Best test prep?

Question

I have two months to prep for GMAT and I want to use the most effective resources for mock exams. I am looking at a target score of 740+. My weak areas are CR and DS.

1. I'm aware of Kaplan Premier 2019 and have been reading about GMAC test prep on this forum a lot. Please help!
2. Additionally, I'm soon going to be through with all the official guide questions. What would be the best question banks to use. Manhattan?

Thanks in advance!

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Sajjad1994 · Answer

Hello and Welcome to GMAT Club !

For a score of 740+ i will didn't go to Kaplan Premier Book as i think it is good for round about 650 score

Best questions to practice

1. Official Guide
2. Manhattan
3. Veritas 
4. Kaplan and GMAT Club.

are you going to prepare GMAT exam online via course or offline self-prep?

cfc198 · Answer

Use Egmat for Verbal and TTP for quants. Supplement these online courses with gmatclub tests and I am certain that you will get a good score!

kiran120680 · Answer

For preparation
Official Guide
Manhattan for SC
Veritas
GMATClub questions

For Mocks
GMAC Official mocks
GmatClub tests
Veritas
Manhattan

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Monicato,

Since it sounds like you're just beginning your studies, then it would be a good idea to take a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT Test; you can take 2 for free at www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). If you want to do a little studying first, so that you can familiarize yourself with the basic content and question types, then that's okay - but you shouldn't wait too long to take that initial CAT. That score will give us a good sense of your natural strengths and weaknesses and will help provide a basis for comparison as you continue to study. A FULL CAT takes about 3.5 hours to complete, so make sure that you've set aside enough time to take it in one sitting. Once you have those scores, you should report back here and we can come up with a study plan.

I'd like to know a bit more about your timeline and goals:
1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
3) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ccooley · Answer

Once you've exhausted the Official Guide questions, there are a few other sources of official practice problems:

1. You can purchase the Official Practice Questions, which include 400 questions that don't appear in other sources (as well as some problems that do): https://www.mba.com/exam-prep/gmat-offi ... -questions
2. There are also two books that have official problems: the Official Guide to Quant Review and the Official Guide to Verbal Review.

I'll also throw in a recommendation for the Manhattan Prep practice tests! The real advantage of them is that the diagnostics and the problem explanations are excellent, so they're particularly good to use when you're actively studying.

akela · Answer

Hi  Monicato ,

Welcome to gmatclub!

You can find the overview of different books and tests here:
 Best GMAT Prep Books 
 All GMAT Practice Tests 
 Best GMAT Courses - Overview, Reviews, and Prices 
 The Definitive GMAT Study Plan

Hope this helps!

Monicato · Answer

Thank you so much. This is quite helpful!

Posted from my mobile device

GMATPill · Answer

How you think through a question dictates how much time you will spend on different parts of a question stem and corresponding answer choices. This is the key for time management -- minimize the time you spend on parts of the question that don't matter!

https://www.gmatpill.com/criticalreasoni ... Estate.mp4

With CR, there's a lot of text to read. The key is to make sense of what's important and to ignore the stuff that is less important.

That way you can go into the answer choices already with something in mind of what to expect.

Here's a Google sheet with links to OG SC video explanations that can help walk you through the thinking process:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Learn more about GMAT Pill @ https://www.gmatpill.com/testimonials

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Monicato,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. First off, I agree that since you are just starting out with your GMAT prep, you should take a full-length practice test from MBA.com to get a baseline score. The results of that exam will give you a bird’s-eye view of your strengths and weaknesses, and indicate how far you are from your score goal. Once you complete the exam, feel free to report back here, and I can provide some further advice.

Regarding resources, in addition to chatting with folks on this thread, you should check out  success stories of past GMAT students  as well as reviews of  various GMAT prep courses  to see what prep materials have worked for other test-takers.

Lastly, you may find it helpful to read the following articles about  how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  and  how long to study for the GMAT .

Good luck!

Monicato · Answer

Thanks!

I scored a 650 in my initial mock. My break up was 47 in quants and 34 in verbal. I seemed to be poor at CR and DS. Other than OG, should I refer to Manhattan for these two?

Target Score: 740+

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EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Monicato,

This 650 is a really strong initial CAT Score (the average Score on the Official GMAT hovers around 550 most years), so you're clearly a strong critical thinker - which is good. That having been said, you'll have to be really efficient with your studies over the next 2 months to hit your Score Goal - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections.

Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. It's too early to know whether that will happen to you or not, but since you're dealing with a relatively short study timeframe, you have to be careful about committing to a book-heavy plan and inadvertently losing a bunch of study time in the process.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
3) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Monicato · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thanks for that encouragement. I will be applying to business schools this fall, for the batch of 2020. I'm primarily looking at Booth, Kellogg, Columbia and Insead.

I know I have a very crunched timeline, but I'm quite determined to make it. As you pointed out, it's going to be more of a strategic game for me. For the next 2 months I can devote 1 to 1.5 hours daily on weekdays and 2-4 hours on weekends. I plan to take time off of work a week before my exam date.

Like I mentioned before, I am struggling to find the right resources for the following- 
1. CR and SC - I've completed all OG questions. But now I want to focus on various solving strategies and simultaneously practise questions. What are the advised resources?
2. DS- Finished OG. Should I purchase OG Quant or go for something else?
3. Mock Tests- Kaplan or MGMAT?

There's a ton of feedback on these books and that has got me highly confused. Would love to have some clarity!

Thanks,
Monica

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Monica,

You've defined a couple of areas that need to work on - which is good. That's just the first 'layer' of analysis though. "Review" is an exceptionally important part of the GMAT training process; your ability to define WHY you're getting questions wrong is essential to defining the areas that you need to work on (and the specific things that you need to 'fix'). As such, I'd like to know a bit more about your last CAT. While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):

After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

In addition, which version(s) of the Official Guide have you worked through so far (re: which year/version)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

GMATPill · Answer

During your OG SC studies, we encourage you to follow along expert video explanations to guide you in your thought process. Here's a shared Google doc of video links you may find helpful - which includes the OG solutions you are looking for: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1f_ckd ... H1HmTgctJI You can learn more about GMAT Pill at: https://www.gmatpill.com

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Monicato,

Have you looked at reviews on GMAT Club of the top verbal courses?

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