There seems to be a lot of gaping holes in your preparation strategy, but it doesn't mean that you can't achieve your score. First off, any prep course is effective only if you give your 100% interest to it. Incomplete test prep courses are practically useless. Comments below:
ALL,
I need your help in the way i am preparing for GMAT. Before nine months i prepared for GMAT for 2 months. I studied on my own and in practice tests (
OG,
MGMAT etc) i was getting consistently around 420(33Q 14V).
Seems like you're having trouble with Q too. A 33 is not a very high percentile so you should focus on Q as well as V. I realized i need to spend more time on GMAT and went for a 9 session onsite
MGMAT (
manhattan GMAT) class. Due to work schedule I managed to complete only 30% of
MGMAT assignments. I was on track every week for
MGMAT SC topics. Overall i learnt below from
MGMAT classes:
1. SC - Grammar rules
2. DS elimination strategy
3. CR - Diagramming
4. RC - short and long passages strategies.
After my course has completed i solved around 50% of
OG 12 problems. For the questions that went wrong I always looked at explainations. I also do montior forums like gmatclub and
MGMAT.
Without knowing the concepts doing OG problems is absolutely a waste of time. OG is a question bank, not a strategy guide. I am hoping for a target score of 700+ in real GMAT. Hoping that i am going to perform better in real GMAT I have been taking practice tests (once a week) from last few days including GMAT Prep I, II and
MGMAT tests (timed including AWA). Again i am back to normal, I am scoring consistently between 420-480(33-38 Q & 14-18 V).
Taking practice tests will not help you. It looks like you have a problem with the concepts. I realized my biggest weak points while taking practice tests are in verbal
Not completely, I think. You seem to have a problem with Quant as well. :
1. CR - I try to follow
MGMAT CR diagram approach and run out of time (2.15 minutes per CR question).
I don't know about many people who've done the MGMAT strategy for CR. But the Powerscore one is pretty good. Maybe you can get Powerscore CR, or Veritas CR Guides and practice with that. The strategies are explained well too and focus more on the physics of the CR type than spending lots of time writing stuff down. There are many threads in the CR forum that address this topic too. Check those out.2. SC - under the pressure of 1.5 mintues per Q i get confused or select wrong choice
SC is the easiest area to improve on. Get MGMAT SC and read it cover to cover. You'll be set. 3. From 25th to 41 question i am speeding up and making lots of mistakes. I am almost guessing on last RC passage(usually around 30th question) and on some tough CR questions.
Time management only comes when you are aware of all the concepts and perfected the strategies. Worry about this later.4. when i review the practice tests i try to solve the wrong ones again and i can correctly solve the problem. Only under time pressure i am making mistakes.
Once again, fundamental knowledge will helpPlease give me your thoughts on how i should proceed from now. I know the basics, i have read lots of GMAT materials and i did quite a few tests (timed including AWA).
close
02 Sep 2010, 22:46
