440 - any hope?

[Tauqeer]

Hi

I would like some guidance from you please. I have been studying GMAT for about 4 months now. I took the test last week and scored a terrible 440. I feel awful. I knew quant was my weak point so focused on that. I did the OG 11, the separate green GMAT book and the blue downloadable s/w from MBA.com. In my actual test I scored much better in the quant than the verbal. My break-down was quant 32 verbal 20. I am a native English speaker, thought I could do reasonably well without too much effort. But I guess I am wrong. I have since started looking at my verbal (quant too), but with the verbal I don’t agree in many cases with the answers in SC and CR. I am from London, and received an A grade for English Literature A level, but I really can’t to do the GMAT verbal. I don’t understand why the correct answer is what it is. I dont know how to practise or become better at verbal.

Also I need to significantly improve my quant score. I am aiming for a 650. Is this realistic? Please can you guide on which material I should be using. I have the OG, the green and purple GMAT books and have recently purchased the Manhattan guides for CR, SC, Quant (Geometry, Number theory).

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

[wickely]

I would suggest working with a tutor specifically on verbal, primarily to help you figure out why the answers are what they are. Part of the problem is, though, that you neglected your verbal prep in favor of quant. Any time you completely focus on one section and forget the other, that other score will suffer, even if you're an A student in that subject. Been there, my friend!

I think if you can get on the right track and figure out where you're going wrong, you could see nice improvements.

[austin]

Tauqeer,

GMAT verbal requires a lot of practice. Use Manhattan SC, Kaplan CR and OG 11 RC.

GMAT math is NOT difficult (compared to say, Indian math exams such as CAT), but is very tricky - especially DS. I will recommend 4GMAT's math books and e-books (www.4GMAT.com). I took their contact classes and have a score of over 700. Solid materials...They ship materials worldwide.

I think you will need to work on math and verbal simultaneously (b-schools prefer a balanced score)...Please don't give up.. I know how it feels after a 440 in the GMAT...Keep working hard and more importantly, USE THE RIGHT MATERIALS....

Feel free to write to me at: [email protected] for some good verbal materials....