low quant skills, decent to good verbal skills

[saadiagha]

Hey guys, so I am deciding to take the GMAT in a few months, I dont have a date decided, but I am giving myself three months or so.

My quant skills are very weak, I took the GRE and ended up on thr 25th percentile on the quant, but 80th percentile on the verbal. And that I feel was a low verbal score cause the GRE was based on rote memorization then.

Anyway, I was wondering if you guys could help me out here, how do I score about 45 on the quant? I have ordered the OG book for math, what else do I need?

I was always weak in math, especially the 10th grade math! Should I take classes, or mainly focus on the books?

Help me out please

[theachiever]

Incase you are not facing any deadline pressure,I would suggest you to start from the scratch.First try and explore what GMAT is all about.

Once you get to know the pattern of the GMAT exam then start off with your strength and weakness.

It's good that you fared well in Verbal GRE but don't get carried with that complacency factor.GMAT verbal is far challenging and requires productive and fruitful efforts to get a competent score in the verbal section.

Then start off with Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides along with OG.These books will help you to get a hold over your fundamentals.

OG gives you an overview with regard to the types of questions tested in the real exam.

You can develop your own study plan or subscribe to the 60 day GMAT schedule by Beat The GMAT which is exceptionally a good one.

Once you feel you have a good hold over fundamentals try and work on advanced problems.

My Best Wishes.

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

It's difficult to prepare for the GMAT using the OG books. The OG books are great, but they're not big on showing you GMAT-specific strategies for solving questions. By "GMAT-specific," I mean "fast and effective."

As far as how one goes about improving in math, I believe that you should compartmentalize your learning and take the time to master each topic (e.g., percents, ratios, exponents, statistics, etc.).

This means that, for each topic, you should:
1) Learn the underlying concepts (rules, attributes, notation, etc.)
2) Learn GMAT-specific strategies related to that topic
3) Practice dozens of questions all related to that one topic.
4) Don't stop working on that topic until you have mastered it
Then, and only then, move on to the next topic.

You might consider signing up for BTG's free 60-Day Study Guide (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide).
Each day you will receive an email with a series of learning activities that will guide you, step-by-step, from Day 1 to test day. This will ensure that you will cover everything that the GMAT tests.

Cheers,
Brent

[saadiagha]

Thank you so much for your replies guys.

So if the OG guide is not the best option, then what book do you recommend for the math section?

I think I will definitely join the 60 day session.

[RyanJW]

The GMAT guide is good, definitely get it at some point as it is an excellent resource for official questions.

If your quant level is as low as you seem to think (I didn't take the GRE but am fairly certain that the GMAT is a lot tougher as my wife took the GRE and seemed totally lost when I asked her for help with my GMAT stuff) I'd recommend a few courses that I took (I went from 30Q to 41Q, not quite 45, but close enough)

- MGMAT foundations of math course - This is a 2 part online course that is about 3 hours long, I think it's less than $100 and comes for free if you purchase an entire MGMAT course (I did not), but this class is specifically for people who feel like they are below average in Quant. You get a huge book filled with concepts and great information, access to a bunch of question banks, and some quality sessions with some pretty awesome instructors (not to mention that you can view the course even after you take it once, so if you miss something or want to go over something again, you can just watch it again)

- Knewton - I feel that the Knewton course really brought my Quant score up to a level that I was satisfied with. If you can't afford a live course, their online program is awesome and definitely helped me improve in quant.

Really the best thing you can do at this point is get a good base. Once you feel comfortable with your base knowledge, start taking CATs and doing problems, try to find the areas in which you're weakest and work at those. I found that taking multiple CATs showed me a pattern of question types that I was really good at and ones that I was really bad at. I let that pattern dictate my study style. The concepts I was really confident in, I let myself study those at a lower intensity and dedicated much more time to the concepts I felt less confident in.

Good luck!!

[Jim@StratusPrep]

Just to add. With your current level, I would count on taking more than a few months to gain the skills necessary.

[Bschool2013]

Thank you so much for your replies guys.

So if the OG guide is not the best option, then what book do you recommend for the math section?

I think I will definitely join the 60 day session.

I'm a big fan of this book. Go through it cover to cover.

https://www.totalgmatmath.com/

[saadiagha]

So I got Kaplans math workbook for a start and have already started working on the problems.

Attempted my first CAT in the prep software to get an idea of where I stand. Ended up with a dismal 440. I got 21 wrong in math and 15 wrong in verbal.

Upon further review of the questions I got wrong, I could probably say about 6 of the math questions I got wrong were just silly mistakes (not reading the entire question due to time pressure, calculation errors etc), and about 3 in the verbal section were silly mistakes. The rest were genuine problems.
I am pretty certain with more practice I can bring down verbal errors under 10, and math to about 15. I was wondering how many can I afford to get wrong if I want a high score- high 600s etc.

You guys have any suggestions, ideas on how I should go about prep now? Keep to the basics even now? I guess I was underestimating my math, I mean most of the math problems I got correct, it was the DS where I made a lot of mistakes. I am confident that If I can give math 2 months or 3 months at the rate I am going I would be able to improve quite a bit.

I just dont wanna spend too long on the gmat cause I feel Ill burn out- is that a valid fear?