8 days to go for my second attempt at the GMAT

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Ppl,
I am taking the GMAT for the second time on the 13th. I scored a 650 on my first attempt. Hoping to score a 700+ on this one.

Any suggestions on what i need to be doing in the last week. I have completed the questions in OG12 and 10. My plan is to re-do the questions with higher numbers on the OG.
My GMAT prep scores are like this -
GMAT prep1 - 710
GMAT Prep1 - 720 (Second attempt)

I am planning to give the GMAT prep 2 twice this weekend including the AWA section.
Any other suggestions on what can be done from here on? I dont intend to study anything new as the experience from my first attempt has made me realize.
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by hk » Wed Aug 05, 2009 7:35 am
Well you might get a lot of responses for what you could do in the last week but i'd like to voice out my opinion on what not to do..
Do not over stress on the last week.
Relax and rewind!!
Do not study anything new - Its simply going to mess up your brains.
Keep your brain as fresh as possible for the big day.
Watch your favorite Movie/TV show/documentary/whatever you like to watch on the day before.
Go to bed early atleast by 10pm on the day before.
If you are religious - Pray. If you are Spiritual - Meditate!!!

And above all Never ever, not even for once, think about the score or the result!!!

All the best, go there and crack it!!
Wanna know what I'm upto? Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/harikrish

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by zuleron » Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:45 am
You and I got similar scores and we have similar aims so if i were in your shoes this is what I'd do:


Quant
Make sure you have the fundamentals down cold... i.e. number properties (divisibility, primes, odds, evens, positives, negatives, consecutive integers, absolute values, roots, exponents etc..); equations and inequalities; fractions, decimals, percents, ratios; geometry; rates & work; algebraic translations (i.e. translating words into algebra). You can't afford to not know how to handle these types of questions coz they are fundamental.

Then make a list of all the common GMAT traps e.g. when square root questions have a +ve AND -ve value and when they only have a +ve value. For instance, if x^2 = 25, then x can be +5 or -5. But √25 can ONLY be +5. Everyone should know this but believeme when it is part of an equation in a DS question you can easily forget. You can go on the internt or search this forum but make a list of common traps and stare at it everyday from now till G-day.

Verbal
The easiest thing to imporve on in a week is SC and Manhattan GMAT SC is the bible. If you don't have it it might be worth it to get it fedexed to you. This week make sure you KNOW cold all the things the GMAT tests in SC... there's less than 10 of them e.g. parallelism, subject verb agreement, pronoun agreement, modifiers, verb tense etc...). Make sure you can recognize and articulate exactly when one of these is being tested i.e. write down "they are testing placement of modifiers, pronouns agreement, and parallelism". If you do this you will begin to see patterns in how they write SC problems. When you start toi do this SC becomes a lot easier and it is shocking how fast you can improve on this. If you are a native speaker DON'T rely on your ear... rely on the rules. Remember, for scores in the low to mid 40s improving 2 points in the verbal has a bigger impact on your overall score than improving 2 mpoint in quant so don ignore verbal.

General
Focus on making the fundamentals flawless and if your fundamentals are already flawless and you happen to know more stuff, consolidate what you already know. Don't try learn new stuff. If you are scoring 710/720, then your main concern should be "don't get 650 level questions wrong rather than how do I get 780 level questions right." If you get a couple 780's wrong, you're at what, 760? If you get two 650s and then a 640 wrong it'll be tough to bounce back to 720. So that's why you need to focus on making your fundamentals flawless so you don't miss 650 questions and on consolidating what you already know beyond the fundamentals so that you don't miss 720 questions. If you aim for 720 then you are OK to be getting 750 level questions wrong....but you are not OK to be getting 650 level questions wrong.

If your G-day is next Thursday, then the latest I would do another full blown Prep would be this Friday coz that's about how much time you'll need to really learn from the test and if you bomb the test this Friday you'll have time for your confidence to recover. It may be better to do single sections and really take them apart. Another thing you could do is try to get your timing even better than it already is by doing sets of 5 questions, then 10 questions and seeing if your internal clock is accurate coz you don't want to be clock-watching when you could be calculating.

But in general you should be thinking "focus on fundamentals and consolidate what I know, focus on fundamentals and consolidate what I know, focus on fundamentals and consolidate what I know..."

Good luck!

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by ben wade » Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:35 am
HK, Zuleron,
You guys simply rock!
Thanks for the suggestions. These are sensible and practical suggestions.

I have downloaded the 99level questions that Zuleron posted and found it very useful.
From the experience of my first GMAT, I think being positive in the last week is one of the most critical factors running up to the test. 'I will stay calm' - this is my current mantra. :) .
Once again thanks for the responses. I will keep this post alive and put up my score as well.

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by ben wade » Sat Aug 08, 2009 11:10 pm
hey guys, I took GMAT prep2 this saturday and scored a 720 (50Q, 38V). I gave the complete test including the AWA section. I felt a bit exhausted after the test.
I am planning to give one more today so that i get used to the 4 hour duration of the test. As advised, I will rewind all that i studied before the test.
Will keep you posted on what i do on the GMAT day.

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by zuleron » Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:45 am
720 is a fantastic score! A lot of people do even better than their GMAT Prep 2 score so congratualtions!

Looks like your quant is set. Rather than take another full blown test... just focus on what verbal questions you are consistently getting wrong. Dude, if you can raise your verbal to 40 you are looking at a 740 or even a 750. If I were you I would not bother with quant anymore.

Also, don't exhaust yourself by taking too many tests too close to G-day. If you are worried about getting tired during the GMAT just remember that adrenaline will carry you farther than you can go on a mere practice test.

So, again, just focus on verbal. Breakdown your problem areas and then drill them from OG looking for patterns i.e. "this question is similar to one I saw 3 pages ago."

Basically, you are set!

Good Luck and let us know how it goes on G-day!

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I agree

by JeffB » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:14 pm
As Zule said, Don't take anymore tests this week. It will be a complete waste of time. Just review your verbal issues and relax.

Good luck on D-Day :)