Hi All, I have been preparing for the last 2 months and be

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Hi All,

I have been preparing for the last 2 months and below was my progress so far:

GMAT Club Test 1 18/06/2016 Q42
GMAT Club Test 2 28/06/2016 Q32
GMATPREP - 1 03/07/2016 460 Q34 V20
GMAT Club Test 3 17/07/2016 Q41
GMAT Club Test 4 19/07/2016 Q37
GMAT Club Test 5 27/07/2016 Q40
MGMAT - 1 31/07/2016 550 Q39 V28
MGMAT - 2 19/08/2016 Q570 Q41 V28
GMAT Club Test 6 25/08/2016 Q44
GMATPREP - 2 30/08/2016 490 Q36 V21

I am utterly sad to see a better performance in MGMATs and Gmat Club Quants compared to GMATPREP!

May I know the reason please?

Please note that all the tests taken above do not include IR and AWA. I am still strengthening my core concepts before moving on further. I am only comparing the score for Quant and Verbal. Also, see the GMAT Club and MGMAT Tests where in I have decent scores for Quant.

Is GMATPREP tougher than all? What could be the reason?

Please help me reach my target score, I have my exam in exactly 1 month. :( and I am aiming to reach between 730 and 750.

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by [email protected] » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:28 am
Hi pretz,

Unfortunately, raising a score in the 400s/500s to a 730+ in just one month is not a realistic goal. You would likely need another 3 months (or more) of consistent, guided study to get up to that score level.

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you're looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) What materials have you used during your studies?

2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

Regardless of the challenges that you're facing right now during your studies, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. To that end though, however you choose to proceed, you have to make sure that you're taking FULL-LENGTH CATs (with the Essay and IR sections) in a realistic way from now on. Skipping sections (or doing anything else that's unrealistic) will not lead to an accurate score result and you won't be properly training to handle everything that you'll face on Test Day.

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by Jeff@TargetTestPrep » Tue Aug 30, 2016 3:38 pm
Hi pretz,

I would be happy to provide some advice to get you on track to hitting your score goal; however, I have some questions for you:

1) Describe your study routine. For how many hours a day have you been studying and for how many total months? What resources have you been using for your prep?

Also, when you were studying, do you feel as if you were able to achieve linear and targeted learning followed by focused practice? In other words, were you able to master one topic before you moved to the next? For example, when learning about critical reasoning, were you able to learn about all aspects of critical reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. and then follow your learning with focused critical reasoning practice?

2) When you took the practice tests, did you take them under realistic conditions (e.g. in a quiet environment, no extended breaks)?

3) To what schools do you plan to apply?

4) What deadlines are you targeting?

Once we get some more information, we can provide some personalized advice.

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by pretz » Tue Aug 30, 2016 7:05 pm
Jeff@TargetTestPrep wrote:Hi pretz,

I would be happy to provide some advice to get you on track to hitting your score goal; however, I have some questions for you:

1) Describe your study routine. For how many hours a day have you been studying and for how many total months? What resources have you been using for your prep?

Also, when you were studying, do you feel as if you were able to achieve linear and targeted learning followed by focused practice? In other words, were you able to master one topic before you moved to the next? For example, when learning about critical reasoning, were you able to learn about all aspects of critical reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. and then follow your learning with focused critical reasoning practice?

2) When you took the practice tests, did you take them under realistic conditions (e.g. in a quiet environment, no extended breaks)?

3) To what schools do you plan to apply?

4) What deadlines are you targeting?

Once we get some more information, we can provide some personalized advice.
1) Describe your study routine. For how many hours a day have you been studying and for how many total months? What resources have you been using for your prep? - My study routine so far was as below:
Took my first mock on June 3rd and then started focusing on Quant more than Verbal.
Studied for around 4 hours per day for 2 months now. I used the below resources during my preparation: MGMAT study guides, Official Guide 2016, eGMAT - Verbal Online and GMAT Club Quant Tests.


1a) Also, when you were studying, do you feel as if you were able to achieve linear and targeted learning followed by focused practice? In other words, were you able to master one topic before you moved to the next? For example, when learning about critical reasoning, were you able to learn about all aspects of critical reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. and then follow your learning with focused critical reasoning practice?
I think I Was able to achieve such progress in Quant but didn't master each topic 100%. Quant - I didn't focus on Word Problems and Standard Deviation, I studied only 500 level problems for these topics, however, mastered 80% of the concepts in all areas - NP, Algebra, etc. Verbal - I mastered only Sentence Correction. I am very weak in Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension.


2) When you took the practice tests, did you take them under realistic conditions (e.g. in a quiet environment, no extended breaks)? - I took the tests in realistic conditions except that I didn't focus on AWA and IR

3) To what schools do you plan to apply? - Please see the table below:

4) What deadlines are you targeting?



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by pretz » Tue Aug 30, 2016 7:08 pm
[email protected] wrote:Hi pretz,

Unfortunately, raising a score in the 400s/500s to a 730+ in just one month is not a realistic goal. You would likely need another 3 months (or more) of consistent, guided study to get up to that score level.

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you're looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) What materials have you used during your studies?

2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

Regardless of the challenges that you're facing right now during your studies, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. To that end though, however you choose to proceed, you have to make sure that you're taking FULL-LENGTH CATs (with the Essay and IR sections) in a realistic way from now on. Skipping sections (or doing anything else that's unrealistic) will not lead to an accurate score result and you won't be properly training to handle everything that you'll face on Test Day.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
1) What materials have you used during your studies? - Took my first mock on June 3rd and then started focusing on Quant more than Verbal. Studied for around 4 hours per day for 2 months now. I used the below resources during my preparation: MGMAT study guides, Official Guide 2016, eGMAT - Verbal Online and GMAT Club Quant Tests.

2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?


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by [email protected] » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:11 pm
Hi pretz,

You can certainly apply this year to the Business Schools that you've listed, but a practical point of view about this whole process is necessary to continue your studies and put together effective applications. The upcoming Round 1 deadlines in September and October are too close. You clearly need to spend far more time studying for the GMAT and those deadlines won't properly allow for that. You could still make the later Round 2 deadlines though, so I think that that should be your plan.

Next, your current way of studying is not leading to the results that you're looking for, so some big adjustments will be required. While I agree that you probably have a decent grasp of the 'basics', you would likely benefit a great deal by investing in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led). Most GMAT Companies offer some type of free materials (practice problems, Trial Accounts, videos, etc.) that you can use to 'test out' a product before you buy it. We have a variety of those resources at our website (www.empowergmat.com). I suggest that you take advantage of all of them then choose the one that best matches your personality, timeline and budget.

If you have any additional question, then just let me know.

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by MartyMurray » Wed Aug 31, 2016 9:18 pm
Hi pretz.

Oddly enough, the GMAT Club and Manhattan quant sections are generally considered more challenging that the GMAT Prep quant sections.

The styles of the questions on the two non official tests are slightly different from those on the GMAT Prep tests, however. The GMAT Prep questions tend to be less math heavy and more logic based and tricky than some of the non official questions. Maybe, at least in a sense, you have been preparing, not for the GMAT, but more for a Manhattan or GMAT Club practice test.

So to score higher on the actual GMAT, maybe you have to assess what about the official questions is throwing you off and address what you find.

Also, you have to continue to work on your less strong quant areas and make them super strong.

Meanwhile, to hit your target score, you have to score much higher on verbal.

You can find some ideas for rocking verbal in these posts.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/how-do-i-mas ... tml#762120

https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-failure ... tml#780572
Last edited by MartyMurray on Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:50 am
Marty, I want to respectfully push back on a few of the things you've said.

First, I agree with you the Manhattan Prep CATs are a little bit harder on the quant than GMATPrep tests. Many experts believe that the GMATPrep tests (at least the 2 free ones) are a little bit easier than the real thing, though. These 2 have been around for many years without any updates.

I can't speak to GMAT Club tests, but I'm not sure that I agree that Mprep tests are more "math heavy" than the real test. I find that some of ours require a few more twists and turns than all but the hardest OGs, but we try to make sure that they are more grounded in logic than brute force.

I also respectfully disagree that bellcurves is a good source of practice material. I don't mean to be unsupportive of other companies (I'm not competitive - we're all here to help our students as much as possible! And I think we all learn from each other, especially in this BTG community). But... that company's problems (at least that I've seen in the forums) contain numerous flaws. Here are a few recent examples:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/ratio-of-poo ... tml#790065
https://www.beatthegmat.com/have-been-ha ... tml#790068
https://www.beatthegmat.com/than-t294441.html#790066
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by MartyMurray » Tue Mar 07, 2017 11:53 am
ceilidh.erickson wrote:Marty, I want to respectfully push back on a few of the things you've said.

First, I agree with you the Manhattan Prep CATs are a little bit harder on the quant than GMATPrep tests. Many experts believe that the GMATPrep tests (at least the 2 free ones) are a little bit easier than the real thing, though. These 2 have been around for many years without any updates.
The quant on the GMAT itself can seem pretty easy, easier than what you see on the two free GMAT Prep tests. I guess the difficulty level of the real test or of a GMAT Prep test depends partly on the luck of the draw and on what a particular test taker finds challenging.

Also, consider the following example of a not uncommon pattern. Over the past ten days or so, I saw someone take two practice tests about a week apart, first a MPrep test, on which he scored 610, and then GMAT Prep 3, on which he scored 740. I realize that people's scores do bounce around and that he had a chance to learn some new things between the two tests, but I still believe that the difficulty of the MPrep test was a factor in the difference between the two scores.
I can't speak to GMAT Club tests, but I'm not sure that I agree that Mprep tests are more "math heavy" than the real test. I find that some of ours require a few more twists and turns than all but the hardest OGs, but we try to make sure that they are more grounded in logic than brute force.
I tend to agree with what you said. The Manhattan questions are grounded in logic. Maybe those extra twists and turns are just what I was referring to. Often, getting the right answer to a GMAT question takes one key move. I find that on average, perhaps, the questions in Manhattan CATs require more moves than official questions require. They don't always require an extra move, but they do sometimes. Is it a logic based move? Maybe so. Maybe I should not have called them "math heavy". Maybe I should have called them "move heavy".
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