After 2 years of inconsistent studying, I made myself a promise 3 months ago to take the GMAT but this time studying consistently and addressing the breadth and depth of the course. After a long struggle, of 3 months I finally, took the test on Friday 24th April. My score was disappointing, but something that I had expected. I ended up with a 610, Q/35, V/39. While, my verbal performance was not so bad, you can probably see my weakness is Quant. This is also quite different from most others on this forum, who seem to be stellar in Quant but find Verbal challenging. I do not have a background in quant, and in my elementary years, I hated math. Obviously this all changed when I grew up, and realized the importance of it. My bias towards the subject prevented me from mastering the fundamentals, so my GMAT prep was starting from scratch. When I first started my prep I scored a 490, with an equally bad split in Q and V. Over the next few months, I managed to pull up my verbal and Quant by a significant number, but is still far away from my ideal score.
I am looking to improve my verbal by another few points, try and hit 41-42, and improve my quant by 10 points, so I can average around 44-45. I realize this is not an easy feat, but I need to retake the exam, and do it soon, so I do not burn out.
I wanted to know what you guys suggest I do to improve my Q, also, how long should I give myself for the retake? I do not want to jump in to a retake without clearly identifying my weaknesses, and practicing enough, but at the same time, I do not want to draw this out too long and risk burning out. I have been studying for 3 months, quite consistently, putting in 2-4 hours a day, even with an extremely demanding sales job. Summer is a really busy season for us, and I know I wont be able to put 4 hours on weekdays anymore (for merely keeping my sanity!), but I can consistently give 2 hours a day, and 3-5 hours on the weekends.
For the first try, I used;
1.
MagooshHelped me a tremendous amount with Verbal, and a little with Math
2.
MGMATSince I have picked up and dropped the GMAT a couple of times before actually taking the exam, I used these books in the past more often than I did this time. However, I did use it as a supplementary book pairing it with
Magoosh3.
OG Guide 13 Edition
I have identified a few weaknesses but I am not sure how to overcome them;
1. I have difficulty in Algebra. Especially translating words in to equations. This weakness spills over to word problem that require algebraic translations.
2. Geometry is another weak area. I cannot seem to get all the fundamentals down for circle properties, and their interplay with perpendicular lines, triangles, etc.
I also feel that for a first try I had so much to cover in terms of depth, and breadth, that I barely got time to finish the syllabus (2 weeks before the exam), and got some practice, but the 3 weeks leading up to the exam I was practicing less, and studying a lot more theory. I think that also affected my Q score.
In the practice test, I was scoring 40-44 in Q, but that is an inflated score considering, I had some questions memorized.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I want to get another test date, while im in the rhythm and give this another shot!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.