One Month Retake Plan

Well after two disappointing scores I am planning for another retake. I took a vacation for a week from work and studying to just relax. This gave me some time to think things over.

See my last debrief regarding my 540 score. https://gmatclub.com/forum/failed-once-again-460-to-151000.html

After thinking about how my last exam went I thought my score was a bad representation of my knowledge and preparation for the test. I also did some analysis and research to why there is such a big difference between my practice scores and my actual exam scores. I think it came down to two things test anxiety and timing. I know for a fact that I missed about 3-4 easily solvable QUANT problems as I was driving home from the exam(thinking of similar problems in the OG or MGMAT guides) due to getting psyched out by the timing. Also, for VERBAL I strayed away from my CR and SC strategy too much...

I have put together a detailed one month study calendar which includes the below. I will use the following books and study strategy. I am aiming for a score of 650+.... So about a 100 point increase.

1. Shorter Study Period: I am only giving myself one month to prepare. I already have a pretty good foundation from my previous study attempt(i.e. formulas memorized, SC error types,etc.). During my 2nd attempt I felt like the study period was too long, therefore I went through a lot of materials(see the above link for the books I went through). I should have probably taken the test 2 weeks earlier. I had about 2 weeks of review and in that time I forgot basic concepts and was focused too much on 700 level material.

2. Less materials: I am narrowing the scope of materials down. I felt like during my 2nd attempt I was all over the place with the materials I studied. (i.e. switching from GMATPILL to MGMAT to etc.). I also was getting caught up in the 700+ material when I should have been focusing on the basics. I remember two days before the test I was attempting 700+ level probability, permutations,etc. problems which did nothing but get me pysched out before the test thinking that I did not know that stuff. The problems I ended up receiving on the actual exam were more like the MGMAT Word Problems guide/GMAT Prep problems for that topic.

OG 13- Will be going through all of the problems once again. However, this time I will be using a timer to count down and doing problems in 10s or 20s at a time. This will help my endurance and timing. I will also use an error log for this book and this book only.... I used an error log for almost all of the materials I went through.. It became very cumbersome and ineffective.

Aristotle Prep SC- I have not gone through this book yet but I plan to go through it next week to tighten up my SC basics.

CR Bible- I am going back through this for a 2nd time. As I started to go through this book again I am starting to realize how far off I was with my strategy on the exam. I am going to make sure I follow this books strategy for every single problem(i.e. making sure I clearly know if its arguement vs fact set, highlight the conclusion for every problem,etc.)

RC- Completed a non-fiction(game of thrones) book during vacation. I just started the 2nd book and I will continue reading a few chapters a night to help improve my RC. Also, plan to read an economist and SA article once a day as well as doing 1-2 RC problems a day.

MGMAT Guides- For QUANT this will be my sole focus. I am going back to the basics for this exam and making sure everything is tight.

GMATPREP Exams- Will do 1 of these every weekend leading up to the exam.(4 in total). This will be done in library to mimic the actual exam conditions. I will make sure i take IR and AWA to build endurance.

IR/AWA: I focused a few days on this the last exam. I will not focus at all on this leading up to the 2nd attempt besides on practice exams. I actually got worried about these two things before the exam which also made me lose focus.


3. Mindset: I am going into this exam with a nothing to lose attitude. I have been psyched out during both of my previous exams. After talking to some of my family members I finally realized that this I have just made this entire thing personal. An MBA is something I have always wanted since undergrad. However, I have a very solid career and have been rapidly advancing since I have started as well. IF I do not do well on it... OH well.. its not the end of the world...

Also, one last thing.... I saw this in the CR bible and I felt like it was very true.

"All high-scoring test takers are active and aggressive. Passive test takers tend to be less involved in the exam therefore more prone to errors."



Any advice is much appreciated!!! Thanks!!