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May 0510:00 AM PDT
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GMAT Inequalities is a high-frequency topic in GMAT Quant, but many students struggle because the concepts behave differently from standard algebra. Understanding the right rules, patterns, and edge cases can significantly improve both speed and accuracy.- May 06
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In Episode 3 of our GMAT Ninja Critical Reasoning series, we tackle Discrepancy, Paradox, and Explain an Oddity questions. You know the feeling: the passage gives you two facts that seem completely contradictory.... - May 08
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30 Apr 2018, 12:21
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Hello everybody,
First of all, Gmat Club is very helpful for my preparation, so I would like to thank the founders and the people who contribute daily to make this website a true gold mine. Good job guys!
I am writing this post today to ask for your help, because I have the feeling to be a little bit lost in my preparation. I would like to take the test around the 25th of June, since the application deadline of the Master I aim to join is on the 1st of July. The Master's program asks for a score of 600 but I am aiming for 650, just to be sure.
My preparation started in May 2016. I have to say that Mathematics has never been my best asset in or before high-school and after, I barely had the opportunity to practice my skills. So when I started training for the GMAT, I had the feeling to start from scratch. Also, I am French. I improved my English level mostly thanks to series, movies, music, and an exchange program of one year. As you can see, I mostly trained my speaking level but not really my reading skills. So you can imagine that I had a lot of fun when I first started with the Reading Comprehension and the Critical Reasoning parts ...
In that particular month of May 2016, I decided to take private lessons. I received the 8 strategy guides of Manhattan Prep and started studying. In my opinion, these sessions would have been more productive if I had mastered the basic concepts from the very beginning. I felt that it was a bit of a waist since I was only reviewing the basics. After 1 month, I continued the preparation alone and purchased the Manhattan CAT's (the order is reversed):
CAT EXAM #4A Completed 12/17/2016 Score: 570
CAT EXAM #3A Completed 12/15/2016 Score: 620
CAT EXAM #2A Completed 12/13/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #1A Completed 12/10/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #6 Completed 12/07/2016 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #5 Completed 12/04/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #4 Completed 11/30/2016 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #3 Completed 11/27/2016 Score: 570
CAT EXAM #2 Completed 11/25/2016 Score: 460
CAT EXAM #1 Completed 03/08/2016 Score: 400
I remember that my strategy was very poor. I barely used an error log and reviewed my mistakes. I was happy when I had the correct answer and I was simply ''moving on'' when I had a bad answer, without paying much attention to the correction. What a fool I was. And I paid the price on the test day, in the end of December 2016, because I scored 470. I was shocked and knocked-out because I thought I was ready. I do not remember the exact scores of quant and verbal.
I did the half of the CATs in full length. Moreover, I think I remembered some questions and answers from previous CATs so I think the scores were not that accurate.
After this experience, I stopped with the GMAT for 3 months. In april 2017, I studied briefly for the the GMAT: I wanted to go back at it, but I had lost motivation. I took another CAT:
CAT EXAM #5A Completed 04/23/2017 Score: 480
After that score appeared on my screen, I was sad and disappointed. '' The GMAT is not for me'', was I telling myself. I decided to forget about the GMAT, and to find a solution for myself and my career. At that time, I was working full-time in a warehouse in order to pay my expenses, but the job was demanding and it was difficult to stay focused during the study sessions. I thought that it was time for me to find a more interesting job in a company, in which I would be able to grow. Despite my good will and a few months of research, the reality was totally different and I had hard time finding a company. I reevaluated my strategy and thought that, even though the GMAT was tough, it would give me access to a new level in my career and to my dreams. So in January 2018, I was back at it:
I started with the GMAT prep and I scored 580.
I continued my preparation with the SC Guide and the Quant books of Manhattan Prep.
CAT EXAM #6B Completed 03/24/2018 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #5B Completed 03/23/2018 Score: 540
Veritas Prep: 600
CAT EXAM #4B Completed 03/21/2018 Score: 560
CAT EXAM #3B Completed 03/18/2018 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #2B Completed 03/16/2018 Score: 550
CAT EXAM #1B Completed 03/11/2018 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #6A Completed 03/08/2018 Score: 620
During 3 months, I studied full time, between 6 and 12 hours a day. I had an error log this time and was regularly re-doing the wrong exercises. I have to say that I spent a lot of time on the Quant. I understood most of the concepts but i had ( and still have) troubles mostly with Rate/Time/Work problems (even though i read carefully the posts related to the topics on this website and on others), Combinatorics.
On the verbal side, my strength is the Sentence Correction. For Critical Reasoning, I read the PowerScore, knew the strategies for each question type and practiced my skills but my accuracy was not good, especially in ''weaken'' questions and ''draw a conclusion''. I was also timing myself a lot while practicing questions from the OG 12 and the OG from 2016.
I took my second GMAT on the 27th of March. I was stressed the day before but not really on the D-Day. I had reviewed all my mistakes a couple of times but I still was not ready on some concepts (those I mentioned earlier).
I started with the Quant part: the beginning was tough and that were questions I never saw in my training, but then the test adjusted to my level and I felt more confident. Nevertheless, the verbal part tricked me. I thought that the SC questions were a bit tougher than usually and I lost a lot of time of RC texts. This timing problem costed me a lot: I had to skip several questions (especially CR questions) and I was stressing.
I finished my test and a mere 530 appeared on the screen. I could do better so I decided to invalidate the score. I am sure it was a 41 in quant, and I think it was a 24/25 in verbal.
So basically, here I am, again in the game to reach that 600+. I started studying again for 10 days and I finished the SC guide once again. Until then, I was following the Ultimate Verbal Study Plan 2017, since I think I have to focus more on the verbal. I started the PowerScore for RC and planned to be more focused this time, to not miss anything.
What changed in my strategy now is that I pay more attention to wrong answers, I want to understand why an answer choice is wrong instead of directly looking for the right one.
To improve my reading comprehension skills, I am reading books and articles, while keeping in mind the subtleties of RC questions.
Now I think you know everything, guys. So I would like to know if some of you have advices for me? What kind of study plan would fit me the best? Maybe there is something in my preparation that I clearly missed and that you guys would find obvious? I also read some posts about Mindfulness, stress management during the important day. I am working on that but I think that it is not the only think I could improve.
Thanks in advance for your help and keep going guys, you're great!
Raphael
First of all, Gmat Club is very helpful for my preparation, so I would like to thank the founders and the people who contribute daily to make this website a true gold mine. Good job guys!
I am writing this post today to ask for your help, because I have the feeling to be a little bit lost in my preparation. I would like to take the test around the 25th of June, since the application deadline of the Master I aim to join is on the 1st of July. The Master's program asks for a score of 600 but I am aiming for 650, just to be sure.
My preparation started in May 2016. I have to say that Mathematics has never been my best asset in or before high-school and after, I barely had the opportunity to practice my skills. So when I started training for the GMAT, I had the feeling to start from scratch. Also, I am French. I improved my English level mostly thanks to series, movies, music, and an exchange program of one year. As you can see, I mostly trained my speaking level but not really my reading skills. So you can imagine that I had a lot of fun when I first started with the Reading Comprehension and the Critical Reasoning parts ...
In that particular month of May 2016, I decided to take private lessons. I received the 8 strategy guides of Manhattan Prep and started studying. In my opinion, these sessions would have been more productive if I had mastered the basic concepts from the very beginning. I felt that it was a bit of a waist since I was only reviewing the basics. After 1 month, I continued the preparation alone and purchased the Manhattan CAT's (the order is reversed):
CAT EXAM #4A Completed 12/17/2016 Score: 570
CAT EXAM #3A Completed 12/15/2016 Score: 620
CAT EXAM #2A Completed 12/13/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #1A Completed 12/10/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #6 Completed 12/07/2016 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #5 Completed 12/04/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #4 Completed 11/30/2016 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #3 Completed 11/27/2016 Score: 570
CAT EXAM #2 Completed 11/25/2016 Score: 460
CAT EXAM #1 Completed 03/08/2016 Score: 400
I remember that my strategy was very poor. I barely used an error log and reviewed my mistakes. I was happy when I had the correct answer and I was simply ''moving on'' when I had a bad answer, without paying much attention to the correction. What a fool I was. And I paid the price on the test day, in the end of December 2016, because I scored 470. I was shocked and knocked-out because I thought I was ready. I do not remember the exact scores of quant and verbal.
I did the half of the CATs in full length. Moreover, I think I remembered some questions and answers from previous CATs so I think the scores were not that accurate.
After this experience, I stopped with the GMAT for 3 months. In april 2017, I studied briefly for the the GMAT: I wanted to go back at it, but I had lost motivation. I took another CAT:
CAT EXAM #5A Completed 04/23/2017 Score: 480
After that score appeared on my screen, I was sad and disappointed. '' The GMAT is not for me'', was I telling myself. I decided to forget about the GMAT, and to find a solution for myself and my career. At that time, I was working full-time in a warehouse in order to pay my expenses, but the job was demanding and it was difficult to stay focused during the study sessions. I thought that it was time for me to find a more interesting job in a company, in which I would be able to grow. Despite my good will and a few months of research, the reality was totally different and I had hard time finding a company. I reevaluated my strategy and thought that, even though the GMAT was tough, it would give me access to a new level in my career and to my dreams. So in January 2018, I was back at it:
I started with the GMAT prep and I scored 580.
I continued my preparation with the SC Guide and the Quant books of Manhattan Prep.
CAT EXAM #6B Completed 03/24/2018 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #5B Completed 03/23/2018 Score: 540
Veritas Prep: 600
CAT EXAM #4B Completed 03/21/2018 Score: 560
CAT EXAM #3B Completed 03/18/2018 Score: 590
CAT EXAM #2B Completed 03/16/2018 Score: 550
CAT EXAM #1B Completed 03/11/2018 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #6A Completed 03/08/2018 Score: 620
During 3 months, I studied full time, between 6 and 12 hours a day. I had an error log this time and was regularly re-doing the wrong exercises. I have to say that I spent a lot of time on the Quant. I understood most of the concepts but i had ( and still have) troubles mostly with Rate/Time/Work problems (even though i read carefully the posts related to the topics on this website and on others), Combinatorics.
On the verbal side, my strength is the Sentence Correction. For Critical Reasoning, I read the PowerScore, knew the strategies for each question type and practiced my skills but my accuracy was not good, especially in ''weaken'' questions and ''draw a conclusion''. I was also timing myself a lot while practicing questions from the OG 12 and the OG from 2016.
I took my second GMAT on the 27th of March. I was stressed the day before but not really on the D-Day. I had reviewed all my mistakes a couple of times but I still was not ready on some concepts (those I mentioned earlier).
I started with the Quant part: the beginning was tough and that were questions I never saw in my training, but then the test adjusted to my level and I felt more confident. Nevertheless, the verbal part tricked me. I thought that the SC questions were a bit tougher than usually and I lost a lot of time of RC texts. This timing problem costed me a lot: I had to skip several questions (especially CR questions) and I was stressing.
I finished my test and a mere 530 appeared on the screen. I could do better so I decided to invalidate the score. I am sure it was a 41 in quant, and I think it was a 24/25 in verbal.
So basically, here I am, again in the game to reach that 600+. I started studying again for 10 days and I finished the SC guide once again. Until then, I was following the Ultimate Verbal Study Plan 2017, since I think I have to focus more on the verbal. I started the PowerScore for RC and planned to be more focused this time, to not miss anything.
What changed in my strategy now is that I pay more attention to wrong answers, I want to understand why an answer choice is wrong instead of directly looking for the right one.
To improve my reading comprehension skills, I am reading books and articles, while keeping in mind the subtleties of RC questions.
Now I think you know everything, guys. So I would like to know if some of you have advices for me? What kind of study plan would fit me the best? Maybe there is something in my preparation that I clearly missed and that you guys would find obvious? I also read some posts about Mindfulness, stress management during the important day. I am working on that but I think that it is not the only think I could improve.
Thanks in advance for your help and keep going guys, you're great!
Raphael
21 Jul 2018, 21:00
Kudos
Bookmarks
rafher,
Since i see you are going through the material for not the first-time,please make sure you do not skip some part with a thought that it is already completed.Make sure you go through that again,although quickly,so that you may revise and catch up something which yoy may have missed the first time.
I usually missed certain sections assuming i have read them and then sometimes those concepts would be rusted in memory.I hope it helps.
Since i see you are going through the material for not the first-time,please make sure you do not skip some part with a thought that it is already completed.Make sure you go through that again,although quickly,so that you may revise and catch up something which yoy may have missed the first time.
I usually missed certain sections assuming i have read them and then sometimes those concepts would be rusted in memory.I hope it helps.
25 Jul 2018, 11:50
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi rafher,
I see that it has been almost four months since your original post. Did you end up taking the GMAT? If so, how did it go?
Feel free to reach out with any further questions.
I see that it has been almost four months since your original post. Did you end up taking the GMAT? If so, how did it go?
Feel free to reach out with any further questions.
