GMAT Strategy

Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote:

ankur.agrawal wrote:Hi All,

I have been posting on this website for quite sometime now. My GMAT is on 23rd April, 2011. I have given 5 MGMAT tests till now . Below are the scores & the breakups.


MGMAT CAT 1 : 540 , Q 39 V26 ( Timing Strategy was missing, Got panicky after seeing the level of MGMAT Quant) ---- 18/03/2011

MGMAT CAT 2: 630, Q 47 V30 ( Made a proper Timing strategy - Took my score up by 90 points) ------31/03/2011

MGMAT CAT 3 : 600, Q 45, V 29 ( Again mistimed the quant section, wasting too much time on some questions)

MGMAT CAT 4 : 580, Q 40, V 31 ( Something went terribly wrong with the quant)

MGMAT CAT 5 : 650, Q 44, V 35 ( felt confident in the Verbal section)

Since I have only 1 week to appear for the exam, I would like to get some inputs from fellow members . I feel very confident about SC now, but i am doing poor in RC (MGMAT) . I really tend to make very silly mistakes on Quant & feel that i am given 20 minutes extra time to solve quant i would get 99% of the question on mGMAT tests correct. Time pressure is really keeping me away from a gud score.

I have gone through most of the materials ( All 3 OGS, Manhattan Number Properties , SC & other books, CR powerscore Bible).

I have thoroughly Powerscore CR bible but my point is that i could not apply the rules given in the book on the actual exams. I feel more confident solving the CR naturally by logic. So CR bible exactly hasn't helped me too much. ( Is that happening with somebody else?)

I would really appreciate some frank inputs from the members. I have scheduled my GMAT prep 1 & 2 on 16th & 19th april ( including Essays) . I wanted to score 700 but after seeing the mock scores , I really doubt that.

Hi ankur.agrawal,

If you haven't taken any GMATPrep tests yet, then it's hard to get a accurate assessment of your current abilities. You could be a lot closer to your target score than you think.

While the 3rd-party (MGMAT, Veritas, etc) CATs are useful for working on timing and getting a rough idea of your score, the GMATPrep tests are much more reliable predictors.

A lot of students feel that they can only take each of the 2 GMATPrep tests once, so they do like you did and save them until the very end of their studies. A while back, I wrote an article for BTG that suggests that it may be okay to take the GMATPrep tests more than once.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... iple-times



I hope that helps.

Thanks for your kind inputs. Will post the results of GMAT prep 1 tomorrow.

Can u suggest any last minute strategies ? (if there is any)



Cheers,
Brent

I have thoroughly Powerscore CR bible but my point is that i could not apply the rules given in the book on the actual exams. I feel more confident solving the CR naturally by logic. So CR bible exactly hasn't helped me too much. ( Is that happening with somebody else?)

rohu27 wrote:ankur,

i just could not stop myself when i read this:

I have thoroughly Powerscore CR bible but my point is that i could not apply the rules given in the book on the actual exams. I feel more confident solving the CR naturally by logic. So CR bible exactly hasn't helped me too much. ( Is that happening with somebody else?)

Yes the writer of this post can echo with your feelings.
Powerscore CR bible is a great resource. I came to know to know many things thru this (aprt frm all the families,cause effect,paradox etc) which i was not aware of.
BUT
when i started to use the techniques mentioned by Powerscore, my CR accuracy rates dropped.especially for strengthen/weaken ones. I was scoring much better when I used my natural skills.
At about the same time i was trying to resolve this paradox i read Ron's post where he mentioned it does hapen in CR when you try to apply a bunch of rules you actually do worse. Instead if you feel you are better off trusting your natural skills, so be it. That is what I am doing now. But i do use the rules for few questions like paradox, cause and effect ones.

The trick here is, i feel to know what works best for you. IMO as you approach high level CR questions where you are stuck between 2 options, I think the rules come to your rescue(atleast for some of them) so while it is good to know the rules, if they are not working for you and infact lowering your score, i would say just know the rules but do not use them if you can nail down the answers with your natural skills.

What works for one may not work for the other. So you are not alone there.

I cant much help out in the rest as Im yet to take my test.
All the best and do well.

rohu27 wrote:the last thing you want is nerves. i knw its easy to say but after all the hard work you dnt want it to play spoilsport.
abt ur scores well, i can see ur V part is increasing, but any specific reasons for the Q going dwn? i hope you have analysed and knw where you are getting thm wrong. time sure is afactor but thts wht the test is all abt.
aprt frm tht as Brent said only gmatprep can give u accurate results.
after reading so many debreifs on this site i have come to a conclusion, dnt read too much into any 3rd party practice test. your score can pretty much go this way or tht.

just be positive.
hey read abt kap's debreif on this site. it was very inspiring.kap posted like you few days before test abt her non-impressive scores and all, and ended up wth a 700, read it for how relaxed you are before test day can make a huge diff.
u can get some inspiration.
good luck!!

wind612 wrote:i have more days until my test...How did you do? Would you share with me your experience please?

rohu27 wrote:congrats Ankur, 670 is *still* a good score but i see it isnt in line wth ur target score so tough luck this time.
also how was the verbal part of the test? i keep hearing so many things on this forum as how the V part has become so unmanageable and all, how did you feel about it when compared with gmatprep?

ankur.agrawal wrote:

rohu27 wrote:congrats Ankur, 670 is *still* a good score but i see it isnt in line wth ur target score so tough luck this time.
also how was the verbal part of the test? i keep hearing so many things on this forum as how the V part has become so unmanageable and all, how did you feel about it when compared with gmatprep?

Hey Rohu, i dont know about others but I felt that verbal part was not as tough as some people say. Specially, RC's were of moderate difficulty & CR was also medium level. So i felt overall Verbal was mid level only. Nothing unmanagable.