GMAT Strategy

I have been preparing for the the GMAT for about 2 months now and have not seen as much improvement as I would have like at this stage in my prep.

I signed up for tutoring with The Princeton Review (TPR) and for about 8 sessions. Tutoring helped me understand the structure of the test, how to approach the various questions and remember many math and english concepts that I had forgotten or was rusty on.

Here are my practice test scores since the beginning of my prep

Online GMAC practice: 420

TPR Practice 1: 390 (V20 Q24)

TPR Practice 2: 390 (V22 Q22)

TPR Practice 3: 410 (V9 Q38)

TPR Practice 4: 500 (V31 Q29)

TPR Practice 5: 440 (V9 Q42)

TPR Practice 6: 570 (V32 Q37)

1st Real GMAT: 390 (V19 Q25)

TPR Practice 7: 490 (V24 Q35)

TPR Practice 8: 490 (V25 Q33)


My current study approach has been the following:

Time
Weeknights 2 hours / night
Weekends 1 day for a practice test and the other day 3-4hour studying

Materials
I have been following the TPR content which does utilize OG 13th ed.
Verbal and Quant Books from TPR
Online Drills and Tests
Flashcards (dont review as much as I should, probably once / week)
2 Iphone apps - GMAT related (Beat the Gmat Flashcards and Prep game - timed math problems)

Studying
reading review and practice problem review of verbal quant concepts
questions from OG, verbal, quant
drills of verbal, quant
review problems I get wrong during practice exams.

So with this I still am not seeing the improvement and quite honestly I am beginning to lose the desire to study since I am not seeing the improvement. I certainly feel more confident with the material but I just haven't seen the score results increase.

Please provide some guidance. Thank you

Bryan,
It can be extremely frustrating to not see clear evidence of meaningful progress in our practice tests. However, don't give up. You just need to change your approach.

I think you're taking too many practice tests and not spending enough time reviewing. You should be reviewing every question, not just the ones that you got wrong.

Also, you should be spending 2-3 times as long reviewing as you spend solving the actual question. For each question, make sure you fully analyze why you got the question right or wrong, then think about what other way you could have solved the problem. The actual solutions aren't as important as understanding the skill being tested; afterall, you'll never see that exact same problem on the official exam. Use these forums to see how other people would have solved the problem. The OG explanations often aren't very helpful.

While reviewing the problems, take note of which question types and skill areas give you the most trouble. Maybe you tend to get geometry problem solving right, but struggle more with data sufficiency involving number properties. Whatever it may be, take the time to figure out what areas need the most improvement. From there, you can target your weaknesses.

Good luck!

Hi,

I am goign through the same problem. I have my GMAT in a few days. My test scores are dismal. I think my initial strategy was to do as many practice problems as possible. That really hasnt worked. for my second attempt, I will have to rethink my strategy.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I do agree that the official guide solutions are not always the best. Is there a source (forum/ online / text) where you can learn alternative solutions to OG problems?

Thanks again!