GMAT Study Plan - How to Start your GMAT Prep

jenny,
An interesting way to get your English tuned is through your ears. In tech companies, esp for engineering roles; communication skill is overlooked or compensated with tech skill. Unfortunate but true.

Read the MGMAT SC book- just for the heck of it. Don't do any exercises- instead try to correct spoken sentences of all those around you. (In your head of course) this way you will tune your ear to catch anything that doesnt sound right: be it verb tense or modifiers etc. If you write emails at work or outside, make sure they are grammatically right with the right construction.
This is just my 2c.
Good luck

I realized similar stuff while solving DS from OG12; the option c which I estimate to be correct is mostly not; also there is something abt probability that psyches me, even though the problem is an easy kill, I assume its going to be tough and mess it up, my only resort for DS now is going thru MGMAT quant books, though it gets very tough for me to go thru the theory of math, prefer to keep solving problems instead!

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

Hey mba 2011, good pointer for SC, are u targetting for HAAS EW2011 or I am confusing you with some one else

Posted from my mobile device

Hello Everyone! Yes, I've decided to take the GMAT. I'm so glad to have found the gmat club!! I've been out of school since 2006, so out of the study habit. Thank you BB for posting the great study plan. I will definitely go that route. I'm a little worried. I don't remember ever taking Trig. I'm afraid that even a refresher is not going to cut it. Any suggestions there?

Also, what are good qualifications to look for in a tutor?

Thanks in advance.

About 50% of the questions on the GMAT are arithmetic. Algebra/Trigonometry is still important.
My suggestion would be to take a sample test before you jump to conclusions (you may or may not have an issue with it or may have a lot more issues).

As to picking a tutor, the best suggestion is to get a personal recommendation or to evaluate a tutor. You want him/her to push you - that's what you are paying them for.
_________________

So I finally took GMAT Prep-1 from the GMAC software yesterday and got Q45,V38, toal of 680. I am genuinely beginning to doubt the software. I had 7 out of first 10 ques wrong in quant. total 15/37 incorrect, is it possible to score 45 in quant if you do so badly in the beginning itself, V erbal was ok as I had 11/41 wrong, 9 SC and 2 CR, so i know where my weakness lies~bb, gurpreet or others, can you suggest what i should be doing post this: A little background: I am 40 SC and 44 DS (last ones) short of finishing the OG12, have completed solving OG verbal, need to solve OG quant yet. I ws planning to start going thru the Manhattan GMAT quant books now as i solved almost all types of problems wrong, be it geometry, inequalities, ratios or probability! I cant do this for the real test as my dream course, HAASEWMBA hates quant below 48! I am taking the date for first week of sept 2011, any suggestions what i should do to improve my score.

There are many view about the first 10 questions although there is a general consensus that getting the first 10 right will help your chances.
That being said, i think your score is in that range where you can expect to get 7 wrong in the first 10 and get a 680. On a recent exam, i got 19 wrong in quant and 3 wrong in the first 11, i still scored 48 on an MGMAT practice test. I felt quant had gone really badly but my score was ok. I managed to get more than 80% of the 700-800 questions .
SO moral: dont worry about the internal scoring- just ace the test as far as possible.

Have you taken MGMAT tests? if you have they have a very cool feature which will tell generate a report for each test or many tests together. You should identify the exact area you are weak and work on those questions- pay more attention in the real test.

And finally- "HAASEWMBA hates quant below 48"
This has to be the biggest myth ever. Do the best you can on the GMAT and work on the admission essays- you may be able to separate yourself from the pack based on the essays. The gmat is just one of many tools used to admit you. There is not rule set in stone that they want quant scores above 48.

As a general thumb rule- 80 percentile in both verbal and quant is sufficient to make sure you don't get dinged because of your score. YMMV!

good luck

Thanks mbafall2011, actually that is my next goal, digest all MGMAT books, buy and give at least 2 MGMAT tests and then move on to kaplan.
Thanks for ur view about HAASEW score requirements, my POV was GMAT scores are absolute, so a good one in hand is always a relief!

Posted from my mobile device

Wow! Awesome article...
I'll be re-taking GMAT in the next 2-3 months. Based on my previous performance, this time I will be focussing on getting my quant basics right and working with my timing problem.
At what point in the preparation do you think I should start penalizing myself for exceeding the timing boundaries?

This is a great club! After being a lurker for a few days, I've decided to post my first thank you to bb for this excellent article. It really helps for people like me, who are very new to GMAT and the application process.

Before I go rambling about issues and concerns in later posts, let me first provide a brief introduction of myself.

I'm a 29 yr old Indian, WE - 6 yrs at the time of application; 1 yr as an Design Engineer; 3.5 yrs in an Analyst Firm as a senior analyst; 1.5 yrs as a product marketing manager at a computer hardware major.

Acads: - MS (US) - GPA - 3.86, BE (India)- 79%

After all the time spent on contemplating my MBA aspirations, I've finally decided that I'm going to take up the GMAT in June/July. So, I'll lurk for a while little longer and will contribute everytime I stumble on something.

Good luck all for the GMAT and Application process.

I had planned to master Q and then move to verbal, being an English Lit graduate, and not having touched maths for 5 years at least!
To start GMAT preparation, I took GMAT prep 1 as diagnostic..690 total and contrary to all my expectataions, split of Q 48, V 37. I was sure that Maths would be my achilles' heel..while I have begun MGMAT Maths, planning to devote 1st half of my prep to those, I am uncomfortably scared of Verbal getting me down..
comments?

wow - great score!
I think you should be good as long as you don't try to be creative on the Verbal and try to create/invent your own strategies. Just follow what you get from the MGMAT.
_________________

I have never really been that strong at English. In fact, English is my 3rd language after German and Chinese. In theory, it should be easier for me to notice the subtleties of the language, since English is a Germanic language.

I'm a programmer by trade, but I also write blog articles and highly specialised market research reports, which should give me some practice.

I started my prep in following order:
Manhattan SC - since SC is my weakest part, I wanted to go through it twice(start & end) before I take final exam.
OG Verbal Review(Full SC and half CR)
Quant Test - 35/37 correct - This made me feel that I don't need Quant prep

I took my first Kaplan test and scored 620: 41Quant & 37Verbal

Quant mistake(4) - 3 silly mistakes that could have been avoided and 1 good question
Verbal mistakes - started slowly(took almost 2.5min per question) and so, I didn't touch last three Verbal questions.

My plan
The 1st test results has given me enough insights as to what is missing(Misson: score full in Quant, go through RC, and my SC/CR do need more inputs)

I have been collecting all the mistakes that I have ever made in last one month or so - I would review these at least twice, once I'm ready for final prep.

Next Steps
Now, considering that this was my 1st test and without much prep...I want to know your views as to what I should be doing next?

PM me to check out the latest sports lines & nfl spreads

Shalom! I am currently trying to prepare for this GMAT. I am finding it hard to stay focused for a long period of time during studying. I am starting on the Manhattan GMAT Math Foundations book today. All I really need to make on the GMAT is a 550 or better to enter graduate school so I am not really under too much pressure to score very high. In spite of this my target score is 700 and I will be taking the GMAT in July.

gr8 post BB...am actually now in the first Phase.....planning to take the 1st GMAT Prep Test to check how far do i stand from the planned score of 750...

the reason for the target score to be 750 is because the avg scores for the target colleges are 710. So i should be in the range of
(Low Score)680-(Avg Score)712 -740(High Score)

All,

I am not a Native speaker. I really need your help, please. I have studied throughout my life in English. I have done, O and A Level, Cambridge University courses equivalent to 8-12th grade. Maths has always been my strength. Not that GMAT math would not be difficult for me, it's just that I am confident about my grip on Maths. This is why I have planned to do the maths section in the last month. I am an engineer by qualification, btw, but doing a management job.

For me, AWA is probably the most difficult thing. I have written thousands of e-mails in past 3 years of my job, besides my 18 years of study. Yet I am not confident about technical things of writing, like grammer, punctuation, and vocabulary, of course.

First, I am now trying to remember those 1350 frequent GMAT words. Are they really needed? They are going to take me like 6 weeks. 35 words a day take almost 2-3 hrs ... :/
Second, Can you, please, suggest how I can be confident about my AWA? I have searched like hell, but i could not find any good link. I don't have a teacher who can highlight my writing mistakes.

Can somebody, please, help?
BB, your suggestion would really mean a lot here ....