Starting with Gmat

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rakeshrajagopal: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 17; Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:07 am; Location: Kerala, India

by rakeshrajagopal » Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:15 am

Hi Everyone,

Is it necessary to get trained at a Gmat training institue for writing the exam. I am getting trained by a Msc math teacher. I have course material from one of good local training institute. Along with this book I have downloaded gmat Q papers.

Cheers,

Rakesh

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:15 am

albatross86: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 392; Joined: Sun May 16, 2010 2:42 amFollowed by: 10 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 116 times; GMAT Score:770

by albatross86 » Tue Jun 15, 2010 9:16 am

Hi Rakesh,

First of all, here's wishing you the best in your GMAT preparations. Good luck!

There is no such rule that you MUST attend a training course to do well on the GMAT. What is more important is that you use AUTHENTIC resources and practice.

The most authentic source is the Official Guide for the GMAT Review, and I recommend you purchase it ASAP and start solving it. It is written by the same people that write the test, so you can't go wrong. I would suggest you leave local resources to the end, after you have exhausted the important resources.

There's loads of preparation material available just on this website! Click on Resources and you will find a lot of useful links and documents. If you browse the forum a bit you will also find well explained questions, strategies and advice.

All in all, choose your resources wisely and practice diligently and you are sure to score well!

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Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pmFollowed by: 614 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; GMAT Score:800

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Tue Jun 15, 2010 9:25 am

rakeshrajagopal wrote:Hi Everyone,

Is it necessary to get trained at a Gmat training institue for writing the exam. I am getting trained by a Msc math teacher. I have course material from one of good local training institute. Along with this book I have downloaded gmat Q papers.

Cheers,

Rakesh

Hi!

Welcome to BTG! In the future, please make sure you post your questions in the correct forum - this particular forum is for problem solving questions (one of the two types of math questions on the GMAT). Your question would have been better posted in the "GMAT Strategy" forum.

While a prep course will definitely assist your study, many people write the GMAT without taking one. Whether you need one really depends on your own strengths and weaknesses and your study style.

I do caution against having a math tutor who isn't familiar with the GMAT - especially an MSc in math. That person has been trained to approach math very differently than you need to approach it on the GMAT. GMAT math isn't about elegant proofs and showing all your work to get 10/10 on a problem set; GMAT math is about finding strategic approaches that get you the right answer with as little work as possible.

Further, 95%+ of the math you need for the GMAT is low-level high school content (the other 5% is finite/statistics that most people learn later in high school). If your tutor isn't familiar with GMAT content and strategies, you'll likely waste a lot of time learning things that won't benefit your GMAT score.

So, while you don't necessarily need a prep course, you do need to work with a GMAT expert rather than with someone who's really good at math but doesn't know the test.

Stuart Kovinsky | Kaplan GMAT Faculty | Toronto

Kaplan Exclusive: The Official Test Day Experience | Ready to Take a Free Practice Test? | Kaplan/Beat the GMAT Member Discount
BTG100 for $100 off a full course

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