I recently took the GMAT Exam and scored a 550 Q:39 V:27 IR:3 AWA:6. Needless to say, this was a huge disappointment for me and I plan to re-sit the exam.
A big reason for my low score I believe was due lack of planning; I just purchased the
OG guide + Manhattan sets and hoped for the best.
For my second attempt, my aim is to have a clear plan and strategy so I am focused and not always second guessing myself.
Can someone please have a look through my rough plan and assist with the following questions to help me refine the plan.
1) What are your thoughts on splitting quant and verbal studies ie mastering quant first and reaching my goal of 47-49 followed by verbal? During my first attempt I mixed the content and just felt I never really mastered it. Granted that I will take notes and make flashcards, my primary concern with this strategy is that I will forget the quant material. Any suggestions on how I can avoid this?
2) When should I begin doing timed questions? In my previous attempt I went through the Manhattan guides and supplemented them with
OG questions (all untimed). When it came to practice exams I really struggled with my timing, which was probably a contributing factor for my low scores. Several experts and users recommend learning the foundations and then working on speed, my question is when should I start doing timed practice? For instance should I go through all study material, make notes do practice problems and do a timed quiz on just number properties or finish all content with quiz and tests and then just work through timing during my CATs?
3) My aim is to gain 9-10 points in Quant. I believe that going through
Manhattan books again just won't be sufficient. Consequently, I am considering signing up to
Magoosh Math + IR (which needs some work too) online course. Would members recommend this for what I plan to achieve? My weak spots are Number properties, Geometry and Word Translations. Basically I am not sure what steps I should take to improve from 39 to 49. I will go through the
MGMAT foundations books as a starting point but after that?
4) My aim is to gain 12-15 points in Verbal. The main problem I saw with previous CATs was that I was very inconsistent across SC and CR. However, my SC improved to 70% after going through Aristotle; inadvertently CR struggled. In the GMAT exam, I ended up with a lower SC score than CR; which was puzzling. RC has been my strong point to date, usually score around 80%. However, in the GMAT test it did let me down (65%). I am planning to take the
e-gmat course to improve my SC and go through PowerScore CR bible with LSAT prep to improve my CR. For RC I will start some external reading. Do you think 7 weeks will be sufficient to cover the SC and CR material?
5) How should I utilise my resources (listed below) to gain maximum feedback on my progress. I will be keeping an
error log to help with this process but can someone suggest how and what I should use to gauge my progress? My current plan is to study the theory and do any quizzes from
Magoosh (untimed), then do
OG (untimed) and specific sections of the 1000 quant questions document. In a fortnight do a timed test (Manhattan CAT or
GMAT Club test -> not sure if i can select specific topics though). However, what about the situations when I am unable to get >90% on a section or I find that my accuracy suffers during timed test or I find myself stuck at 700 level questions?
Resources that I have:
Manhattan Guides Quant and Verbal
OG Guide 2016
Aristotle SC
PowerScore CR Bible
Tests/CAT
GMAT Prep (Free) -> I will reset the tests
GMAT Prep (EP1 & EP2)
Manhattan CAT - I have two tests remaining
GMAT Club tests1.
2.
Aristotle Verbal Guide for CR critical reasoning bible is best book with 300+ pages of comprehensive Data
Start with quant, learn the concepts tested on GMAT After learning, practice your learned section with
timed practice. You can also take quizzes to meet the pace of GMAT
1 Month for learning concepts and 15 days of practice and same with the verbal when completed al
l the concepts learning and handsome practice. Take full lenght CATs, know your estimated score
Analyze the result with Correct/incorrect questions, pacing analysis trace your mistakes and learn
1. Official GMAC (50+50$)
2.
3. GMAT Club Quant CATs (80$)
4. Veritas CATs (49$ but you can buy at 15-20$ During sale period)
close
22 Jun 2017, 13:12
Error Log and Schedule.xlsx [198.64 KiB] 
