I think I've been doing it wrong.Care to suggest a strategy?

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Hello,

This is my first post however I've been utilizing the information on this forum for some time. Pretty great stuff.

Anyway, I have my GMAT exam coming up on April 6th. For the last two months, I've been putzing around kind of "half studying" working through the Knewton GMAT online program. I initially scored a 550 with their diagnostic CAT (Q:31 V:36) and was less than thrilled with the result. I'd always been good at standardized tests and have scored in the top 90% without much effort in the past, so I was pretty bummed to see a 48th percentile looking back at me.
I thought the reason I didn't do that well was due to just being extremely rusty (I'd forgotten tons of math basics that I should have remembered) and set a goal of 700 for myself. I figured I'd work through the Knewton program and all that dust would be shaken off.

Now I'm looking at about 35 days to pre-test, I've done about 1/4 to 1/3 of the Knewton program, and I'd been having relatively good results with the homework and picking up the information pretty well. Or so I thought.
I decided to "get serious" for the last 4-5 weeks of study prior to my test, and decided to take one of the two free GMATPrep CAT's to see where I'd come this far. That was last night, and I'm looking at a disappointing 560 Q:36 V:31. My scores flipped, but still remain terrible.
The strangest thing, is that I really feel like I'd come a significant distance with the verbal section, and have actively improved my SC and RC. At least I thought I had.

So we come to my main question: I've got 35 days to study. I've revised my goal to 650. Should I continue with the Knewton program? I felt that it hasn't really given me any improvement going through the first portion of it's program. Are there other high-valued study methods anyone would recommend?

I feel like deep down, I used to be quite good at these tests and really believe that I should be able to break the 650-700 range-I just need a solid plan to get me there, and i don't know if the Knewton program has been cutting it...

Thanks for any advice you've got!
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:59 am
I cannot give any advice concerning this particular online course.
However, usually difficult material is presented at a later stage of any course, definitely not at the beginning. I think 1/4-1/3 of any course would not be enough to achieve a relatively high score of 700. You need to remember that what the GMAT requires from you is not simply the knowledge of math and language that you can learn at school. To put it in a nutshell, the GMAT requires you to know how to take the GMAT...

As to your present stage of preparation, I would recommend that you try to finish the course as fast as possible and practice solving similar questions from the Official Guide like the ones you have just learnt on the course. Monitor whether you are able to apply your newly acquired knowledge to the real material. If you feel, you did not grasp some concept, try to learn it from other resources.
3 weeks before the exam start taking tests - it will be enough to do one test per 3-4 days.
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by beison8000 » Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:56 am
So even with the minimal time I've got left, you'd still recommend finishing the Knewton course, and not just working on OG problems or something like that?

Thanks again.

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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:29 am
The Official Guide is a great resource to practice with but it is not a good resource to prepare to the GMAT. You definitely need to learn the theory tested in the GMAT from some books, guides or a course and then use official materials to test yourself.
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by brianlange77 » Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:52 pm
beison8000 wrote:So even with the minimal time I've got left, you'd still recommend finishing the Knewton course, and not just working on OG problems or something like that?

Thanks again.
Beison.. Also won't comment on any specific program, but what I can offer you is that you need to really focus on laying out a crystal clear study plan for the next month plus. The ideal study plan will allow you to continually narrow your focus and spend more time on the areas that are causing you more difficulties.

I'd encourage you to take a few minutes to read the two links below -- should give you some really good food for thought about how to go about setting up that study plan.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... an-part-1/
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... an-part-2/

Plus, no matter what you do, you need to get some practice exams under your belt and use those results to help inform your study plan.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Let me know what you think.

-Brian
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