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3 week strategy.

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3 week strategy.

by raghavkb » Thu Oct 17, 2013 2:10 pm
Hi,

I have 3 weeks until my test and my current scores on mock tests fluctuate between 550 and 580. I wanted to bring my score upto 680 atleast. I am aiming for the schools such as Foster's school of business. I have finished the 5 books of Manhattan so far for quant and I am currently working on the OG for SC(70% accuracy), CR and RC. Can somebody please advise? I tried posting a more elaborate version of my study plan, but the site blocks it for review thinking its spam! :(
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by raghavkb » Thu Oct 17, 2013 2:12 pm
I took the GMAT last year without any prep and scored a paltry 530 (Q45, V19)

Story so far,

1) Completed all 5 books of the Manhattan GMAT strategy guides in Quant. Currently solving questions from the OG and Manhattan books as well.
2) Practicing SC (aristotle for concepts), CR and RC from OG 12,13. I have a 70% accuracy on SC, 65% accuracy on CR and 80% on RC
3) Practice tests taken so far

a) GMAT prep 1 - 550 (Q49, V20)
b) Kaplan GMAT test - 580 (Q41, V24)

Both tests had pacing issues where i had to guess the last 7 questions. So I started to take the 800score.com quant tests to practice pacing better and understand which question I ought to be at during the test.

c) 800 Score.com - 2 Quant tests (34 and 37)
- 1 Verbal Test - 29

I would really appreciate any advise on the strategy that I should follow in the next 3 weeks to achieve my target. I am not not working during this time and can easily dedicate 6 to 8 hours a day.
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by rakeshd347 » Thu Oct 17, 2013 5:59 pm
raghavkb wrote:Hi,

I have 3 weeks until my test and my current scores on mock tests fluctuate between 550 and 580. I wanted to bring my score upto 680 atleast. I am aiming for the schools such as Foster's school of business. I have finished the 5 books of Manhattan so far for quant and I am currently working on the OG for SC(70% accuracy), CR and RC. Can somebody please advise? I tried posting a more elaborate version of my study plan, but the site blocks it for review thinking its spam! :(
Hi Mate,

I don't know if you can go from 550 to 680 in 3 weeks. As you go above the 650 level it gets harder and harder and your knowledge flexibility and timing have to be perfect. If I were you I would concentrate on my weaknesses. Suppose you know that you are weak on Algebra in quant and CR in verbal. I would give lot of time to these section while giving some time to other sections too. You need to go and do as many questions as you can in your weak area. Doesn't matter you get it wrong just analyse each and every single question and see what explanation says. By doing so you will gain more knowledge and confidence.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:37 am
A 130-point increase in 3 weeks is a TALL order. You may need to consider rescheduling.

To increase your score, it's important that you identify your areas of weakness. A good way to do this is to take full-length practice tests and then analyze them. During this analysis, there are four main areas of weakness you should watch for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. Learn the concept/skill and find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back, then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244. Then you should hone your test-taking skills by taking more practice tests.

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes during your prep so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article for BTG: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/09/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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