lmariesanfrancisco wrote:
The GMAT has been my life since about Dec and I'm really hoping to be done with it by mid/late April. Unfortunately, after going through ALL of the
MGMAT guides and doing ALL of the
OG problems in those guides, my practice tests have not been up to par. Side note - I took the GMAT 2 yrs ago and got a 640. I'm definitely applying Fall 2014 and my top schools are Wharton, Columbia, Haas, and Fuqua so would like to at LEAST hit the 700 mark. I'm feeling shocked that I'm not already there given the time I've put in!
I've taken practice tests 2 weeks in a row and will take another this weekend. Here's my progress:
3/8 GMAT Prep: 620 Q44 V32 --> Ugh. 620? That's embarrassing. I thought I'd least leave off around 640/650. I was not prepared for timing and ran out on both sections. I also decided after this test to focus only on Verbal to boost my score.
3/29
MGMAT: 630 Q40 V36 --> Q40?! What the heck?? And only went up ten points? I was MUCH better on timing on this test but guessed a lot and moved on in the math. The math was SUPER hard on this
MGMAT this test but I also didn't study it at all the week before and probably should at least have given myself a quick refresher the day before. Still need to boost verbal. Bought GMAT Pill SC and have been studying that alone all week...
My confidence is pretty low in getting this score up before the end of April - that's a lonnnng way to go. I still think I need to try and perfect my Verbal but I don't want Quant to get worse because of it! I work full time, travel, and have pretty long hours (big consulting firm) so I need to be very strategic about my next few weeks here. If anyone out there has suggestions or great study plans, it would be much appreciated!
Many thanks!
Dear
lmariesanfrancisco,
I'm happy to respond.
First of all, I would say, don't read too much into the minor score fluctuations, ± 10 points, ±20 points. While the
MGMAT CATs are very good, probably the best commercially available, there is not guarantee that they are that precisely calibrated to the real GMAT. Furthermore, in some cases, that difference could just come down to a few questions in which you followed a hunch one way or the other.
You want to crack 700. That's elite territory. In addition to knowing all the basics inside out, you need to appreciate the advanced strategies and, especially for math, the out-of-the-box insights. See this post:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/how-to-do- ... th-faster/In math, you have to be familiar with estimation, backsolving, and all the other time-saving strategies. In verbal, at this point, you need to know not only all the rules, but all the patterns for typical wrong answers --- you will truly be an elite GMAT test taker when you can spot those patterns coming from a mile away.
Magoosh covers many of those in its 150+ video lessons.
Here's a thorough one-month study plan:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/1-month-gm ... -schedule/You have already done all the
OG questions, but if you purchase
Magoosh, you will get another 800+ high quality questions. Here's a sample SC question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3284Here's a sample CR question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3418Here's a sample DS question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1040For each one of those, when you submit your answer, the following page will have a full video explanation. Each one of
Magoosh's 800+ GMAT questions has its own video explanation ---- that is an excellent way to learn not only all the basics but also learn the patterns among wrong answers.
Even if you decide not to use
Magoosh, I hope you derive all the benefit you can get from that free blog. Best of luck to you!
Mike