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12 year out of college, GMAT study plans?

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12 year out of college, GMAT study plans?

by KDR83 » Wed May 02, 2018 12:03 pm
Graduated with an undergrad in December 2005, so I am a long way out of college. I am wanting to possibly change careers or at least boost my career. I am thinking of doing an MBA in Europe as most of the programs there are 12 months versus 24 here, it also appears they are more open to an older applicant (35). Honestly not sure which school I want to apply to, just beginning to do research. Anyways given that I am 12 years out of school, I am rusty on a lot of things, especially math. I am hoping to take the GMAT in mid August, giving myself a little more than 3 months to study. I have purchased the 2018 OG along with the verbal and quantitative review, I also purchased all the MGMAT study guides (6th edition) along with their Foundations of Math book. I did not want to waste one of the 2 free CATs from MBA.com, since I knew I did not remember a lot of math equations, shortcuts, etc so took one of my 6 available MGMAT full length CATs. I just finished and here are my results:

Score 560
Quantitative: 33- 25% percentile
Verbal: 34- 71% percentile

I also did terrible on IR, only getting 2 right.

What do you guys suggest? How should I start? I would love to get a score of 680-700. I am planning on studying 3.5 hours a day 6 days a week.

I was thinking of first going through the whole Foundations of Math book first, then moving onto the MGMAT 10 book study guide series? Should I take another full length practice test after finishing the Foundation of Math book or wait until I start into the study guides? Tomorrow I plan on going over all the answers I got wrong on today's practice test. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Thu May 03, 2018 11:59 am
If you have the Manhattan Prep books and an OG, you have everything you need to get a top GMAT score.

Here's what you should do:

1. Analyze the practice test you've taken in a lot of depth. Which areas were you weakest? Strongest? Fastest? Slowest? Decide which topics and question types need more of your time and attention. Be very aware of timing issues as well.
More here: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -now-what/

2. You don't need to finish the entire Foundations of Math (FoM) guide before starting on the other guides. Read the chapters on arithmetic & PEMDAS basics, then read the chapter(s) that correspond to a given strategy guide before reading that guide.

3. Study topic-by-topic, going chapter by chapter in the Mprep guides, then practice each topic with OG problems. For example, read the chapter on SC subject/verb agreement, then go do a set of 8-10 problems in the OGs that relate to that subject. You can find problems by topic using GMAT Navigator: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/stor ... navigator/
Do this for each chapter in the Quant and Verbal strategy guides. Aim to do this in 8-10 weeks.

4. Make sure you are tracking all of the OG questions you do, and timing yourself while you practice. Hold yourself to strict 2-min time limits per question! (I highly recommend using Navigator to track your OG problems)

5. Alternate between Quant and Verbal. Don't just focus all on quant! A lot of students make this mistake. You can't get a top score by only focusing on quant. You might think your quant score from the 1st CAT is much lower based on percentiles, but your ACTUAL score is only one point lower. Ignore percentiles and focus on the numerical score: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

6. Keep a detailed record of the mistakes you make in addition to just tracking right and wrong answers, so you can locate patterns in your errors: https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -studying/

7. Take another practice test after 4 weeks, then every 2 weeks after that. Increase to a test every week for the last 2 weeks before your real exam.

8. Practice your skills with random timed sets out of the OGs once you've covered all of the content in the strategy guides . Set the timer for 20 minutes, for example, and do questions 1-10. The OG problems generally get harder as the question # increases (within a given question type), so questions 1-10 will be easier on average than 101-110. Start in the middle of the section if you want more challenging questions.

9. Analyze your data from the random sets and practice tests, and go back to any topics that need extra work.

10. Take a GMAC CAT at mba.com. They won't have answer explanations or metrics, so we recommend using Mprep CATs for most of your study time, and saving these for last. They're less helpful for analysis, but arguably most predictive of your real score, since they're written by the actual test-makers.

Good luck!
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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by [email protected] » Thu May 03, 2018 4:13 pm
Hi KDR83,

To start, a 560 is a solid performance for an initial CAT (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). You've also given yourself plenty of time to study - which is good. That having been said, to hit 680+, you will have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections.

After taking each CAT, it's important to do a full review of your performance (with the goal of defining WHY you got questions wrong). While a full Mistake Tracker would provide more detail, there are some basic questions that you should look to answer after you take each CAT (and the more specific you can be with your answers, the better).

After reviewing each section of this CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) In the Verbal section, how many questions did you "narrow down to 2 choices" but still get wrong?

Once you have a better sense of which Schools you plan to apply to, you might end up adjusting your Score Goal a bit. Based on your timeframe, is it safe to assume that you would like to apply to Business School later this year?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
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improvement

by KDR83 » Sat Jun 02, 2018 10:00 am
After exactly a month, I took a 2nd practice test today. The only think I have studied so far is the MGMAT Foundations of Math.

6/2/18:
Score 640
Quantitative:42 - 45% percentile
Verbal: 36 - 81% percentile
IR: 4.5

5/2/18:
Score 560
Quantitative: 33- 25% percentile
Verbal: 34- 71% percentile
IR: 1.63

I am really happy with my improvement, 80 points in a month seems pretty solid. I still have not opened any of the 10 MGMAT books or the 2018 OG books I purchased. I am hoping another couple months can possibly gain me another 40-60 points?
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reply

by KDR83 » Sat Jun 02, 2018 10:11 am
Hi KDR83,

To start, a 560 is a solid performance for an initial CAT (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). You've also given yourself plenty of time to study - which is good. That having been said, to hit 680+, you will have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections.

After taking each CAT, it's important to do a full review of your performance (with the goal of defining WHY you got questions wrong). While a full Mistake Tracker would provide more detail, there are some basic questions that you should look to answer after you take each CAT (and the more specific you can be with your answers, the better).

After reviewing each section of this CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) In the Verbal section, how many questions did you "narrow down to 2 choices" but still get wrong?

Once you have a better sense of which Schools you plan to apply to, you might end up adjusting your Score Goal a bit. Based on your timeframe, is it safe to assume that you would like to apply to Business School later this year?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich[/quote]

Sorry for the late reply but I would like to apply for schools for Fall 2019. I was recently laid off and am using the extra time to travel and study for the GMAT. I am giving myself a year to find a new good career locally, if I do find something in that year, I will most likely do a professional MBA program. I am located in Florida and a UF Alumni so that program comes to mind. However if no meaningful opportunities come along, I will take this opportunity to travel, dabble in some other ventures, and hopefully get into a 12 month program in Europe.
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by [email protected] » Tue Jun 05, 2018 9:14 pm
Hi KDR83,

Given this improvement in your CAT Scores, it might be that continuing to (re)familiarize yourself with all of the content will help you to continue to improve. As such, I suggest that you continue to study as you like for the next couple of weeks, then take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT. Based on that next result, we can then discuss any adjustments that you might make to your study routine.

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by KDR83 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:52 am
I just started the 60 day Beat the GMAT study guide, I am using that to go through the Manhattan books. I completed Day 1 and 2 and as a result, completed the diagnostic test form the OG18 for Quantitative and Verbal with the following scores:

Problem Solving: 14 (A 16 would be above average)
Data Sufficiency: 18 (A 19 would be excellent)
Reading Comprehension: 15 (A 16 would be excellent)
Critical Reasoning: 15 (15 falls into excellent)
Sentence Correction: 8 (8 is low side of average but I know this is my weakest category)
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reply

by KDR83 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:55 am
Hi KDR83,

Given this improvement in your CAT Scores, it might be that continuing to (re)familiarize yourself with all of the content will help you to continue to improve. As such, I suggest that you continue to study as you like for the next couple of weeks, then take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT. Based on that next result, we can then discuss any adjustments that you might make to your study routine.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich[/quote]

That is what I plan on doing, taking another practice test in a little less than 2 weeks. I am wondering at what point should I take one of the free tests from MBA.com? I was thinking that if I score another 640 ( or hopefully higher) to take one of the two CATs from MBA.com? I want to make sure what I am getting on these MGMAT practice tests falls in line with what I would get on the real test.
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edit

by KDR83 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:05 am
I have a post that is being reviewed where I asked when I should take the official GMATPrep Practice Test. I just peaked at Day 3 of the study guide. On Day 3 it has me taking the GMATPrep Practice Test, so I guess I will take one tomorrow, a little earlier than I was originally anticipating but should be a good indication of where I actually am score wise.
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by [email protected] » Thu Jun 07, 2018 4:46 pm
Hi KDR83,

Since there are 6 Official GMAC CATs, you shouldn't worry about 'wasting' one of them. That having been said, if you wanted to wait a couple of days before taking that next CAT, then that shouldn't be a problem (nor would pushing off on taking an Official CAT and take an MGMAT CAT instead).

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by KDR83 » Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:48 am
I decided to stick to the study guide and took the GMAC CAT today, wanted to make sure my 80 point gain was not a fluke.

Verbal 38
Quantitative 39
Total 630

I am happy with that, not the final number I hope to see but I feel a good start (still have not cracked open the MGMAT books)
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by [email protected] » Fri Jun 08, 2018 3:45 pm
Hi KDR83,

The slight variations in your Quant and Verbal Scaled Score notwithstanding, you certainly appear to be performing at this new higher 'level', so you should stick with your current study approach. To make sure that your CAT results continue to be as realistic as possible, you should make sure to take them all in as realistic and test-like fashion as you can (re: take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take them away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.).

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by Dukemm » Tue Jul 24, 2018 11:00 pm
KDR83 wrote:Graduated with an undergrad in December 2005, so I am a long way out of college. I am wanting to possibly change careers or at least boost my career. I am thinking of doing an MBA in Europe as most of the programs there are 12 months versus 24 here, it also appears they are more open to an older applicant (35). Honestly not sure which school I want to apply to, just beginning to do research. Anyways given that I am 12 years out of school, I am rusty on a lot of things, especially math. I am hoping to take the GMAT in mid August, giving myself a little more than 3 months to study. I have purchased the 2018 OG along with the verbal and quantitative review, I also purchased all the MGMAT study guides (6th edition) along with their Foundations of Math book. I did not want to waste one of the 2 free CATs from MBA.com, since I knew I did not remember a lot of math equations, shortcuts, etc so took one of my 6 available MGMAT full length CATs. I just finished and here are my results:

Score 560
Quantitative: 33- 25% percentile
Verbal: 34- 71% percentile

I also did terrible on IR, only getting 2 right.

What do you guys suggest? How should I start? I would love to get a score of 680-700. I am planning on studying 3.5 hours a day 6 days a week.

I was thinking of first going through the whole Foundations of Math book first, then moving onto the MGMAT 10 book study guide series? Should I take another full length practice test after finishing the Foundation of Math book or wait until I start into the study guides? Tomorrow I plan on going over all the answers I got wrong on today's practice test. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.
I know what you mean, sometimes I wish if I had taken my GMAT during my undergrad days when i had time to fully prepare for it..
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by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:18 pm
Hi KDR83,

It has been about 7 weeks since we last heard from you. Are you still studying for the GMAT? If so, how is everything coming along?

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

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by KDR83 » Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:40 am
Scott@TargetTestPrep wrote:Hi KDR83,

It has been about 7 weeks since we last heard from you. Are you still studying for the GMAT? If so, how is everything coming along?
To be completely honest, I went off track. My girlfriend, who is a teacher, was on summer vacation and we decided to do some traveling. I am back to it now but I took such a long break that I am going to restart the 60 day study guide. This time to make sure I actually stick through it all the way, I registered for a test for November 5th, unfortunately that is a little over 2 months later than I originally planned on taking it but this time I am locked in.
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