GOt killed ! 520, 40 q, 22v

[marijose]

Hi, I just took the GMat a few weeks ago and got killed.

520, 40 on q and 22 on v.
I have been studying for arround 5 months. I work so my study hours are from 7pm to 10 pm everyday and week ends I study arround 6 hrs per day.

For the past weeks prior to the exam I studied for long hours, I got 5 maybe 6 hrs of sleep ( this completey screwed up my score on test day) I wont make that mistake again.

I have to be honest to say that I studied much more on quantitive then verbal. Thus the 40 on q , but still I am aiming to get a 650+, arround 45q and 35v.

I have studied OG12 , although not all of it, the green quantitive revew book ( not all the questions) and the verbal review ( blue book) againg I havent done all the questions. The studied the MGmat books, not all... but a few... I sept most of my study time with the KAPLAN COURSE , highest score was a 620... I did preatty much all the questions in the quiz bank etc... I felt it gave me good quant bases but just that... I studied verbal very little . Id say 80 % q and 20 % verbal... thats why I got such a low score on verbal... I think.




Im aiming to get 650+, 45q, 35v in less then 90 days.
Here is what I am planning to do:
Becuase I have been on and off on the OG12, I plan to do 5 questions on each section plus 10 problems on my weak areas which are work problemas , Prob/permutains, Coord Geomerty, SC , CR and RC . I want to do 35 problems each day timmed off course.. and check every problem , review it etc... make sure that I really understand all the 35 problemas I do every day. Complete the OG12 Start with the Manhattan cats, and then start to do the same ( 5 problems on each section) on the quantitive and verbal review.


I have bought the critical thinking book from powerscore and the SC from MGMAT, and I plan on diving into thoes as soon as I get them .

AT the end preatty much do the same ,, attack my weakneses, ( hopefully my verbal section wont be that low then) do arround 30 probs a day and focus on timing stratrgies and GMAT prep.

Does this sound good? can anyone give me any coments I really feel I have hit rock bottom... after studying for arround 5 months and getting such a low score I really want to know that my study strategy is ok... I dont want to waste another 5 months.... I am so tiered of gMAT I feel that it is consuming my life,, I dont go out much and so on because of it so I really want to get it over with.


thanks.

[rishi raj]

I have to be honest to say that I studied much more on quantitive then verbal. Thus the 40 on q , but still I am aiming to get a 650+, arround 45q and 35v.

I have studied OG12 , although not all of it, the green quantitive revew book ( not all the questions) and the verbal review ( blue book) againg I havent done all the questions. The studied the MGmat books, not all... but a few... I sept most of my study time with the KAPLAN COURSE , highest score was a 620... I did preatty much all the questions in the quiz bank etc... I felt it gave me good quant bases but just that... I studied verbal very little . Id say 80 % q and 20 % verbal... thats why I got such a low score on verbal... I think.

As you can see yourself that your poor performance on the Verbal section was maybe due to the insufficient amount of efforts given .And as they say, what you sow,so do you reap .It's good that you realize where you went wrong the first time around.

Because I have been on and off on the OG12, I plan to do 5 questions on each section plus 10 problems on my weak areas which are work problemas , Prob/permutains, Coord Geomerty, SC , CR and RC . I want to do 35 problems each day timmed off course.. and check every problem , review it etc...

Your strategy isn't good . Practicing questions from 6 different areas in a day isn't a good idea. That will mean,assuming 1 hour for each topic,6 hours per day for 6 topics. Apart from that you plan to do some other questions also. Trust me, that will be too much information overload in a day .Secondly, that will not help you become strong in a topic as you'll be hastily shifting from one topic to another without actually doing meaning study and this especially holds true for Verbal in which sometimes research on even 3 questions in Sentence correction may take more than an hour.
So what's a better strategy then ?
You may want to take 3 topics per day and work on them properly. So going by your list of 6 topics, you'll be devoting around 2 hours to each topic which is the right amount of time.

Does this sound good? can anyone give me any coments I really feel I have hit rock bottom... after studying for arround 5 months and getting such a low score I really want to know that my study strategy is ok... I dont want to waste another 5 months....

Good that you wrote about your problem now ,otherwise you may have ended up formulating a wrong strategy, as you already have.

I am so tiered of gMAT I feel that it is consuming my life,, I dont go out much and so on because of it so I really want to get it over with.

If you feel overburdened with the whole GMAT thing,chances are good that you'll not be able to perform at the peak ,on the practice CATs and on the actual GMAT. You need to ensure that you don't overstudy and burn out yourself. Socializing with friends,watching movies and relaxing in other ways are as important as,if not more, devoting 6 hours to studies. You need to ensure that when you practice questions, your brain is able to process information quickly, you're mentally agile and you actually look forward to doing questions instead of waiting to get over with them.

Secondly, DO NOT study for more than 6 hours in a day even if you've all the time in the world to study for the GMAT. In the non-study time, try to read as much as possible.Read the books in the Recommended section of BTG here. That'll help you not only in RC but in SC and CR.

Hope that helps!

[marijose]

Thanks a lot!,
I just wanted to clarify,

I work, so I can only study 3 hrs a day and week days and arround 5 to 6 on week ends.

Regarding my study strategy I was actually aiming to do 5 problems of PS, 5 of DS, 5 RC, 5 CR and 5 SC... I guess this is not the way to go... your explanation sounds logic as to why not.

Si im gonna blow out that old strategy..

NEW Approach:

Weekdays- I have a time limit, 3 hrs of study time because of work... I can dedicate 3 hrs to the subjects I am very low (SC, CR, RC) and 1.5 hrs on the math subjects...? I can alternate this every other day.. V/q/v/q/v.... so I can do 3hrs of verbal one day , then 3 hrs of Quantitive and so on... repeat that for at least a month.. I plan on reviewing the OG12 answers, methods strategies , look at each of the wrong answers and see why they are wrong etc... I really am not planning in just doing a bunch of problems... this time arround I want to focus on quality not quantity.

Weekends- 2 hrs per subject, limit to 6 hrs study minimum 4hrs.

start with weekly practice MGMAT cat exams in arround one month to start practicing and time pacing?


As to the individual practice on each study session.. if lets say I want to study CR.... I plan on readying the powerscore CR bible , do the problems there, then practice on the OG12.. do the same for SC, for the math problems Il try to find problems here and gmatclub... and in the OG12.. where could I find more exact or specific info on certain subjects free ?



regards
[/quote]

[windstreet]

Rishi - Raj, your bit about relaxing and the amount of time to study makes me feel a lot better - I have always been the type that never can revise for long periods, and I tend to do worse when everything in my life is study, study, study.

Marijose, in response to you - I know exactly how you feel. I had been revising where I can since Late August to december (after a full time job as well) for the GMAT and didn't do that well come the test day. I posted on here and was given some advice. I am giving you some advice I have gotten from the BTG and what I've leant revising the second time around:

-Download GMATprep and create an error log for one of the practice tests - it doesn't have to be extensive as the ones on BTG (especially if like me, you're pressed for time - I don't have 90 days) - Narrow down the areas you're weak (e.g CR, SC, PS...etc) then within quant identify the areas you are weak (e.g. number properties).

-Buy a Manhattan Guide for these weak areas, I did for number properties and all I can say is I wish I had been revising from these books from the beginning.

-Limit the amount of CAT tests to once a week, I found just working though OG problems and doing a Kaplan online practice test is enough.

-If you're not going to do a proper error log (although if you do have 90 days, I'd say go for it) when doing practice questions mark your answers on a separate sheet, note which ones you got wrong and why (e.g. careless and concept)
-When using the OG guides and I CANNOT stress enough how important it is to go over the answer explanations. You don't have to scrutinize the explanations of the ones you got right (use it as a chance to confirm the method which you use to answer the questions was correct) but make sure for the wrong questions specifically on quant and SC you do, those are where you get most of the rules/ways to tackle the questions
-From what I've seen in GMAT guides, don't stress yourself out in the last few days before the actual exam. If anything, take it a little easier than you have been doing.
All the best

[towerSpider]

windstreet, what is error log?

[windstreet]

windstreet, what is error log?

Lol, If you click on 'Self Study' on the blue banner above and go on the practice bit, you should see some very detailed explanations.

Essentially, an error log is a table of questions you practice and you keep tabs on whether they are wrong, why they are wrong (e.g. were you careless or did you not understnad the concepts behind the question?), timing etc. It's just a way so you can see whether you have been improving and what areas of the GMAT you need to improve.

If you have some time for revision, I would suggest looking at them and at least doing one - it can point you in the right direction and how you need to structure your study plan (though from what I've seen you need to update it???). The only reason I've haven't been doing one properly is insufficient time. I hope this helps.