I just Beat The GMAT!

Dear All,

I decided to seat and study for the GMAT on Mid of Aug 2010 and at that time I was aiming an average 650 as an middle score to get accepted from any university.Therefore, I decided to buy the MGMAT series *except the reading comprehension* to start from the zero level since I have been out of school for almost four years.

I took the exam on Nov 2 and ended up with 330 . Yes with 330 ( 28 Q , 10 V ). What should I Say ! I cant find the word to describe my score . I really cant believe it till now . I dont know what to do. Im completely down after being studying for three month.

Clearly, my first Biggest weakness is CR and RC. I believed that i got the 10 on V from the sentence correction since i used to score above 70 percent on the GMAT Prep in all my practice test.

Guys , I wont make it long, and I really need some advise to completely change the above score taking into consideration the below points :

Materials Used :

OG Review ( Math and verbal )
OG 12th edition
MGMAT series
CR - Powersocre Book - The bible .

I would highly appreciate answering my below questions :

Do I need to really starts working from the Foundation of the GMAT ?

How can I hardly work and what are the good materials that i can used it to work on both CR and RC sections taking into consideration that the English is not my mother tongue .

Is it enough to work back on the MGMAT series to improve my Quant from 28 to 40 ?


I would like to thanks everyone who had the initiative to read my post and shooting me with some serious advices !

Thanks all ,

hello Huss, have you happened to read one book twice or even three times and grasp seemingly to you unknown or not caught details ever? If your answer is yes, as would be one of the majority at BTG, then re-read CR bible from power score. Start from question families and smoothly flow to Must be true questions. For the latter, please note, it is a potential predictor of your CR ability and possibly a score for the entire section (CR). No explanation in OG or in CR bible itself will help you better than your own thinking process and the combination of different thesis elements in the fact sets for Must be true questions' stimuli should do.

With CR at the start point and Must be true questions as the primary focus, please be prepared to attack exactly Must be true question types when you read Not aaaargument But theeeesis. The first is different from the other with the absence of any conclusion; no conclusion - no argument. After you make sure you have thesis = mere statement of facts >>> look for the answer which contains only data, information, facts residing in the original statement of facts (stimulus) only. Eliminate all four answer choices which proceed from the flourishing imagination of GMAC and ETS (actual GMAT question maker). Stick only to facts in original statement. Let's make it yourself for all other sections of CR bible. I have trust in you as in every fellow at BTG.

Once you raise you CR level, your reading should climb with the double speed to its hill top. We can see but not vision, we can hear but not listen, we can read but not understand. CR will make you understand each word and letter when you will be reading the RC passages, even if you are not being a native speaker, as I am not being myself.

Sorry to hear about your bad score. I think where people again and again tend to get things wrong is that they assume that just by doing questions from various books ,they'd be able to get good scores. Sadly, GMAT needs a different kind of approach. Ask yourself that how solid were your concepts ?Did you analyse each question while you practised or did you just get happy that you got a question correct ? Did you make an error log and try to see where you need to work ? Did you solidly master a concept,apply the concept in numerous questions and then move on the next concept OR did you just keep practising the questions from the OG sequentially.


Quant : MGMAT Quant books are really good. I think you should stick with them

Verbal : Verbal is an area which unlike the Quant section ,cannot be improved quickly. There are no formulas as such.There are rules,but again you need to be quite discerning in the application of those rules. As far as RC is concerned,there are not even any rules on the RC ,and what matters is what is your familiarity with the language like and what is your comfort level with the topic you have. I suggest that you get into the habit of reading,if you are not already. Read as much as possible-newspaper,magazines,etc. In addition to that, you may want to buy RC99. It's a very good book. There are no strategies for RC in the book but it has 99 passages from various difficulty levels and various topics. You'll become a lot comfortable with reading passages which are not from your interest area .The format and type of questions are also quite representative of the GMAT passages. However, that doesn't mean that you just rely on this book. Read,read and read as much as possible! That's the way to go!

Huss, for quant I would suggest you to go back to MGMAT math series and quickly redo problems there. Simultaneously you may seek solving practice problems from MGMAT question banks and try doing their CATs (check the MGMAT web site for question bank option). When you complete question banks, review all mistakes there and ask help from Jeff Sackman's total GMAT math guide. The latter will make you un-unopen your quant eyes wider.

look for 50 bro, why to stick to 40s...

When you are done with MGMAT & Jeff practice, sit for 6 CATs of theirs.

Lastly, do GMAT prep from MBA Dot Com and enjoy nice toy GMAT (this will definitely come easy to you then!) session.

good luck.

Night Reader :

To be honest with you , I couldn't able to read the CR book twice time. It took me almost two weeks to finish it as a first read !
My biggest mistake with this book is that i went directly to the main topics before reading the family questions first . My start point on this book was the Must be true question and onwards! The same I founded that is completely wrong.
I did not give the right time for this book to read it and understand it completely , while the same is considered the best book in the market in terms of attacking CR questions!
Unfortunately, I have to seat and read the book twice and third ! I was always in rush to finish the book and just applying the methodology of removing any new idea from inserted in any Must be True questions and find an alternative cause for the stated effect to weak an argument while show when the cause occur the effect occur on strengthen questions.

Again, I need to address my question to you , Do you think with Q28 on V , i should go back to the foundation of the math before starts looking back on the MGMAT quant books ?
Most of the mistakes that i went through the questions on the real test were that i couldn't able to solve half of the Word problems while i was good on Number properties and other algebra problems.
Note that on the real test my fourth and six questions were combination and probability at one point i though that am doing well in the Quant but when i started facing the prices problem with the hidden constraint strategy to apply on it , this is where i lost the power to solve the problems !

Again, I would like to thank you for your prompt reply and dont hesitate to be hard on me on any time ! Im open for anything since i really need to beat this stupid test!

Simply, I will not give up !

Rishi Raj :

Ask yourself that how solid were your concepts ?Did you analyse each question while you practised or did you just get happy that you got a question correct ? Did you make an error log and try to see where you need to work .

Simply,I loved the above sentence ! thats is where I should focus and maintain an error log to enable follow up my progress and to see in which stage.

Raj, As you mentioned in your previous book , I have to go back and getting more in details on the MGMAT Books ! as i Socred 28 so if i put more effort i will able to reach 40 to 45 but the thing I have to seriously look back and analyze my Verbal since the same was very low.
The question to you now : Do you think from your point of view that i have to starts working and putting verbal as top priority as first focus and then moving to Quant to improve my score tfrom 28 to 45 for example or I have to starts with the Quant first and master the concept and then move to Verb ?
What do you suggest ?

Thanks bro!

Night Reader :

Q28 V10 :

From this above score, what do you think will be the best strategy to follow it :

Should I starts working on the Verbal first, Mastering the concept and then move back to improve my Quant socre or I should work first on Math and then starts focusing on verbal as second stage ?

what did you prefer or what did you suggest as an strategy to follow ?

Thanks in advance,

What was read is read. Do not repeat your readings - this is silly. Turn to MGMAT question banks. When you will feel struggling with certain types of problems, despite unlimited time condition, you will go not to Basics but to Counting on your fingers! Life is hard on all of us. If you follow some advice I offered, soon you will be able to advise to yourself. Word problems are very representative of our math abilities. If you struggle with word problems covering different topics, this should be cleared before your next moves. Also, I forgot to write in my previous message - do all problems from Kaplan 800 'straight math'; it is boasted to be challenge set whereas it is only up to 550 level

Their word problems are very representative of the test ones, though easy. Stick to MGMAT and Jeff's play fun with 'straight math' and rely on MGMAT CATs (very-very calculus-wise quant.... but brainy).

As a final shot you may want to look into OG10 if time allows. They have assorted medium and hard problems in order with the guide to OG10 (old guide, it may be available freely on net).

ask what has been left out, ok?

Huss982 wrote:Night Reader :

Q28 V10 :

From this above score, what do you think will be the best strategy to follow it :

Should I starts working on the Verbal first, Mastering the concept and then move back to improve my Quant socre or I should work first on Math and then starts focusing on verbal as second stage ?

what did you prefer or what did you suggest as an strategy to follow ?

Thanks in advance,

Work in two shifts:

Shift one (one day) quant and CR, also improve your SC home score up to 85-90 accuracy rate. Subscribe to e-gmat (very-very reasonable price and omg content to its best meaning)

Shift two (one day) quant and RC, stick with SC.

Also, you can simplify GMAT work by topping up the RC during before five week period to exam; you could do the passages from OG10 to freshen your RC taste.

So basically, Quant+CR and Quant+SC, day by day, you will know yourself when to finish.

Do not go for test and do not do a CAT until you complete all preparation days (e-gmat, MGMAT questions banks, Jeff's, huss' why not)

Starting close to middle by end look for AWA. Princeton's AWA (one day) and Nova's GMAT AWA (three days).

Your first CAT should be timed, 7-8 mins break between quant and verbal. All CATs must be completed with AWA for better load on your stamina and test taking endurance. If you ever happen to cross 600 on MGMAT CAT start thinking about scheduling the test date.

hope this helps.

Night Reader : Life is hard on all of us!! Thats correct bro ! Nothing is easy , wherever you go you have to work hard until you get the half of what you want .

Back to our Subject: working two shift, I certainly agree on that, specially you keep your mind focused on Quant while your working on verbal at the same time .

My question here about Jeffs guides , I Have looked over the website right now and I found it quite interesting. the site itself contain three major books : the Math , The verbal and the tips and tricks book while the site offer for selling the math content by topics and i found two topics for word problems: the word problem foundation and the word problem challenge !

In your previous Post , what did you actually meant about asking help from Jeffs guide ? did you mean it that i have to got the whole guide or only i have to go to specific topic ?

e-gmat found it important since i have look over the content and is good for improving the score.

At the beginning , I will definitely struggling with some of the word problems.

Actually I did not get your point exactly in pertains of words problems ! What should i do in case i found difficulty ? shall i go back to book number 4 ( Manhattan book ) or i should look for alternative Like Jeffs Method ?

Huss982 wrote:At the beginning , I will definitely struggling with some of the word problems.

Actually I did not get your point exactly in pertains of words problems ! What should i do in case i found difficulty ? shall i go back to book number 4 ( Manhattan book ) or i should look for alternative Like Jeffs Method ?

Man you have got to work on your English grammar really hard. You are making serious blunders in basic English grammar. Thus, you might need some tutorship in English before seriously studying Verbal part of GMAT.

Will do !

Should i redo the Manhattan quant books and ignoring their questions at the end of each chapter , or should i consider an alternative publisher Like Jeff Scakmann sets both the foundation and the challenge sets ( 1800 Practice Math ) ?

Huss982 wrote:Will do !

Should i redo the Manhattan quant books and ignoring their questions at the end of each chapter , or should i consider an alternative publisher Like Jeff Scakmann sets both the foundation and the challenge sets ( 1800 Practice Math ) ?

if you do 'total gmat math' from Sackman then you must be set for middle 40-s (45-46), but watch your timing on the test.

I would also suggest getting some tutoring advice, maybe more personalized, to get you kick started on CR and RC strategies and to create a schedule.