cazca wrote:
After paying a handsome $250 and scoring a measly 430 on my first official GMAT. I decided to actually study and put effort into it.
I've made my way through the Kaplan GMAT premier and have taken 4 practice test with embarrassing scores.
Q% / V% / Score
35% / 45% / 480
49% / 46% / 500
39% / 44% / 460
34% / 43% / 440
I don't really know how I can improve, as I have been studying for months now. I have been concentrating 90% of my effort on Quant improvement and feel like it's pointless. I understand the concepts, and while my recollection of formulas to help me aren't perfect yet, I can't see how I can improve.
The clock is my biggest enemy. I'll spend more time then I need on the problems in the beginning (still getting some wrong) and then I'll have to guess on the last 10 or so questions.
Any advice is appreciated and I can get more info or statistics to help pinpoint where I should go from here. I would love to take the test by the end of April at the latest.
Try to understand what GMAT actually anticipates from you. A score of 700 will place you at 90 percentile, that means you have to perform better than 90% of the test takers to achieve 700. During the whole preparation phrase you should check whether your knowledge of concepts tested on GMAT better than 90% peoples
It is advised to keep the clock away during initial phrase of preparation. No need to worry much about speed. It will automatically follow once the base of concepts became strong.
You haven't mentioned your target score. If you are seeking 700+, it will be better to concentrate on conceptual clarity ; This will take some time and you may not meet your April end deadline.
Quant :- keep all GMAT books aside for few days. Re-visit your school Math books. The list of concepts that GMAT tests is mentioned on page no 107 of
Official Guide 13th Edition. Go thru all the chapters pertaining to those concepts in those school mathematics books - Doing so will make your fundamentals clear. After finishing this task you can now move on to topicwise study
Problem Solving :- Go thru a math strategy guide of any reputed resource e.g. Kaplan, veritas, ManhattenGMAT etc. ( last one is recommended)
Data Sufficiency :- Although this point has amply covered in all above strategy books, it is still recommended to go thru a book dedicated for Data Sufficiency. (Nova's GMAT data sufficiency prep course is the only one i found in Indian Market). Such an book will teach you how DS questions are different from General Math questions and what different techniques are need to be applied to solve such questions.
CR :- Powerscores Critical Reasoning Bible (Strongly Recommended).
SC :- Manhattan SC Guide 4th Ed + Aristotle SC Grail. (Note that both books are complementary to each other)
Once finished these strategy guides, you can move on to practice. Do not forget to take 1st GMAT Prep Test after short practice. This will highlight the areas you still need to work on. For Practice their are enough practice question available on GMAT Club.
While going thru the concept building phrase, visit the blogs of
Magoosh,
e-GMAT, Veritas regularly. They are equally important resources.
On GMAT Club check
bb for evaluating good and bad resources,
Bunuel and souvik everything about mathematics, Follow
mikemcgarry, Verculas, Veritas prep karishma, Veritas prep Ron, Carcass, eGMAT for Verbal.
The last and perhaps the most important thing is
Error Log. Make sure every question you are solving is recorded in
error log and analyzed. Check my post in the forum
ds-trouble-help-analyze-ds-error-log-need-feedback-147407.html to know why
Error Log is important.
Best Luck!
Regards,
Abhijit.