Hi everyone,
Long time lurker here on the forums but this is my first post. I have always been of the idea that i can do anything myself without ever directly asking for help but rather doing research on my own and engineering an answer as i go. Well I'm glad to admit that the GMAT has finally broken this bad habit of mine.
I really need a GMAT experts idea on how to overcome my weaknesses and the score plato i am experiencing, especially with quant and CR verbal. So here is my story:
I took my first GMAT a very long time ago and got crushed, scored a 510. I thought i had prepared. I had not. I gave up and did not want to hear of this exam ever again. But still the thought would come up from time to time. Can i do it, can i score higher, what do i need to do to score higher. Ever since that time i have pushed all my friends to go pursue higher education, and they have, and i have not. So i finally decided. 2018 was going to be the year i would crack the GMAT and get into my favorite school. Target score: anything above 650 and i would be happy. I have a strong GPA and good career path but i am not a native English speaker.
I decided to go with
egmat for my prep. I did the whole course. I liked it and i would definitely recommend it but this is not a review of any prep company so lets leave it at that. I started my prep around May of this year, putting in several hours per day but until October i never thought of taking an actual mock test and i believe this was my downfall. I feel i wasted so much time just studying theory without even thinking about doing much practice.
My first free Gmat mock test and i scored a terrible 550. But that is not all. I DID NOT FINISH THE TEST. I was completely caught blindsided. I left unsolved 8 questions on quant and about 3 on verbal( after guessing another 3 before time ran out). But i still scored a 550. THIS got me thinking. I need to revise my priorities, I cant just try and solve every question right. The goal is to give your best shot at each question and finish. So i came up with a strategy that would allow me to keep track of my time and where should i be after approx 8 questions. I call it the grid strategy. I create a quick grid on a piece of paper and subtract 16 min increments from 62.
This tells me where i need to be after 8 questions 16 questions and so on.
This strategy partially worked for me. I took the second free gmat mock test a week after the first. I scored a 650 on it and i was feeling much better. At this point i decide i would give a try at the real thing. I picked a date and continued to study diligently. I could say this was a very heavy period of studying, much more intense than anything i had done before. I took additional mock tests from 800score (690 and 690) and veritas prep(600 and 600). I was getting mixed results but one thing is for sure i could not crack a q45 and a v35 consistently.
The real GMAT came by and I was calm and poised. I skipped over the IR and essay question and went straight for the kill. quant was not much different from what i had expected but i still managed to run out of time and guessed my last two questions. I feel i can do so much better but DS is really a struggle as i always try a math approach vs a logic approach. Verbal was ok, I only had to deal with 3 RC passages and I think this is what helped me get a v34. I did not do well AT ALL on RC and thats where i will be focusing for the next month or so. I ordered my ESR and i would love if someone could help me understand it better.
Please GMAT geniuses share your ideas with me.
Thanks,
Lendi