I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello,

My name is Angelica and I have a sad story to tell... I am from Central America so english is my second language. I am a US citizen now and I've lived here for almost 7 years. In January this year I decided to start my MBA application and so I did, Long story short, I prepared for 3 months, took an online prep course from UTSA, I scheduled the Gmat test in january to be taken on may 9th, so I went ahead and took the test. Oh gosh, I got creamed, I scored a miserable 390 and 4.5 in the essays, I felt so dissapointed and depressed, I wanted to forget about B-school and all that, I felt so dumb!...I cannot believe that after having a 4.0 GPA in B-school back home (which I didn't finish) I failed so miserably on this test. I blame it to a few issues: first, my verbal, Math, in my anxiety management and I guess breathing technique, time management, I have 3 little kids that run around all day and I barely have time to focus, needless to say, stay up late at night when I am exhausted. Anyway, I finally decided today after a week of thinking, to take the test again, so I will be taking it on August 3rd, it's scheduled.
I've been reading other posts of people that scored the same as I did and got to score way higher after another try.
I am kindly requesting advise on how to improve my score to at least 550 in 3 months. The odd thing was that I did score 550 in the Kaplan and the Gmat prep softwares, but at the time of the test I flopped!!!...
I have the following books/guides:

Princeton Review, Crack the Gmat
Kaplan Premium edition
Gmat Official Guide
Bob Miller Mat for the Gmat.

Please advice me with an effective plan to improve my score I will appreciate it.

If you want to improve than i would recommend you buy Manhattan GMAT Prep Guides, these are set of 8 books which helped me a great deal to get a decent score. Just study these books along with Official Guides. You can find these at craigslist.

In addition, if you search online, you will find an ebook- powerscore critical reasoning bible. This is a must if you want to do well. Also, to brushup your maths goto www.purplemath.com for basic mathematics.

Also, try to search for manhattan gmat sentence correction.

Also, if you can't study in the evening because of kids then try to get up early and study in the morning.

I hope this helps.

Thank you so much for the tips, I will do that. Getting up early could be a solution.

Hi ajlcalbanese1,
In addition to what OsamaKhan said the only thing I would add:

Use this forum as effectively as possible. Its a great resource to help u prepare for the GMAT. Feel free to post your query be it Quant or Verbal or just asking for some strategies. We are all here to help each other.

Good luck and keep posting.... Wish u the very best in achieving ur target score.

Regards,
CR

Ok, I ordered the Manhattan Review Turbocharge Math, sentence correction and Verbal, I will be receiving it in about a week or so.

Now I have a lot of material and obviously my previous study plan didn't work. Is there something like a super study plan that I could borrow and could possibly help me getting better results? anyone?

Also, from the following books, which one would you all recommend better or best, to start with, and if I should just stick to one of them?

Princeton Review, Cracking the Gmat
Kaplan Premier Edition
Gmat OG
Math for the Gmat
Manhattan Review Turbocharge for Gmat Math, Verbal, sentence correction.

I kept the flashcards I downloaded the last time from this website. I also kept the Gmat prep software. Are there any other tools that I could use in preparing this time around?..

I appreciate all your input.

Thanks!

Hi,

It seems that you are capable of scoring 550. Anxiety probably played a big role during the test.

I suggest that you do GMAT Prep and Manhattan CAT exams (relatively cheap). Remember, you MUST time yourself and analyze the result (areas you spent more time on) You MUST do these tests like real tests. Try to do one or two tests in a public place like a library to simulate the test day environment.

Also, choose a time everyday (e.g. when you brush your teeth) to vitualize test day - imagine you are sitting in the cubicle and going through the questions with a good pace, sailing through, also imagine you encountered a very difficult one, but calmly solve it or give it up without frustrating yourself. Do these vitualization as often as you can.

Finally, rest well, don't exhausted yourself during your study. I can imagine it must be hard with 3 little kids; but you are very close, you can do it! Don't see GMAT as a burden, it's a fun test and you are capable to conque it!

Good luck.

Thank you so much, you are so right!.. Anxiety was a huge issue on test day, I do need to visualize me taking the test, and hitting a hard question, that happened to me, I panicked when a hard question came up and I couldn't figure out the answer, it was really difficult to focus after that...

Also, I was not able to sleep the night before thinking about the test, I was at the testing place at 6:00 am. and the appointment was at 8:00... go figure!...

anyway, I will practice your tips. Thanks again!