Need a concrete study plan for my 3rd(and final) attempt at the GMAT

Question

Hi everyone! So I'm going to give my 3rd GMAT on december 5th 2017 and I'm not sure how else to tweak or improve my study plan! here are the score split-ups for my first 2 attempts ( which I gave in August and then in October respectively) GMAT 1: Total 710, Quants 50 , Verbal 36, IR 2, AWA 4.5 GMAT 2: Total 690

, Quants 48, Verbal 36, IR 5, AWA 6 I did self-prep for the first 2 takes( primarily used Manhattan guides, GMAT club tests and OG). I have even exhausted my resources ( my GMAT club verbal tests are over!). I concentrated way too much on verbal ( mainly SC) for my 2nd take, and I was shocked to see that my verbal score remained the same and my Quant score went down. If I need to put myself in atleast a decent position for my target schools, I'll need a 770 or atleast a 760 on the GMAT. I was pretty frustrated after my second attempt fiasco, so I went ahead and bought( or shall I say, cut my pockets even deeper!) the ESR report by GMAC for my second attempt. Don't exactly know how to interpret it though. Its all percentiles! no absolute values. Anyhow, can anyone here suggest how I should go about my prep for the 3rd attempt? I want to be done with the GMAT on this last attempt! Do let me know if you need any other info.

stoiczoan · Answer

Hi,
1) Can you also provide all GMAT Prep Test scores along with splits
2) In Verbal which section is best for you and which one is worst in general?
3) Have you maintained an error log for your prep?

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ThatKickassGirl · Answer

Thanks for replying stoiczoan I took the 2 GMAT prep tests that are free in the GmatPrep software; 1st I took in the beginning of my my GMAT prep ( way before my first attempt) GMATPrep 1 : OA 500 Q- 39, V- 20 IR- 3 2nd test I took just the week before my first attempt GMATPrep 2 : OA 650 Q- 47, V32, IR- 5 In general I thought I was weak in SC and strong in CR and can handle RC well. But after seeing my ESR for the 2nd attempt, it seems as though I'm good at SC and weak in CR . Although I should say, while prepping for the second time, I focused a lot on SC and got quite good at it and just reviewed CR(because I thought I was good). While giving my 2nd GMAT, I felt confident about SC and RC but, CR seemed-fishy? ( I couldn't figure out whether I did well or bad

). My time management in Verbal and Math was bad- I started guessing the last 8 or so questions. And yes, I have maintained an error log for my prep. A detailed one at that. I just noticed I have good detailed error log for Math and SC, But not that detailed for CR and RC. There's definitely some log for each question type though. anything you'd want to know from my ESR?

stoiczoan · Answer

Thanks for the info.
Here's my diagnosis and suggested next steps -

1) The Q score looks good, but I'd suggest don't completely skip it since GMAT is a lot about "training the mind and keeping it sharp & fresh" - so from now till your next GMAT, 20-25% of prep time should be on Quant - keep doing questions (specially 700 level), revising concepts etc.

2) As you can probably see yourself, focusing on SC has helped you improve on it. That's how it works on all sections. CR in my opinion is a trickier section, has fewer questions than SC on the GMAT but I feel those questions may be of higher difficulty and therefore more rewarding to get right. Also, I've seen a few situations where the candidate thinks that they are good at CR but still make many mistakes on the test. (I was one of them)
Reevaluate your CR strategy, and understand "why" you're making those mistakes? Is it a particular type of question? Do you always know what the "conclusion" is? You need to repeat the effort you made in SC with CR. (Also with RC if needed?)

3) Time Management - once the topics have been studied and question-solving strategies decided, time management can help maximize potential score. You say that you rushed through the last 8 questions on your GMAT.. why was that? How do you keep time during the exam? What's the strategy?

4) I'd strongly recommend getting GMAT Prep Exam Packs 1 and 2. These will have 2 tests each (so a total of 4) and can help you gauge your prep levels as you gear up for December. (Maybe start with 1, and get the other later if needed).

5) We are 5 weeks away from the test, so that's a good chunk of time to upgrade your level on CR etc, fine-tune time management strategies, and take a couple of GMAT Prep tests along the way to practice.

saswata4s · Answer

Your ESR will show your performance in different areas. Identify your weakest area and start preparing to improve your weakness.

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