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need some advice for preparing my second gmat test

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need some advice for preparing my second gmat test

by TheRekz » Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:52 pm
I bombed my GMAT last month at 530, I know that I wasn't preparing that well for my GMAT however I am not giving up as I know I can achieve somewhere in the 600's. I am starting to run out of ideas of where should I start to study again. The things I've done to prepare previously is solved couple problems from OG12, read half of the Manhattan GMAT SC, and I've also taken a live online course at Kaplan for 3 months before. I think the problem is that the last time I am in a deep time crunch which frustrates me out and therefore I feel that there's a lot of things that needs to be learned at a such short time. As of now I have a lot of time to study for my GMAT. My question is
1. How long do you guys think I should study for my next GMAT test?
2. What other study methods should I use in addition to the above that I have mentioned to help me study? I don't want to
take another course from kaplan, manhattan, etc... as I can't afford to pay that much anymore

Any other suggestions are appreciated. The first score I got does disappoint me but it's a driving force for me so that I can do better in the future. I know I can do this.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:12 pm
Hello, TheRekz - I can definitely understand where you're coming from. My recommendation is to start by identifying a few mistakes that you commonly make and seeking to correct those first. Remember - you don't need to master the entire GMAT to score high, so you shouldn't worry about the idea of "so much to learn". From your 530 starting point, if you focus right now on not "giving back" with mistakes points that you've already earned, you'll probably be able to get to at least 600 without actually "learning anything new".

I'd recommend this - go back to your most recent practice test or two and review the questions you got wrong. Label them with keywords pertaining to:

Question type (i.e. Data Sufficiency, Algebra; or Critical Reasoning, Weaken the Conclusion)
Error (i.e. "assumed variable was positive"; or "misread the conclusion")

Then, go back and see which keywords come up the most (you don't have to be entirely scientific..just see if you see the same question types or mistakes coming up multiple times), and make note of them. Then, find questions of the same type and work through them emphasizing that you need to be aware of your mistakes.

You can also minimize mistakes by simply keeping a list of your top 5 or so mistakes on either section, and jotting down reminders to yourself not to make them. Personally, I had a lot of trouble with making assumptions (particularly on DS problems) regarding whether variables were positive integers (those are the numbers that come to my mind first, so I typically assumed that any variable would fit that bill). I wrote down the words:

Positive
Integer

on my noteboard, and made sure that I double-checked those assumptions before I submitted my answers. Sure enough, at one point in the first 7 questions or so, I realized that I was about to get a DS problem wrong by assuming that x was an integer, and corrected my answer accordingly. From that point on, I was highly attuned to my mistakes, and essentially maximized my score by minimizing my mistakes.
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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by TheRekz » Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:58 pm
thank you for the wonderful suggestions... how many months do you think I should spend studying? is 3 months enough? or 6 month? what would be a good material to learn data sufficiency?
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:52 am
You're welcome! As far as a study plan, because you've already been working toward the test, I'd recommend something more like 2 months than 6, for a few reasons:

1) 6 months is just way too much time...think about the fact that six months ago it was mid-July, and try to remember some of the things that were going on for you (for me it was the Tour de France, Obama's trip to Ghana, etc.). Doesn't that seem like forever ago? If you plan to study for six months, you'll mainly succeed at giving yourself plenty of time to procrastinate, and your overall amount of time won't be much greater than it would be if you committed to a regular weekly schedule over two months.

2) If you're committed to a shorter schedule, that puts a little sense of urgency in each study session - it's a lot like setting short-term goals on your way to a larger one. If your New Year's Resolution is "Ironman Triathlon", there's not a great place to start; if it's "by February 28 I want to run 10 miles and bike 30 on the same day", you can work toward that, and then build on that in March/April to work your way up to the bigger goal. Same for the GMAT - if your goal is "identify and correct 3 major mistake areas on each section of the GMAT by February", you can work toward that specifically. If, even after doing that, your practice test scores are still 30-40 points lower than you'd like, then you can extend your timeframe by a month or two and plan to identify/correct a few more problem areas.

3) If, in defiance of my predictions above, you actually do commit to an ambitious, six-month study schedule, I worry that having had six months worth of buildup to the test increases the pressure you'll feel on test day. The test is just too big a part of your life at that point...after six months you probably can't fathom the idea of studying for another month or two if things go poorly. Confidence is a huge factor in success on tests like these, and you can derive a lot of confidence from the idea that "worst case, I take it again and learn from this experience". When you've studied for six months in addition to what you've already done, I think you'll find it much harder to take that kind of practical attitude.
Brian Galvin
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Veritas Prep

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by TheRekz » Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:25 am
Okay then I'll target 3 months max to study for this test again. I will focus on my weakness which is the verbal part and data sufficiency on the quantitative section. Could you suggest me some study resources for the data sufficiency?
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