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GMAT Strategy Question

by icareon » Thu Feb 06, 2014 9:46 am
All,

I took the GMAT last year and scored a 640 (Q44/V34)with a Kaplan in-person class. For a while I was contemplating to just apply to my top school (Booth - part time) with that score but decided against it and want to retake the GMAT. Since I don't live in a major city, my options are limited to in-person courses and I wanted to get your input what you think may be most efficient (time and money are available). My other most constraining factor is my full time job (meaning I can only put in 2-3 hours per weekday except weekends 6-8 hours per day). I have narrowed my choices down to:

- 60 Day study plan (from BeatTheGmat) combined with a full GMATPill course.
- 60 Day study plan plus additional study or GMATPrepNow on demand lesson.
- Manhattan or Veritas online courses (since I am not in a big city)
- Princeton Review in person class in my city.

Like I said, I am willing to pay another $1500 if that gets me closer to my desired 700-720 GMAT but I would like to have some input from what you think is a good first overall strategy.

I have done a lot of research until here and it goes without saying that I will get the entire MGMAT guide set and all OG13 books. I am also pretty disciplined when it comes to self study and can devote my time persistently over a few months to my goal but my concern is that MGMAT/VERITAS (online) or PR in-person class would maybe be able to teach me strategies more condensed/efficient/better....

Your help is much appreciated!

PS: I am very excited to tackle the GMAT again and will whoop its butt this time.

Thanks,

Icareon
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by Elizabeth@EconomistGMAT » Fri Feb 14, 2014 8:14 am
Hi Icareon,

Great questions. How do you learn best? It seems like your options encompass both classroom and online learning. Everyone learns differently, so what may work best for you may not work as well for others. This is definitely something to consider.

Do any of the courses you listed offer a score guarantee? That might make you more confident about your choice. We offer a 50 or 70 point score improvement (depending on the study plan you choose) off of your baseline (which would be 640 for you) or your money back. We are proud that nearly all of our students beat their original score by at least 50 points. If you wish, you can check out our free trial. https://gmat.economist.com/free-trial

Regards,

Elizabeth
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Fri Feb 14, 2014 9:30 am
I believe that most, if not all, of those companies offer some sort of money-back guarantee (within a specified time period) if you're unhappy with their course (we certainly do). So, you might spend a day or two testing out each of them and go with the one that works best with your learning style.

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by [email protected] » Fri Feb 14, 2014 12:10 pm
Hi icareon,

What were your scores on your last few practice CATs (before you took your Official GMAT)? If you can include your Scaled Scores for the Quant and Verbal sections, I'll be better able to offer some pointed advice.

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by icareon » Mon Feb 17, 2014 6:46 am
@Rich: Unfortunately, Kaplan doesn't let me access my previous course results/documents anymore but I scored anywhere between 650 and 700 (they offer 9 CATs if I am not mistaken). I was hoping for a 680 when I took the test and unfortunately scored about 40 points lower.

@Brent: I was under the impression that only GMATPill offers the money back guarantee. Do Manhatten or Veritas offer that based on my last exam results? I wouldn't mind updating my MGMAT subscription if they offered +50 points or money back.

@Elizabeth: Thanks, I will look into it your options tonight.

fyi, I received no notification about your responses sorry for my late reply!

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by [email protected] » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:43 pm
Hi icareon,

Before you spend any additional large sums of money on this process, some review of your approach is probably warranted. The GMAT programmers openly admit that your score on the Official GMAT is within +-29 points of your actual ability. So, scoring 640 on the Official GMAT is in line with your practice CAT scores (albeit on the lower end of the range).

Take stock of your approach and think about the answers to these questions:

1) Was there anything about how you took your CATs that did NOT match the Official GMAT? Examples would include: skipping sections (such as the Essay and/or IR), pausing the Test for any reason, taking the test on days/times that were significantly different from your actual GMAT (e.g. taking CATs at Noon but taking your GMAT at 8am), etc.

2) Did you take your GMAT at the end of your work week (e.g. on a Saturday morning)?

3) Was there anything surprising about Test Day that you didn't know about?

4) What did you do the night before your Test? How well did you sleep?

It might be that you absolutely should have scored higher, but something about your process just didn't facilitate that higher score. Perhaps a bit of light review and a more detailed ramp up to Test Day is all that you need.

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by icareon » Mon Feb 17, 2014 7:49 pm
well... I think your questions are spot on (although I don't like using those excuses) but I did indeed sleep terrible (because of the test anxiety) the night before the test and took the test at 8 am Saturday morning (big no no, won't do that again) after maybe 4 hours of sleep. even though I didn't even study on the last day anymore.

Either way, to make things right this time around and also possibly score higher than 680 (640) I decided to reevaluate my strategy as well:

- last time I didn't spend much time on meticulously reviewing problems which I am doing this time.
- I didn't focus on weaknesses after problem reviews.
- I didn't keep an error log, added this time.
- I spend a ton of money on an instructor that mostly read from the book. since I am an learn-by-reading type of guy that was not a good choice either but hindsight is 20/20....
- and i wasn't good at IDing question types at all which is something that particularly bugs me for some reason. I want to control the questions and I think proper identification is essential for that.
- also had no flash cards, which I added now

so my last issue now is obtaining a reliable study plan. I want to go over all topics in depth again but combine it with proper excercises. I have the MGMAT books, all OGs (including supplement books) and the self guided MGMAT course (question banks, 6 CATS, OG Archer etc). I took a look at Empowergmat.com and it looked useful. Could you tell me how I would integrate it in my studying?

Thanks,

Icareon
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by [email protected] » Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:35 pm
Hi icareon,

I've sent you a private message with some information and suggestions.

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by Rickyjamess123 » Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:32 pm
sorry i cant help you. But you can concern your issue with any good specialists.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:00 am
icareon wrote: @Brent: I was under the impression that only GMATPill offers the money back guarantee. Do Manhatten or Veritas offer that based on my last exam results? I wouldn't mind updating my MGMAT subscription if they offered +50 points or money back.
Maybe I was speaking out of turn; I just assumed this was the case. You might need to ask those companies directly about this.
I can tell you that our company (GMAT Prep Now) offers both a 50-point increase guarantee and a 7-day money-back guarantee: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/guarantee

Cheers,
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