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Dejected with progress made... please advise !

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Dejected with progress made... please advise !

by bhasinvishal » Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:58 am
Hi All !

I have been preparing for the GMAT since the last 2 months.
A little about myself...I am 34 years of age...I did my MBA in 1998 so its been long since I have been out of touch with academics.
At the commencement of my studies I took the GMAT Prep test 1 and scored 530 on it.
For my preparation I started with the IMS postal material which incorporates OG 11. Along with it I completed the Kaplan Premier Program. After this I completed the OG verbal as well as quantitative workbooks. I have started with the Kaplan 800 recently...
The problem is that I have taken 4-5 adaptive tests (IMS) but I continue to score 580-600. My quant scores range from 36-40 and verbal 34-38.

I plan to take my GMAT around the 22nd of July and that leaves me with only one month to prepare my self for a 700+ score but with taking the present progress as a precedence it seems difficult !

Please suggest what I could do to increase my scores and how i could utilize my time optimally.

Thanks,
Vishal
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by VP_Tatiana » Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:10 am
Hi Vishal,

Part of preparing for the GMAT for most people is shaking the cobwebs off of skills they have not used for a while. I've taught classes to people that were 20 years out of college, and it had been as long since they had seen geometry, algebra, etc. It seems the math concepts are usually the most rusty, as we all read and comprehend, edit sentences, etc in the course of normal business. Anyway, it should be no surprise that your quant percentile is a little below your verbal.

What surprised me a little by your message is that you want to pursue an MBA even though you already have one. This may cause some concern to the admissions committee as well. You will need to provide a convincing argument as to why you were not able to get what you needed out of the MBA the first time around, and how attending their school will provide the perfect opportunity.

It is not uncommon for prospective test takers to see a plateau at some point in their studies. Whatever was working before (gaining familiarity, learning to pace yourself, etc) isn't working anymore. What I think you may need to do now is make sure that you have an in-depth enough understanding of each topic. For instance, if you don't understand geometry very well, you will have to do some intensive reviewing of that subject to get your math score up. Without your individual results, I can only postulate... but my top guess is that lack of in depth knowledge is causing the plateau. It is possible learning some test tricks may help you get your score up a little more, but in depth knowledge is necessary to get over 700.

If this is indeed the case, I also worry that July 22 may be too soon for you. You can change your test date up to 7 days before it is scheduled, and you just lose $50.You may want to seriously consider that if a 700+ is necessary to get into the school(s) that you are targeting.

If you respond with some more details about your tests, the areas you are getting hung up on, etc, I can give you some more personalized advice.

Best wishes,

Tatiana
Tatiana Becker | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep
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by bhasinvishal » Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:26 pm
Hi Tatiana !

Thanks for your response.
As you have suggested I have already started a chapter wise review of the Quant. topics to gain more from them. I should be able to get over with my review by the end of this month.

As for your question about my aspiration for a 700+ score, I am planning to apply for the 1 year Executive MBA program offered by ISB and IIM in India.
Both these programs require a high GMAT score (700-720).

Please let me know what information in terms of scores or otherwise could I share with you to be able to get more specific help from you.

Thanks,
Vishal
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by VP_Tatiana » Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:26 pm
Hi Vishal,

I wasn't able to give you more specific advice about why your score plateaued because I haven't seen your score report. Maybe one section in particular is giving you problems, or maybe whenever you hit a certain difficulty level, no matter what type of problem, you get stuck. It's different things for different people. However, if you can let me know a little more about what in particular trips you up, or send me a score breakdown, I can give you even more specific advice.

Good luck!

Tatiana
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by bhasinvishal » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:18 am
Hi Tatiana !

Its me again...

I took a Power Prep Test on 30th June 2008 and have managed a 680 score on that. Q43 V40.
I had run out of time on the last three questions in the quant section and had to leave them unanswered.
As I have told you that I am planning to take my GMAT around 22-24 of July.
I am very nervous... I started off with a score of 530 on GMAT Prep Test 1 in April without preperation. It was 580 a month ago and now here I am...
I wonder if the Power Prep Tests are easier than the GMAT Prep tests as I still find the questions (when I review) on the GMAT Prep test that I took kinda difficult.
I have very little time to go... please suggest how I could make most of it....

Thanks,
Vishal

ps. : 700+ !!???!! How to get there !!??!!
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by bhasinvishal » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:46 pm
Anyone please.... suggestions needed !!!

I know that GMAT Prep offers a better assessment of capabilities but how much variation from Power Prep Tests should be expected ???

Moderators... please respond...

Thanks :?
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by bhasinvishal » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:51 am
!!!!????!!!!
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by aim-wsc » Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:26 am
Dear Vishal,
sorry for not responding earlier.
I didn't reply because I thought there's nothing more I could add.
Have some patience dear.
There are already tons of threads/topics posts with similar doubts. You can go through them if you are in hurry.

The PowerPrep in my experience is little easier than GMAT Prep. Also there are chances of you getting pretty low score as you skipped last three questions. But GMAT Prep penalise for not attempting last few questions more than PowerPrep.

I dont rate IMS tests much. They have lot to catch up in case of CATs.

IIM PGPX & ISB are great programmes (top programmes in India these days) and competition is tough. You must be knowing this already ;)
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