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TargetMBA007
Joined: 22 Nov 2019
Last visit: 20 Mar 2026
Posts: 258
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Schools: Stanford (S)
GPA: 4.0
07 Oct 2023, 05:52
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Hi Folks,
Some background:
Target Score: 730
Score in latest Mock (7th Oct 2023): 660 - V36 Q45
Score in previous Mock (30th Jul 2023): 640 - V39 Q39 (My Q dropped sharply here for some reason but normally it has been in the V44 Range for a while).
Target Date for test: First week of December and a 2nd attempt before end of December (Before they phase out the current GMAT.
I started back in 2020 (raw score 480, V31, Q25). Never had a maths background, but was strong in accounting, although relatively found Verbal more natural. I graduated back in 2008, so getting back into my studies was a challenge. I studied really hard, the whole of 2020, and some of 2021, then got totally sidetracked. Picked it up again in Mar this year and have been at it for 30Hrs/Week since then. I don’t want to even consider the new GMAT version as I have invested too much time and effort in the current version and want to get this over and done with by the end of Dec, having spent well over 1500 hours on this.
I am looking for advice on my study strategy between now and the exam date, as I am really starting to question my current strategy.
Here is where I am:
Quant:
• I have been studying with TTP all along, and almost at the end of my journey, with the last 2 chapters remaining. (Sequences and Coordinate Geometry). I was really slow in moving forward with the course, as I spent an insane amount of time on Anki and I am starting to wonder if that was a mistake. TTP has been amazing and has really helped me build my concepts from scratch, but
I am starting to wonder if I should have practised a lot more Official Questions or if that should be my goal between now and the exam date? I would also love some suggestions on how to improve my timing.
Verbal:
• This has been heart-breaking, as I feel this is my natural strength and I should be doing much better than I am. I tend to do really well in Verbal when I do self-practice, but I am really struggling to increase my score much despite hundreds of hours spent and that is starting to demoralize me a bit.
• My starting score was V32. Now after going through two courses, e-GMAT and TTP, and plenty of practice questions the best I have got is V39 in my previous attempt, and V36 in my attempt today. When I practice, I feel very strongly I can get V42+, as my accuracy is quite good, but what is really hurting my performance is speed, as I am currently needing to guess 3-5 questions (I split the guesses at various stages).
• SC – I initially struggled the most, and majority of my time (75%+ has been spent studying SC) and I have come a long way. My accuracy was 9/14 and 12/14 on my last two tests respectively, but I still make a few silly mistakes, which seem obvious to me on review.
• RC – This is my strongest area and in my last 2 tests, I got 11/12 and 11/14 correct, but my issue here is I can spend quite a bit of time reading the passage, which affects my time management and I have to skip more CR questions.
• CR – This was in the early days a strong section for me with high accuracy, but I realized my timing was atrocious on this, and as I have tried to shave time, my accuracy has fallen a lot and its really starting to hurt my scores. I used to get streaks of 7 to 9 correct out of 10 on medium questions when practicing, but last two tests I have got less than 50% right. I also tend to leave all my guesses for CR, as I find they take the most time. I would love some advice on how I can raise my scores and improve my timing here?
I would really appreciate advice on, what should be my study sessions between now and target date. I tend to spend a lot of time doing my Anki cards, and I wonder if that is the best strategy?
Tutoring
I am very open to hiring a tutor and have been delaying it till now, as I wanted to wrap up the TTP Course before I start, but also because I am not sure how to utilize one most effectively, because I haven’t really struggled with any concepts as such, and so far, I have been able to get answers to almost any technical question I have had online and have been fairly comfortable with explanations that TTP provides for its practice questions, or those on the forum for OG questions. So, I wonder what would be the best way to get the most out of tutoring sessions, especially as I get into the final stretch?
I feel my main issue currently is being able to put all the skills together on the test day, within a reasonable timeframe, that synergy is currently missing.
Thanks
KarishmaB GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo AndrewN, AjiteshArun MartyTargetTestPrep CrackverbalGMAT mikemcgarry GMATGuruNY
Some background:
Target Score: 730
Score in latest Mock (7th Oct 2023): 660 - V36 Q45
Score in previous Mock (30th Jul 2023): 640 - V39 Q39 (My Q dropped sharply here for some reason but normally it has been in the V44 Range for a while).
Target Date for test: First week of December and a 2nd attempt before end of December (Before they phase out the current GMAT.
I started back in 2020 (raw score 480, V31, Q25). Never had a maths background, but was strong in accounting, although relatively found Verbal more natural. I graduated back in 2008, so getting back into my studies was a challenge. I studied really hard, the whole of 2020, and some of 2021, then got totally sidetracked. Picked it up again in Mar this year and have been at it for 30Hrs/Week since then. I don’t want to even consider the new GMAT version as I have invested too much time and effort in the current version and want to get this over and done with by the end of Dec, having spent well over 1500 hours on this.
I am looking for advice on my study strategy between now and the exam date, as I am really starting to question my current strategy.
Here is where I am:
Quant:
• I have been studying with TTP all along, and almost at the end of my journey, with the last 2 chapters remaining. (Sequences and Coordinate Geometry). I was really slow in moving forward with the course, as I spent an insane amount of time on Anki and I am starting to wonder if that was a mistake. TTP has been amazing and has really helped me build my concepts from scratch, but
I am starting to wonder if I should have practised a lot more Official Questions or if that should be my goal between now and the exam date? I would also love some suggestions on how to improve my timing.
Verbal:
• This has been heart-breaking, as I feel this is my natural strength and I should be doing much better than I am. I tend to do really well in Verbal when I do self-practice, but I am really struggling to increase my score much despite hundreds of hours spent and that is starting to demoralize me a bit.
• My starting score was V32. Now after going through two courses, e-GMAT and TTP, and plenty of practice questions the best I have got is V39 in my previous attempt, and V36 in my attempt today. When I practice, I feel very strongly I can get V42+, as my accuracy is quite good, but what is really hurting my performance is speed, as I am currently needing to guess 3-5 questions (I split the guesses at various stages).
• SC – I initially struggled the most, and majority of my time (75%+ has been spent studying SC) and I have come a long way. My accuracy was 9/14 and 12/14 on my last two tests respectively, but I still make a few silly mistakes, which seem obvious to me on review.
• RC – This is my strongest area and in my last 2 tests, I got 11/12 and 11/14 correct, but my issue here is I can spend quite a bit of time reading the passage, which affects my time management and I have to skip more CR questions.
• CR – This was in the early days a strong section for me with high accuracy, but I realized my timing was atrocious on this, and as I have tried to shave time, my accuracy has fallen a lot and its really starting to hurt my scores. I used to get streaks of 7 to 9 correct out of 10 on medium questions when practicing, but last two tests I have got less than 50% right. I also tend to leave all my guesses for CR, as I find they take the most time. I would love some advice on how I can raise my scores and improve my timing here?
I would really appreciate advice on, what should be my study sessions between now and target date. I tend to spend a lot of time doing my Anki cards, and I wonder if that is the best strategy?
Tutoring
I am very open to hiring a tutor and have been delaying it till now, as I wanted to wrap up the TTP Course before I start, but also because I am not sure how to utilize one most effectively, because I haven’t really struggled with any concepts as such, and so far, I have been able to get answers to almost any technical question I have had online and have been fairly comfortable with explanations that TTP provides for its practice questions, or those on the forum for OG questions. So, I wonder what would be the best way to get the most out of tutoring sessions, especially as I get into the final stretch?
I feel my main issue currently is being able to put all the skills together on the test day, within a reasonable timeframe, that synergy is currently missing.
Thanks
KarishmaB GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo AndrewN, AjiteshArun MartyTargetTestPrep CrackverbalGMAT mikemcgarry GMATGuruNY
07 Oct 2023, 08:57
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Bookmarks
TargetMBA007
My preparatory advice to my students is this -
Go through the concepts thoroughly - videos, study material etc. Understand how everything links up with everything else because GMAT will test you on 3 concepts together, not 1 (at higher scores). Work on topic specific practice questions of each type and then work on official questions - non negotiable.
While working on official questions, if you come across concept issues, come back to your study material, review etc.
CR typically takes about 2.5 mins per question. Be prepared for that. For SC you should allocate about 1 - 1.5 mins per question. I am glad RC is your strong suit but don't go beyond 2 mins for that either. For CR, you should understand what each question type requires you to do and then practice it on official questions. When I discuss CR questions, it typically takes me about 15-20 mins for 1 question, and that is after my thoughts are already all sorted in my mind about it. You should need about 30 mins per question - why is each option correct and others wrong. When we do that, in actual questions, we quickly eliminate options because we already understand most of the tricks of GMAT test maker.
You can check out my introductory discussion of RC - the strategy I recommend here: https://youtu.be/PtqSBl1D_wg
How Mixtures work: https://youtu.be/pJfc2vendCA
An introductory video on Triangles: https://youtu.be/y05XIAWgAT0
Basically, this is how you need to understand every concept.
Flashcards are worthless on GMAT, as far as I have seen. The things you need to 'remember' are those that you will use time and again and hence it is hard for you to forget them in the first place. Flashcards are useful for vocabulary (hence for GRE). The non intuitive formulae I would want you to remember for GMAT - I can count on my one hand. Perhaps you can put down squares, cubes, multiplication tables, pythagorean triplets, fraction decimal equivalents but that's about it. GMAT is all about logic, reasoning and meaning. We can't put that down on Flashcards.
I am not sure a few hours of Tutoring would add a lot of value to you if you are not clear about the topics on which you need help.
Tutoring works in 2 ways -
1. You have gone through the entire content of a test prep and you are fairly comfortable with most things. There are these 3-4 topics/concepts that are troubling you and you want to run through them with someone in say around 5 hrs or more depending on the number of concepts.
or
2. You would like someone to take sessions with you for most of the important topics to help you link the concepts together. So the tutor plans the curriculum for you for say around 20 hrs.
I think you are looking for something on the lines of number 1 but do you have the concepts you would like to discuss figured out? If not, it could be a waste of your time. Know exactly what you need tutoring for before you jump into it.
07 Oct 2023, 13:05
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Quote:
For time management, using question/time markers may be helpful. For RC, becoming familiar with how inference questions work may be useful as well. If you feel your fundamentals are solid, consider working on your solving approach. Had a student who went from a V41 to a V45 in about 10 days. Perhaps work with a study buddy who is really strong on Verbal.
How to get a V40 or higher on the GMAT? What about a V51?
