Please suggest

Hello farukqmul,

I think it's important for us to ask you a few additional questions. Do you remember what it was that held you back on the exam? Was it the time constraint, lack of scrap paper, failure to work the problems, physical anxiety during the exam, lack of strategies to effectively get through the exam, etc...

I've posted this quite frequently but I've realized that the GMAT and the Admissions process itself tests our ability to prepare, adapt, and perform. After all, aren't we expected to become the world's business leaders of tomorrow? Anyone lacking these skills will have a hard time moving forward (not saying that if you do well on the exam you possess these skills). Someone suggested taking a diagnostic. That is a good place to start as it'll breakdown your proficiency in certain areas. From there, if you can identify patterns create a plan that focuses on those weaknesses. If it's an overall problem or a lack of knowledge on the subjects being tested, pick up the appropriate books and move forward. There are just too many helpful posts on this forum to paraphrase in this thread; I'd highly encourage for you to participate in threads or at least read the ones pertaining to your situation.

Finally, a sub-500 score on one test will not necessarily dictate what you will get on the next exam. I would consider picking up all 8 Strategy Guides and absorb it. I believe this is the single best thing you can do for yourself along with a couple CAT practice exams afterward. I hope that you reflect on what it was that you failed in (most of the time, it isn't as simple as "I failed the exam") and put it out to us. Only then can we reassess the overall situation, have a further understanding of what's going on, and recommend the best plan moving forward.

Thank you very much for your reply.First of all, I think I am really slow in reading English passages...It took me a long time to understand the meaning of a long sentence in the exam..After answering 20 questions, I discovered that I have only 25 minutes left for the next 21 questions..So I started panicking and moved faster than usual..I think I have to increase my reading habit..Can you suggest any reading materials so that I can speed up my reading ?

The Math section was pretty easy compare to verbal, though I was nervous at the beginning of Quant and spent more than 8 minutes to solve two easy questions... I thought later questions will be much harder so spending more time on easy questions is a good idea..but later I found the questions weren't that hard but I had to move quickly to finish the exam on time...I ended up with a 37 scaled score on Quant...

Reading material: You can read : NYtimes, Economists, Financial times, Scientific America, Newscientist.... Their contexts are the same to those of GMAT. You must read them daily; there is no other choice.
You should also practice doing SC. MGMAT SC is the key to the success. Doing SC quickly will give you more time for difficult CR and RC problems.

For Quant, You should review theory about the mistakes. What do you think about the difficulty of OG's quant?

Thanks so much Varun...however I feel comfortable while reading on the computer..problem is that it took me a long time to find out the meaning of a passage..sometimes I need to read very slowly or even read 2-3 times to understand the gist of a passage..Normally it takes me 18-20 minutes to solve a reading passage ...this case is really worrying me...Thanks for your suggestions..I will entirely concentrate on reading passages for the next one month...any suggestion for critical reasoning part?

Cheers

Thanks a lot ...for SC section can I use any grammar book to enhance my grammar knowledge first?I usually correct 50% of SC from Powerprep and CAT test...

OG Qunat is not that hard to me...I found they are OK... I just need to speed up..

If comprehension of material is the issue slowing yourself down in the RC passages, then try doing more RC questions and start learning how to skim over extraneous material and get the gist of the passage. It's not reading skills in and of themselves that the GMAT tests, it's the ability to take in a lot of information and understand how/where to quickly look back to in order to find the information requested in the questions.

So read passages and keep a sense of where you get bogged down. Are you reading every single word or re-reading sentences? If so, try to keep yourself moving along, since you're wasting valuable time. You can look back on the passage when you get to questions, you don't need to memorize material, especially on the complex scientific passages. Just visualize where bits of info are so you can find them when you need them. If PG 3 talks about the hadron collider, then just skim over it and know to look back to PG 3 if a question asks about a specific detail on the hadron collider.

Also try to read businessweek and scientific american, but ask yourself questions as you go - what was the main point of this article? Why did the author mention this interview? Train your mind to be active as it reads and pick up information automatically.

But the #1 piece of advice is practice practice practice. The more you read and the more you're able to shave seconds and eventually minutes off your total time, the easier it will become.

Power prep is based on OG so that you should not do that... MGMAT SC is enough for you. If you want more, I suggest reading :
gmat-grammar-ultimate-by-gmat-club-102387.html Our forum's grammar book
gmat-idioms-80342.html Take a quick look, easy to review
gmatprepsc-105446.html GMAT PREP SC section. I think that you should do them after taking 2 tests; these document should be used for review purpose only.
sentence-correction-question-directory-topic-and-difficulty-129750.html Questions on various difficulty..

Quant: You should practice MGMAT 's Quant and our club's quant as they are harder than that of the real test. Practice with these problems will hone your skills.

CR: CR Bible is my no.1 choice. Clear structure and example.