How to help this girl out

Question

Hello everyone!

My name is Amber and I am a student from The Netherlands. This will be my first time preparing and taking a GMAT exam, and I only need to get a minimum of 550 for the GMAT in order to apply for a specific university. Although I didn't find math difficult in high school, I am now struggling with some of the HARD problem solving questions and almost every data sufficiency questions from the GMAT Official Guide.This really upset me because I used to be 'good' in math. I also get almost every HARD verbal question wrong - whether it's critical reasoning, reading comprehension or sentence correction.

I am studying from September and I am planning to take the Online GMAT exam a few days before Christmas. However, at this point, I am not sure what to do anymore, as I fail to answer a lot of questions. I know some people try their best to get a score of 700, but here I am hoping that I get 550..

Does anybody know what is the best thing to do for me? Or are there any resources I can use in order to improve answering the quantitative and verbal questions?

Thank you so much everyone!

Wish you all the best

Kind regards,

Amber

Russ19 · Answer

Hello, Amber!

This is extremely important to complete concepts for verbal and quant, so you can go through the manhattan prep strategy guides at first. You can also enroll in an online platform in which you can have video lessons. Finally, you can practice OG problems with the timer at the gmat club. I suggest the following things for you:

1. Manhattanprep strategy guides (to master concepts)

2. OG-20 and 21( to practice real gmat questions)

https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmac-officia ... ml?fl=menu

3. PowerScore Bible for CR

4. LSAT PowerScore Bible for RC

See the YouTube videos of GMATNinja and read his articles. Attempt questions from the link below and read the explanations of AndrewN, EMPOWERgmatRichC, and IanStewart, and follow them.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/search.php?view=search_tags

See the video explanations to all Official GMAT Guides for quant from the link: https://gmatquantum.com/official-guides/

Good luck with your journey!

globaldesi · Answer

Did you give any mock? I would suggest first give out a mock. They are available a MA.com (1st two are free for everyone). Take one amongst them and see where you stand now.
Then focus on test completion in the given time. also practice questions under time pressure. Take mocks

mag3184 · Answer

Hey Amber! I found Target Test Prep to be the most comprehensive for quant with LOTS of practice problems. Also more affordable. I literally went through like 3 different test prep courses + 2 tutors and finally came across target test prep and it's life changing.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Thursdays with Ron is the best material to reach your goal. Try to watch those videos from youtube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTQlKd ... /playlists

nightblade354 · Answer

You cite everyone under the sun and cite every resource, but you don't include me or my guides? Hmmm, I'm starting to think I should take this personally

Amber, best of luck and welcome to the club! You can easily get to 550; you can get to 700 as well, though it will take more studying time. But know that anyone can get a 700 with enough time and determination. Also, see here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/need-advice- ... l#p2409231

unraveled · Answer

If you are targeting 550, you probably don't even need to worry about the hard question. What i mean is that in the exam someone who has scored 550 probably has not got even a single 700+ level SC/CR question. But what matters more is that you try to be as accurate as possible in 600 and sub-600 level question - from an exam/scoring point of view. However, to improve your accuracy you need to learn the approach that can best be done only by understanding/doing/solving the 700+ level questions.

So, if you are not getting 550 at this stage, then you have some concepts gap which is a must for anyone to get their desired target score. As rightly said by someone that you need to first give an official mock to know where you stand, you should analyse that mock to know your further course of action.
Material wise Manhattan SC guide is good for concepts. For CR/RC refer GMATNinja's video series or nightblade's CR guide. Thursdays with Ron video series is good to start with for all 3 sections.

Take a mock and then come back.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Regarding prep courses, in addition to seeking advice in this thread, take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for  the best quant  and  verbal courses , and also read through some  GMAT success stories  to see what materials have worked well for other test-takers.

Also, here are some helpful articles:

The Phases of Preparing for the GMAT

How to Learn More, Learn Faster, and Retain More Knowledge While Preparing for the GMAT

Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Amber,

To start, with a Score Goal of 550, you do NOT need to correctly answer ANY questions that you think are too hard or too weird, but you do have to keep the little mistakes to a minimum on everything else. In even simpler terms, you should not be working on any 'hard' or '700-level' questions right now, since they're not what you need to correctly answer to hit 550+.

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your practice CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) When is your exact Test Date? Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
5) What application deadlines are you facing?

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

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Consider going through the in-house gmatclub mathguide (it's free)

pepperbert91 · Answer

Take one amongst them and see where you stand now.

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Amber,

The sooner you try to finish it, the longer it takes. Most of the students look to finish off their prep soon and practice 700 level questions in a misconception that practicing 700 level questions will help them get t a 700+ score. But the trick here is, GMAT is an adaptive test. To get to a level of 700, you need to get the easy-medium questions right that is 500 and 600 level questions right. And to get that, you need to have a strong conceptual understanding and use the right methodologies to solve questions. Once you are comfortable with these two, you don't have to worry about the difficulty level of the question.

Quant: 
The concepts tested on quant are the same that you learnt in the school level. But it is not the concepts that are tested on GMAT. You have to be good with the application of concepts. There are certain question types which are tested on GMAT from each topic. So, if you know those question types, learn the right methodology to solve those question types, then you will likely score well on GMAT quant.

Verbal: 
Verbal questions can be very tricky if you do not use the right methodologies to solve questions. Test makers often use close words to frame similar answer choices. So, if you do not have good conceptual knowledge and use the right methodology, then there are high chances that you will get stuck between two answer choices.

To use the right methodology, you need to first understand what is the purpose of the each module on Verbal. Let me give you a brief idea by explaining it from the perspective of Sentence Correction module.

Sentence Correction: 
If you are in a misconception that the SC questions test your grammatical knowledge, then you're wrong. SC questions test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. You might often come across answer choices which are grammatically correct and even convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect. So, it is important to identify the intended meaning of the original sentence and then eliminate answer choices which are grammatically incorrect and which do not convey a logical meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM

The path forward: 
So, the best thing to do now is look for a standard resource which can help you with the concepts and methodology and provide you with standard questions to practice. And as you are planning to take the test by Christmas, I would suggest you to make a  proper study plan with clear deadlines . By following a study plan, you will exactly know what to study on a particular day.

And if you need any suggestions for the course, I would suggest you to check the free trial of GMATWhiz online course. The best thing is you can get your  personalized study plan for free  by signing up for the free trial. And if you need any help regarding how to strategize your prep in a better way, you can get in touch with me over a call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

AmberAngelie · Answer

Hello  sjuniv32 !

I am not sure how to reply to your message but I'm hoping I do it correctly. However, thank you so much for your message! It means a lot to me! I haven't tried any of the resources you mentioned, but I will immediately look for them!

Thank you so much.

With greetings from The Netherlands,

Amber

AmberAngelie · Answer

How can I reply to all of your messages?

vamshikaithi · Answer

Hey Amber, Just click on the "Quote" button below the post you wish to respond. And I see that you are looking to improve your score. You can go through my debrief of my journey from 570 to 720. You might find it helpful. https://gmatclub.com/forum/my-journey-f ... l#p2648110

	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $79 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $325 $200 Discount + $79 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

How to help this girl out

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards