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Feeling Defeated-Any advice would be great

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Feeling Defeated-Any advice would be great

by sme0928 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:21 am
Hi Everyone,
Took the GMAT for the second time on Sat and got the same, disappointing score as the first time-530 (scored much higher in verbal than in math). I felt much more confident this time around. I did start to get short on time toward the end of each section and had to rush/guess.

I know my potential is much greater then my scored indicate. I want to take about a month off and take one more crack at studying and beating the GMAT.

My study aides are the OG Guide (planning on purchasing the 12th Edition in a couple weeks) and the Manhattan GMAT books/online resources. Would anybody reccomend any other resources (ie, GMAT Hacks math guide and/or official guide to the official guide).

Also, I know I need to change my approach as whatever I am doing is not cutting it. One of my problems is that I tend to do the problems in the official guide well, but have trouble transferring the concepts to problems I have not seen before.

Any advice on a new plan of attack and other resources would be great.

Thanks,

-Steve
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by Jose Ferreira » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:55 am
Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear about the frustration -- you have certainly turned to the right group for support, however. Can you tell us a little more about what you think has been troubling you (question type, etc.), what your timing on the test was like (how many questions do you think you rushed through in each section and what question type was the biggest drag), what your prep timeline has looked like to date, etc.? That would help all of us to give you some more focused guidance.

Best,
Jose
Jose Ferreira
Founder and CEO, Knewton, Inc.
https://www.knewton.com/gmat
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by VP_Jim » Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:01 pm
You mention that you can do the problems in the OG but have trouble transferring your skills to new problems. One idea is to keep a "lessons learned" journal. I know, it sounds a little lame, but I've had some students do this with great success. For every problem you do, write down a little blurb - maybe just a sentence or two - of what you learned or took away from that problem. State these "takeaways" in general terms so that they can be applied to future problems.

For example, perhaps you ran into a tough word problem and you couldn't think of the equation to use. However, you realized that you could use the answer choices and word backwards to find the answer. So, your takeaway might be something like: "if I don't know how to do a tough word problem, I can use the answer choices to my advantage and try to backsolve the question" or something like that. Eventually, you'll end up with a pretty nice repertoire of GMAT rules.

Good luck!
Jim S. | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep
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by pJackson79 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:26 pm
I think Jim's comment is a god one (a la keep a lessons learned file). It has helped me.

In addition, I have found that I think differently and approach questions differently when I am on a computer versus paper-and-pencil. So, I have made a concerted effort to do more computer-based prep so I get used to thinking while looking at a screen instead of looking down reading off a paper (I know it sounds lame, but it has helped me).
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