Need help! Scored a miserable 350 on my first diagnostics exam.

Hi sgiraldo2016,

You should study for around three months to achieve a good score. . It’s a good thing you have taken your GMAT 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 believe you may benefit from taking a GMATPREP course.

Your choice of using MGMAT guides for your preparation is great. MGMAT guides are phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus really well. 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.

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.

Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have a 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 the latest version of OG and the verbal review for some great additional practice. Here is a link that will help you with your decision.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-ve ... 68383.html

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.

EMPOWERgmatRichC

1) I don't mind taking a gap year from school, I plan on studying from around late May until late August or early September so Ill be taking the exam in September. If I have to take a full year off then I will and I will use that time to work and volunteer.

2) Some of the schools id like to attend would be the University of Florida, University of Alabama, Baylor University, or University of South Carolina. My goal is to get into a top 100 school obviously getting into a top 50 would be amazing but Im also trying to be realistic.

3) Im willing to spend anywhere between 32-40 hours a week studying, whatever is necessary for me to reach my target score.

rohan2345 QZ
Thank you for the information, I will look into your suggestions.

I was planning on studying without the use of any classes. Do you suggest I invest in some courses given my low score, or am i fine with an offline self study plan?

Hi
A score of 350 without any preparation is not bad. Now you know the areas you need to work on and your strengths. Focus on Quant first. Study from the MGMAT guides. They are good and will definitely increase your score. After you are done with the theory start solving questions from the OG. Dedicate time for each question and know where you are doing wrong. Take timed practice.After you are confident you can appear for another prep test and know where you stand.

Hi,

In my very personal opinion, you don't need anything other than GMAT club to score at least 550 or may be 600, if you dedicatedly study on GMAT club. Start with GC quant book and GC grammar book. Brush up your basics from there. As your Verbal score is quite impressive in comparison to Quant, work hard on the latter. Start from https://gmatclub.com/forum/quantitative-7/ for Quant questions in order of increasing difficulty. For Verbal start from here, https://gmatclub.com/forum/verbal-11/, the same way. As you know your weaknesses, prepare the topics accordingly. You can buy MANHATTAN guides for concepts of both Q & V.

For quant follow: Bunuel, VeritasKarishma, Stonecold, GMATprepnow, EmpowerRichC

For Verbal follow: GMATNinja, Sayantanc2k, Daagh, skywalker, Souvik101990

QZ

Hi sgiraldo2016,

Happy to help. Given your low score, it will be great if you can find a course that helps you solidify your base. Well designed online courses do a great job with helping the students do that before moving to advance topics. You can also look at Manhattan Foundation of GMAT math and Foundation of GMAT verbal as both are very well designed guides to help you solidify your base.

Hope this helps. All the best.

Hi sgiraldo2016,

Based on what you've described about your current 'math skills', you might want to put some work in (re)learning the specific math subjects that appear in the Quant section of the GMAT before you start a formal GMAT Study Plan.

For free math practice and help, I recommend that you set up an account at Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org). The site is completely free and makes the learning a bit more fun and 'game-like' (as opposed to the dry academic approach taken by most books). While the site is vast, you should limit your studies to basic Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. After spending a little time re-building those skills, you can start your GMAT studies.

When it comes to studying for the GMAT, there are a variety of different options. Most GMAT Companies offer some type of free materials (practice problems, Trial Accounts, videos, etc.) that you can use to 'test out' a product before you buy it. We have a variety of those resources at our website (www.empowergmat.com). I suggest that you take advantage of all of them then choose the one that best matches your personality, timeline and budget.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

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

Hi Guys,

Ive spent the last few weeks researching everything I need to know regarding the GMAT.
I have attached a file of a study guide I found online; I would like to know if this study guide is effective and efficient enough to reach my NEW target score of 670-680.

RESOURCES
Manhattan Prep Strategy Guides (All 9, latest edition)
OG books (All 3, 13th edition)
and just recently added the Manhattan Prep Foundations of Math, I don't believe I need the Foundations of Verbal.

I am graduating on May 4th and will travel to the west coast for a one week vacation to visit some national parks.
I plan on starting my journey the first week of June.
Again I have no timeline and don't plan on going to graduate school for at least a year or two.
So, basically my dilemma is finding the correct way to study, using ONLY the materials I have listed. Which is why I have attached the file, so some of you can critique it for me.
Should I read the MGMAT books in order? Should I separate them by quant and verbal (1 month Q, 1 Month V)?
After understanding the concepts from the MGMAT books should I do some questions from the MGMAT book and then refer to the OG books?
I will use other resources such as the GMATclub.com, GMAT Club Math book, etc for help.

Also since my quant score is so low, should I start going through some Khanacademy games and reading the foundations of math book BEFORE I start my studies?

Thank you for all the help!