GMAT - 01 Oct 2009

[fleetkid]

Hi All,

My G-Day is the first of October. Have been preparing from 15th of July.
Today I gave a shot at Kaplan CAT 1 and got only 630. I am targeting a 750 in GMAT.

My prep resources are:
IMS Math and Verbal (IMS is a test prep institute)
Kaplan GMAT Premier program
All the three OG 11th Ed books
BARRON's GMAT 13th Ed

Current Weakness:
Verbal - SC, Kaplan RCs
Math - mixtures, tough DS problems

August:
- Complete IMS, Kaplan and BARRON's books.
- 10 800Score math and verbal practice tests.
- 30 Sets of GMAT Math questions (37 Qs each)
- Once a week will give a shot at Kaplan CAT test.
First week's test - 630 (V - 50, Q -32)

September:
- Complete the 3 OG Books
- Review all previous errors made in Math
- Will take 4 Princeton review CAT tests in the first two weeks
- Will take 4 GMAC PowerPrep CAT tests in the last two weeks

1st October:
G-Day


Do I need any additional materials or change my study plan. I really need help people. In need this 750.

[JeffB]

Well, You have more than enough study material. I would personally recommend the Manhattan GMAT Books. Just keep focusing on your weaknesses and you will see a significant increase in your performance.

[DanaJ]

I'm 100% convinced you're using the best prep material out there. I myself used Kaplan, the OGs and PowerScore CR. I've also heard great things about Manhattan, but haven't tried those myself.

HOWEVER

Barron's is a waste of time. The CD is crap: bad scoring algorithm, totally messed up questions and not to mention that the RC passages were all mixed up (instead of 3-4 consecutive questions for a text as with the real thing). The book is also pretty useless - you get barely 10 practice questions for verbal and the explanations/tips were laughable, IMHO.
In the end, I was pretty upset about this investment; turns out it was just a huge waste. Check out the amazon.com reviews too.

800 Score practice tests are no good. I don't think their tests are adaptive - I tried to retake test 1 and got the exact same questions in the exact same order, even if I made different "mistakes". Their scoring algorithm is also pretty weird and their verbal questions don't match the patterns you see on the GMAT.

All the best.

[sreak1089]

Kaplan 630 means a pretty good score yaar. Try GMATPrep to see where you stand. I also find IMS verbal to be not so tough. For verbal, I recommend Manhattan SC guide. its explanations are very Lucid.

Hi All,

My G-Day is the first of October. Have been preparing from 15th of July.
Today I gave a shot at Kaplan CAT 1 and got only 630. I am targeting a 750 in GMAT.

My prep resources are:
IMS Math and Verbal (IMS is a test prep institute)
Kaplan GMAT Premier program
All the three OG 11th Ed books
BARRON's GMAT 13th Ed

Current Weakness:
Verbal - SC, Kaplan RCs
Math - mixtures, tough DS problems

August:
- Complete IMS, Kaplan and BARRON's books.
- 10 800Score math and verbal practice tests.
- 30 Sets of GMAT Math questions (37 Qs each)
- Once a week will give a shot at Kaplan CAT test.
First week's test - 630 (V - 50, Q -32)

September:
- Complete the 3 OG Books
- Review all previous errors made in Math
- Will take 4 Princeton review CAT tests in the first two weeks
- Will take 4 GMAC PowerPrep CAT tests in the last two weeks

1st October:
G-Day


Do I need any additional materials or change my study plan. I really need help people. In need this 750.

[fleetkid]

Thanks a lot guys. Here is what I am going to do:

1. Stop using BARRON's
2. Get Myself a Manhattan SC guide (Hopefully this will resolve my weakness in SC)


But will go ahead and do the 800Score tests just for the practice.


If anybody can post their notes on "Ratios and mixtures" it would be nice.
I already got the notes on SC and CR from the forum.