Some might be able to relate to this particular scenario... Mediocre prep for approximately 30 days, focusing more on CAT exams than actually studying, walking into the testing center cocky and walking out mentally crying. The GMAT now owns me because I let it destroy me.... I completely ran out of time and had to guess 12 problems on Quant and 8 problems on verbal.... I am a sllllloooww test taker..
Manhattan GMAT CAT - 420 Q35/V14 YIKES!!
Veritas Free CAT - 500 Q34/V26
GMAT Prep CAT - 550 Q43/V23
So my thought process... After reading about the CAT exams supposedly being more difficult than the actual GMAT I should surpass the 600 mark... I was wrong... Completely and embarrassingly wrong. Lets just say I bombed the actual GMAT to the point that I would have done better just randomly guessing.
My intention was to always take the GMAT twice due to getting test anxiety and knowing that I would do better the second time. Now I am rethinking the entire prep process. At this point, I need to reevaluate my plan and would appreciate some insight from the 700+ club.
Current Materials -
MGMAT Sentence Correction (Skimmed through the book)
OG GMAT REVIEW 12th Edition (Worked through some quant problems randomly)
GMAT Official Guide 2018 (Didn't open it)
McGraw Hill's 2011 GMAT (Skimmed through a section)
Kaplan GMAT Premier 2010-2011 (Didn't open it)
Please critique my plan.
Narrow in study materials to
MGMAT and
OG-2018
Purchase the entire
Manhattan GMAT series. Is there any difference in version material? Going to Half Price Books to save money...
Quant -
I assume the consensus among those that score extremely high on quant is to get the fundamentals down then repetition.
I would like to break down each section of quant - IE Geometry.. Probability.. Number Properties ETC. and focus on questions per subject to increase my speed. Any input here would be great.
Verbal -
I am a native English speaker so I was thinking verbal would be an easy task. I didn't study for it at all (other than the completely cat exams). Looking back I believe I could improve the most on my score improving verbal. But how do you study for this?
Sentence correction, I randomly looked at the problems and went with the answer that sounded right. Most of the time I could narrow it down to two answers and I would go with one, 50/50 right?
Reading Comprehension, how do you study "reading a paragraph" and answering questions about it? Obviously, I am missing something here because it is burning me.
Critical Reasoning, this is pretty easy for me and I typically go with what makes sense. I typically do well on these questions; however, at the 600-700+ level not so sure.
IR - This kicks the absolute crap out of me... On the practice CAT's, I typically only get 5 questions right out of the 12. How does the IR section impact the overall score? Any insight on this?
AWA - I structured this as an introduction paragraph stating 3 issues with the argument, 3 body paragraphs detailing the issues, and a conclusion with my final thoughts. Is this acceptable?
Any insight is appreciated. I plan to take the GMAT again in March to make round 3 deadlines. My goal is to hit 600+, but 700+ would be nice as well. Looking to get into a top 20 program.
Thanks for your help!