Suggest me ways to crack GMAT ...

Almost same situation here. Without studying a word, I scored a meager 500 in the first week of October. I'm aiming for 700 and planning to take GMAT on December 09. I bought the Manhattan Series and plan to know them cold. I'm on my sixth of eight book series. Schemed over Kaplan Math and Verbal Reviews and found them too basic. I'm really impressed with Manhattan so far. But didn't see it cover Probability/Combination/Permutation. Stick to Kaplan or some other for those.
On average, I'm studying for only two solid hours a day. Let's see how much progress I can make. I'm planning to tackle the OG next once I'm done reviewing Manhattan.

I am almost in the sames shoes as you.
I am planning to take it in the end of January. But because of my school work, can not concentrate on GMAT.
I would highly recommend MGMAT GMAT books. They must have material. And then, have as many tests done as possible from GMATClub.

Same situation....

I did GMAT in May and got 330 and then did it again last week and got 410...I figured out that I cannot study by myself, so I registered in the online Mangattan course and got the materials and books....I wish I registered in the course from the beginning!!!

I wasted a year preparing for nothing!

Montreallady,

Please let us know how the course goes, I have heard good things about the Manhattan Courses. How did you go about studying by yourself, like books, time per week, etc? Where did you go wrong? I also think that all of us in this thread should keep each other updated on lessons learned, mistakes made, and positives aspects of our study plan.

please add me to the group.

took gmatprep practice test yesterday to know my starting point.. I scored 450 with Q-29 and V-23 respectively.I know I have to work a lot on my verbal skills and have good idea where to start but regarding quantitative I am kind of dead duck in the water.. With the score ( Q29) I am not sure where I have to start.. Is it bettter to start from basics or would it be better to review strategies for math and just start practicing problems?

My math basics are not bad and not good either..I have good understanding of number properties,algebra and geometry but clueless about co-ordinate geometry and probability.
I am planning to take gmat sometime in january 3rd week and aiming for 700.

Am i being unrealistic in my expectations? I mean with a 450 starting score and 3 months to prepare - is 700 a gettable score?

Any tips for the following issues:

1. How do I stay motivated? For instance, if I have three hours to study, it takes at least one to actually focus. Taming the wandering mind has become an issue.

2. Those of you doing the Manhattan series, do you take answer the "In action problems" at the end of each chapter right away or wait 'till later?

I get demoralized every once in a while. Would love to hear about your journey.

P.S. I'm aiming for 700 and planning to take the test end of Dec. or early Jan.

PHDGMAT,

I usually do the In Actions problems right after I finish the chapter, it helps me to apply the concepts. I am also going to try to stay fresh with the concepts by choosing 5-10 of these in action problems to do every other day as I move on to different Manhattan guide books. To clarify if I have completed the first 3 guides and have moved on to the fourth I will randomly pick 10 questions from the previous 3guides to stay fresh in those concepts while studying new ones. That is what I plan on doing, has anyone tried this approach and with what results????

Sounds good. I'll try it. Thanks a lot. I also plan to do all of OG questions starting on Monday. I figure 20-30 each day will be enough since I have month to go.

I went through all Manhattan GMAT questions, but still getting stuck with OG questions. Best thing, I think would be to stay do additional CAT MGMAT tests from the website. Although, I never tried them yet.

It is taking me forever to get through the MGMAT QUANT books, at the rate I'm going it will take me over 2 months just to get through the quant concepts. Has anyone experienced the same? Am focus on these books too much? By the way I am studying these books about 12 hours per week, with the other time dedicated to doing the OG12 problems they suggest.

I think some of you need some brain boosters