I've been studying for about 3 months now.
Here's the time line so far.
- I first scored 540 without studying
- Bought all the necessary books: OG11, Quant Review, Verbal Review, MGMAT SC Guide, Kaplan 800
- Was scoring between 560-620's on the GMATPrep's, took them about twice each
- Took the MGMAT practice test and scored about a 620 on the first try, then a 670 on the second.
- Studied for 2 months or so, with HARDCORE cramming the week prior. Got a 520
I could blame the low score to sleep deprivation.
- Took a break from studying to write essays (2-3 weeks)
- Bought GMATFIX companion guide for the concepts chart in the back (the book isn't THAT useful, it's just the last few pages that were really helped me learn CONCEPTS. Before I bought this book, I was just doing the OG from 1-250 or whatever, and not learning concepts.) Also bought the flash cards, which was pretty useful.
- Continued studying for another 3 weeks or so, took the GMATPrep again, this time scoring 670-690 each time (Total times taking GMATPrep is about 4 each) I got 47-49's on Quant and about 30 or so on Verbal.
- Decided that the scores were inaccurate, since a lot of the questions were repeated and I already knew the answer
- Bought PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible - read the first 30-40 pages, which helped me to learn some good CR concepts. Not sure if I should spend time reading the rest of the book or practicing CR problems.
- Took the Kaplan Practice test (which I know is supposed to be harder, or at least you get a lower score) and go ta 630. (37Q, 41V => WEIRD, I am better at Quant, and always have been. Usually score about 43-49.) Not sure that it affected me, but I took this exam at 7AM without any sleep, insomnia's got me right now...
I'm aiming for a 670-700 right now... 700 would be GREAT! What do you think is the difference between the Kaplan score and the official GMAT score? BTW, I'm retaking the GMAT on April 28th.
Basically, right now I am pretty strong in quant, at least in the common problems. I'm going to keep practicing the concepts that I have not reviewed yet. Also, I need to keep practicing SC so I can get that down perfectly to improve my verbal.
Please help me focus and stay determined! I want to know what I should do in the week I have left to maximize the efficiency of my time. I'm so ready to pull the plug in a week.
Oh, also, one major mistake I consistently make are CARELESS ERRORS!! Is there any way to focus better to help read exactly what is being asked? For example, If it says "How many even prime integers?" I might miss the word "even" and count 1, 2, 3, 5, etc.. and get it wrong. Or just simple arithmetic errors like, where I would have gotten the question right, but I was just so silly.
For math, I did not use any books besides the OG and Quant Review. I used GMATFIX to get a list of problems for specific concepts. For example, there is a list of all the Number Property questions in the OG, so I just went through each problem and studied how to solve them all. If I ever had any questions, I would either check Khan Academy, the OE, GMATFIX's explanation, or the forums. My math foundation was pretty solid when I first started studying, I just needed to brush the rust off topics that I never used, such as exponents and roots.
I took the MGMAT Practice test, Kaplan, and GMATPrep.
For today and tomorrow, I'm going to practice all the SC problems in OG and Verbal Review. After that, I'm going to continue practicing my Quant again. I'm going to practice the problems in the GMATFIX book (which are mostly 600-800 level problems) to get myself used to the harder problems. Also, if I have time, I'm gonna practice some of the problems that are less common on the Quant section, like coordinate geometry and 3d geometry.
Gonna take a break on Monday, like I said, and practice AWA. I should be fine with this section because I got a 6.0 on both essays the first time I took it. Just gonna review the basics and do a little practice runs. I'm gonna mostly relax and lightly study some idioms and flash cards.
I plan to get a good night's rest on Sun and Mon to be prepared for the test on Tues!!!
Please tell me what you think.
Here's the time line so far.
- I first scored 540 without studying
- Bought all the necessary books: OG11, Quant Review, Verbal Review, MGMAT SC Guide, Kaplan 800
- Was scoring between 560-620's on the GMATPrep's, took them about twice each
- Took the MGMAT practice test and scored about a 620 on the first try, then a 670 on the second.
- Studied for 2 months or so, with HARDCORE cramming the week prior. Got a 520
I could blame the low score to sleep deprivation.- Took a break from studying to write essays (2-3 weeks)
- Bought GMATFIX companion guide for the concepts chart in the back (the book isn't THAT useful, it's just the last few pages that were really helped me learn CONCEPTS. Before I bought this book, I was just doing the OG from 1-250 or whatever, and not learning concepts.) Also bought the flash cards, which was pretty useful.
- Continued studying for another 3 weeks or so, took the GMATPrep again, this time scoring 670-690 each time (Total times taking GMATPrep is about 4 each) I got 47-49's on Quant and about 30 or so on Verbal.
- Decided that the scores were inaccurate, since a lot of the questions were repeated and I already knew the answer
- Bought PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible - read the first 30-40 pages, which helped me to learn some good CR concepts. Not sure if I should spend time reading the rest of the book or practicing CR problems.
- Took the Kaplan Practice test (which I know is supposed to be harder, or at least you get a lower score) and go ta 630. (37Q, 41V => WEIRD, I am better at Quant, and always have been. Usually score about 43-49.) Not sure that it affected me, but I took this exam at 7AM without any sleep, insomnia's got me right now...
I'm aiming for a 670-700 right now... 700 would be GREAT! What do you think is the difference between the Kaplan score and the official GMAT score? BTW, I'm retaking the GMAT on April 28th.
Basically, right now I am pretty strong in quant, at least in the common problems. I'm going to keep practicing the concepts that I have not reviewed yet. Also, I need to keep practicing SC so I can get that down perfectly to improve my verbal.
Please help me focus and stay determined! I want to know what I should do in the week I have left to maximize the efficiency of my time. I'm so ready to pull the plug in a week.
Oh, also, one major mistake I consistently make are CARELESS ERRORS!! Is there any way to focus better to help read exactly what is being asked? For example, If it says "How many even prime integers?" I might miss the word "even" and count 1, 2, 3, 5, etc.. and get it wrong. Or just simple arithmetic errors like, where I would have gotten the question right, but I was just so silly.
For math, I did not use any books besides the OG and Quant Review. I used GMATFIX to get a list of problems for specific concepts. For example, there is a list of all the Number Property questions in the OG, so I just went through each problem and studied how to solve them all. If I ever had any questions, I would either check Khan Academy, the OE, GMATFIX's explanation, or the forums. My math foundation was pretty solid when I first started studying, I just needed to brush the rust off topics that I never used, such as exponents and roots.
I took the MGMAT Practice test, Kaplan, and GMATPrep.
For today and tomorrow, I'm going to practice all the SC problems in OG and Verbal Review. After that, I'm going to continue practicing my Quant again. I'm going to practice the problems in the GMATFIX book (which are mostly 600-800 level problems) to get myself used to the harder problems. Also, if I have time, I'm gonna practice some of the problems that are less common on the Quant section, like coordinate geometry and 3d geometry.
Gonna take a break on Monday, like I said, and practice AWA. I should be fine with this section because I got a 6.0 on both essays the first time I took it. Just gonna review the basics and do a little practice runs. I'm gonna mostly relax and lightly study some idioms and flash cards.
I plan to get a good night's rest on Sun and Mon to be prepared for the test on Tues!!!
Please tell me what you think.
