My GMAT Experience and additional help needed

Question

Hello,

I am a IT/M/India candidate with 5+ years work experience. My MBA journey started when I sent my CV for pre admission profile evaluations of many b schools I found out that GMAT score is very important for admissions in Top 20-30 rank college.

In May I started preparing but due to family issues, I had to postpone my GMAT from Sept 2011 to Nov 30th,2011.I atttended kaplan's classroom programme and also reffered to MGMAT books and online 6 practice tests. My score raned from 630 to 670. On GMAT Prep I scored 650. With a +-50 range from GMAT Prep I thought I would be close to my target and elusive 700 score.

But my big day didn't started well. I was continuously studing for past 7 days and slept around 2AM on Nov 31th. Then I woke up at 6:15AM, reached the test center at 8:30AM and was on the hotseat around 9AM. The starting two essay's went well (I was nervous about these two).

Then in Quant, After 10th question i got a question to distribute $200 in two people and tell what each gets and I knew I have bombed the exam. I knew I will have to come back. My final score of 44 reflected the same. I got a lot of Coordinate geometry and inequalities questions and as I didn't had much practice in these, I wasn't able to solve these.

Then i took the verbal and the sleepless nights crept in. I just couldn't concentrate. With no concentration and a very long RC, I got a 29 in Verbal section.

As I only want to go into the top 20-30's, I have decided to retake my exam (may be the decision was made while giving the exam itself). I don't believe in cancelling test scores so that was not a option. My big question is does age matter for FT programmes if I am not able to get in this year ?

My weak points : 
Coordinate >> please tell me what to cover and look at ? 
Inequalities >> No idea where to get the questions to practice on this

Verbal : 
I am good in RC/CR and SC but I would like to continue practice. I have completed the OG Verbal and found it to be easy. I would be digging into OG 12 for more exposure.

I plan to use SC 1000 and CR 1000 series to more practice. Are they are good for time I have in my hand (I plan to retake exam before Jan End,2012) ?

Books I used : 
MG SC Guide 
Kaplan Classroom programme 
GMAT PREP

Target Schools : 
HEC Paris, Schulich , Indiana, GA Tech, Terry (worst case scenario) and may be UC Irvine.

The worst thing that happened in all this is that my terms with my manager/organisation isn't good anymore. If I have to continue with my current job, I am sure it won't be fruitful(anyways he has refused to promote me since december,2010 ).Next big question : Should I continue with my current job?

Thank You !!

windofchange · Answer

You can refer to the GMATClub Math book here. This book covers almost all basic knowledge needed for the GMAT. I also read MGMAT Quant book for geometry, but this book is not as good as GC math book, in my opinion. I also realize that the knowledge tested is not complicated (as compared to what I studied in high school), so all we need is to master the concepts and we'll be fine. Agree. I also feel the same

You may want to look at the collection of GPrep CR and SC problems posted in the verbal forum. Quality is much more important than quantity. Doing tons of tons of problems without understanding the concepts will not get you to anywhere. You should spend sufficient time to review the problems and analyze why any answer choices are correct or incorrect. I was in this situation... Please don't quit your job because of GMAT! it's not a good idea at all! Are you sure that you will be able to improve your GMAT score when you leave your job? Sometimes this action may be counter productive. You may believe that spending as much time as possible may lead to a fruitful result, but things sometimes don't come as we expect. I have a friend who left job, spent the whole 2 months for the GMAT, but scored 610 in the real exam. this is to say you should think of all the possibilities that can occur... If i were you, I would try figuring out why my boss refused to promote me and then took action. The GMAT is important, but not everything; it is not an indicator of your intelligence. Your work experience also matters, too! Wish you good luck!

CaliCpa · Answer

Try the Jeff Sackmann sets related to inequalities and I would try Knewton for verbal. I thought both resources were great.

sandeeepsharma · Answer

you may try manhattan series ... i also raised my quant score using these books

nathandrake · Answer

thank you for your thoughts..I am taking toefl this weekend (which is providing me a much needed break)..I plan to start on preprations from coming Sunday..I will provide a update soon

nathandrake · Answer

So TOEFL is done..Its time for GMAT prep !!!

I have decided to be a bit more methodical and I will start with SC..Complete Aristrotle SC grail, then I will review MGMAt SC guide and then check E-gmat course for SC..

I should be able to complete Aristrotle SC grail by this weekend and then I will work on some practice questions for the site..

someone79 · Answer

Don't ever quit the job for taking GMAT. Make full use to sick leaves.

I think these are the most important topics for maths: Number properties Rate/Work problems Coordinate geometry/Line equation problems Series: Geometric(Exponential) + arithmetic series Even spaced series Try to change your approach. Previously, I was very slow in maths, but now I always complete the Q section much before time. What I do now is try to read the question and then read the answers. This helps me as I plan a approach keeping the answers in mind. Also, learn techniques to plug in the answer choices. Next time, sleep a lot before the exam. Start going to gym and relax a lot. I always take the exams at slots around 2PM so that I can have plenty of sleep and go to gym that day to de-stress myself. It's all about nerves, and I think a good sleep can get you 40-50 points advantage. How were you faring in the GMATprep's? Don't worry much about the age. The schools in Europe are much better in that terms.

nathandrake · Answer

Any material for Quant ? I plan to use GMAT Club tests..

And I am will definately not take a 9AM slot next time around..it really sucks..I am not a morning person..

bb · Answer

You want to get a slot that's most conducive to your performance. 
What was the actual score you got? 610?

You are a little on the lower side for your target schools in terms of the 80% GMAT spread and quite a bit below the average. I would recommend retaking and putting one last push into it (perhaps look for a course to address your weaknesses - there is a number of them for SC, CR, RC, etc specifically for less than $100 or 200.)

nathandrake · Answer

Thanks bb..I plan to up my score this time around from 600 (Q44, V29)..I am looking at e-gmat right now and am tempted by free GMAT club tests

someone79 · Answer

Make your body clock work for you. Don't fight it. If 2 PM works for you, then go for it.

You can improve both in verbal and in quant. I found the Advanced MGMAT Quant book very useful, but I can say that GMATCLUB's maths questions are also very helpful. You should cover all the Maths books from MGMAT as they are really good. This time try to focus both on questions and answers. GMAT maths is very easy, but you need to practice a lot. There are set patterns and this is where doing a lot of questions help.

Let me know which books you referred to for verbal as I can suggest you a few. I had real problems with verbal in the beginning as I never paid any attention to grammar - never needed it for becoming an engineer, but now I can easily spot errors in most of the English Newspapers and Websites in U.S.

Don't get side-tracked by the age issue. One more thing, I took Red Bull this time and rather than helping me, it made my head spin a little. So if you plan to use it, try it on your practice tests. Due to working in software field for long time, my eyes get dry a lot so I took some eye drops ( Refresh Plus) to the test and used then in each break. By the time the verbals come, my eyes are always red due to dryness, so I try to finish the quant ahead of time and don't submit the last question. I use this time to close my eyes for 10-15 minutes. All in all, try to find out what bothers you during the test. This you can do by taking full length tests. Timing is very important and GMAT WILL TRY to upset you. Don't bother. I think I failed to achieve my target score due to paucity of time in the last 12 verbal questions. I got a passage of more than 600 or 700 words, and that upset my rhythm and the fact that I got 12A(13) number terminal, which did upset me in the beginning. I will try again to beat this "monster" GMAT.

Have full run of tests and take all the sections, including the AWA. This will take care of a lot of your test day anxiety. One more thing: tell yourself 100 times that GMAT can be taken again without too much of delay. It will help ward off the test day anxiety.

nathandrake · Answer

Thank you for your advice..I have started taking e-gmat course and once its complete..I will decide on my progress and my Second Big date..

Also I too got a very long passage around 10-12 para's ..may be its something new for the GMAT

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