My journey to MBA, starting in 510

Question

Hello guys,

First of all I'm gonna present myself, my Name is Daniel, I'm a European 25 years old man. I'm working in consulting in a Big Four Firm (EY, KPMG, Deloitte, PwC) with 2 years and a half of experience.

My goal is to reach 730+ in GMAT in order to apply at top B-schools in North America.

I plan to apply in 2019 or 2020 if needed, so I'm starting with GMAT these Christmas holidays.

2 weeks ago I did my first mock test at Gmat Official Prep and I scored a 520 (I just did Quant and Verbal, didn't try IR nor AWA). Note that I didn't prepare at all for it.

I read deeper in this forum and I established a 3 months plan in order to achieve my goal. My idea is from Monday to Friday dedicate between 1-2h daily, and 8h between Saturday and Sunday.

To get this, I bought OG, OG Quant Review and OG Verbal Review.

First think, is this a feasible plan?

Secondly, I'm a little lost about how to approach this. I mean, I start reading OG Quant, go deeper with OG Quant Review and then move to Verbal? Any help would be appreciated.

And last but not least, thanks everyone for reading, I'll be updating the post with my results

Thanks,

Daniel.

Thanks, Daniel.

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi Daniel, Welcome to GMATCLUB. You should dedicate around 3 months to improve your score. It’s a good thing you have taken a GMAT Mock once. You now know your weaknesses and work on them. If you are willing to study dedicatedly for that period, you are sure to achieve your goal. I think you need to solidify you base and adopt a proper technique to answer the questions. Please do not move on to the OG questions till the time you have solidified your base and are confident with your concepts. I believe you may benefit from taking a GMATPREP course. If you are willing, there are some great GMAT prep companies that can help you with your preparation. In order to make an informed decision I would highly encourage you to go to their websites and try on their free trial and decide for yourself which one do you like better. You try out free access to EmpowerGMAT, Magoosh and Optimus Prep as they have great reviews on GMATCLUB. Also for verbal, I would highly encourage you to consider e-gmat verbal online or the e-gmat verbal live course. They are both amazing courses especially designed for non-natives. They offer almost 25% of their courses for free so you can try out their free trial to decide which one you want to go for. Plus the e-gmat Scholaranium which is included in both the courses is one of the best verbal practice tools in the market. You can easily track your progress in that you can identify your strengths and analyze and improve on your weak areas. You can also try out the MGMAT guides they are phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus really well. Just by going through these guides and solving the OG will help you reach 600+.I must add that if you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in Quant; a subscription to GMATCLUB tests is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them. Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas. Further another advantage of taking many mocks is to build up your stamina. Apart from the GMATPREP tests, taking practise tests of any major GMATPREP company ought to do that. I would also encourage you to purchase GMATPREP QP 1 for some great additional practice. Here is a link that will help you with your decision. https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-ve ... ml?fl=menu Lastly, you can check out a very interesting article by Mike McGarry from Magoosh detailing a 3 month study plan https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/3-month-g ... -students/. You will find it very helpful as it gives out a study plan as per your needs. Hope this helps. All the best.

dgg93 · Answer

Thanks for your time Rohan,

According to your post and an overall read on different website, I'll try to approach Quant and Verbal as follows:

Quant:

1. Start with Math Foundation MGMAT. After reading, try to complete all the exercises. 
2. MGAT Quant Guides (6 books). After reading, try to complete all the exercises. 
3. All OG Quant exercises. 
4. Track record, try to get a 90% of correct answers and review wrong answers. 
5. Internet 700+ Questions (maybe e-GMAT)

Verbal:

1. Start with MGAT SC and RC guide. After reading, try to complete all the exercises. 
2. Verbal e-GMAT online course. 
3. Track record, try to get a 90% of correct answers and review wrong answers. 
4. Internet 700+ Questions

What do you think?

Really thanks for your answer.

Best, 
Daniel

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi Daniel,

Glad I could help out. Your plan looks good. With regard to practice questions, once you are done with OG, I would go for GMATCLUB Tests for Quant and QP 1 for verbal. It is always better to stick to official sources for verbal.

All the best!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Daniel,

A 520 is a solid initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 550 most years). Raising a 520 to the point that you can consistently score 730+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. You also appear to have given yourself plenty of lead-time to study before you apply to Business School - which is good.

Since there are a variety of different study materials that you could use, you can certainly start off with the materials that you have - although you will likely find it necessary to add some additional materials later. I suggest that you do 'some Quant and some Verbal' each week (as opposed to the "all of one, then all of the other" that you appear to be planning for). You'll likely find it easier to retain everything overall if you're working on a mix of subjects. With all of this lead-time, you have the freedom to approach this overall process however you like, but If you want to be efficient right from the start, then you might find it worthwhile to invest in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led), so you should plan to look into the available options.

I suggest that you study as you choose for the next 3 weeks, then take a new FULL-LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections) and report back with your scores. We can then discuss any adjustments that you might need to make to your study plan.

Beyond that, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for this initial CAT/mock?
2) When you say that you're planning to apply in 2019, do you mean Round 1 around September?

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

dgg93 · Answer

Thanks for your answer Rich, I really appreciate your time.

Answering your questions, 
1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for this initial CAT/mock? Q34 V28. Note that I had plenty of time left in Quant Section (almost 15-20 mins) and 1 min in Verbal.

2) When you say that you're planning to apply in 2019, do you mean Round 1 around September? Yes, R1 in September. In case I don't feel enough prepared for that time, I'll wait for R1 September 2020.

As a conclusion based on your comments (not only you, but Rohan), seems like with MGMAT and OG is 'enough' to get 650+, but will need additional sources to achieve my goal (730+). I plan to study all the MGMAT guides and OG in 2 months aprox (i'll choose between self-guide or instructor-led), and try to review errors and new concepts (650-730+ concepts) in the additional month. During these 3 months, also try to find good AWA templates and also practice some IR.

Really thanks for your info.

Best, 
David.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi dgg93,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Honestly, it’s difficult to say whether your current prep materials/study plan will be enough for you to hit your 730+ score goal (especially in only 3 months). Thus, the best thing you can do is objectively evaluate your progress so that, in the event that the prep books aren’t meeting your needs, you don’t end up overinvesting time in a resource that isn’t working for you. Give yourself about 6 weeks to see whether you’re improving. If not, then consider changing up your study materials.

Feel free to keep me updated about how things are going and reach out with any further questions. Also, you may find it helpful to read the following articles about  how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  and  how long to study for the GMAT .
.
Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Daniel,

There's nothing wrong with approaching this first phase of your studies in the way that you've described. No one here knows what you are capable of (as far as a GMAT Score is concerned), but many Test Takers who use a "book heavy" study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. Even the best books are limited in what they can teach you; they also can't force you to approach questions in a certain way and their explanations are often one-sided.

These days, the 650+ score is approximately the 75th percentile, so the idea that working through a set of books would be 'enough' to earn a Score that most Test Takers cannot hit is problematic. You might be able to do it - and you might even be able to score higher with that approach - but the overall historical data does not support that idea. Thankfully, you have given yourself plenty of lead-time, so working through these books first won't be a problem. You'll want to take practice CATs at regular intervals throughout your studies - and you should post back here with your Scores so that we can discus the results and how you might adjust your studies.

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

dgg93 · Answer

Thanks both for your answers, I really appreciate your time. 
I'll start study in 2 weeks, so I'll be coming back to post my advances.

Best, 
Daniel

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello, dgg93

Hi Daniel! Since we are specialized in math, we can advise you on math, you have just started on studying GMAT. It would be much easier for us to give you advice if we know your exact scores on verbal and Quant test.
Firstly, we believe that it is possible for you to achieve Q49-50 in 2-3 month. But in this case, you need an effective studying strategy to efficiently use your time. As ‘Verbal Test’ needs more time to improve on than ‘Quant’, we recommend you to focus on improving ‘Quant’ score. (Of course, you should also make a constant effort on studying verbal.) Based on our company’s data, most of the students who studied Quant 2-3 hours a day on average achieved their goal (Q49-50). Even if you only spend 2 hours studying GMAT, we believe that's achievable.

Assuming you study 2-3 hours per day and our video lesson hours are 55-75 hours at maximum, you may consider repeating the course to fully master it.
☞ Students with a score of 45-49 ==> 1-3 month
☞ Students with a score of 35-44 ==> 2-3 months.
☞ Students with a score of less than 34 ==> 2-5 months.

As a beginner and don’t have enough time, it is important to firstly set the basic and fundamental concepts of Quant. You can learn this on our ‘MATH REVIEW’ class. You should know math basics (arithmetic, algebra, geometry and word problem) to succeed. This is ideal for GMAT takers who want to learn very basic math or sharpen basic math concepts. Always refer back to this whenever you need to refresh the concepts. Also, focus on 5 key topics (Integer, Statistics, Inequality, Probability, and Absolute Value) that account for 80% of the GMAT exam.

Then, as for our method for improving quant score quickly, the best way is to focus on the DS type of quant problems first. You may save PS for later if you don’t have much time to study. (We have IVY approaches for PS) (Here is our analysis of GMAT quant trends to give you the most-up-to-date problem information. https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of-11809.html) Our ’Variable Approach’ for DS helps students answer questions correctly and save time significantly. On average, if lower than 45 points, our students improve +5 points on the quant and have about 10 minutes to spare before the math section ends. We apply ’variables–equations matching system’ to the DS questions, which is counting the number of variables and equations given in the question. By doing so, you can determine which answer choice will most likely be the answer.

We are also offering ‘OG 2015’, ‘OG 2016’, ‘OG2017’, on which we solve the questions using Variable approach for DS and IVY approach for PS.

Please let us know if you have further questions.
You can reach us at [email protected]

Success is within your reach,
Good luck!

smithdavid2321 · Answer

the best thing you can do is objectively assess your progress to make sure that, in case the prep books aren't meeting your requirements, you do not wind up overinvesting time in a source that isn't benefiting you. Offer on your own regarding 6 weeks to see whether you're boosting. Otherwise, then take into consideration altering your research study materials.

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