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Got a horrible 520! Need guidance,please help...

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Got a horrible 520! Need guidance,please help...

by deepthidastari » Sun Dec 15, 2013 5:35 pm
Story until now:

MGMAT Practise test scores range: 550 to 650 (Q 38- 45, V 28-38)
GMAT prep score, one day before the exam: 610
Official GMAT Score- A horrible 520 (Q38, V23)

Known weaknesses : CR and RC
I was scoring a 40-45 on the MGMAT CATs on Quant,but I donna what went so terribly wrong on the actual test.

Going forward:

I am planning to take the GMAT again,but this time around with complete confidence and with an aim of crossing the 700 mark at any cost. I am ready to spend around 6 hours per day for the complete preparation for anywhere between 45 days to 60 days. I need advice on how to go about from here on.

The Quant score on the official test came as a complete shock to me. I did not enroll in any of the specific courses for Math earlier, so I would like to know what is the best possible option for me,so that I can score 47-49 on quant.

Also, for Verbal I have heard a lot of success stories about e-GMAT's verbal courses. For some reason I don't seem to get CR questions right. Is it the right move to go ahead and enroll for the Verbal Live Prep?

Kindly suggest books/courses which will help me achieve my goal of achieving a 700+ score.
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by arun@crackverbal » Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:14 am
Hi Deepthi,

Sorry to hear that you did not score as well as you would have liked :( It is always upsetting - I understand.

Here are a couple of things I would like you to focus on:

1) Right now your focus is to get to the 60th %ile in both quant and verbal i.e. Q44 and V31. This would give you a score of around 620. Once you reach there you should focus on increasing your scores to Q49 V36 - a split which will give you the magic score of 700. The goal should be broken down into more measurable/quantifiable blocks. For example, you say CR is a known problem. So what is the problem? Unless you define that it would be very hard to provide a solution.

2) Get rid of the notion that studying for 6hours for 2 months will boost your scores. Ofcourse hardwork will pay off (actually I am not sure what you did in your 1st attempt) but the GMAT is a thinker's test and not a doer's test. There are 3 areas that you need to focus on - conceptual clarity, strong techniques, and solid strategies. If you goof up on any one - you will end up in the same situation. Here is some stuff I wrote:
https://www.crackverbal.com/gmat-prep-methods-760/

3) For Quant you can pick up any basic GMAT book to ensure you get the confidence back. At the end of the day there are very few formulae you need to know. So don't worry too much on the "knowledge" part. However, if you are looking at a 49-50 raw score in Quant then you need to start looking at different ways in which the problem can be tackled/solved. There are a few excellent resources such as Jeff Sackman's Quant Bible (for very basics) or Ian Stewart's Practice Sets (for advanced level problems) for this.

4) As I said earlier in this post, I am not sure if you have completed the Official Guide, and the Verbal supplement. If you have not then I would strongly suggest you complete those. What is more important is for you to analyze your mistakes and come up with your top problem areas. Once you are able to do so then you will find it easier to find the answers. You can post on this thread and I am sure someone can give you the direction to continue. Also do practice from the GMATPrep Question bank that is available online. It is an invaluable source of questions for the GMAT.

Here is a plan for you based on what I just wrote:

Phase 1

1. Focus on Quant basics from a good book. Try to see what areas you lack conceptually.

2. Ensure you are able to analyze your weaknesses from Verbal. Try to look at your past tests, and your practice questions to decipher the issues in SC, CR, and RC. You can ofcourse join a Verbal specific program such as the one we offer www.crackverbal.com :)

Phase 2

1. Focus on Quant advanced i.e. where you want to go from here. This point you can look at the techniques you use to solve questions, and some overall strategies (for example I will skip all P&C questions). Use the GMATPrep questions for this.

2. Focus on fine-tuning your approach to Verbal by solving GMATPrep questions. Use the online forums to figure out how you could have done it better since those questions don't have official answers/explanations.

Hope this helps :)

Arun
Founder of CrackVerbal - India's fastest growing GMAT Prepration and MBA Admissions Consulting Company. https://gmat.crackverbal.com

Free Ebook on GMAT | GMAT Scoring, Study plan, top study mistakes etc
Download here: https://gmat.crackverbal.com/15-minute-gmat-guide

Good enough to get into Harvard? Or would be it ISB? Get a free profile report PDF mailed to you: https://applications.crackverbal.com/fre ... valuation/
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by deepthidastari » Thu Dec 19, 2013 3:34 pm
Thank you so much Arun, for you suggestions !!!

Quant Plan of Action:
I am planning to start my Quant prep with MGMAT guides because a lot of people on the forum suggested that its the best starting point.
Also, to supplement it , I have taken a Magoosh subscription. The plan is to study a specific topic from MGMAT guide, understand it and then watch the corresponding videos on Magoosh for better understanding. Once I finish all the topics from the MGMAT guides, along with the Magoosh videos, then I shall practise problems from OG 13, Quant supplement and the GMAT Prep question bank to see how better I feel. Once I feel comfortable, then I plan to take one of the advanced quant options like MGMAT Advanced Quant or PS and DS Power boosters.

Verbal:
I have taken a subscription of e-GMAT and relying heavily on it to cover everything from Verbal.Once I feel comfortable and reach the 60th percentile like u suggested, then I would want to take advanced verbal options.

Does this plan look ok? Do you think I am on the right path with the planning?

Kindly let me know, if I need to make any changes to my plan.

Thank you so much in advance!
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by arun@crackverbal » Thu Dec 19, 2013 6:45 pm
deepthidastari wrote: Thank you so much Arun, for you suggestions !!!

Quant Plan of Action:
I am planning to start my Quant prep with MGMAT guides because a lot of people on the forum suggested that its the best starting point.
Also, to supplement it , I have taken a Magoosh subscription. The plan is to study a specific topic from MGMAT guide, understand it and then watch the corresponding videos on Magoosh for better understanding. Once I finish all the topics from the MGMAT guides, along with the Magoosh videos, then I shall practise problems from OG 13, Quant supplement and the GMAT Prep question bank to see how better I feel. Once I feel comfortable, then I plan to take one of the advanced quant options like MGMAT Advanced Quant or PS and DS Power boosters.
Sounds good. What is important is that you quickly knock off the basics. I see many Indians spend way too much time on just memorizing formulae and plugging in the values provided in the question to yield the final answer. For example if you know time = 3 hours and distance is 45kms then you can tell that the speed was 15kmph. This is the stuff we have grown up with. However, on the GMAT for you to score in the 50-51 level you need to start looking at solving the problems a little differently. I would reiterate the use of the GMATPrep questions.

Here are some common mistakes Indians make: https://www.crackverbal.com/gmat-scoring-mistakes/
deepthidastari wrote: Verbal:
I have taken a subscription of e-GMAT and relying heavily on it to cover everything from Verbal.Once I feel comfortable and reach the 60th percentile like u suggested, then I would want to take advanced verbal options.

Does this plan look ok? Do you think I am on the right path with the planning?

Kindly let me know, if I need to make any changes to my plan.

Thank you so much in advance!
I am little worried about the word "relying heavily". Rely heavily only on 1 thing - your brains :) At the end of the day, the grammar and the concepts remain the same. What the GMAT needs is that you ADAPT yourself to each question. No question on the test would be familiar but they would be similar to what you have done before (well almost but not exactly).

Let me give you an example. In CR you may have practiced an assumption question in which the stimulus says "People who are stressed tend to be heavy smokers hence stress causes smoking" with the right answer as "Smoking doesnot cause stress". You need to be able to solve enough questions to recognize this as a pattern of "reverse causation". So next time you see a question which says "Training makes people more efficient" then you should be able to quickly figure out that one of the assumptions is that "NOT Because they are more efficient they get time to attend trainings". Get the drift? :)

Gowri https://www.beatthegmat.com/member/189023/profile and I have blogged about GMAT strategies here: https://www.crackverbal.com/category/gmat/

Arun
Founder of CrackVerbal - India's fastest growing GMAT Prepration and MBA Admissions Consulting Company. https://gmat.crackverbal.com

Free Ebook on GMAT | GMAT Scoring, Study plan, top study mistakes etc
Download here: https://gmat.crackverbal.com/15-minute-gmat-guide

Good enough to get into Harvard? Or would be it ISB? Get a free profile report PDF mailed to you: https://applications.crackverbal.com/fre ... valuation/
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