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Hi Angelik,
It seems you can put in hard work but probably missing the direction. It is good to work hard but unless you know where to put your energies, you will not be able to get desired results. I suggest you to do the following;
1. First and foremost, analyse where do you stand viz a viz your fundamental knowledge of concepts tested on GMAT both for quant and verbal.
2. If you have gone through the basic concepts, you need to practice, practice and practice.
3. If you are lacking on the basics, you have to learn the basics first. I highly recommend all five guides of Manhattan Quant and SC guide from the same company. You can skip RC and CR from Manhattan if you have to spend heavy on them. Alternatively, you can get good offer on a complete package of 8 guides i.e. 5 from quant and 3 for verbal.
4. Download math book from
gmat-math-book-87417.html. This is a collaborative efforts by all the legends here. A lot of math concepts will be cleared after you have gone through it.
5. Once you have gone through the basics, for practice I suggest you to take help of this website, which has documented all type of questions for practice supported with expert advice and very clear and clean explanations. Specifically look for the solutions given by Bunuel, Ian and Karishma. Follow these three members and you will get daily digest of questions answered by them.
6. For quant, you should start from 500-600 level questions. After having solved them, you should move to 600-700 category. If you are very comfortable with second level, then only move to 700+ category. Please have a look at
ds-question-directory-by-topic-difficulty-128728.html for DS questions and at
gmat-ps-question-directory-by-topic-difficulty-127957.html for problem solving questions.
7. These should help you easily go up to 70-75 percentile in quant. For verbal, you need to go through Manhattan SC guide cover to cover and then solve all
OG 10, 11 and 12 verbal problems. No need to practice from any other source. Once you have exhausted questions from
OG, you can search this site and will find collection of more than 300 questions from GMAT prep compiled with a lot of pains by your friends on this site.
8. For CR, you can refer Powerscore CR guide just to understand the pattern and type of questions covered in GMAT and then practice from official source. This will also help you in RC. For RC you can't do much specifically.
9. Still if you are left with time and feel you are lacking somewhere,
GMAT club tests will help you understand concepts and practice them repeatedly.
I am sure you can do this much to reach closure to 700 mark.
All the best. Do let me know if you need help for any of the materials referred above.
Manjeet
angelikv wrote:
Hello all,
I have been studying for the GMAT since Feb, I was doing 20-25 hours per week my score went from 360 to 540 but seems like it just got stuck in the low 500s. I was planning to take the test at the end of May but I decided not to take it, since my highest CAT was only 570. I got so sick about the GMAT, that I took 3 weeks off.
I am about to start again, but I need a new strategy because the one I was using did not help to increase my score. I keep reading stories and tried the tips but I don't see the results. My plan now is 15 hours per week but I need a new strategy to beat the GMAT. Pls send me new creative ideas!
Thank you!!
Angelik