Hi,
I'm currently preparing to pass the GMAT in early February and have been spending the past couple days looking through the information on GMAT Club, Quora, GMAT, BeatTheGmat but I've been overwhelmed with the amount of information around.
I took the practice test with GMATPrep yesterday. I scored 580 with 2 IR, 35Q, 35V:
[*]I scored very poorly on the Integrated Reasoning section. I just took too much time trying to figure out what the data was showing, how to process it all, noticing what were the units, etc. Didn't realize there were tabs to the tables and that I could use the filter. I ran out of time after taking way too long at the start. It was pitiful, but I'm sure this can improve significantly.
[*]I scored poorly on the Quant section as well. It's kinda bad all around. There were quite a few easily avoidable mistakes with better pacing and less rush that I noticed. There were also some things noticeable deficiencies like power rules, percentages and ratios, basic geometry, number properties.
[*]In the verbal section, the vast majority was due to sentence correction mistakes. One of these was a very basic grammar mistake (subject -> verb), others were more subtle grammar rules. I think I had the bad strategy as I wasn't taking the time to eliminate choices but rather I was just going with my gut instinct. I finished about 10-15mn early.
I attached a sort of quick
error log for you to get a slightly better appreciation of what my weak areas are but overall, quant definitely needs some huge studying and improvement.
My question for you is what is the best approach given these scores? Am I going at it the right way?
I'm hoping to score around 700-720. I think that is reasonably feasible but maybe not?
I signed up for the exam in February so I can get a good 300hrs of studying in before taking the test (I can do about 20-25hrs per week). I might take it sooner if I can see some significant improvement. Is four months too much?
I ordered the
Manhattan books, I'm going to order the
OG guide soon. I've been thinking of going at it for a month mostly on the Quant section so I can take another practice test at the end of that month and gauge how well I progressed (I figure math might be the easiest to improve). I can dedicate 3 hrs on weekdays (in the evening) and 4 hrs on weekend days (in the morning).
What should I be looking to do RIGHT NOW in your opinion? Should I go through Khan Academy GMAT courses / find online structured course? Are the guides a good starting resource? Would it be worthwhile to go through a bootcamp or a course in person or find a tutor? At what point would this most worthwhile (early on -- right now?- or later on?)
I realize there might be a ton of questions like these all the time. Sorry to have opened an n'th thread of this type. Above all, thank you very much for your responses!