BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

what to do ... exam on 16th august..

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:11 am
Thanked: 1 times

what to do ... exam on 16th august..

by suryapal » Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:33 am
hi ... my exam is on 16th of august ...
i have done almost everything .... such as mh's SC, MH's number problem, MH's inequality, MH's word problem,MH's geometry, OG11, OG math review, OG verbal review , kaplan 800 , power score CR bible, 10 lsat test sets and there kaplan explanation ... and in og my accuracy is 90% in all sections ... but in practice tests my score were 660 ( q-48,v-33 ) and 640 (q-49, v-27)

while when i gave practice test after completing only MH's sc and og 11 , my score was 680 ( q-49, v-34) ....

this time my main problem was timing ... so please suggest me what should i do in next 20 days ... so that can score atleast 720 ....

P.S: actually i was aiming for 750 but after seeing very low scores in practice tests, i am so depressed .... so... :|
Top
Source: — GMAT Strategy |
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:11 am
Thanked: 1 times

by suryapal » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:58 pm
Here is the whole story ...
first i booked the exam date for mid December and completed mh's SC guide, OG 11 and og verbal review and gave a pract test one week before the exam and score 680 ( q-49,v-34 )( not a single question was wrong in RC) but my target score was 750 .. so i postponed the exam to 31th march ...

took a long break and started study again in feb .... this time i did mh's sc again, sc notes from testmagic.com,some chapters from power score cr bible,some chapters from wren and martin,kaplan 800, og 11 again, og verbal review , and og quant review and then gave some gmat prep tests and scored : 690 , 670 and 630 ( q-50 in all three) but still the target was 750 ... so i again postponed the exam date to 16th august....

again took a long break started study in mid june ... this time i have done with mh's sc , sc notes from test magic.com, some shil's notes,all chapters from cr bible, kaplan verbal review , rc from kaplan 800, PS, DS and CR from OG 11, SC from OG 10 and 10 sets of lsat tests and kaplan explanation to them...and my accuracy in OG question in PS,Ds and CR was about 95% and in RC andd SC, it was about 90%............but this time the score in gmat prep tests were 660 ( q-48, v-33) and 640 (q- 49, v-26) ( while i had completed all the earlier test with spare of 1-2 minutes , in these test time was big time pain).... what should i do now.............. target is still the 750....

i have two option now....

1. give my best shot in next 15-20 days and give the test....
2. again postpone my exam date as i still have time for second round of application....

but i am in confusion ... what to do ... is it possible to improve my score in next 20 days ?? if yes, how??? what should be my strategy in next 20 days ....

or i should postpone my exam date ?? if yes, then what should i do this time ... should i join any coaching or try something else.....


please someone reply its urgent....
Top
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 108
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:15 am
Location: 127.0.0.1
Thanked: 15 times

by gmatrix » Thu Jul 22, 2010 8:21 pm
hmmm.......well for next 10 days only revise mgmat guides+ OG and on the 11th day take a cat preferably gmat prep see if you score anywhere in your desired level....move from there...you'll still have the 7 day breathing space to postpone if you so desire .
Life is all about ass; you're either covering it, laughing it off, kicking it, kissing it, busting it, trying to get a piece of it, or behaving like one.
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:11 am
Thanked: 1 times

by suryapal » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:00 am
gmatrix wrote:hmmm.......well for next 10 days only revise mgmat guides+ OG and on the 11th day take a cat preferably gmat prep see if you score anywhere in your desired level....move from there...you'll still have the 7 day breathing space to postpone if you so desire .
yeah i am planning to do so.... but today i took a break from study and read the forum here on BTG and came to know that i had made some mistakes such as i didn't work on any particular weak area except the numbers and inequality in quant , just
did the all questions of a section in one or two long seatings and than reviewed the questions in which i made mistakes ... then moved to next section ....and then to next book....

and also not a particular strategy for RC .. just read the passage then read the question then look back to the passage and tick the answer which i feel is right .. no particular strategy for specific type of question in RC

and also didn't give any practice test in between my practice .... so i think that i need some more time and some good advice to improve my score and yeah that i can do it .....

let's see , what experts and veterans of GMAT clan says .........
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3380
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am
Thanked: 2256 times
Followed by:1535 members
GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:03 pm
ok. first, i want to talk about the way in which you are approaching the material.
you have named a bewilderingly huge number of sources -- that's more books than i have ever used in my professional career, and i've been teaching standardized tests for 16 years!
this leads me to believe that your study strategy consists almost entirely of just DOING large numbers of problems, without spending as much time as you should spend on REVIEW.

remember: pure practice, all by itself, is not really going to pay off that much. you have to do practice problems and also get takeaways that you can apply to future problems.
i.e., you have to keep in mind that the problems that you are solving right now are not the point -- it actually doesn't matter all that much, in the long run, whether you are getting the practice problems correct or incorrect. the point is whatever lessons you can glean from those problems and then apply to FUTURE problems.

see here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/need-retake- ... tml#190567

also here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/need-tips-fr ... tml#107595

notice that these review methods apply just as much to problems that you got correct as to problems that you got incorrect. you should review the problems that you got correct -- including trying to think of OTHER ways in which you can solve them!
remember, it ultimately doesn't matter that you have successfully solved that particular problem -- you still need to rack your brain for other methods of solution, just in case you see a similar problem in the future. (you will not see another problem that is just like the one that you have finished!)

if you aren't doing this -- i.e., if you aren't spending a significant amount of time reviewing problems that you have gotten correct, in addition to reviewing problems that you have gotten incorrect -- then, ironically, these sessions in which you are getting 90% correct are probably the LEAST helpful sessions!
i.e., if you are just solving a problem and saying "good, i solved that", then this has no value at all for your preparation: it just verifies that you can solve problems that you already know how to solve.
the only way that you can build on these successes to help you with future problems, with which you otherwise would have had more difficulty, is to try to get takeaways as described in the posts cited above. this is not an easy process, but it is the only process that will make your studying ultimately worthwhile.

good luck!
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

--

Learn more about ron
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3380
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am
Thanked: 2256 times
Followed by:1535 members
GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:07 pm
oh, and i also wanted to make a brief comment about the goal that you have stated.

i think that 720 is a reasonable goal. however, i think that your originally stated goal of 750 is a little bit unrealistic (though not necessarily impossible) in light of your stated scores at the current time.
specifically, you have basically topped out the quant scale already -- you are already scoring consistently at the 49 level, so there is little if any room for improvement in quant.
in light of this fact, stated goal of 750 would mean picking up 80-100 points in verbal alone. that's hard enough to do, but, from where you are now (already in the high 600's), i have actually never seen it happen.

again, i don't want to say that anything is impossible, but i'm glad that you have reduced your goal score from 750 to a more achievable 720. doing so is definitely going to go a long way toward taking a lot of stress off your shoulders.

good luck.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

--

Learn more about ron
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:11 am
Thanked: 1 times

by suryapal » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:38 pm
hi Ron ... thanks for reply....

your post is really useful and now i come to know that my way of studying was seriously flawed as i solved all the official guide and other gmat related problems untimed and didn't take any practice test other than gmat prep and in that too i didn't get takeaways .... and now i almost decided to work for another two months on it ...


and yeah regarding my target score, as i mentioned that i worked quite hard on it now i don't want to give up and accept anything less than my target score ... if you think it's not impossible,i will work harder than i did and i will surely achieve it ....

now i'm planning to work on it for another two months ( 4-6 hours a day ) but this time with limited amount of study material , more frequent tests ( at least 10 ) and more review work . and by analyzing my previous performance i feel that i need to do some more work on SC ( esp verb and modifiers ) ,science related RCs, tough DS questions ( esp. inequalities ) ,and more importantly the time management and speed .

so please suggest me that which study material would be effective for me and that, as i feel that i am not efficient in this take away thing and that some concept of SC are not clear to me , should i join any coaching or private tutor at this stage ( i mean which would be more effective , coaching or self study? )

so please guide me ...

thanks :)
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
Followed by:694 members
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:48 pm
Received a PM asking me to respond.

Yes to everything that Ron said.

So, you've changed your test date, giving yourself 2 more months. Good. You now have more of an idea of what you should be doing, also good. Read the below articles. They talk about HOW to do this review / analysis / finding the takeaways process that Ron discussed above.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/09 ... ce-problem
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... our-errors

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... c-question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... r-question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/02/ ... e-question
more frequent tests ( at least 10 )
No. Don't do that. :) That's just perpetuating the "do lots of problems" mentality rather than actually learning from what you've done. Maybe 10-15% of your learning comes while you're doing a problem. The vast majority of your (potential) learning comes AFTER you are done with that problem - it comes from everything you do to review and analyze that problem. On any problem (including the ones you got right), you should be spending 2 to 5 times as long to review it as you spent doing it in the first place.

CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve.

If you have taken an MGMAT test recently, you can use this article to analyze your results. That will then help you develop a study plan - including going back over those questions to analyze - and that's where you're really going to learn!
https://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23 ... tice-tests

As to whether you should study on your own or take a class / work with a tutor, there are advantages to working with a tutor or taking a class, yes, but those options are also expensive. A tutor can help to diagnose your weaknesses, make sure your study process is effective, direct your study plan in general, and so on. (Make sure you're working with someone who is capable of doing all those things. Don't use a tutor for "homework help" - that is, someone who just tells you how to do all of the problems on a list that you bring to the tutor. Such a list can be helpful as a jumping off point: Tutor, I'm struggling with this one, what do you think? But it shouldn't just be, "Oh, well the answer is C because of xyz. Next?")

You'll have to decide whether you think the potential benefits are worth the cost. I did write an article about this; here's the link:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/06/ ... s-or-tutor

The first part talks about how to make the choice for yourself and the second part talks about how to choose the best tutor or class instructor for you (if you decide to go that route).
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:11 am
Thanked: 1 times

by suryapal » Sun Jul 25, 2010 12:09 am
thanks Stacey ...

well.. my problem is that even if i know all the rule, sometimes i can't implement them properly . for instance i have read here all the valuable information about the take away thing and error logs etc. but still i am confused how to work on all these things.
similarly, i have mugged all the books and notes that people suggested about sentence correction but sometime when i get a tough SC question , i can't even figure out what to do to this question ... after just staring to problem for a while and after reading the question and all options several time , i just pick the answer that look just nice and as result have to rush on later problems .... for instance in last test ... i got 5th question wrong ( that was a silly mistake ) then got 10th,11th,and 12th wrong in a raw and in 10th and 12th questions , both were of SC, i didn't even know that what to do with the question ....

so please suggest me how should precede further ... and which material i should use this time....
When the whole world seems to be against me and anything I touch becomes poisoned, when people think of giving up as the best solution, for me, giving up is the hardest..... :)
Top
User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 1048
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:26 am
Location: India
Thanked: 51 times
Followed by:27 members
GMAT Score:670

by arora007 » Sun Jul 25, 2010 3:31 am
ever tried making your own notes? It does really help....
Stacey and Ron are so right...its not just solving the questions...but reviewing...discussing...pondering.....keeping a note of areas where you go wrong... and practicing more in those areas...
These two areas have made me a lot more confident...and I believe is the only way to forge ahead!
https://www.skiponemeal.org/
https://twitter.com/skiponemeal
Few things are impossible to diligence & skill.Great works are performed not by strength,but by perseverance

pm me if you find junk/spam/abusive language, Lets keep our community clean!!
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
Followed by:694 members
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Sun Jul 25, 2010 10:16 am
but sometime when i get a tough SC question , i can't even figure out what to do to this question
That's true for everyone. One of the things that you have to "give up" when studying for the GMAT is the idea that you're going to learn how to get everything right. Nobody gets everything right, including those of us scoring in the 99th percentile. Sometimes, they're going to give you something that you don't know how to do.

If you're scoring 95th+ percentile in a section, that might only happen once or twice in a section.

If you're scoring lower than that, then you can expect this to happen multiple times - most people have to guess on between 4 and 7 questions per section. (This doesn't refer to times when you narrow down to 2 answers - that's actually pretty good progress on a problem.) When you get one of these, don't take extra time to make a guess. Learn how to recognize (and acknowledge) when the test has given you something that's too hard and then make your guess at or before the average time limit for that problem.

Next, if you're examining a problem and think, "Well, I really should have gotten this one / known how to do this one," your next task is to ask yourself WHY you didn't. What prevented you from taking the necessary steps to get to the right answer? Where, exactly, did you get off track? If it's verbal, WHY did you think the right answer was wrong and WHY did you think the wrong answer was right? (Now you know at least two new reasons why it's not good to eliminate an answer or pick an answer - whatever reasons you used to eliminate the right one and pick the wrong one.)

These things are all discussed in the articles that I linked to last time. Have you read those before? Have you tried doing that kind of analysis on your practice problems? That's where to start, and you should start doing this on OG problems - regardless of whether you have done them before. (While also reminding yourself that, no matter how good you get, you still aren't going to be able to do EVERYthing you see on the test. That's just not how this test works.)
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1