GMAT Strategy

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on whether my ambitions are realistic and perhaps some tips on a best strategy.

First of all, let me explain my situation as it currently is. At the moment i'm rounding off my Bachelors degree in Business Administration at the Rotterdam School of Managament (Erasmus University Rotterdam). In about a month from now I'll be taking my last exams. My average right now is a 7.8/10, which would be a GPA of about 3.8. At the start of September I'll be starting an internship in a bank, for which I succesfully passed both verbal and mathematical capacity tests. Therefore, I have some (but very limited) experience with making these sorts of tests under pressure.

Between graduating from my bachelors programme and starting my internship I have about five weeks of vacation. I'll be working 2-3 days per week, and therefore I suppose I can spend between 3 and 5 hours per day on average on preparing for the GMAT during these six weeks. In the coming four weeks (so before I graduate) I think I can spend between 1 and 2 hours per day on average on preparation.

I am not a native speaker of English, but in high school I followed a Cambridge course in English. I finished off this course by acquiring the Certificate in Advanced English with an A grade. In standardized terms, this is level C2.2 (if i'm not mistaken). In general, I believe my level of English is quite good.

My university offers a good deal on taking GMAT preparation classes + books using the Manhattan method. I will probably be taking this course, so unless anyone recommends me differently I will be using this method in preparation.

At the end of August (or very early in September) I will probably be taking the official GMAT exam. My goal is to get a score of 700+. To provide a sort of indication, I just took the free Veritas Prep exam (without any help, breaks or general preparation) and got an indication score of 610.



Basically, my question is: is my goal of acquiring a score of 700+ realistic given the information above? Will this two and a half month preparation be enough (1-2 hours per day for the first four weeks, 4-5 hours per day for the last five or six weeks). If so, what would be a recommended course of action to take for me? Or should I just drop it for now and leave it for a time in which I have more time to prepare?

Any suggestion and help would be highly appreciated. I hope I have provided enough details about my situation. If there is anything missing, I'd be more than happy to provide more information.

Cheers,

Hi JesseV92,

At First, Let me tell you that your detailed query is really interesting.

Let me make my observation pointwise

1) Your score attached in JPG file is much misleading as the different tests have different criteria of finding out the percentile, and Scaled score therefore giving an opinion about your performance and way forward to improve the problem areas might be incorrect therefore according to my 10 years GMAT QUANT Teaching Experience, the scaled scores with approximate number of correct questions should as per the following table (There are many subjectivities about this calculation but I would like keep them away for this observation)





As per the scores I see that the major area of improvement of yours is QUANT as the score is much less than average score of a 700 scorer which you can also understand from the percentile.

2) In Quant you have the potential to improve the score from 39 to 49 which might give you a jump of almost 90 Marks in your final GMAT score and will make it possible for you to achieve 700 target score.

3) The amount of time that you are left with to prepare and the time that you can spare for preparation seems pretty much sufficient to get such a score.

4) I would suggest that you schedule a FREE Demo class with me which will be online Interactive class and in the class we can work on your problem areas and make a plan to way forward. Since it's free class for you therefore after the class you can judge the best possible way to improve your score.

5) It's not just the material that helps in preparation, Instead it's the way the material is solved and the way we discuss the techniques to get the right answers that matters the most.

Remember that GMAT is the test of your basic skills in Quant and Verbal and it's a test to check your logical ability and presence of mind to use the given resource in form of information and hints given in the questions to solve the problems given in test.

All the best!!!

Feel free to write back.

Also since you are just now graduating with a Bachelors, keep in mind that a lot of the top MBA programs value real world work experience over just a solid GPA and test score. It might help take the pressure off of you having to get the perfect score the first time knowing that you're likely going to have to work at least 2 years full time to really make your application competitive. There are some people that get in right after their bachelors but it's extremely rare. Just take your time, stick with the plan you're going on but if you need the 90 days then take the 90 days. Also from experience, taking the GMAT is really nothing like the practice exams on Veritas or Manhattan. You'll see more of a pattern of questions in the GMAT and it doesn't tend to rely on the hardest questions but really has a bulk of the easy to middle tier. Personally I'd say take the test in September and get it out of the way and spend the next year studying and working and try to boost your score with the added prep time.

I highly recommend to use only the MGMAT SC guide and use the rest of your money for a online course.
The other books are not worth it.

Hi Jesse,

I don't think your plan is unrealistic, but a Veritas score of 610 is not an accurate prediction of where you are at currently.

Take the GMATPrep 1 and report back. My guess is you'll be in the high 500's.

2.5 months is do-able for most people taking the GMAT, but a 700+ requires a real mastery of the GMAT's three areas: Concepts, Strategy, and Pacing. You can see what I mean by these three areas here: https://gmatrockstar.com/online-gmat-tutor/

When you say "Manhattan method" do you mean a MGMAT course? If so that would be highly recommended. You can also do it on your own, but you'll be buying MGMAT books anyway.

To start, you have to master the concepts tested on the GMAT Sentence Correction and Quantitative sections. I'd start with MGMAT Sentence Correction, MGMAT Number Properties, and Powerscore CR, supplementing with the Official Guide 13. Take 1 practice CAT a week (I'd alternate between MGMAT and the 4 GMATPreps).

Be sure to keep an Error Log for your CATs. An Error Log is a spreadsheet designed to help you track your incorrect questions for later review. Add to it on an ongoing basis logging all your incorrect questions. Here's an example.

Good luck!

Hey all,

First of all thank you all for the responses. Over the last week I've started my preparations. Partly based on your advices, I've taken two other practice exams. The first was the GMATPrep 1 (score of 606) and another came from the Manhattan GMAT online environment (score of 602). These scores are indeed a bit lower than the score on the Veritas exam, although I don't think its a significant difference.

I did notice that, especially in the quantitative parts, I performed really poorly on certain 'areas of questions' (e.g. Geometry) while my scores on other areas were actually quite decent. Anyway, I am indeed taking a MGMAT course. For the first four weeks I'll be following their structure for the quantitative part (week 1: Number properties, week 2: algebra and so on) plus I'll add some of my own prep for the verbal part. On average, I will spend about 1.5 hours per day on the quantitative part and half an hour per day on the verbal part for the first month. I was wondering if anyone has some recommendations on the best strategy to prepare for the verbal part? After the first month I'll be increasing my study intensity to about 3-5 hours per day on average. I will also be taking weekly prep tests to see how I progress. If anyone is interested in it I'll keep posting updates on my progress here.

As in reaction to csysantos85, I won't be needing the GMAT score to get admitted into an MBA programme any time soon. Coming February I'll be starting a Masters Programme in Supply Chain Management for which I've already been accepted. Until that time I'll be interning with an investment bank to gain said real world work experience.

Anyway, thank you all for the tips and I'll keep you updated on my progess.

30 min per day to start with on the Verbal doesn't allow for much progress at first, so I'd suggest starting by rotating the 3 Verbal types every day. So for example SC one day, CR the next, RC the next, then back to SC on Day 4. That way you're at least "hitting" each type/day.

For SC, I'd spend the time with ONE concept at a time starting in the MGMAT SC book, then doing the OG13 questions listed in the back of each chapter.

For CR, I'd go with Powerscore CR and do one Q-type every 3-days. This will at least allow you to dip your toes in.

For RC, it's SO strategy intensive, I think you need to read up on that and come up with a solid system for attacking the passages, reading actively, taking notes, and breaking down the questions/using process of elimination to solve them. You can see how I do it here: https://gmatrockstar.com/2014/01/17/gmat ... y-purpose/

And some extra RC tips: https://gmatrockstar.com/2014/01/19/4-ea ... -passages/

So I'd suggest every 3 days spending that 30 min working through OG RC passages.

Good luck with your course!