I just want to let you know how my progress is after two months, and perhaps get some input.
After two months, I am not sure if I made much progress, and I don't think I gained more confidence; in fact, with the actual test date approaching, I am even less confident than before. I spend on average five hours of studying a day, so I'm not slacking off. I have all three official GMAT books, MGMAT SC, PowerScore CR, Kaplan Verbal Workbook, and read through MGMAT RC and CR books. I attend as many free events as I can, and so far, have taken three practice tests:
In chronological order:
1) Kaplan Free Online: 560 (not sure if this counts since it wasn't adaptive)
2) GMAT Prep: 460
3) Manhattan GMAT: 600
I'm looking to get at least 650. Any score higher than that will be icing.
After taking the last test, there are a few things I realized about myself:
1) For the math section, I understand at least 90% of the concepts, with weaknesses in divisibility and overlapping set aka venn diagrams. I plan to work on those. During practice, I can do most of these problems in the two-minute limit without much trouble, but during tests, I either overlook or misread or something else, and answer the question wrong or takes me longer than usual. It's like everything goes down the drain once the countdown starts. I often react with "I knew that" or "What was I thinking". Any suggestions? The only thing I can come up with is relax, but I have never been able to do that for any test.
2) For the verbal section, my strength is on SC. As for the weakness, the practice test results are telling me it is RC, but I think that is a result of my weakness in CR. I spend a lot of time on CR, and still get a low accuracy on them. By the time I reach a RC question, because I'm behind on time, I tend to rush through the those questions. I still do the active reading, taking notes and stuff, but I overlook a lot of info when I skim. I came to the conclusion that if I were to take the test tomorrow and if I were running out of time, I would randomly guess on CR questions, allowing more time for SC and RC questions. I am currently working through the PowerScore CR book so I don't have to do that.
Is that progress? I don't know. Do I feel more confident about GMAT? No, that's for sure.
After two months, I am not sure if I made much progress, and I don't think I gained more confidence; in fact, with the actual test date approaching, I am even less confident than before. I spend on average five hours of studying a day, so I'm not slacking off. I have all three official GMAT books, MGMAT SC, PowerScore CR, Kaplan Verbal Workbook, and read through MGMAT RC and CR books. I attend as many free events as I can, and so far, have taken three practice tests:
In chronological order:
1) Kaplan Free Online: 560 (not sure if this counts since it wasn't adaptive)
2) GMAT Prep: 460
3) Manhattan GMAT: 600
I'm looking to get at least 650. Any score higher than that will be icing.
After taking the last test, there are a few things I realized about myself:
1) For the math section, I understand at least 90% of the concepts, with weaknesses in divisibility and overlapping set aka venn diagrams. I plan to work on those. During practice, I can do most of these problems in the two-minute limit without much trouble, but during tests, I either overlook or misread or something else, and answer the question wrong or takes me longer than usual. It's like everything goes down the drain once the countdown starts. I often react with "I knew that" or "What was I thinking". Any suggestions? The only thing I can come up with is relax, but I have never been able to do that for any test.
2) For the verbal section, my strength is on SC. As for the weakness, the practice test results are telling me it is RC, but I think that is a result of my weakness in CR. I spend a lot of time on CR, and still get a low accuracy on them. By the time I reach a RC question, because I'm behind on time, I tend to rush through the those questions. I still do the active reading, taking notes and stuff, but I overlook a lot of info when I skim. I came to the conclusion that if I were to take the test tomorrow and if I were running out of time, I would randomly guess on CR questions, allowing more time for SC and RC questions. I am currently working through the PowerScore CR book so I don't have to do that.
Is that progress? I don't know. Do I feel more confident about GMAT? No, that's for sure.
