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bikingrules
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) Updated on: 20 May 2010, 18:57
Originally posted by bikingrules on 15 Apr 2010, 15:07.
Last edited by bikingrules on 20 May 2010, 18:57, edited 1 time in total.
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I believe I could have guessed and scored higher than my 460 I just did 2 hours ago (Q 33; V 20). Terrible. I have never gotten that low on a my verbal testing. I don't need an 800, and on practice exams from GMATPrep I scored a 530 on my first test with zero practice so my goal was 600+ if I could hack it. I have the OG12, Kaplan GMAT 800, and Princeton Cracking the GMAT. Was it just sucky coincidence getting a 460 since I had always done better on practice questions? I really felt like I knew it better than even the mid-500 mark...

I plan on retaking it in about a month. Just curious if there are any parts of this forum I should start focusing on. I have messed around on here for the past couple weeks but always find information I never knew was here.. so there is probably more I don't know about. I just want to get my 600+ and move on!

Thanks, let me know what I can do, I know there are a million different opinions but some of you might know someone (or yourself) who has done the same thing I just did.
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) 15 Apr 2010, 15:46
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1. You need the follow materials:
MGMAT RC Guide
MGMAT SC or PowerScore SC
MGMAT CR or PowerScore CR
all of the Manhattan books (math) 5 total

2. The Princeton Crack the GMAT guide, which I have, gives bad advice in my opinion and should only be used as a AWA guide and data sufficiency.

3. You need more than a month of preparation, you need to spend 2 weeks studying each part.

4. After you get the basics down and near the end of your prep, do more practice tests.
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) 15 Apr 2010, 17:16
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You had a terrible book combination and ended up wasting time. Sorry :(
See this thread for some book combinations: top-gmat-prep-books-guides-reviews-comments-77703.html
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) 15 Apr 2010, 20:35
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I agree with bb. Your have not given sufficient time to hone your basics in Quant and Verbal.

I personally believe that you should re-take the GMAT after 2-3 months only. Prepare your self and go through your basics. According to me, CRACK THE GMAT is a wonderful book provided you used it with correct method and with correct supporting books. Go through the book review provided by 'bb' in the previous post and buy the relevant ones.

I bought Manhattan SC, Manhattan-Maths series, OG 12, Crack the GMAT and some supporting question banks.
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) 16 Apr 2010, 18:22
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i agree with others that you should A. get the MGMAT books and B. DELAY your testing for at least a month or 2. It seems your goal is 600ish so it wont be "impossible" if you just focus for 2 months and get the basics. Taking next month is a bad bad idea especially it seems you dont have a solid understanding of verbal and your math need a bit of improvement. If you really have to take it in a month then it is still possible but you have to put a lot of time into it and learn the basics asap.
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) 20 May 2010, 14:47
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I am sorry but I did not listen to you guys on postponing the test. I think I was signing up as I wrote that first post. I took it again today (one month later), and nailed a 650. I grabbed the manhattan SC, which does a great job but I was still getting some wrong up until yesterday. I also looked at the CR Bible by powerscore. I read the few sections of the CR Bible that it mentions being tested most often. This really helps out in allowing you to identify premises vs assumptions vs conclusions and that's what the key is to the CR questions (at least I think so).

First test I also got 5s on the AWA. Not sure if that works out to a 4 and a 6 or two 5s but either way, I did it following the basic guides set up by a few people here. The essays today also seemed to go pretty well. Let's hope the rest of my app gives me the green light.

Thanks for all the help on this forum. There are a lot of great resources here, though I could have used them to my advantage a little more.
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) 20 May 2010, 15:00
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bikingrules
I am sorry but I did not listen to you guys on postponing the test. I think I was signing up as I wrote that first post. I took it again today (one month later), and nailed a 650. I grabbed the manhattan SC, which does a great job but I was still getting some wrong up until yesterday. I also looked at the CR Bible by powerscore. I read the few sections of the CR Bible that it mentions being tested most often. This really helps out in allowing you to identify premises vs assumptions vs conclusions and that's what the key is to the CR questions (at least I think so).

First test I also got 5s on the AWA. Not sure if that works out to a 4 and a 6 or two 5s but either way, I did it following the basic guides set up by a few people here. The essays today also seemed to go pretty well. Let's hope the rest of my app gives me the green light.

Thanks for all the help on this forum. There are a lot of great resources here, though I could have used them to my advantage a little more.
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congrats, but if you would have listened to us you prop would have cracked 700
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My terrible "experience" (460 to 650 - 1 month) 20 May 2010, 18:50
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I can probably agree with you on that.... but deadline was also today for applications so there was no way around that for me except to wait another 8 months.
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