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Crashed with a 580!

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Crashed with a 580!

by samir2562 » Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:17 pm
I just took the gmat exam yesterday and flopped with a 580. I had been studying for a month, on average getting about 2-3hrs a day, so i prob clocked in close to 90hrs. I had not done the cat tests beforehand as did not have enough time. I had only used the OG, i completed almost all questions in there, scoring 55% in the quant sections (when reviewing errors i noticed that 50% of questions i got wrong for problem solving were silly mistakes, more like 25% for data sufficiency). For verbal i was extremely weak on SC, could not seem to get above 50%, the different types of rules would not stick. I was expecting to come out with a low 600 score, in the hope i would retake a month later and get 700 plus but getting below 600 has dented my confidence. I am now wondering if my whole strategy of just question practice was incorrect. I believe i will be able to put in over 120hrs in the next month but i am unsure if even that would be enough. I currently have the OG guide, kaplan gmat math workbook and princeton cracking the gmat books. Can anyone say whether the combo of these books are sufficient? Also doubting whether i can do this myself and should go for an expensive prep course, possibly kaplan? Deadlines are october so i only have 5/6wks to BEAT THE GMAT! Any tips advice would be most welcome.

Thanks!

Samir
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:53 pm
samir2562 wrote:I just took the gmat exam yesterday and flopped with a 580. I had been studying for a month, on average getting about 2-3hrs a day, so i prob clocked in close to 90hrs. I had not done the cat tests beforehand as did not have enough time. I had only used the OG, i completed almost all questions in there, scoring 55% in the quant sections (when reviewing errors i noticed that 50% of questions i got wrong for problem solving were silly mistakes, more like 25% for data sufficiency). For verbal i was extremely weak on SC, could not seem to get above 50%, the different types of rules would not stick. I was expecting to come out with a low 600 score, in the hope i would retake a month later and get 700 plus but getting below 600 has dented my confidence. I am now wondering if my whole strategy of just question practice was incorrect. I believe i will be able to put in over 120hrs in the next month but i am unsure if even that would be enough. I currently have the OG guide, kaplan gmat math workbook and princeton cracking the gmat books. Can anyone say whether the combo of these books are sufficient? Also doubting whether i can do this myself and should go for an expensive prep course, possibly kaplan? Deadlines are october so i only have 5/6wks to BEAT THE GMAT! Any tips advice would be most welcome.

Thanks!

Samir
Hi Samir,

There are many positive takeaways from this.

First 580 is a good score. Considering that most GMAT test-takers are smart people, scoring above the 50th percentile is great.

That said, the most encouraging part is that 90 hours isn't that much prep time AND you didn't take any CATs.

So, if you devote 100 more hours AND you get used to the CAT testing environment, I have a feeling that you'll reach your target target score.

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by samir2562 » Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:22 am
Thanks for the feedback Brent. I am struggling to really assess which material will be right for me to take the exam in 6 weeks. As mentioned i have the OG guide and kaplan math and princeton review, i know the first is essential and the 2nd recommended, there were some negative comments on the 3rd if you are looking for a higher score. Should i be investing in the manhatten gmat books if i already have kaplan gmat? Should i also be looking at a book solely covering verbal seeing as i am weak on that area too?

Many thanks again
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by FutureWorks » Thu Aug 04, 2011 5:02 am
Hi Samir

Firstly we would say that stay positive and such anxieties are common during exam preparation time. Juggling between work and studies is tough so you need to define a significant time for your GMAT preparation. Sometimes taking few days off work for preparing for the GMAT can help a person tremendously.

If you have time this may not be a bad idea. Take practise GMAT tests to see how you are doing. If you cannot do that don't worry. What might work instead is to set aside 1-2 hours at night on weekdays and major part of your weekend to study and prepare for GMAT- in this case we will suggest a good 2-3 months preparation. If you can devote more time your time period does not have to be 2-3 months.

However we recommend you to keep taking practise tests to gauge your performance. It will help you in identifying your weak areas and you can focus on them accordingly.

There are various ways you can use to practise for your GMAT. You might need to change your practise style and try this combination to provide you flexibility and different styles to practise so it doesn't get monotonous.

It could be combination of-

1-Books- Books like- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review etc could be used.

2-Online Study Guide: Websites like Knewton, Grockit etc provide you with practise questions online.

3-Smart phone applications- Kaplan, Veritas etc offer applications to prepare for GMAT on your smart phones.


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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Aug 04, 2011 8:42 am
samir2562 wrote:Thanks for the feedback Brent. I am struggling to really assess which material will be right for me to take the exam in 6 weeks. As mentioned i have the OG guide and kaplan math and princeton review, i know the first is essential and the 2nd recommended, there were some negative comments on the 3rd if you are looking for a higher score. Should i be investing in the manhatten gmat books if i already have kaplan gmat? Should i also be looking at a book solely covering verbal seeing as i am weak on that area too?

Many thanks again
Hi Samir,

It's not really my place to recommend books in this forum, but you can't have too many resources.

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by samir2562 » Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:11 am
Thanks for the feedback. I will need to take the exam in around 6wks to apply for first round. my plan is to do 4hrs per week nite and 6hrs per weekend day for the full 6 wks, with the last week potentially clocking in close to ten hours a day. At the moment i will be working with kaplan math and manhattan guides for verbal along with the OG. The tough thing i am finding is juggling all these books and not forgetting topics. My plan was during my four hr days, leave the last hour to go over topics i had already done so as not to forget, mixture of some questions and rules. Not sure if this is all feasible given the tight timeframe.
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by golu23 » Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:20 am
dude how much questions u got correct in both the questions can u plz tell me?
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by prateek_guy2004 » Mon Aug 08, 2011 11:57 pm
Hi sameer

I will tell you which material i am using, Its helping me tremendously...

For quant- you have princeton review ...good to learn basics

I would recomend go for kaplan 800...tougher quant helps u to push ur score..

Verbal - read princeton review 1st..

Then get manhattan SC for SC

Gmat CR bible for CR.....

With these material....u can practice from GRockit.com

Let me know about ur prep....or any other prob u facing...

Chaw
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by samir2562 » Mon Oct 24, 2011 7:35 am
I am back 2.5months later, 1000pounds down on a kaplan course and a couple of hundred hours spent studying. I scored 650. I took a kaplan course and used their course material, in addition i used kaplan 800 math book. Going into the exam i knew i was weak in certain quant areas, probability, coordinate geometry, number properties, and unfortunately they haunted me on the exam. I have already identified these areas and spent considerable time on them but still am not able to crack them. I also found myself feeling under alot of pressure midway through quant portion as i started to get some easy questions wrong which led in the end to me guessing the last few questions. If i didnt suck so bad during the middle part of the exam a 700 was probably attainable. 44 quant, 37 verbal. Any ideas/tips how i can improve on the quant section? I have used the articles section of this site which is very helpful, but feel like i struggle when the question is asked in a slightly different way for topics mentioned above. Any suggestions/advice much appreciated.
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by golu23 » Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:48 pm
hi sameer i know how u feel dude.Try studying from Manhattan guide books those r really useful they r really helpful, with really simple explanations on the areas u said u were weak in.By the way how many correct questions did u answer with a score of 580 please let me know.
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by balaji.smvm » Sun Oct 30, 2011 9:38 am
Hi Samir

Wanted to know, how many CAT's did u took before the actual. Did you take all of them from Kaplan.
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by Avinash_Tyagi » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:58 am
If you're looking for a prep course, I recommend Knewton, really excellent faculty, and it fits perfectly around any schedule
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by FutureWorks » Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:21 am
Hi Samir,

Glad to hear that you are back here after a good amount of preparation � Kaplan is one of the top books for the GMAT prep but apart from it you can look on some other books for your quant section and you can also go through some online quant preparation contents as these all will give you diversity in questions.

Rest we hope you can easily make it by practicing continuously and believing on your abilities �
Good luck for your exams �
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by samir2562 » Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:17 pm
Third time lucky? Unfortunately not, after 6wks on from my previous exam with alot of hours, 3hrs a day, 7-8hrs on wkend, 80-90% focus on quant, i ended up with a 630, lower than my last score of 650. My quant score moved up from 44 to 47 (66th pct to 76th pct), so not a great increase, but the shocking part was my verbal falling from 37 to 29 (81st pct to 53rd pct). I found myself faced with alot of 50-50s in the verbal section and the majority of the questions coming up were SC, which i had previously been ok on. But given 80% of my time i had spent on quant i had not put in enough practice on verbal. Now im faced with applying to schools in the 2nd round with a 650 or retaking for the 4th time and aiming for that higher score but applying in round 3. Any advice much appreciated.
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