GMAT Strategy

Hello Eric and friends,

First of all thanks for creating this BTG website, this is really useful and I'm loving this website the day I found this.

Though I don't comment regularly, but I visit regularly for the upcoming articles and to read how people got 700+ score.

Anyhow, coming to the point sir, my name is Pardeep and I am from India. I have done Mechanical Engineering and now working since Sept 2007. I work in shift and my shift changes every 3rd day! I had booked my date (7th June 2010) for GMAT in January thinking that I'll be able to finish the course till that time.

I surfed BTG and ordered OG12, Kaplan GMAT Advanced, OG for GMAT Verbal Review, Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook, The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible, OG for GMAT Quantitative Review, TMH GMAT also got Veritas's SC and Princeton Review guides from friend.

Till now I have finished only Veritas's SC and Princeton Review guides, Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook, Kaplan GMAT Advanced (Math section and SC section), have gone through TMH GMAT book (useless!), and recently I have added Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction and Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook to my list and have finished around 100 pages of both the books. I also downloaded your flashcards and have gone through 2-3 times, those are really useful. I have also prepared mine flashcards.

Now, I need your help to decide:

1. Should I postpone my GMAT test date, which I have decided earlier as 7th of June?

2. What should be my approach from today onwards if you decide not to postpone? Or what I should do if you decide not to postpone.

3. Should I take leave from job and go home or somewhere where I can study better?

Please, help me I am really very much depressed, and not able to figure out what should I do? If you helped me, I'll remember you throughout my life and your reply will be life changing for me.


Thank you.

I think you should postpone the test. If you can, get all of the Manhattan GMAT math guides and the MGMAT Sentence Corection Guide. Also, get the powerscore critical reasoning bible. Go through all of this material, but do not go through it just to go through it. Spend time on all of the material to really understand all of the concepts. Make sure that you constantly review older information as you advance to new information. Spend at least two days a week reviewing older material to ensure that you don't forget these concepts. After you have completed all of the material, take a practice CAT. See where your score is. If you are above a 550, you should analyze each wrong answer and each question you got right but you didn't completely understand. After you do this with that CAT, go through and make sure you have all of the concepts that those questions tested down. Also, continue to review the older material, never stop doing that. After you do this, take your second CAT. You should see at least a 20-30 point improvement. Continue this process until you no longer see any improvement. If you plateau before your goal score, then consider a tutor if you can afford it. If not, come back to this forum and we will try to help you develop a game plan going forward.

Good luck

you should definitely post pone if you're aiming for a 700... I too am aiming that high and I've scored in the 600's on practice exams before. I'm taking another one tonight and if I don't score in the high 600's, I'm going to postpone the exam for 2 weeks... so if you're in the 400's you should definitely postpone.

in terms of taking leave from work... i don't think that's necessary.