GMAT Retake Study Material

Hi SaraaaO,
No other materials are as good as official ones; so consider buying "GMAT™ Official Practice Questions 1 and 2" in which 700+ problems are available.
Good Luck!

If you're looking for a source of Official Questions that will barely have any repeats with what you've already done, consider purchasing the Online only question banks from mba.com.

Hi,

I totally understand your concern and I wish to help.

I am an Indian and recently scored a whooping 750(Q51 and V40) on my GMAT(see verified score on GMAT Club Profile) last month. I understand that scoring a high GMAT score can be a daunting task for many, it was certainly for me, and at times all you need is a clear direction to navigate your path. Also, for most students it may be difficult to afford costly teaching services and spend hundreds of dollars.

I am offering a 30 min session at a meagre cost to happily clarify each and every doubt of yours, and will be sharing how I improved my score from 660 to 750. I took my Quant from Q48 to Q51 and Verbal from V31 to V40. I did not spend insane amount of money nor took in person coaching. I created my own plan, used the available resources wisely, and meticulously carved my path to 750. I am not a tutor, and hence I think from a student’s perspective and I know what works in real life and what not. I also know that all those generic study plans and widely spoken about books are highly ineffective.

Rather than writing a long generic post to share my experience, I believe a one-to-one discussion is always more fruitful. If you have doubts regarding your preparation and need a strategy specific session, if you want to know how to use all the free GMAT resources available, if you want to know which resources to spend your money on and which to avoid, if you want to discuss how to fix any specific area in Verbal to score V40, or if you have exam specific doubts and need a detailed overview from a recent test taker, just DM me and I will be more than happy to help. I will also share few very useful and unique insights from my ESRs, how I modified my test taking strategy, and things to avoid on actual GMAT.

You can either go through infinite number of but extremely helpful(each post of GMAT club is just marvelous) posts on various forums and spend insane number of hours researching GMAT specific tips/videos, or just talk to me to personally clarify your specific concerns

PS. I am not a teacher. I am just an extremely hard working individual who explored every possible resource in the last one year to crack GMAT and my efforts finally paid. I believe everyone can crack GMAT and all you need is the correct plan

Hi SaraaaO,
You might try on online platform and I recommend TTP's resources.

thanks sjuniv32 ! did not know about these practice questions, big help

yeah, exactly what I meant. will look into that, thanks GmatTutorKnight !

been reading a few of the stories and got some helpful tips! thanks ScottTargetTestPrep

SaraaaO

No worries. Here is a blog with tutor tips/suggestions:

https://www.gmatknight.com/blog

I am happy to hear that you liked the resources:)

You're right about studying from official questions -- they'll be far more useful than any prep company questions you could attempt. There are some good suggestions above about other official resources, but if you need more questions, you could go back to an earlier edition of the OG/VR/QR books. They won't overlap much with the edition you've used if you go back a few years (I wouldn't go back any further than OG13 though, and 2016 or 2017 is probably a better choice, because books older than that contain very old questions that aren't all that similar to what's on the test these days). But I'd probably try the question packs that sjuniv32 suggests above first, and only use the older books if you still need more material.

Given how much you've studied already, taking another generic prep course seems like a particularly inefficient thing to try. You really should be zeroing in on the areas where you can improve, and focusing on those. It's hard to guess what that means in your case; you'd want to look at your score split to work out where to devote the majority of your study time, and then work out whether specific content, pacing, or careless errors are things you could improve. It also sounds to me like you're studying too much; the GMAT is very much a test of clear thinking, and if you're overworked and mentally fatigued, you'll underperform. It's also important to give your mind a rest and a chance to process what you've learned, so sometimes less is more when it comes to study time. Good luck!

yeah. planning to do just that, will prioritize the official question packs and online only questions first then the older OGs.

sure thing, will keep those tips in mind during my study. thanks IanStewart .

Hi SaraaaO,

Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. The key to scoring well on GMAT is to focusing on the right aspects. If your score doesn't improve even after months of prep, then that means that there's something wrong with the preparation strategy. First let us understand the right way to prepare for GMAT.

How to prepare for GMAT in the right way?

Before you start preparing for any test, it's important to understand the structure of the test, what is tested on it and then prepare accordingly. In this case, GMAT is a test which focuses on your application skills along with the conceptual knowledge. So, just learning the concepts and practicing questions without focusing on the right methodology will not do any good. So, I suggest you to first focus on the methodology to solve questions of a particular topic and only then move to practicing questions of that topic.

So, the right way to prepare would be to first

• learn the concepts of a topic,
• learn the right methodology to solve questions of that topic
• practice a few questions of that topic to solidify your learning and then move to the nest topic
• Repeat the process for all the topics

And working on weak areas is equally important. You move to the next topic only if you get a decent accuracy in the previous topic. If not, you revisit the concepts, fill the conceptual gaps and then move to the next topic only when you are 100% confident. There are a couple of articles which you might find helpful.

Coming to OG, OG may be a great source for solving GMAT like questions, however, it is definitely not the ideal way to prepare in your case. Moreover, you may find that the OG is a good option as a question bank but lacks detailed explanations for you to use for improvement. It’s always better to prepare with a definitive resource to help you learn concepts while formulating a consistent strategy to solve questions before practicing them from the OG. This way, your preparation will be a lot more structured, and the chances of you leaving gaps in your learning will be significantly less. Focus on improving the method you follow to solve questions because that's what stops people from scoring 700+. As such, following a resource which focuses on the right methodologies becomes even more crucial.


And you can go through the recording below to understand how to strategize your GMAT prep in an effective way.

What might have gone wrong?

As we have understood the right way to prepare, now let's analyze what could have gone wrong with your previous attempt. You must have learnt the concepts of the topics and you must have practiced questions as well. But did you focus on the methodology part? Did you focus on working your weak areas?

These two could be the major reasons for you not scoring well on GMAT. So, this time make sure you do your prep in the right way by focusing on all the above parameters. And regarding the resource, choose a resource which can help you with not only the concepts, but the methodology as well. And the questions to practice and their detailed solutions are equally important as the solutions help you understand where exactly you are making the mistake. And a study plan would be an added advantage as you will have clear deadlines.

You can check out the free trial of GMATWhiz online course if you are looking for one.

And regarding how to proceed further and the study strategy, I think it would be better if we can get in touch over a call and discuss the same as I would like to ask a few questions about your current preparation strategy and your weak areas. You can use the below link to get in touch with me.