Need advice...pls help! Exam on 1 Sept 08

[missionmba]

Hi All,

I need advice for GMAT preparation. I need advice as to how to improve my score. As of now I have done OG 11, Princeton Review, GMAT 800, Kaplan 08 edition, Manhattan SC book. But my scores linger around 540-560 range. I'm very confused now as to how to prepare for the exam. I'm not performing in the desired range. I need some guidance as to how to improve my skills especially in Verbal section. I've been preparing for almost a month now. My exam is on 1 Sept 08. Please help me guys.

Diagnostic Test:
Kaplan - 600

I gave 4 CAT'c:
Kaplan 1 - 540 (35Q and 21V)
Kaplan 2 - 560 (36Q and 23V)
PowerPrep 1 - 560 (47Q and 21V)
GMATPrep 1 - 550 (44Q and 21V)

Any kind of guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

[missionmba]

Some progress but still not good.

got 590 in princeton online cat today.

guys pls help me out.

i have just 30 days before the exam and i am still not close to that 700 mark.

what to do?

Should i start solving questions from
1000 RC,CR n SC????

[orenbusuk]

I would focus on two major things:

Timing - I'm not sure how you're performing in this area, but try to get to 2 mins per quant question and about 1-1.5 mins per verbal question. If you are running out of time in the CATs, blank questions or a rush at the end could hurt your score.

Review - I'd spend the rest of my time reviewing my errors. It appears to me that you've done a tremendous amount of prep. People tell me all the time that they see patterns in their review - mistakes that they repeat over and over again because they don't catch them early. You have to avoid this pitfall.

Don't give up! You still have time so put all you got into it. Good luck!

[missionmba]

Hi orenbusuk,

First of all thanks a lot for ur valuable advice.

My weak area is verbal section. I have been working on my verbal section most of the time. Actually to be honest I have never put any real effort in the quant section. what all practice I get from practice tests is enough for me in quant. with a 3-4 days of prep n I will be in good shape to score around 47-50 on real GMAT. (Not to boast just to give you a perspective).

From all my previous practice test all I could understand was one thing if I can manage 35-40 Verbal score then I will be in a good shape to score 700+.

The problem is I am not able to analyze my problems in verbal section properly.

Initially I used to get 20-30% RC ques right and 40-50% SC and CR ques right. So, I started working on RC.Then I made some improvement in RC accuracy was now 30-40% RC ques but accuracy on SC and CR reduced to 50-60%. This is whats going wrong. what i do is after completing a test i find out the part(SC/CR/RC) in which i scored the least then i start analyzing the mistakes i made in those questions and practice some questions from OG and give another test. but what is happening is that in my attempt to improve in one part i am making mistakes in the other. Ex:somtimes when i do bad in SC in a test i practice lots of SC questions with proper analysis and give the another test and in that test i make mistakes in some other part like say CR or RC amd improve only in CR and my overall verbal score doesnt improve.

Result: in every test I got a verbal score in the range from 21 to 23. (This was very demoralizing). In my Last practice test I got 28 V score and I was little happy to see some progress (completely dedicated 4 day effort on Verbal Section paid off a little)

But I think my problems are:
1> Confidence. As English is not my first language I don’t have the same confidence that I have in Quant. (I have to only practice to improve)

2> the adaptive nature of Exam. I an getting all the mediun level ques right on verbal but I am not able to sustain my accuracy on difficult ques and get those ques correct.

3>Timing is another problem. As I English is not my native language, I take lot of time to solve ques in verbal section. Earlier I used to take 4-5 min for every question but now with practice I have managed to bring it down to 2-3.

[aj5105]

Hello All,

First,sorry missionmba to piggyback on your discussion topic.

As i have a very similar problem, i thought of doing so.

You have described it right.I focus on one topic of verbal & i start making mistakes on the other.It hurts to see the mistakes & I begin to question the effort I have been putting in the last couple of months.(though I have made my lessons learnt notes)

I have 40 more days.Want to touch 700.

thanks!

[missionmba]

more progress...

got 610 (44Q and 30V) today -- princeton online cat

Good things:

1> some increase in verbal score (phew). been studyin for Verbal for the last couple of days.
2> Quant score still 44 (Didnt study for quant at all thankfully it didnt go below 44 hehehe )
3> improved on timing. except 3-4 ques in both V and Q
4> i am week in RC n i got 4 RC's (14 Ques) in this test (in Last test i got 3 RC's)
5> Most important is confidence. Its going up, up , up in Verbal section. yeeeeeee!!!!

Still 3.5 weeks to go.

New target:

1> more improvement in verbal especially in RC and SC(must reach that 40 mark in V -- I too want to write a long long 'I just beat the GMAT story heheh )
2> quant should not go below 44 will try to get > 45 in the next test
3> improve more on timing

Though 610 is not my target score, I am still happy to see it coz i started with a 540 score.

now 610 + 3.5 weeks should = 710 (atleast) (hopefully)

guys m seein a pattern in my practice tests.

in verbal section:
i am not able to identify the parallel construction ques and am gettin thos ques frequent wrong.

As i dont have much time to do a through research can anyone especially the experts point me in the right direction. what should i read, any particular book/Topic, any strategy

any suggestion any advice

[erjamit]

I would suggest try GMATPrep Test 1. It is the best simulator for the real GMAT test. But pls be very careful and avoid silly mistakes. I am sick of committing silly mistakes. So pls try you committ least.

[aim-wsc]

I would re-do OG 11th along with 1000 series doc.

You also need to practise questions in timed conditions. You can probably solve 30 questions in one sitting allowing ~45 mins for yourself.
I see you have practise plenty of CATs.

Read & re-read those Kaplan Manhattan or whatever books you have. They have provided lots of cool strategies to attack verbal.
& Dont let your "non-native English" notion come between your preparation and determination. It's silly to think that way, we just give our mind some scapegoat for not performing well at verbal.

All the best, you still have plenty of time. I am sure you'll improve

[missionmba]

Back to ground zero

Got 600 (Q45 and V28 )

Last 2 weeks and no where near the 700 mark

can't even postpone the exam

[missionmba]

Guys finally i have crossed the 700 mark today. I am so so so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its my first 700+ on GMAT CAT.
till now i have practised on around 10-12 CAT's but never crossed that 700 mark
i always scored somewhere near that 600 mark.
Last week i scored 600 on both Princeton cat and GMATPrep. I was very disappointed.
But today i gave power prep test 2 and score 730. i cannot tell you how happy i am.
Finally i am on track.
PowerPrep 1 - 560 to PowerPrep2 - 730.

[medea66]

Congratulations!!!!!! I'm in the same boat, so far I've reached the high500's mark, hoping to increase another 100. My test is in 1 week, so I'm reviewing all my mistakes from the tests and re-doing the wrong problems and those that I doubt. Let's see where things go.........

[missionmba]

Congratulations!!!!!! I'm in the same boat, so far I've reached the high500's mark, hoping to increase another 100. My test is in 1 week, so I'm reviewing all my mistakes from the tests and re-doing the wrong problems and those that I doubt. Let's see where things go.........

medea66 thanks a lot and
Best of luck for ur Prep.

[amitdgr]

All the best missionmba !! You are doing great so far

[missionmba]

All the best missionmba !! You are doing great so far

Thanx amitdgr.

[mitesh23]

Hi,

Do you have a good template for AWA (essay and issue). I have my exam on the 2nd and have not even looked into AWA. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.