Retaking in one month. please give suggestions

Question

Hi everyone, I am retaking the gmat (will be my 2nd try) as I messed up badly on the first try (got a score below 450). I have been studying from Kaplan's Course book 2006-2007 since the start of august, 2006. I am not sure what I should change as far as study routine goes, as I pretty much feel I am back in square one. I scored better in verbal than quant on the actual test. Can you guys suggest some strategies or change of study methods please? thanks in advance for any help

Fig · Answer

Perhaps have a look on the post of Futuristic here :

 https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=244281

pelihu · Answer

Destroy the Kaplan book. Get the OG11. That would be a good start.

Fig · Answer

Well.... I would not be so radical as pelihu

... I would keep the pages concerning the Math formulas (with 3 comprehensible levels) and burn the rest :p

clock · Answer

forgive my ignorance but may i ask why the kaplan book is not good? I took a course with Kaplan, and the only book we used was the Kaplan 2006-07. I had done 5 CATS and scored an average of 550 on them. I found the actual test to be harder (probably because i freaked out and lost control of the situation when it came to timing myself)

I need a score of atleast 450 or above, and I am taking the test on the 18th of October 2006. Would you guys still suggest to buy the OG book? Thanks for the reply guys!

unzanthinking · Answer

Clock,

I might be a little late. It sounds like you are facing a couple of issues we have all faced.

1.- Timing - working the OG problems and timing yourself will help
2.- Freaking out - this is a combination of timing and being familiar with the material - working the OG problems will help

The Kaplan book is good at giving you a framework to tackling the problems. However, the best practices come from the OG.

I hope this helps

meander · Answer

The Kaplan tests aren't adaptive like the real thing, so that's a problem. Plus their verbal questions aren't very realistic.

Definitely do the OG. Must must must. Aside from that, your best bets for tests are GMATPrep and Princeton Review. Both of those are adaptive.

unzanthinking · Answer

There has been reported error in PR and the test are not adaptive.

pelihu · Answer

The problem with the Kaplan book is not that it is harder. The problem is that the questions bear no resemblance to the real thing. The Kaplan questions are worthless in terms of preparing you for the GMAT. The might be good for something, but I don't know what.

Futuristic · Answer

I'm another Kaplan verbal hater. Quant is good.

meander · Answer

Yes, the PR tests are adaptive. What error are you talking about? I haven't had any problems.

uvs_mba · Answer

Please destroy that Kaplan book. Dude I spent a lot of money on that course too, and what did I get :shock:

score. First of all Kaplan people don't even tell anyone to get the official guide, which is your BIBLE. And yeah Kaplan scores don't mean anything, i mean sorry for being so harsh, but atleast in my opinion, they don't because the scores are not a clear indicator.... Get that OG, and start practicing with their questions and try to get a feel. But then again, everyone has different targets. Good luck

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Retaking in one month. please give suggestions

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