GMAT Strategy

Hello everyone

Thanks for this great forum! I am here to seek advise on how to go cross the 600 mark. Please allow me to give you my background.

I sat GMAT initially without any preparation and got 390 (Q22 V 20). After that I decided to prepare with a target score of 600+. I went through all the MGMAT guides except advanced topics toward the end of the book and the SC book (as i could not get so many rules at once and it started being counter productive).

After I started with GMAT guides I started giving MGMAT CATs and here are the results

4/04/2011 Started studying
4/25/2011 Total 430 Q 20 V 29 # MGMAT CAT 1
5/14/2011 Total 490 Q 33 V 25 #2
5/21/2011 Total 520 Q 31 V 31 #3
5/28/2011 Total 520 Q 29 V 33 #4
6/03/2011 Total 520 Q 33 V 28 #5
6/27/2001 Total 510 Q 35 V 25 - Real GMAT

As you can see the progress stopped after the 3rd exam and frustration kicked in and it proved counter productive.

I have realized that my areas of weakness are

i) I am not too good at maths and I panic if a maths Q involves 2, 3 steps. I just jump to the next Q. I just cant think in the right approach on how to improve maths e.g. do lots of problems, do just OG problems 10 times or study a chapter and do problems just on that chapter from OG etc.

ii) in CAT i realized that sometimes i get some 300-500 level Q wrong. But most of the mistake are 500-600 level Q (which sometimes are careless mistakes or I get too panicked to solve and just click next).

iii) SC ( i guess I will need to sit down again and read MGMAT guide carefully)

iv) I am a person who learns very quickly with a tutor standing in front of me and teaching me. Unfortunately I do not have the facility in my country as GMAT is not popular here.

Can you please suggest me what strategy should I follow to jump from 510 to 600+. I got an interview from the school I really want but needless to say I was kicked out coz of my GMAT score!

Looking forward to hearing from you soon. It will be highly appreciated!

Thanks!

....

Hi melguy,

It's certainly frustrating and low CATs can make you just want to tear out your hair! However, I'm going to give you some advice that Brian (a regular on this forum) has given me...don't just try to MEMORIZE the GMAT questions in the practice exams or in the OG book.

The GMAT is really a test of how well you understand concepts and can use what you already know to figure out the questions. Remember, its high school math, but they are testing you on a variety of things including how you do under pressure, and how well you can adapt (all important traits of a successful business person).

With that said, if you need to go slow, don't worry! Really take your time with key concepts. Some people just need to really study the concepts many times before they get it - I'm one of them. Don't feel upset or "stupid" if you have to study concepts multiple times because you really want to make sure you know them. After a while (no matter how long that "while" is), you'll find that you will start to get questions faster and easier...

Good luck to you and hope I helped a little bit

maus