About me:Non-native English speaker
Work in consulting, with almost 3 years of work experience
I gave my first Gmat exam august 27th and got a quite bad score and so I canceled it.
I am planning to retake it as soon as possible. By the way, I am aiming for a 750+, to increase my chances to get a scholarship in schools of my choice.
I am trying to understand how I should prepare, which materials I should use, or whether I should hire a tutor.
I think my actual level is between 680-710. (the actual exam does not represent my actual level, I am quite sure about that)
But have no idea how I should prepare to achieve my goal.
In Quant, I was thinking about
Gmat club test in Verbal I have no idea how to do it.
Official GMAT Exam: 640 (Q47, V29, IR 7/8, no AWA because I canceled the score)- 27th of August 2020
Quant:
-Problem-solving q47
-Data sufficiency q49
Verbal:
-SC: 33
-RC:36
-CR:23
I started prepping seriously in March. The materials I used:
Verbal:All the verbal
MGMAT (I found it quite good for SC)
LSAT and GMAT Critical reasoning Bible - Powerscore (I found it really good)
LSAT Reading comprehension bible -Powerscore (I found it quite good)
Official questions - on Gmat club
Beta versión of
TTP (One of the best things I saw so far, unfortunately, it's in beta)
I did not read
the official guide (maybe this was one of my mistakes
Gmatninja videos for SC and CR
Quant:TTP Course (Great course to boost you to Q47+, works on the basic concepts for me the best Quant course on the market)
Advanced Quant MGmat (Good resources)
CATs:-Official Gmat prep (best way to measure your skills in my opinion, especially in the verbal part you can perceive the quality of the questions)
-
Mgmat (Good for Quant, the problems are harder and involve more steps than Gmat prep exams, the verbal part is easier in my opinion especially SC)
-Veritas (Quant is okay but different in my opinion, Verbal is better and than the that of
MGmat´s CATs.
Question Banks:-Veritas (Great questions for Verbal)
-
Magoosh for practice (Found it good as a question bank, but I found
Magoosh math different and Verbal is okay but not really GMAT style, in my opinion, didn´t like CR either RC)
-Gmat club:(Really good for Quant)
Practice Exams:CATs:
April 27
MGmat: 690 (Q45, V38)
May 8
Mgmat: 630 (Q45, V32)
23 May
Mgmat: 660 (Q45, V35)
June 7 -Veritas 650 (Q47, V33)
June 27-Veritas 660 (Q44, V37)
July 13-Veritas 680 (Q49, V34)
August 4-Veritas 710 (Q49, V39)
August 12
Mgmat:710 (Q47, V40)
August 17 Gmat prep: 710 (Q49, V38)
I felt this exam did not go really well, however, I managed a 710, so I thought my level would be higher. And all the stories I had read were saying Gmat prep is easier than
mgmat and Veritas. I felt so, but I think the official ones do not allow so many errors than
Mgmat and Veritas. I also tend to make careless mistakes with easier questions and be better with harder ones.
August 20 Gmat prep: 660 (Q47, V34)
After this Exam everything went wrong. After scoring 710 my score went down to 660, this was the moment when I realized I wouldn't be able to score 750 next week.
This was when I freaked out and did 3 Cats in 2 days, I felt really tired but I continued anyway.
Veritas August 21 660 (Q47, V34)
Veritas August 21 650(Q46, V34)
Veritas August 22 650 (Q48, V31)
Gmat prep August 24 690 (Q48, V36)
PS: I took all my tests under conditions similar to the test-day.
General observations:The thing that surprised me the most was my CR score because it has been always my strongest section - in most of my CATS, and in general when practicing-, maybe a got overconfident in that section and was not careful enough. RC has been always my worst section and I struggled a lot with SC at the begging of my Prep. I felt that my English verbal skills were not that good at the begging of my prep but I improved a lot.
On test day I went to the test Center, I was a little bit nervous but not that much. I was quite sure I would retake the GMAT anyway because I knew I wouldn't get 750.
I am a little bit disappointed about my score, however, I felt I was not really ready for the score I want to get, so I don´t feel that bad about it because I was sure I would repeat the Exam anyway.
Now I am trying to organize myself self, taking first a little break from studying, and plan how I should study to achieve my dream score of 750.
I would really appreciate some advice on how to structure my study and which material to use or whether a tutor would be a good option.
Thank you for reading.