GMAT Strategy

mba.sk29 wrote:Thanks uwhusky. I've read Ron's suggestions and I will try to incorporate the points mentioned in my GMAT preparation.

Moreover as I've mentioned this is not my final GMAT score, this is the score from the 1st CAT. I am in the middle of my preparation and still lots of things are to be done.

I know my target of 750 from my current level looks unrealistic, but is this impossible to achieve?

Hi mba.sk29!

In order to help a bit of clarification on a few questions would be great:

- was this first CAT before or after the 3 months of study?
- you noted that you had studied the questions from the last chapters of the MGMAT books (do you mean the OG questions that apply to each chapter or only those In Action problems that go with the later (advanced) chapters of each book?
- can you describe your process on the OG problems a bit: are you simply working the problems and checking the answers, are you working them in order, when you say timed conditions do you mean 2min/each or in longer sets, etc? As much detail as possible here would be wonderful
- Regarding the MGMAT guides - have you been reading chapters (all or just a few), doing In Action problems and the applicable OG questions, or something else?

You are correct that a move from high 300s to mid 700s is going to be a lot of work but clearing up a few of those questions might help us see exactly how much work we're talking about! And given a jump of this size, I would highly recommend looking into some private tutoring (even if you only use a few sessions to help diagnose problem spots and formulate a plan of attack). There are a TON of tutoring options (in-person and online) all over the globe so it is worth researching!


Whit

Hi mba.sk29!

Thank you for the quick response! A few notes, given that you had done close to 3 months of content prep and your most recent exam posted a score of 380 I would definitely encourage you to speak with a private tutor (at least for a few sessions). While it is true that content is only so much of the equation - understanding how GMAT specific problems work is important as well - I would still expect a somewhat higher score based on just content alone. There might be some specific issues that are preventing you from putting the content into action.

Now, regarding preferred methods of study, I would advocate something different from what you are currently employing. GMAT problems are important, but more important that just doing large numbers of questions is working to develop your pattern recognition of certain problem types. The best way to do this is to start with content sets and then follow with short (5-6 question) problem sets that use OG questions ONLY from the chapter you have just reviewed. (i.e. read the Powers & Roots chapters, review the In Action and then do a set of 3 ps and 3 ds problems from the OG list attached to that chapter. And when doing problems, the following should be mandatory:

(1) Do all 5-6 problems aware of time: at 2 minutes, pause the timer and draw a line on your paper (to show how far you had gotten with your work) and make your best educated guess if you had to pick an answer (write it next to the line). Then un-pause the timer and keep working until you have finished. Complete all 5-6 questions this way.

(2) Completely review ALL answers - a good place to look for quant explanations is in the MGMAT OG Companion (but of course I would be partial!)

(3) Re-do all 5-6 problems IMMEDIATELY after reviewing them (regardless of right or wrong). Do the timing steps exactly the same.

(4) Top down review = looking at those 5-6 problems, what was the common terminology used, was there a common strategy that was helpful, were there any common traps written into the question? What should be the big takeaway - what do they have in common, etc. You will NOT see any of those exact questions on the exam BUT you will see a Frankenstein version of them so you are working to learn to recognize that problem type, even when it is disguised.

(5) Make a flash card for that chapter using 1 question from the 5-6 that you feel was very indicative of the "typical" problem and then write your notes on strategies and takeaways on the back. These flash cards are going to be your future study guides to help remember problem types, big rules and tricks/tips. (If there are 2 questions that you see as different but important you can make an additional flash card or 2 but the point is to start understanding the big picture from each general problem type.

The same can be done for verbal in the following ways:
- Sentence Correction sets from each grammar issue (Sub-verb, modifiers, verb tense, etc)
- Critical Reasoning sets from each specific question type (i.e. what makes weaken questions similar to each other - are there common wrong answer types, common right answer types, etc)
- Reading Comp - these are a bit different. Once you have done 2-3 passages, compare similar question types across passages in the same way you would Critical Reasoning.

**For a solid verbal score you will also need to be able to read dense, academic passages in English. A great (free) resource is the Scientific American Online Journal. The material expects you to be educated and able to understand complex thought but does NOT expect you to be an expert in any of the specific areas.

EVERYONE studying for the GMAT should be reading an article a day from this or similar journals (not newspapers or journals intended for a more general audience).

The last question would be about timing - when you took the CAT, did you run out of time? This can be a BIG reason why people with content knowledge end up with very low scores.


Whit

As far as CATs go, you want to use these as an opportunity to evaluate the combination of timing, content and strategy and as a way to help readjust your study plan as you improve in certain areas.

These should not be utilized as a means to improve specific content holes (i.e. doing a majority of your subject learning from the CAT or OG questions only). If there are areas of content that need attention then you should spend some additional time reading and reviewing chapters of strategy guides (of course I favor our MGMAT guides and our Foundations of Mathematics - but I'm partial!), followed by short question sets of OG problems targeting the specific area you are working on.

I would say that a practice CAT would be fine every 2-3 weeks as long as you are able to cover a fair amount of content between each exam.

bkw wrote:

Whitney Garner wrote: EVERYONE studying for the GMAT should be reading an article a day from this or similar journals (not newspapers or journals intended for a more general audience).

I don't know if you are meaning mainly americans above. If reading comprehension, speed, and vocabulary are a issues, then most reading is good. And both WSJ and the Economist have been mentioned by several prep companies to be useful, but I suppose both of them (newspapers that cover news for a broad audience) fall out of the scope of what you say above.

A good place to start concerning improving reading is:
https://www.knewton.com/blog/gmat/verbal ... prehension

What is more important is to have a daily habit of reading, especially opinions in e.g. WSJ. Think of STOP(See Veritas RC). Take notes of words you don't understand and look them up etc. Good Luck with your reading!

I do not only advise this to my non-native "American" english speaking students - I advise this to EVERY one of my students. The reason I steer people away from the more "general" news sources is because much of that is written with a broad audience in mind and concerns information that we might be more comfortable with (current business, sports or news).

To get a real feel for the GMAT reading passages, you need to move yourself out of your reading comfort zone. After reviewing a lot of the popular (and FREE) news sources out there, I have found 2 that do a WONDERFUL job of mimicking the GMAT's style, tone and depth of content:

Scientific American Online (for science and technology articles)
Smithsonian Magazine Online (for humanities, history, art, politics, etc)

As much as I personally love to read the Economist, BuisnessWeek, WSJ, Times, Post, etc... the articles just do not have the same density as those on the site above.

I also disagree with the goal of reading "opinion based" passages. Most GMAT passages lack extensive opinion or emotion and are instead told from the perspective of a disinterested 3rd party. Reading opinion pieces will not be representative of the experience you will have during the test.

Lastly, my suggestion to read dense articles every day is not just to help with understanding, speed and vocabulary (issues that EVERYONE could stand to work on no matter how good your score), BUT to help with test fatigue. This test is a bear - if reading each passage (don't forget there will be 3-4) after you have already been in the test for over 2.5 hours is going to be a ton of work, then you are just further exhausting yourself. If you can learn to handle dense material every day, then seeing it on the test isn't such a big deal. It is all about finding ways to make the testing situation more comfortable.

But again - I have NEVER met a student that couldn't improve with respect to comprehension, speed and improved vocabulary in the RC sections of the test. This is NOT something just for non-native speakers - this is a tip for EVERYONE!


Whit