Hello Everyone,
I had promised myself that I would share my experiences in my journey from 440 to 600 on the GMAT. The biggest mistake was I never had some guiding me during my early days. I did what it seemed right. The forum helped me a lot and so here it is.....
I am a non native English speaker with average academics all through out my education. I am an engineer so I thought the math would not be difficult. The very first time I started off with the Princeton review. Slowly, I read through the book and solved some of its questions, thinking that GMAT didn't seem so tough. Finally I got hold of OG 11 and started solving the problems. Also enrolled myself in some stupid classes and set a deadline for myself and took a date with the exam (never do that...we will discuss this later). After some practice and solving some mock tests I realized I was not hitting 620-630 and infact the Kaplan test always hovered around 520 ranges. I postponed the date by more than a month but still could not achieve much. I was scoring low in verbal around 28-30 and math was around 40. I knew I shouldn't expect much from the exam. The result was shocking, a 440 with a verbal of all time low of 16. I had never scored below 24 in verbal (thanks to Kaplan). I had almost decided not to give GMAT again and was considering giving GRE and getting a better score. I met consultants and after much deliberation got back giving a second shot with Gmat after 2 months. This time I wanted to start fresh.
I gathered all the data available for Gmat online from different forums and torrents and file sharing websites. I quit those classes and went back to basics in math and basic grammar. There is a worksheet available online which gives you topic wise listing of all problems in math and verbal.
1. I realized that in math it never helps in solving for the answers. Always approximate your answers even before you start doing some calculations. This really helps in difficult problems as it narrows down to 2-3 options. One needs to get the basics right in probability, permutations, combinations, time and distance problems. Infact as and when you keep solving you would come across a typical way of solving certain problems in probability and time&dist questions.
2. The Manhattan guides are very helpful, the have ways to tackle certain question types which make s life easier. Pls go through them almost every week. The SC guides are great, infact prepare a schedule to get the SC's completed.
3. I also realized you cannot give 2-3 days continuously to one topic. One needs to solve at least 10 problems of each section. As in quant, geometry, RC's SC's and CR's to stay in touch on how to use your strategies.
4. Prepare your strategies for tackling each section. Practice them. Would read the question for CR's first and then read the paragraph. Same goes with the RC's. For SC's I would scan the option answers and try to find a mistake and the read the sentence.
5. One need to be very active on this forum, all my queries and difficulties in a particular problem or strategy were answer. During mock tests if I come across a difficult question, I would search for the keyword in this forum and would get a solution to it.
6. Always analyze your test scores, keep a record of your mistakes from the very 1st mock test. I had this on an excel, all my score, section scores, along wit the date when I had given the tests. I preferred giving the tests in the morning and scheduled a time table for it and took my gmat exam also in the morning.
7. One important factor, which worked for me. I never took the gmat date until the last 10-15 days. I could not target when ii would be comfortable giving tests. So I just took a date 10 days before, there are cancellation which happen every week and dates to open up. Just be prepared to take a shot within few days. In this way you don't set specific deadline for yourself. You can target month wise and give the exam.
8. Refer the 800 score tests, which are good for math. Time yourself properly during the exam, what you want to achieve in the first 15 mins of the math section and then in the next 30 mins. It does help to keep your anxiety levels low, incase you are stuck with a problem for more than 2 mins. SC's are real time savers, practice them. The Data sufficiency has various strategies, choose the best one. It can really get tough when short of time on the DS.
It took me more than 6 months to give it a second shot, but I still managed only a jump of 160 points. I could achieve more, but it seemed I got exhausted in the last few days. So give your best and analyze what is best for you.
Do let me know if I could be of any help. Good Luck
I had promised myself that I would share my experiences in my journey from 440 to 600 on the GMAT. The biggest mistake was I never had some guiding me during my early days. I did what it seemed right. The forum helped me a lot and so here it is.....
I am a non native English speaker with average academics all through out my education. I am an engineer so I thought the math would not be difficult. The very first time I started off with the Princeton review. Slowly, I read through the book and solved some of its questions, thinking that GMAT didn't seem so tough. Finally I got hold of OG 11 and started solving the problems. Also enrolled myself in some stupid classes and set a deadline for myself and took a date with the exam (never do that...we will discuss this later). After some practice and solving some mock tests I realized I was not hitting 620-630 and infact the Kaplan test always hovered around 520 ranges. I postponed the date by more than a month but still could not achieve much. I was scoring low in verbal around 28-30 and math was around 40. I knew I shouldn't expect much from the exam. The result was shocking, a 440 with a verbal of all time low of 16. I had never scored below 24 in verbal (thanks to Kaplan). I had almost decided not to give GMAT again and was considering giving GRE and getting a better score. I met consultants and after much deliberation got back giving a second shot with Gmat after 2 months. This time I wanted to start fresh.
I gathered all the data available for Gmat online from different forums and torrents and file sharing websites. I quit those classes and went back to basics in math and basic grammar. There is a worksheet available online which gives you topic wise listing of all problems in math and verbal.
1. I realized that in math it never helps in solving for the answers. Always approximate your answers even before you start doing some calculations. This really helps in difficult problems as it narrows down to 2-3 options. One needs to get the basics right in probability, permutations, combinations, time and distance problems. Infact as and when you keep solving you would come across a typical way of solving certain problems in probability and time&dist questions.
2. The Manhattan guides are very helpful, the have ways to tackle certain question types which make s life easier. Pls go through them almost every week. The SC guides are great, infact prepare a schedule to get the SC's completed.
3. I also realized you cannot give 2-3 days continuously to one topic. One needs to solve at least 10 problems of each section. As in quant, geometry, RC's SC's and CR's to stay in touch on how to use your strategies.
4. Prepare your strategies for tackling each section. Practice them. Would read the question for CR's first and then read the paragraph. Same goes with the RC's. For SC's I would scan the option answers and try to find a mistake and the read the sentence.
5. One need to be very active on this forum, all my queries and difficulties in a particular problem or strategy were answer. During mock tests if I come across a difficult question, I would search for the keyword in this forum and would get a solution to it.
6. Always analyze your test scores, keep a record of your mistakes from the very 1st mock test. I had this on an excel, all my score, section scores, along wit the date when I had given the tests. I preferred giving the tests in the morning and scheduled a time table for it and took my gmat exam also in the morning.
7. One important factor, which worked for me. I never took the gmat date until the last 10-15 days. I could not target when ii would be comfortable giving tests. So I just took a date 10 days before, there are cancellation which happen every week and dates to open up. Just be prepared to take a shot within few days. In this way you don't set specific deadline for yourself. You can target month wise and give the exam.
8. Refer the 800 score tests, which are good for math. Time yourself properly during the exam, what you want to achieve in the first 15 mins of the math section and then in the next 30 mins. It does help to keep your anxiety levels low, incase you are stuck with a problem for more than 2 mins. SC's are real time savers, practice them. The Data sufficiency has various strategies, choose the best one. It can really get tough when short of time on the DS.
It took me more than 6 months to give it a second shot, but I still managed only a jump of 160 points. I could achieve more, but it seemed I got exhausted in the last few days. So give your best and analyze what is best for you.
Do let me know if I could be of any help. Good Luck
