AmberAngelie wrote:
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
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.
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.
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