GMAT Strategy

Hey everyone

I am sitting my (embarrassing) 3rd attempt end of this month. I actually saw a date pop up at a test center in my city so I had to quickly book it b4 someone else takes it . P.S There are no free dates before 2nd dec. So i finally ended up booking end of this month - 31 Oct.

My target score is approx 620-640 (dont laugh ) I have been consistently scoring 590-600 in MGMAT CAT (but have never scored 620 or more in the CAT) Last CAT I gave was approx 2-3 weeks ago.

8/27/2011
Q 41 V 31 - 590

9/17/2011
Q36 V 35 - 600

I am looking forward to expert advise if now is the right time or was booking the exam a foolish mistake? Should I carry on and attempt the exam or move it to a later date)?? I would appreciate some tips / encouragement

melguy wrote:Hey everyone

I am sitting my (embarrassing) 3rd attempt end of this month. I actually saw a date pop up at a test center in my city so I had to quickly book it b4 someone else takes it . P.S There are no free dates before 2nd dec. So i finally ended up booking end of this month - 31 Oct.

My target score is approx 620-640 (dont laugh ) I have been consistently scoring 590-600 in MGMAT CAT (but have never scored 620 or more in the CAT) Last CAT I gave was approx 2-3 weeks ago.

8/27/2011
Q 41 V 31 - 590

9/17/2011
Q36 V 35 - 600

I am looking forward to expert advise if now is the right time or was booking the exam a foolish mistake? Should I carry on and attempt the exam or move it to a later date)?? I would appreciate some tips / encouragement

Need more info/input. How have you been preparing? Score breakdowns? Time management in each section? GMATPREP results (the only test I truly trust in terms of score prediction)

Need more info/input. How have you been preparing? Score breakdowns? Time management in each section? GMATPREP results (the only test I truly trust in terms of score prediction)

Thanks a lot for your reply! Please find a bit about my background below

I work full time, take care of a part time business and have been preparing for GMAT for a while now. My first official score was a shocking 380 which i gave without any studies. After the first attempt I went back to MGMAT book and started to learn the basics.

After going through all the MGMAT book (except SC). I did not study SC at all for the real exam and did not study OG. This was because i dint understand anything in SC and was getting frustrated. So my SC was purely on my previous knowledge. I gave a few practice CATs

03 Jun 2011 - MGMAT
Q 33 V 28 Total 520

27 Jun 2011 - Official exam
Q 35 V 25 Total 510.

I was increasingly getting frustrated but i had to accept that I now have to study SC and there is no other way out! Its lot harder for non native speakers. So I started studying SC and OG from page 1 to last. I have finished SC once a while ago. I am more than half way though OG Quant section and completed OG SC ages ago. I will revise the wrong answers before the exams.

Below are my CAT scores along the journey

21 Aug 2011 - MGMAT
Q 30 V 31 Total 510

27 Aug 2011 - MGMAT
Q 41 V 31 - Total 590

17 Sep 2011 - MGMAT
Q 35 V 33 - Total 570 ( i got atleast 4 Quant questions wrong which i could have solved easily!)

18 Sep 2011 - MGMAT
Q 36 V 35 - Total 600

Studying on OG after that. Have not given any more exam. Just regular studying.

Time management: Please see the screenshot. It provides the average of last 3 exams.

Also below is my study plan till exam date

06-Oct Thursday Integer Properties
07-Oct Friday Integer Properties
08-Oct Saturday Stats / Counting Module
09-Oct Sunday Stats / Counting Module
10-Oct Monday Probability
11-Oct Tuesday Arithemetic Revision
12-Oct Wednesday Arithemetic Revision
13-Oct Thursday Arithemetic Revision
14-Oct Friday Arithemetic Revision
15-Oct Saturday Algebra Revision
16-Oct Sunday Algebra Revision
17-Oct Monday Algebra Revision
18-Oct Tuesday SC Revision
19-Oct Wednesday SC Revision
20-Oct Thursday SC Revision
21-Oct Friday SC Revision
22-Oct Saturday CAT
23-Oct Sunday CAT
24-Oct Monday CR - Powerscore
25-Oct Tuesday CR - Powerscore
26-Oct Wednesday CR - Powerscore
27-Oct Thursday CR - Powerscore
28-Oct Friday RC
29-Oct Saturday RC
30-Oct Sunday Break
31-Oct Monday EXAM

Thanks for your help!

melguy wrote:

Need more info/input. How have you been preparing? Score breakdowns? Time management in each section? GMATPREP results (the only test I truly trust in terms of score prediction)

Thanks a lot for your reply! Please find a bit about my background below

I work full time, take care of a part time business and have been preparing for GMAT for a while now. My first official score was a shocking 380 which i gave without any studies. After the first attempt I went back to MGMAT book and started to learn the basics.

After going through all the MGMAT book (except SC). I did not study SC at all for the real exam and did not study OG. This was because i dint understand anything in SC and was getting frustrated. So my SC was purely on my previous knowledge. I gave a few practice CATs

03 Jun 2011 - MGMAT
Q 33 V 28 Total 520

27 Jun 2011 - Official exam
Q 35 V 25 Total 510.

I was increasingly getting frustrated but i had to accept that I now have to study SC and there is no other way out! Its lot harder for non native speakers. So I started studying SC and OG from page 1 to last. I have finished SC once a while ago. I am more than half way though OG Quant section and completed OG SC ages ago. I will revise the wrong answers before the exams.

Below are my CAT scores along the journey

21 Aug 2011 - MGMAT
Q 30 V 31 Total 510

27 Aug 2011 - MGMAT
Q 41 V 31 - Total 590

17 Sep 2011 - MGMAT
Q 35 V 33 - Total 570 ( i got atleast 4 Quant questions wrong which i could have solved easily!)

18 Sep 2011 - MGMAT
Q 36 V 35 - Total 600

Studying on OG after that. Have not given any more exam. Just regular studying.

Time management: Please see the screenshot. It provides the average of last 3 exams.

Also below is my study plan till exam date

06-Oct Thursday Integer Properties
07-Oct Friday Integer Properties
08-Oct Saturday Stats / Counting Module
09-Oct Sunday Stats / Counting Module
10-Oct Monday Probability
11-Oct Tuesday Arithemetic Revision
12-Oct Wednesday Arithemetic Revision
13-Oct Thursday Arithemetic Revision
14-Oct Friday Arithemetic Revision
15-Oct Saturday Algebra Revision
16-Oct Sunday Algebra Revision
17-Oct Monday Algebra Revision
18-Oct Tuesday SC Revision
19-Oct Wednesday SC Revision
20-Oct Thursday SC Revision
21-Oct Friday SC Revision
22-Oct Saturday CAT
23-Oct Sunday CAT
24-Oct Monday CR - Powerscore
25-Oct Tuesday CR - Powerscore
26-Oct Wednesday CR - Powerscore
27-Oct Thursday CR - Powerscore
28-Oct Friday RC
29-Oct Saturday RC
30-Oct Sunday Break
31-Oct Monday EXAM

Thanks for your help!

Ok, that's TOO much information to process

It's difficult to say with certainty from the score report you included, but your average time for each question format in data sufficiency and all verbal formats is lower than expected. Would I be correct in saying that you tend to finish the sections AHEAD of time with time to spare? Was that the case with your previous GMAT tests?

Ok, that's TOO much information to process

It's difficult to say with certainty from the score report you included, but your average time for each question format in data sufficiency and all verbal formats is lower than expected. Would I be correct in saying that you tend to finish the sections AHEAD of time with time to spare? Was that the case with your previous GMAT tests?

Sorry about that

Yes, especially in Quant I finish right on time 9/10 times. I try to finish DS as quickly as possible so I can save time for PS.

Most of the time I do not feel the time pressure in Quant. Where as in verbal I am pretty much always short of time. So now I have started guessing questions (e.g. Boldface CR , very tough RC etc) in the middle which I know I cant get right regardless of the time i spend (p.s. I am a non native english speaker)

Thanks

melguy wrote:

Ok, that's TOO much information to process

It's difficult to say with certainty from the score report you included, but your average time for each question format in data sufficiency and all verbal formats is lower than expected. Would I be correct in saying that you tend to finish the sections AHEAD of time with time to spare? Was that the case with your previous GMAT tests?

Sorry about that

Yes, especially in Quant I finish right on time 9/10 times. I try to finish DS as quickly as possible so I can save time for PS.

Most of the time I do not feel the time pressure in Quant. Where as in verbal I am pretty much always short of time. So now I have started guessing questions (e.g. Boldface CR , very tough RC etc) in the middle which I know I cant get right regardless of the time i spend (p.s. I am a non native english speaker)

Thanks

The faster you work, the more mistakes you do - that's true for everybody on this test. Your goal is to reach the final question with 1.5-2 minutes on each section - no more, no less. Give each question the time that it's due. If your speed on DS is costing your accuracy on the same format, I would suggest to slow down on these, and make up for "lost" time by utilizing the same strategy as you described on verbal - letting go of a couple of well chosen questions in the middle of the section. Good candidates would be questions in one of your problem areas (i.e. questions that you are likely to get wrong anyway), or questions that after 30-40 seconds you still have no "direction".

Regarding your study plan, I would perhaps add more tests at the expense of revision. Broadly speaking, if the problem is time management, do more tests, whereas if the problem is accuracy, do more practice questions.

The faster you work, the more mistakes you do - that's true for everybody on this test. Your goal is to reach the final question with 1.5-2 minutes on each section - no more, no less. Give each question the time that it's due. If your speed on DS is costing your accuracy on the same format, I would suggest to slow down on these, and make up for "lost" time by utilizing the same strategy as you described on verbal - letting go of a couple of well chosen questions in the middle of the section. Good candidates would be questions in one of your problem areas (i.e. questions that you are likely to get wrong anyway), or questions that after 30-40 seconds you still have no "direction".

Regarding your study plan, I would perhaps add more tests at the expense of revision. Broadly speaking, if the problem is time management, do more tests, whereas if the problem is accuracy, do more practice questions.

Thanks a lot for your tips! I will add some more CATs in the study plan.

3 weeks to go (lets hope I get atleast 620 this time! lol )