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15 May 2016, 21:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
Maybe the subject title of the post is not entirely correct; I took an online "Economist" free simulator 2.5 months ago on an MBA school's website and it was supposed to give me an approximate of how I would score on the GMAT. The website popped out an approximated score of 280. Although I haven't done academic math nor standardized testing in roughly 10 years, I still freaked out nonetheless. To give you an idea of where I had to start off, during this online simulator exam, I didn't even know the questions meant when they referenced integers or a prime number. I forgot a triangle was 180 degrees, didn't remember basic exponents, etc.
My self esteem was deflated for the entire weekend, but I stopped feeling sorry for myself, went on Amazon and ordered the entire MGMAT series including the MGMAT Math/Verbal foundation books. I'm a naturally slow reader so it took me 2.5 months to finish reading the the entire set plus I had to relearn all the basic rules in the two foundation books. I knew that I had to relearn all the material first before trying the practice questions in the OG books. My plan was to read the entire set, have a good foundation on all the concepts and then start practicing questions religiously. Fast forward 2.5 months later, I just completed my first official MGMAT CAT and scored a 560 (38Q/29V). Although I need at least a 700+ to compensate for my subpar GPA in order to get into the programs I'm interested in, I think a 560 jump to 700 is reasonable. I realize I have my work cut out for me, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me moving forward?
At this point in time, I think it would be best if I just started going through all the problems studying both right/wrong answers and mastering all the concepts. Should I start using the OG questions inside the books? Or save those for later? I have both 2015/2016 OG books already and I believe 2017 is coming out next month so there should be 3000+ questions in these books alone. Would you recommend I study the quant/verbal OG books individually first or jump straight into the big Official Guide book? Reading all the posts in the forum has definitely been uplifting and in a lot of ways, kept me fighting this uphill battle. I hope to hit 700 one of these days from a 280 so that I can debrief my entire process to help others that are struggling as bad as I am.
"You can't fail if you don't give up"
My self esteem was deflated for the entire weekend, but I stopped feeling sorry for myself, went on Amazon and ordered the entire MGMAT series including the MGMAT Math/Verbal foundation books. I'm a naturally slow reader so it took me 2.5 months to finish reading the the entire set plus I had to relearn all the basic rules in the two foundation books. I knew that I had to relearn all the material first before trying the practice questions in the OG books. My plan was to read the entire set, have a good foundation on all the concepts and then start practicing questions religiously. Fast forward 2.5 months later, I just completed my first official MGMAT CAT and scored a 560 (38Q/29V). Although I need at least a 700+ to compensate for my subpar GPA in order to get into the programs I'm interested in, I think a 560 jump to 700 is reasonable. I realize I have my work cut out for me, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me moving forward?
At this point in time, I think it would be best if I just started going through all the problems studying both right/wrong answers and mastering all the concepts. Should I start using the OG questions inside the books? Or save those for later? I have both 2015/2016 OG books already and I believe 2017 is coming out next month so there should be 3000+ questions in these books alone. Would you recommend I study the quant/verbal OG books individually first or jump straight into the big Official Guide book? Reading all the posts in the forum has definitely been uplifting and in a lot of ways, kept me fighting this uphill battle. I hope to hit 700 one of these days from a 280 so that I can debrief my entire process to help others that are struggling as bad as I am.
"You can't fail if you don't give up"
16 May 2016, 00:00
Kudos
Bookmarks
That is a significant improvement. Kudos for that! The last mock CAT score of 560 shows that you have improved tremendously, but you still need to work on your concepts. The best way would be to go back again to your books and revisit the concepts.
Coming to the OG, you should start solving the problems from the OG as soon as possible. These are the problems that have appeared on the GMAT. The more you solve, the more you understand the types of problems that can be tested on the GMAT.
You should study for both the Verbal and the Quants section simultaneously. As a guide line, try to solve:
15 SC, 15 CR, 3 - 4 RC and 30 - 40 quants questions everyday and make sure you time yourself.
Drill down deep into each problem type and identify your pain areas.
SC: The questions test various concepts such as S-V agreement, modifiers, parallelism etc. Find out what troubles you.
CR: There might be certain types of questions that are troubling you. May be Assumption, may be conclusion, inference etc.
You need to find that out and then practice them
RC: This again can be drilled down into different types of questions and also different topics. See what questions and topics trouble you the most and then practice accordingly.
As an addition, start preparing an error log and keep a note of all the mistakes you made and the lessons you learnt from the problems. This will ensure you do not make the same mistake again.
Make sure you complete all of the OG and the Verbal review and if required, you can buy the Question pack1 from mba.com
1. When do you plan to take the GMAT?
Quote:
Coming to the OG, you should start solving the problems from the OG as soon as possible. These are the problems that have appeared on the GMAT. The more you solve, the more you understand the types of problems that can be tested on the GMAT.
You should study for both the Verbal and the Quants section simultaneously. As a guide line, try to solve:
15 SC, 15 CR, 3 - 4 RC and 30 - 40 quants questions everyday and make sure you time yourself.
Drill down deep into each problem type and identify your pain areas.
SC: The questions test various concepts such as S-V agreement, modifiers, parallelism etc. Find out what troubles you.
CR: There might be certain types of questions that are troubling you. May be Assumption, may be conclusion, inference etc.
You need to find that out and then practice them
RC: This again can be drilled down into different types of questions and also different topics. See what questions and topics trouble you the most and then practice accordingly.
As an addition, start preparing an error log and keep a note of all the mistakes you made and the lessons you learnt from the problems. This will ensure you do not make the same mistake again.
Make sure you complete all of the OG and the Verbal review and if required, you can buy the Question pack1 from mba.com
1. When do you plan to take the GMAT?
16 May 2016, 07:30
Kudos
Bookmarks
The Official Guide is a great book because it has official questions from past GMATs; however, there are not enough questions given about each topic to provide full exposure to all GMAT topics. Additionally, the questions are presented in a random order, so it’s challenging to use the OG for focused practice.
Furthermore, based on your practice scores, you may want to spend some additional time fully learning each GMAT topic before moving on to the OG. Thus, I would first find a study resource that allows you to learn a topic and then practice that topic until it completely sticks. For example, if you are learning about percents, you want to make sure you learn everything possible about percents, e.g., percent less than, percent greater than, variable percents, percent profit, percent change. After that, be sure that you practice a lot of questions (50 or more) just on percents. The results of that practice will help you to determine how well you have mastered that topic. Although this is just one example, you will want to follow this process for all topics tested on the GMAT.
Once you feel like you have learned all topics, then start practicing from the OG. At this stage you want to affirm that no “rust” has accumulated on the topics that you have studied. Set a timer for 30 minutes and do 15 questions in a row. After finishing, spend some time reviewing your wrong answers. Do some deep analysis of why your responses were incorrect, reviewing, if necessary, your notes concerning your weakest topics.
Furthermore, based on your practice scores, you may want to spend some additional time fully learning each GMAT topic before moving on to the OG. Thus, I would first find a study resource that allows you to learn a topic and then practice that topic until it completely sticks. For example, if you are learning about percents, you want to make sure you learn everything possible about percents, e.g., percent less than, percent greater than, variable percents, percent profit, percent change. After that, be sure that you practice a lot of questions (50 or more) just on percents. The results of that practice will help you to determine how well you have mastered that topic. Although this is just one example, you will want to follow this process for all topics tested on the GMAT.
Once you feel like you have learned all topics, then start practicing from the OG. At this stage you want to affirm that no “rust” has accumulated on the topics that you have studied. Set a timer for 30 minutes and do 15 questions in a row. After finishing, spend some time reviewing your wrong answers. Do some deep analysis of why your responses were incorrect, reviewing, if necessary, your notes concerning your weakest topics.
