get the score you want!
Good luck, Cloudy

Congratulation on your 600. I'm taking the GMAT in May and I'm not shooting to score in the 700s but I figure I'd shoot for the moon and even if I miss, I'll land among the stars. I'm only going to to grad school to get the additional education requirements to become a CPA. But I plan to STUDY STUDY STUDY for the next 2.5 months or so. if I get in the 700s that would be awesome, but a score over 600 will suffice as well.

Wish me luck

Hey Virtuous!

I have to appear for my test in 2 days. But having read ur post I can say we are in the same Boat! I plan to enroll in a MS course in order to fulfill my credit requirements for CPA as well.
It would be really helpful if we can share contacts so that we can discuss more about it.

Thanks
Richa

Congrats! It is a good feeling to walk away from the exam happy!