Albuloushi wrote:
Hi,
I've started "studying" for the GMAT about 2-3 months ago. However a normal person wouldn't call it studying since all I have been doing is solving questions every now and then and just reviewing my wrong answers. During high school and college years I never studied, all I did was attend classes and answer exams based on my understanding from classes, with some review to my notes to memorize formulas, such as Present Value etc.. This solving/reviewing strategy helped me improve my grade on the gmat from 490 to 660, however I can't seem to improve although I think I am easily capable of improving my score since I haven't studied any material completely.
I'm sure, as tutors, you have encountered various types of students, each student having his own way of learning. So since I haven't really studied anything my whole life, im really having trouble studying, I'm just lost, I feel like I don't know where to start, and don't know what to study or how to do it. Unfortunately there are no proper training courses in my country for the GMAT and I also don't want to join a new online course where I have to go through all the basics again. So if anyone who has gone through the same issue can kindly help me out, I would appreciate it.
Peace out.
It is easier to go from 500 to 600 since at 500, there are gaps in conceptual understanding. Once you fill those gaps, you are at 600. Beyond 650, let's say to cross the revered 700, you need to put in much more effort. The reason is that the concept application is more involved and convoluted after that.
There are various options suitable to suit your study style:
1. Practicing using high level questions - Start doing advanced problems (e.g. those in Advanced Problem Solving book of Veritas). You will not be able to solve quite a few of these questions. Check out their explanations. You will learn new concepts. Make sure you understand the complete theory behind them. Then practice some more questions based on the same concept.
2. Taking specialized courses e.g. the Veritas weekend online course - The Veritas weekend course was created to cover the essential GMAT material that every student must know to succeed. Students meet on two back-to-back Saturdays to learn strategies, GMAT-specific content, and skills that the test takers must master to excel on the GMAT. Starting at 650, this would be the right option for you instead of the full course.
3. Taking help from a private tutor - To get the maximum benefit, you will first need to go through option 1 suggested above. Identify concepts you have issues in. Thereafter, you could ask a private tutor to help you work out the kinks. Also, he could help you focus on the method of arriving at the solution so that it is optimum and time saving.
Since you haven't gone through the complete theory even once, my suggestion would be to at least take a look at the full set of books once. You might come across things you never thought about but got right on instinct. In trickier questions, sometimes instinct may not work and actually knowing the concept may.
close
10 Jan 2012, 08:44
