Need your Valuable Advice ! URGENT!!

Question

Hello , all -

am planning to give my gmat by October mid this year. am looking into apply for a few colleges , such as ISB (round 2), NUS, IIM A & B ,etc. ,this year. Could you please advise if i will have enough time to work on my application once i am done with GMAT (by OCtober mid) ? Any advice would be much appreciated . thank you.

nishantd88 · Answer

First step should be to take a GMATPrep test to understand where you currently stand and then see how you can achieve a score good enough for the schools you are targeting. ISB deadline is mid-December. So if you can achieve the required score, you'll have sufficient time for the rest of the application. You'll should have enough time for the other schools you have mentioned too. Of course it will also depend on how much time you can dedicate for the essays. Things will be different if you are slogging and putting night outs at work.

NashKp · Answer

Thank you , Nishanth for the reply . Yes, i gave a GMATPrep test after a week of brushing up on concepts, and got a score of 640. So, i gave a two months duration for my preparation. Hopefully , if i dont mess up my preparation on these days, i should manage to get a score of 700 plus. i was worried i would not get sufficient time to work on my application if i was done with the test by Mid October, now am relieved and can focus fully on my GMAT prep. By the way, my work is not hectic as it is a fixed 11 am to 7pm job. I work as a software developer for an American investment bank , have an experience of 7 years . thank you.

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Hey  NashKp ,

Using the right material and plan, two months is certainly enough time to boost your score up from 640 to 700, notwithstanding the fact that you're working full-time. 2 months to prepare an application is doable but a little on the short side; those parts of the application that are not dependent solely on you (such as letters of recommendation) should be given thought starting now.

Before giving more specific advice, I'd appreciate the answers to the following:
1. What material were you planning to study with? A structured course or book and forum guided self study?
2. How much time can you realistically afford per day/week, given that you are working?
3. What is your target score (is 700 enough or do you need more?)

I'd like to note that we are partnered with an admissions consultancy firm (Aringo) and students purchasing a course with us automatically get a free consulting session with them.

NashKp · Answer

Hi , David ,
Here are my answers to your above queries ,
1) OG18 and verbal review books from GMAC , and Manhattan SC and CR for verbal . Also , have bought the 350 plus questions from gmac to practice them as sectional tests . Mocks : GMAT prep (4) , and Manhattan (6).
2) I can devote around 4 hours during weekdays and 6-7 hours during weekends .
3) am aiming for a score of 720 plus .

Regards ,
N#

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EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi NashKp,

Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. Your study plan is book heavy, but since you've taken just 1 CAT so far, there's no way to know whether you will get stuck too or not. This is all meant to say that you might end up needing to invest in some non-book resources. Since you've already acquired some practice materials, you can get started with those though. The OG books are great sources for practice questions, but they're not designed to teach you Tactics, patterns or the little 'secrets' behind the GMAT - for those, you'll need Course-oriented materials. To that end, you should work on the OG a little later on in your studies. I suggest that you study as you see fit for the next 2-3 weeks, then take a new FULL LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections). That score result will give us a better idea of how well you're improving and what changes might be necessary.

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

AjiteshArun · Answer

I would urge you to at least  start  working on your applications from now itself. The GMAT is important, but so is everything else that schools ask for. Also, plan for a second attempt (if it becomes necessary). For example, let's say you want or need to take the GMAT again. Will you still be able to do justice to your application(s)?

NashKp · Answer

Got your point , but could you please advise what all things related to my application I should work on while I am preparing for my gmat , for which I can spend daily 3-4 hours , and for application I can spend another 1-2 hours .

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Posted from my mobile device

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Hi  NashKp ,

First of all, it sounds like you have quite a bit of time - 25-30 hours a week for 2 months comes to well over 120 hours, which is the amount of time we recommend for most study plans (unless your Verbal needs a significant boost, which does not seem to be the case). With that being said, breaking 700 is often not only about knowing the material but also about knowing the exam - knowing which types of questions the GMAT throws at you, knowing the different methods with which to answer these questions, and knowing which of these methods work best for you. Usually, these are not explicitly taught by books which means you will have to invest an enormous amount of time trying to figure them out by yourself. Which is all to say that self-study might require quite a bit more time to get you to a 720 than will a structured course.

So - though you do have the time, don't slack off! Even though it's not part of your plan, I would consider going through a few course-oriented options to see what suits you. And mind your improvement rate: if there comes a time when you feel stuck, don't hesitate to PM or contact us  here , we're available for live-chat whenever you like.

Best of luck!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi NashKp,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. I realize that you are worried about completing your applications by mid-December; however, your first priority should be achieving your GMAT score goal. After all, if you do not achieve your goal, you may not be ready to apply to your desired schools.

That being said, you have two months to improve your GMAT score by 60+ points. Although 60 points does not seem like a huge increase, you need to ensure that you have a comprehensive, linear study plan that allows you to build GMAT mastery of one topic at a time. 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 developing your conceptual knowledge, you will want to practice by answering 50 or more questions just from number properties. As you practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you get a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why you got it wrong. 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. Number properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

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.

Follow a similar routine for verbal. Let’s say you begin studying Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: strengthen the argument, weaken the argument, resolve the paradox, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what, if anything, you would have needed to know in order to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.
 
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.
 
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.

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

Please feel free to reach out with any further questions.

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