49 days left ! need advice !!

Question

Hey all,

I'm planning to take the gmat on the 18th of April !
I took the gmat 6 years ago and scored 590. (now this score does not appear anymore on my mba.com profile). I'm targeting a 700+ now.

So far I went through : 
- all 5 MGMAT Math books (took notes and did exercises from these books)
- all OG PS problems and half of the DS problems (made an error log and plan to finish DS + retake all wrong/guess/>2min questions)
- Aristotle SC Grail : book + all questions

I don't feel like I am still nailing maths (maybe I'm around Q42). What should I do to improve my math ? I'm not sure my level is enough to try the gmat club tests yet...

Plus I want to improve on verbal now !

My books are : 
- OG12 + OG Verbal
- 8 MGMAT books
- LSAT paper tests
- Aristotle Grail
- RC99

Actually, I'm a bit lost right now (just finished all 5 MGMAT math books). 
 
Could you advise a daily plan until my test ?
What would you suggest for me from now on ?

Thanks a lot guys !

ps : i'm a non native speaker

shovitdhar · Answer

You seem to have used most of the good material out there. Since you have roundabout 45 days left know for your GMAT, the best strategy will be to divide your preparation in two stages. The first block should consist of working on your weakeness and becoming better at your strong areas.Take one topic and try to master it before moving to the next topic. Target finishing this by 30th March. After that, you should continue with the second stage which is test taking. Take a CAT every alternate day. Do not worry too much about the results but rather on learning.Keep updating us about your progress and I think you should be able to get your desired score.

chouky · Answer

kudos for you shovitdhar ! Thanks

other suggestions ?

For Verbal : 
I didn't prepare much for RC, so I don't know what a reasonable amount of passage I should do everyday? 2? 3? I plan to do this from RC99
How many questions should I do everyday on other categories ? CR ? SC ?

For Quant : 
I definitely will focus on my weaknesses : the Word Translation book was the most difficult for me, especially Combinatorics, Probabilities and mega wordy questions (those which already take me 45-55 seconds to read...)
Plus continue to practice, practice, practice, and review my notes from MGMAT books

Thank you

AmrithS · Answer

Make sure you give equal priority to quant and verbal. Don't make the mistake of spending too much time on one area! Good luck

windofchange · Answer

I schedule to take GMAT this mid-April as well. I see that you have all the solid books to get a decent score and me too

. Just want to share with you my study plan: Quantitative: I spent about 1 week to revise MGMAT Number Properties and Word Translation (I don't need much time because I have gone through these books once). Then I read MGMAT Geometry in 1 day, since I found that the knowledge covered in this book pretty quite basic and I was quite familiar with the topics discussed here. SC : I used MGMAT SC and Aristotle Grail SC and read these books in about 2-3 days. Again, I have walked through these materials once, so I did not have to spend so much time. CR: Honestly, this is my weak area. I constantly got many problems wrong in CR, mainly because I don't understand the logic of GMAC (poor me

). I used PowerScore LSAT - Logical Reasoning Bible, which is similar to PowerScore GMAT except for some sections regarding logic. RC: I read the book called RC Module MLIC to learn the strategies. Personally I found this book very useful when it introduced the necessary steps to crack each question type and illustrated its strategy by a real RC in the OG or in the GMATPrep. I needed about 1 day to read this book. Moreover, I usually practice 3 passages in RC99 per day. I use GMAT Timer by Walker and copy my answer into an excel sheet. In this way, I can do the passages in a time manner and keep track of the wrong answers. During the next 2-3 weeks, I will devote my time to practicing problem in OG 12. Upon completion, I will use GMATClub Tests. As someone has recommended, I will spend the last 3-4 weeks to do the full length CATs and definitely spend more time to analyse the tests. FYI: I am a non-native speaker and am struggling with Verbal.

jonblazon · Answer

that's a solid list of study materials.

examsample · Answer

You don't seem to have left with a lot of time. I would suggest that you should start concentrating on your weak points. Seems as if you are finding it hard to deal with the verbal section. Though you have studied a lot of good books , still i will suggest you one more study guide that has questions prepared by experts and self-explanatory answers as well. Check out Examsample website- GMAT study guide.
Concentrate well, practice as much as you can and all the very best for your exam!!

lhomme · Answer

I personally would try the following (depending on your time availability):
1. Start the week with a practice test.
2. Spend the rest of the week studying your weakest areas of the test. I liked the MGMAT books.

Rux10 · Answer

Ok! I'm in the same boat. 2nd attempt in April too. I need to ace verbal as i'm not that strong in quant.

Every night before I go to bed i'm making myself a morning verbal quetion pack. I will  religiously  do it every weekday morning before work, and when I wake up at the weekend - for the next 33 days straight.

Contents -

3 RC 99 passages - 27 minutes
6 CR passages (from aristotle prep website, OG and Verbal review 2nd ed) - 12 minutes
10 SC passages (from SC grail, OG, Verbal review, and various docs) - 15 minutes

Total time to complete is less than an hour. Do this 'pack' every morning - mark questions as correct/incorrect/guess and at the END of the week (every 7 days) spend a few hours reviewing every wrong and guessed question. Compile a document of wrong/guessed answers and learn the relevant rules for those questions inside out by the end of your review session. Rinse & repeat.

I think this structured approach will yield dividends. This in addition to study in the evenings will be a huge help for me, i can tell.

Let us know what your plan of action is!

chouky · Answer

This morning I took Gmat Prep Exam 1 for the first time and scored 720 (Q48/V41) !

I was amazed by this score because :
- I only hoped I would be over 600
- I really lack confidence : during the whole test, I was never sure of myself, almost frightened by the test...

Generally I think I lack self-confidence concerning GMAT... I can't say for sure that is the right answer and none other (especially for Verbal)

Despite this good result which gives me reasons to carry on, I have mixed feelings because of the following :
I scored Q48 but it appears that I had 15 questions wrong over 37 : is that possible ..??
In verbal I scored V41 and made 7 mistakes over 41 : this was good ! but I had 3 false in the last 4 questions : I was speeding so much in the last 5 min because my timing was not good at all...

Any advice / suggestions / encouragement ?

target2010 · Answer

This looks like a very solid plan of action. However, one needs to make sure that reviewing the correct/incorrect answers should be the most important activity. It doesn't make sense to keep on practicing without knowing why or why not you are getting questions right or wrong.

bb · Answer

To chime in, I agree - pretty solid plan. 
Take a peek at something here: GMAT Calendar - this is a good way to set goals. However, please keep in mind that if there is something you dont' fully understand or can answer easily after you covered the section, that means you don't understand it and you need to stop and go back the next day. If you still don't get it, go back and re-do. Ask on the forum if there is something you can't get through. you should not have any dark areas by the time you are done.

Also, my suggestion is to read as many books as you can (in the evening or whenever). See this post: GMAT Fiction.

Good luck. Let me know if any other questions along the way.
P.S. Start with something easy.
BB.

chouky · Answer

I quote myself

Does anybody have to tell me something about this ? Plus I followed your advice BB and planned a "macro" schedule that you can find enclosed. What do you think about that ? Is that reasonable ? Does one have to take Gmat Prep more than twice ? Thanks !!

ps : my week end off is a wedding that I can't miss, unfortunately.. (but maybe it will be good to get fresh air before the final run)

bb · Answer

Looks great! Good Luck!

P.S. The wedding before the test is probably good. Get your mind off the exam, relax a bit, etc. It is too late to study at that time but probably still an opportunity to take a test the day before.

Rux10 · Answer

Thanks, and very good point! I plan to make a 'meta' document of the weeks incorrect and guessed questions to go through pretty thoroughly.

chouky · Answer

Hey guys, Yesterdays I took the MGMAT Cat 1 and scored a 640 (Q39,V38). I was very angry at myself, particularly in Quant because I felt that questions were pretty tough. My level does not seem good enough for these types of difficult questions. That's a disappointment because I had scored 720 on Gmat Prep 1 with Q48 and V41. Moreover I had to guess the last 8 or 9 questions because I had been too slow on the previous questions.... -1- How do you explain the difference between these 2 quant scores ?? -2- What should I do to really improve so that I can get a Q49 on any MGMAT Cat at least ?? -3- Finally how can I go faster ?? I'm really worried now, and I really need help on this !!

Thanks !

Rux10 · Answer

It's almost definite that your below average personal score came from guessing the last 8/9 questions. I wouldn't worry too much about your knowledge, but your timing is an issue.

For instance, on my MGMAT CAT before my real exam I think I hit V40. During the real thing, I was doing really well 2/3 of the way in. I was seeing bolded questions and really difficult SC/RC questions. However I also had to guess the last 8/9. I ended up with V33!

chouky · Answer

thanks Rux
the fact that I guessed the last 8 questions because of a bad timing can explain this, but only partly.

In fact, I was really struggling even for all the questions before, ie I had to work on them a lot to get them right, which can explain why I was so late...
Don't know what I should do to master Quant and Improve timing ?

Should I do OG, OG, OG, OG and OG again to master fundamentals + Gmat Club Tests to improve on difficult questions?
I felt the MGMAT questions were only difficult ones, the kind you don't encounter in OG ........

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49 days left ! need advice !!

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