GMAT Strategy

I have been practising off and on for the last 2-3 mnths and my score is round about 620.NOT GOOD.Aiming for as close to 700 as i cn get!Since i have been told that an increase of 100 pts cannot be done in a mnth I have made up my mind to set my deadline in the 1st week of AUGUST.I just have to get a good score as I want to get it done in 1 shot.The materials which I have used till now are:
Manhattan SC
Manhattan FDP's
Manhattan Word translations.
OG11
OG verbal review
OG quant review
Kaplan premier program.

What do u suggest now?How do i proceed?

the deadline in august but its only april?!?!?!

take your time! don't rush the studying, there really aren't anyways of "slimming" down a quality prep.. i say since you are shooting for august deadline, take more time with the prep.. you'll be glad you did!

gmat guru's?can nebody tell me in detail wat the plan should be?Two probs which i can forecast:
1.I've already gone through the material I ve mentioned.What should be my approach the second time around?
2.Since I have time in hand I want a proper plan otherwise the entusiasm wont be there.I am afraid I'll loose focus.

If you have a good plan, then 2 months of prep would be just fine. If you have been preparing "on and off" for the past 2 months then another 4 months would probably burn you out. But if you are going to take a disciplined approach and are able to devote less than 3 days a week, then you might need another 3-4 months.

So it all comes down to how you are planning to approach. Simply put, if you are going to put in 3-4 hours on weekdays and 5 hours on week ends, doing quality preparation then 4 months would burn your out. Whereas if you study for 5 hours a week or less then you would need 4 months!!!

oh and btw I'm not even close to a GMAT guru. The above is my opinion based on my prep experience.

Exactly hk!the problem is I dont know how to approach!That is why m asking for help..Nebody?

uptowngirl92 wrote:Exactly hk!the problem is I dont know how to approach!That is why m asking for help..Nebody?

i would suggest taking practice questions during the week, go over them, and take full length practice exams on weekends. you have a lot of time so don't rush through the material. i've found myself trying to get through the material as if going through it will automatically make me better. just make sure you understand the content you're studying.

disclaimer: not a math guru

My general study plan is 2-3 months, 5-6 days per week, 2-3 hours per day, as follows:

1. Preferably take a prep class.

2. On "study days", which are 4-5 days per week if you aren't taking a prep class and 3-4 days per week if you are, spend a short amount of time, say 30-60 minutes, learning new "theory". Then spend the rest of your time that day, about 90 minutes, doing and ANALYZING practice problems from the OG or your prep book. The analysis is the key part - simply doing problems will get you nowhere.

3. Devote one day per week to taking a practice exam under real exam conditions and reviewing that exam. The focus should be on exam pacing and pinpointing your weak areas.

4. Always take at least one day off per week and never go over 3 hours in one day (other than the practice test) - otherwise you'll burn out. There is such a thing as too much studying.

Hope this helps!

If i may ask the following questions

When you got a 620

1. What was your individual break-up? Which of the two sections was stronger? Why? Is Math easier or is English easier for you? Is that reflected in the exam?
2. Within each section, what are your weak areas? Topic-wise?
3. How long do you average per problem?
4. How long do you average per CR/SC and per RC?
5. If you "have done" all the material, why aren't you getting a 700 on the GMATPrep or PowerPrep?? Even if you dont remember the answers, you should be close to that score.

If you are devoting 3-4hours/week,

1. Are you done with the basics or do you want to "start from the very beginning" (Dont you love Sound of Music?? )
2. How are you distributing those 3-4hours? What are your best study hours (early morning or late night)?
3. How many hours do you have for the weekend?

What is the average GMAT score of your target schools? More specifically, if you are girl, do you know the average?

Thank you!exactly the kind of answer i was looking for!Great!now atleast i know how much studies should be enuf and hopefully dont go overboard!5 days x 3 hrs + 1 exam day!NOW,the next step..exactly how to approach?I dont think I need a prep class..wat i just need is proper planning and somebody to help me with it!!I am afraid in 3 mnths(thats a long time)i'll loose focus mid way.In the first post I have told which of the materials I have already done.Suggestions on how to approach the 2nd time around?

What was your individual break-up?

Q44 V30.Total:610.Obviously quant is stronger.This is cos my prev scores was 580(Q41 V29) and i dove into math headfirst letting verbal be all alone.Results could be seen:)

Within each section, what are your weak areas?

CR:strong area.Done with Og11,verbal review,Kaplan premier.
RC:WEAK:( Had done randomly from the above mentioned books but clearly its not working so digging into OG11 again.
SC:Had done manhattan SC TWICE,Verbal review and OG11.(all in Nov.then i ended up leaving it.Took Gmat up again in feb end)Initially had Vastly improved but now i feel I dont even know the basics.Back to starting pt.So doing Manhattan again n' tackling OG11 topic wise.

If you "have done" all the material, why aren't you getting a 700 on the GMATPrep or PowerPrep??

I DON"T KNOW!!ppl keep telling to use it as a bible.Dude!did it!PS and CR i know the ques by heart!tired of looking at the book.Hav to go through it AGAIN?!*shudders*

How many hours do you have for the weekend?

I have 3mnths at home.Doing absolutly nothing other than studing.Have all the time u require.I'll plan my other extra cirriculars around this!:)

IMO, no one can suggest an ideal plan to you in a post. Since you have taken the GMAT once and you know your strength and weaknesses, the best way for you is to go through the numerous fantastic debriefs on the forum that have got people their dream scores.. Eric's, ngufo's etc. Since you have enough time on your hands, i suggest you spend a good amount of time studying each debrief and picking out the points that will work for you in 'your' plan. Post this devise a strategy that you are comfortable with.

It certainly helped me when I went through numerous debriefs and took time to understood what worked for the person. I then tried and tested some key suggestions and was ultimately able to chart out a plan that worked for me.

You already have some suggestions in this post itself and that's a good start. Since this is second time around , I recommend that you take your time to sharpen the saw before you start working!

All the best and happy studying!

Now, when you say "Strong" i assume that you have atleast an 85% accuracy in CR??

Are you an engineer? Q-48 is par for course so at 44, you are well below. Thats your new target. Atleast Q-48.

RC can be a gift. You are in India. See if you can get your hands on the TIME material for RC, specifically their RC book. Last i saw, they had a good lay-out of how to increase your reading speed. 3months time-- work on it. And yeah OG-11 all the way it is.

You can do the SCG a hundred times and if your accuracy still isn't 95% you've missed something. That book is THE BOOK for SC, so if you know it front to back, SC should be a walk in the park.

Saying "

I DON"T KNOW!!

is the worst answer you can give me. You DO NOT leave anything to chance. Go back, look at the test and analyse WHY you have that score. Where did you go wrong and WHY? is CR still a strong area or does the test say differently?? Do you have an error tracker?

If you dont want to do OG-11, try the OG-12

I agree with Jim, not more than 3hours a day. But how you spend that 3hours is important. How many days do you need to cover the basics of each topic? If your Q is strong, you probably need an hour to revise the basics. After this, on your error tracker, write down 40 Qs pertaining to that topic from OG-__ i.e if you are doing Geometry, then the OG Qs are 1,7,8,12,... and so on. Solve these Qs in the next 75mins. The error-tracker is pretty comprehensive so follow it to the T.
At the end, check your answers and write the score.

Go take a walk for a few mins.

When you return, look at the Qs you got wrong. Was it an easy Q or hard Q? Did you make a silly mistake or did you genuinely not know the concept? Can you solve it now to get the correct answer? Can you think of a differnt way of solving it? Does your method match the one given in the answer solution or is yours easier? If yours is more complicated, why didnt you think of the easier answer? If the OG answer is easier, is there a new concept involved that you dont know about? Why do you not know the concept?

File paper and repeat process for another section.

Apply similar process to every test you take.

Edit: Sorry if i sound demanding, but i find that pushing a person to achieve more than they think they can often produces better results. Feel free to tell me if i am too demanding though

To clear up I HAVE'NT appeared for GMAT.This will be the first.I was talking abt my gmatprep scores:)

See if you can get your hands on the TIME material for RC, specifically their RC book.

Hey can u specify this?Do i go and ask them for their Gmat RC material?or is it CAT material?I would like to get this ASAP.And no,I'm nt an engineer still a student!but yes,Q48 is my target score now.Amen to that!

But how you spend that 3hours is important.

Ive decided to do 3 RC's everyday and then take up Q and V on alternate days to give equal importance.Good plan?

Sorry if i sound demanding

ABSOLUTLY not!!THANK YOU for carin' enuf to be demanding!:)

I doubt TIME will give you their RC book. CAT got over so any 2nd hand book-shop or CAT aspirant among your friends is sure to have this book. Pick it up and thumb through. On that though, IMS had a great book for geometry. You might want to look at that too.

When you say not an engineer, do you mean you aren't studying for a B.Tech? In that case, for most schools the min requirement is 16years of education. I hope you know this.

Also, schools prefer a min of 2yrs work-ex and the application process is a year long process. FYI.

3hrs for RC?? really? if you really reading that slow, you really need the TIME material. if you aren't, then combine RC with your "strong" CR.

At the end of a 5day period, revise your error-tracker and see if the number of silly-mistakes are going down. if not, you need to focus more.

p.s. if i'm taking the time to type everything in full, you should also. Note that sms lingo is considered rude on forums. Again, FYI.
I've been on forums a long time to be bothered by it but in interacting with other users, this is something you should always keep in mind.

The sms ligo..thank you was'nt aware of it.Will be careful!No no I don't take 3 hrs for RC!Was just saying I have planned to do it everyday.Okay before I forget I am not able to download the flashcards.Could you help with that?
One more thing,I am making my study schedule(rest assured i'll post it tomorrow to fine tune it with you before I jump into it..)The problem that I am facing is that I dont know how to deal with the 3 OG's.How do I get around it?RC's okay..SC will be doing it chapter-wise after reffering to manhattan.What about the rest?Two options:
PS:I can do it topic wise or in blocks of 40ish sums taking sums of varying difficulty.I could also combine the two and say do the yellow OG in one way and the OG math review in the other.
CR and DS i guess should be done in slots?