Studied for 3 months and only improved by 40 points!!!!!!!!!

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monihipper: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:44 am; Followed by:1 members

Studied for 3 months and only improved by 40 points!!!!!!!!!

by monihipper » Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:52 am

Hello I have a huge problem with this test.... I did it the first time after taking a preparation course and then study by my self for 2 months and I got 350!!!!

After that I decided to go back to study and i did it for 2 months I did a lot of examples I went through all the material of my course and i was not that stressed the day of the test and guess what I got a horrible 390!!!!!

I am so frustrated because I didn't make it for this year I lost my chance and I don't know what to do. I am not an English native speaker but I have been living in Canada for almost 3 years. I don't know what to do!!!!

Any suggestions????? Anything is welcome I need to beat this test is a personal challenge now!!!!

Thank you

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:52 am

tpr-becky: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 509; Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:08 pm; Location: Irvine, CA; Thanked: 199 times; Followed by:85 members; GMAT Score:750

by tpr-becky » Mon Jul 11, 2011 11:33 am

What you should do next is focus on the concepts tested on the GMAT and make sure you know how to work any problem involving that concept. Simply doing problem after problem will not increase your score significantly, you need to learn something from each problem you do. Also, how were your practice test scores before you took the test? were you expecting a completely different result or were you on par for what you expected.

This is a difficult test but it really only tests several concepts in different ways - if you can see the concept in each question then you can focus on the test writers tricks instead of re-creating the wheel each time you do a problem.

Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA

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Bara: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 383; Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:20 pm; Location: Online Conferencing - in person in select cities.; Thanked: 55 times; Followed by:21 members

by Bara » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:48 pm

I agree with Becky - - but I'll go a little further.

The Verbal on the GMAT is not testing spoken or casual English that you might be using in Canada. It is testing formal written English - - so therein likely lies an initial problem to deal with. Second, it's not the quantity, it's the quality. The test is highly predictable, so your learning how to become sensitive to all the nuances needs to follow hammering the basics.

The bottom line is you need to navigate the material in a systematic way, and likely would greatly benefit from a class or tutor. Otherwise, you might find yourself spending the bliss of the season hitting the books...and there is simply an easier way!

Bara Sapir, MA, CHt, CNLP
Founder/CEO City Test Prep
Maximize your Score, Minimize your Stress!
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monihipper: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:44 am; Followed by:1 members

by monihipper » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:33 am

OMG!!!!

Thanks a lot to you both I can already see two of my major problems. First of all I never did the practice test online because I was so scared of it that I preferred to wait for the real one. Also somebody told me that the practice test is the same one online. That got me worried but if one of you knows any website where I can practice more tests I think that would help me a lot.

On the other side I am thinking on getting private classes the thing is that they are so expensive up to $6000 dollars and I don't know where to search for one.

I am going to try to find one through this really amazing and helpful website.

If the test is very predictable how can I learn those skills. Because on my short experience I don't see any of that. How can I develop those skills to defeat this test?

Thank you both for taking the time on answering all this questions!!

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Bara: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 383; Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:20 pm; Location: Online Conferencing - in person in select cities.; Thanked: 55 times; Followed by:21 members

by Bara » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:47 am

There is A LOT of material available. Online and in paper form. Things to keep in mind:

> You need to be somewhat particular of 3rd party material because it isn't written by the real test writers, but companies who want you, their student, or potential client, to see certain things. Some material is better (more realistic) than others, some easier, some harder. Often the bigger the company, the more of a one-size-fits-all approach, which means less nuances are covered in their overall material. For the students intending to achieve among the highest scores, this method might not be specific enough for their needs and more difficult without a tutor parseing through exceptions to rules, etc..

> Official material on paper or online is the best stuff you can use. It should be your bible. From there, make sure you're using straightforward material (see above client). Most test takers aren't as sensitive to the material as 'experts' so talk to a few people and see whose material they think are best. (I of course, will tell you why I believe my company's is the best, )

> Remember, there are 3 things you want to make sure you have in place from a tutor and/or class: that they deal with content mastery, strategy (and architecture of the test) and positive mindset. Every student NEEDS positive mindset to achieve their peak scores (assuming they have content down.)

> At first, you should not focus on timing. That comes later. Get the skills and concepts down, then learn to do in the right time.

If you want, we have material that identifies some of your strengths and weaknesses. You can take the quizzes and we can score and evaluate them.

Note: It is quite comprehensive because of who actually did create it. Our head verbal tutor is a PhD in cognitive linguistics - - which means she is able to understand HOW people process language. Her specialty, among others, is working with non-native English speakers. So our material and approach has this bend - - whereas other companies by and large, are more English-speaking-centric.

Being a boutique company, we are able to put into place material that is more comprehensive than most of the other material out there. We're able to teach exceptions instead of 'blanketing' concepts and rules. If a student really wants to get 700 - 800, we can easily service them with talented staff AND materials.

If interested, I'd be happy to mail you and score/evaluate (all free) our GMAT test-taking quiz to learn what type of learner, what your strengths are and what you need to do to address your weaknesses. This information would help point you in a direction of what you can do to improve your score. Feel free to be in touch by email or phone.

Regardless...Good Luck!

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arun@crackverbal: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 234; Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:50 am; Location: Bangalore; Thanked: 47 times; Followed by:60 members

by arun@crackverbal » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:09 am

Monihipper,

A few things here:

1. You need to tell us in more details where you think you went wrong. If you didn't take a single GMATPrep test before then perhaps you should take one NOW (Caps intended!

).

2. The English from your post looks pretty decent and you don't need to worry too much on that part. It is definitely better than what I have seen in some students who ended up scoring a 35-40 RAW score in Verbal.

3. You need to have a clear plan of action for improvement. Taking personal tutoring is good but before that make sure you understand what you are getting into i.e. The Art of War concept of knowing your enemy i.e. the GMAT! So based on your prep so far try to create a simple chart/log of your strengths & weaknesses(maybe you can ask the test prep company you signed up with earlier to assign someone to help you on this).

Arun

Founder of CrackVerbal - India's fastest growing GMAT Prepration and MBA Admissions Consulting Company. https://gmat.crackverbal.com

Free Ebook on GMAT | GMAT Scoring, Study plan, top study mistakes etc
Download here: https://gmat.crackverbal.com/15-minute-gmat-guide

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FutureWorks: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 311; Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:42 am; Thanked: 45 times; Followed by:18 members

by FutureWorks » Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:25 am

Hi There

There are various ways you can use to practise for your GMAT. You might need to change your practise style and try this combination to provide you flexibility and different styles to practise so it doesn't get monotonous.

It could be combination of-

1-Books- Books like- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review etc could be used.

2-Online Study Guide: Websites like Knewton, Grockit etc provide you with practise questions online.

3-Smart phone applications- Kaplan, Veritas etc offer applications to prepare for GMAT on your smart phones.

Let me know if there is anything in particular you need our expertise on: [email protected]

Thanks!
Kavita Singh
FutureWorks Consulting