sucess13 wrote:
Hi. I took the Gmat a few days ago and I feel rather frustrated about this process. I still want to hit my target though so Im willing to do what it takes to accomplish my goal. I need to get 550 or higher on Gmat, with at least 50% on Quant section. These are my 2013 and 2014 scores, it shows a small improvement.
Nov2013 V 19/18% Q 37/42% Total 470/25% Essay 4.0/21% IR 1/ 0%
Dec2014 V 23/32% Q 35/33% Total 500/31% Essay 3.5/13% IR 4/37%
Once I hit the verbal part, my mind is exhausted and end up guessing some questions. Also, I have a hard time reading the RC passages fast enough and have to read the CR stems more than once. I am not sure which RC technique to use anymore. It feels that I would have to read very fast to keep up with timing in the verbal part and that theres absolutely no time to take notes in RC. I took 4 practices tests, 2 from the official PrepGmat and 2 from the Exam pack 1 and scores varied from 540 to 580. I took a live class, completed about 80% of the problems in OG13, and read most of the
Manhattan books. I also completed most of the Question pack. To be honest, I felt burned out at the end of preparation.
Ive been to the US for 20 yrs and also completed a BS degree here. My native language is Spanish.
Please advice, thank you.
Hey, don't get frustrated. I'm from Peru and I know how it feels to do this exam and don't get the score you want. I already took it and get a 540 (43Q and 24V, I don't really remember my verbal grade haha). At least you went to BS. I'm a lawyer so it's harder for me. I feel I'm already improving a lot, so my few cents are:
-
Magoosh is great for people that want to understand math in a simple way. And it is working in S.C. for me. I don't know about C.R. because that's my strong area, so I don't study a lot for that. In other words, buy
Magoosh, watch all the videos (slow, don't rush!!!) and understand the concepts. Mix this lessons with practice (without time). You can use
Magoosh exercises for this part.
-Once you're done with
Magoosh, start practicing for 2 days without time (don't rush try to understand the problem, try to look for shortcuts in the exercises before you start, remember THINK. THEN DO) . After these 2 days use a stopwatch!!! really use it. I strongly suggest to do GMAT CLUB exercises (the ones that are in the forum) use the stopwatch that it gives you, and keep track of your progress in the GMATCLUB workbook . Look for your weak areas and study that again, after that do exercises until you feel comfortable doing this kind of problems .
-Start doing CAT's. Look your progress, use
Magoosh and
MGMAT CAT's to track your time (where you take longer) and weak areas. Read bb post about timing strategies, timing strategies are as important as basics and general strategies. When you're non-native the clue is to DON'T RECHECK the answers on VERBAL (that's something very comom in non-natives, we recheck several times and lose time) go with your first shot.
- Something a lot of us don't understand, is that even some exercises are similar, the GMAC is always going to find the way to hide the concepts it's testing, so learn to don't panic when you see new exercises. The GMAT is an exam of basics but also of CREATIVITY. You're going to find an easy approach (with practice you're going to take less time to find this approach).
* In summary:
-Study the basics, if you're getting a score, of 35 in Quant you're basics are not good.
-In verbal, just practice S.C. that's the easy part to improve, and read a lot!!!! Also another clue for non-natives is not only to have a good effectiveness (not excelent) but also to reach at least until question 35 and then guess. I can't give you advise about C.R. and R.C. because that are complicated topics, sometimes some people are just not ready for the exam yet.
- All this process is going to take at least 4 months, yes, it´s harder and longer for non-natives.
Good Luck!!
P.D. Not everybody can go to Harvard, Duke or whatever TOP 10 or 20 school. If he is looking for a 550, probably he have his reasons. Now I would like to know what is a decent B.S. school, because that's something very subjective, in some cases (when you look for B.S. you analyze different factors, not only rankings). This would be a interesting discussion.
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07 Dec 2014, 06:31
