GMAT Strategy

Hello,

I am a IT/M/India candidate with 5+ years work experience. My MBA journey started when I sent my CV for pre admission profile evaluations of many b schools I found out that GMAT score is very important for admissions in Top 20-30 rank college.

In May I started preparing but due to family issues, I had to postpone my GMAT from Sept 2011 to Nov 30th,2011.I atttended kaplan's classroom programme and also reffered to MGMAT books and online 6 practice tests. My score raned from 630 to 670. On GMAT Prep I scored 650. With a +-50 range from GMAT Prep I thought I would be close to my target and elusive 700 score.

But my big day didn't started well. I was continuously studing for past 7 days and slept around 2AM on Nov 31th. Then I woke up at 6:15AM, reached the test center at 8:30AM and was on the hotseat around 9AM. The starting two essay's went well (I was nervous about these two).

Then in Quant, After 10th question i got a question to distribute $200 in two people and tell what each gets and I knew I have bombed the exam. I knew I will have to come back. My final score of 44 reflected the same. I got a lot of Coordinate geometry and inequalities questions and as I didn't had much practice in these, I wasn't able to solve these.

Then i took the verbal and the sleepless nights crept in. I just couldn't concentrate. With no concentration and a very long RC, I got a 29 in Verbal section.

As I only want to go into the top 20-30's, I have decided to retake my exam (may be the decision was made while giving the exam itself). I don't believe in cancelling test scores so that was not a option. My big question is does age matter for FT programmes if I am not able to get in this year ?

My weak points :
Coordinate >> please tell me what to cover and look at ?
Inequalities >> No idea where to get the questions to practice on this

Verbal :
I am good in RC/CR and SC but I would like to continue practice. I have completed the OG Verbal and found it to be easy. I would be digging into OG 12 for more exposure.

I plan to use SC 1000 and CR 1000 series to more practice. Are they are good for time I have in my hand (I plan to retake exam before Jan End,2012) ?

Books I used :
MG SC Guide
Kaplan Classroom programme
GMAT PREP

Target Schools :
HEC Paris, Schulich , Indiana, GA Tech, Terry (worst case scenario) and may be UC Irvine.

The worst thing that happened in all this is that my terms with my manager/organisation isn't good anymore. If I have to continue with my current job, I am sure it won't be fruitful(anyways he has refused to promote me since december,2010 ).Next big question : Should I continue with my current job?

But my big day didn't started well. I was continuously studing for past 7 days and slept around 2AM on Nov 31th. Then I woke up at 6:15AM, reached the test center at 8:30AM and was on the hotseat around 9AM. The starting two essay's went well (I was nervous about these two).

Its more important to stay relaxed before the test day. Don't burn yourself too much on the last few days.

As I only want to go into the top 20-30's, I have decided to retake my exam (may be the decision was made while giving the exam itself). I don't believe in cancelling test scores so that was not a option. My big question is does age matter for FT programmes if I am not able to get in this year ?

Nope. You can check out the university sites to know the average age. The average age is 5 years in most of the universities. Being in IT the more experienced the more advantageous for you.

My weak points :
Coordinate >> please tell me what to cover and look at ?
Inequalities >> No idea where to get the questions to practice on this

Co ordinate geo - Try to grab the concepts from posts by BTGers and experts. Take notes and flash cards. The concept is simple and less. Only the application is different.

Inequalities - MGMAT is enough for this. Once you go through this and solve related problems in OG you will be consistently scoring 48s in quants Inequalities is one of the important topic in GMAT quant.

Try to get OG10 somewhere in the net. It has got some 700 problems and quite a lot of tough problems compared to OG12. That is more than enough if you work on them and review a lot.

Verbal :
I am good in RC/CR and SC but I would like to continue practice. I have completed the OG Verbal and found it to be easy. I would be digging into OG 12 for more exposure.

Anything less than 30s in verbal then we are still weak in some concepts. Try to find those and hone them. Even if there are timing issues then we are slow in application.

RC - RC99 is good.
CR - don't work much on CR. To know why check for Ron's advice in the forum. OG is enough. Go through powerscore to get a general idea on how to approach and to know the different types of question.
SC - MGMAT SC/Aristotle SC. Read the book again and again you will be finding new rules/points everytime.

I plan to use SC 1000 and CR 1000 series to more practice. Are they are good for time I have in my hand (I plan to retake exam before Jan End,2012) ?

Completely unreliable. Better not to use. As i said earlier try to search OG10 in net and use it wisely. It has more than 700 problems in both quants and verbal.

Hope this helps.