Veritas Prep- Your thoughts and experience will be appreciated

Hi EmpowergmatrichC,

i haven't done taken any CAt lately or read substantially because of work commitments and personal issues. My plan now is to try and study 5 hours during weekdays which means i need to wake up much earlier and study before going to work.

i plan on applying for the second round which is January next year as 1st round isn't realistic at all. I definitely know it's going to take a lot of work on my part but am willing to do what it takes. I realise i struggle with geometry so am curious as to your advice on the subject matter?

Also am struggling attempting questions for the quant as i feel i have forgotten a lot of things. I feel i can't really understand the solution to a quant problem if basics are lacking. What would you recommend for somebody whose mindset towards the quant is low?

your response and honesty is appreciated?

Hi demo1,

While a certain amount of content knowledge is necessary for the Quant and Verbal sections (re: math formulas, grammar rules, etc.), it's important to remember that the GMAT is a big 'critical thinking test.' For example, a Geometry question that you see on Test Day might be more about patterns and logic than it is about doing lots of calculations. If you're concerned about your ability to do math 'by hand' and whether you know all of the necessary math rules or not, then you might actually want to spend some time at Khan Academy first.

The site (www.khanacademy.org) is free and makes the learning a bit more fun and 'game-like' (as opposed to the dry academic approach taken by most books). While the site is vast, you should limit your studies to basic Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. After spending a little time re-building those skills, you can restart your GMAT studies.

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi demo1,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Improving from 350 to 650 is a significant task, so you may need more than just three months to achieve your score goal. Thus, I recommend that you track your progress over the next few months, and if you are not improving at the pace you need, then consider scheduling your exam for a later date. You can read more about this in my article about how long to study for the GMAT.

Since you self-admittedly have weak GMAT quant skills, you will need to follow a linear study plan that allows you to slowly build GMAT mastery of one topic prior to moving on to the next. Within each topic, begin with the foundations and progress toward more advanced concepts. For example, if you are learning about Number Properties, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.

Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.

So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses.

You also may find my article with more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

Hi EmpowerGmat,

I am looking at studying at least 40 hours every week whilst still working which will mean getting up earlier than usual and prepping for a few hours before going to work.

Am looking at NYU, Berkeley, Rutgers, Howard University.

Am looking towards the second admission window which is between January, February.

I totally understand it's a herculean task but still believe it can be done. Am a chartered accountant and it seems strange that am struggling with quant especially geometry but believe i can improve with time but just looking at the time constraints coz if am looking at the second admission window i need to do the exam ny November latest.

All your suggestions will be appreciated.

thanks.

Hi Scotttarget,

thanks for your recommendation. I will probably take that approach on focusing on one subject area at a time. I understand i need to do a lot of work to get my score up and October maybe too early but am looking at the January, February admission deadline and i need to do the exam latest November in order to be able to get my transcripts and other stuff ready once i pass. I believe you can achieve whatever you set your mind towards as long as you are ready to do the work.

All suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Hi demo1,

40 hours of study each week would be a LOT - and I've never asked anyone to study that much (especially over a long period of time). You have to be careful about confusing 'quantity' of study with 'quality' of study - and putting in that much study time would likely increase your chance of 'burning out' before Test Day.

Considering your Score Goal - and all of the areas that you will need to improve on - you would likely find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some kind (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led). Most GMAT Companies offer some type of free materials (practice problems, Trial Accounts, videos, etc.) that you can use to 'test out' a product before you buy it. We have a variety of those resources at our site (www.empowergmat.com). I suggest that you take advantage of all of them then choose the one that best matches your personality, timeline and budget.

If you have any additional question, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Empower,

So would studying hours would you recommend over a 2 month study plan? What are your thoughts about school choice as well?

Just started using Khan academy to brush up my quant skills, there so many videos i think i do not need like the multiplication videos but am having conflicting thoughts in the sense that i should keep an open mind and just go through all the videos whether it looks easy or not?

Any site you know offer such basics on Verbal?

thanks

Hi demo1,

You've named some highly-competitive Schools, so beyond have a strong GMAT Score and overall profile, you will need to properly 'market yourself' to each individual Program that you apply to. I am not an Expert on any individual Business School Program, so I can't offer any suggestions when it comes to which Schools you should or should not apply to. I want to reiterate that you will likely need at least another 3 months consistent, guided study to consistently score at the 650+ level - and your emphasis has to be on learning and practicing the proper Tactics (NOT on simply doing lots and lots of practice questions).

If you've been working to hone your 'math' skills over the last week, then it would make sense for you to take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT and take it in a realistic fashion (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take it away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.). Once you have that score, you should report back here and we can discuss how best to proceed.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich