Study Plan advice needed. Help would be appreciated.
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31 Jan 2024, 02:30
Hi there,
My GMAT background-
I have taken GMAT twice.
I finished a course on GMAT quant from a course on UDEMY in november 2022 and didn't study for the next few months. Around March last year I enrolled for e-gmat course.
I finished e-gmat sentence correction portion last year around April then was unable to study for the next 6 months.
I took my exam this year january.
First Attempt:
After skimming through my SC and quant notes and going through Powerscore CR bible and MGMAT RC guide thoroughly .
I partially finished e-gmat quants portion(just number properties) without the cementing and test readiness part.
I did some(around 10) easy SC questions on Gmatclub. I did not perform well. SC was my worst section of all.
In my first attempt I scored 620 with 29 in verbal and 47 in quant. This was my first full length exam and I had not taken any mock before
Then I immediately booked my second date for GMAT classic on January 28th this year.
ESR to my first attempt said only 33% of my SC questions were correct. 80% of my RC questions were correct, this I believe was because I got easy RCs only as my SCs were frequently wrong. My CR was 50% as I had to blindly guess last 7-8 questions then too I was out of time and one question was left unmarked.
My quant section I thought was going good until I saw the last question which was way too easy. Hence I knew that I messed up my quant too. ESR shows I was weak in ratio proportion and work rate. However, I feel(may or may not be true) this can be attributed to me answering the wrong thing. For example, If I had to solve for X and then find the value of 60-X. I might have marked X as answer. I am generally okay in quant.
This was my first time ever seeing an IR section, I didn't know what question types are asked, we are provided a calculator, and there are various tabs to MSR questions I wasted first 10 minutes figuring this out. Then had to blind guess many answers in the final minutes. And my IR score was 3.
In AWA I half heartedy wrote about 200-300 words and got a 3.
Second Attempt:
I scored 660 with 48 in quant and 33 in VR.
This time I finished the rest of quant section on e-gmat (around 10 days of subscription were left).
Last time I rushed through Quant and had around 10min. left at last question so I thought this attempt I would re-check every question about what is asked and every nitpicky detail given in the question. I did spent no time other than covering the syllabus from e-gmat on quant this time.
In exam: I spent way too much time on quant by rechecking everything and one question was left unanswered. However I don't think it can change the score by any margin.
For SC I did all the questions in MGMAT SC guide. 2 days before my exam I gave an all nighter and solved all the easy and medium Official SC questions by googling and opening the Gmatclub forum link(around 30 questions in one go and then googling and opening next 30 questions).
I tried to go to bed around 8 the night before exam which was 2:30PM but wasn't able to sleep for the whole night and had to take my exam without sleep.
In the morning I solved some 750+ level quant questions on Gmatclub and had an accuracy of 80%.
In verbal I followed time until the last quarter and spent way too much time on a SC question and had to rush for 3-4 questions and blindly guess 2 questions.
During IR section I was feeling very tired and sleepy however gave it my best shot and got a 5. AWA I followed the chineseburner template and the score is yet to come. And I will be getting the ESR in a couple of days.
I hated SC, yet I chose classic format both times because I had read that SC can be improved by greatest margin in 2 weeks or so. Might be true but didn't work for me. Idioms and parallelism are my nemesis and working through meaning eats a lot of time. Even though I am okay in english subject generally and was considered good in the subject in school days, GMAT humbled me.
Further plans:
GMAT focus is the only test one can take now.
I have taken break from work for the next couple of months to give GMAT a serious shot as I need to get into a good school that too in round 1 for next year. So, I am planning on taking my GMAT in next 1.5 to 2 months. I am going to give around 6-7 hours daily to prepare for the exam.
My plans:
Finishing Manhattan All the quant in the next 2 weeks along with questions pertaining to the topic from Gmatclub.
I am confused if I should join the wizako live class 9 week course starting this Feb 3rd.
I am doing the daily butler problems and problem of the day given in all the sections.
Need help special with:
Gmatclub tests and Gmatclub forum quizzes -
I have read that they are great resources and am planning to get a subscription. However, I don't know how to use them effectively. If someone can shed some light on how to use Gmatclub tests and Gmatclub forum quizzes in an efficient manner, I'd be grateful.
Also do they require a separate subscription for each of them or the bundle contains them both.
Also, If someone has sailed a similar boat and can help me with if there can be a more efficient plan that would be of great value. I am willing to share both ESRs if needed.
If you read this post, thanks for your time!