Restarting Studying after 7 months

Question

Hi GMAT squad,

I have decided to start restudying GMAT again, but have already done a few sessions before. Looking for some guidance and encouragement now that it is my third stab at cracking the GMAT to apply for BYU's MBA program.

For background: 
At the start of 2019 I took a 6-week GMAT class at BYU and got some basic foundation. It was too much time to commit with my studies and the test so I didn't really dedicate until the summer.

In Summer 2019, I started really studying on a summer internship. I scored a 500 that summer and was pretty defeated. My practices were 580-610 from Kaplans mock tests. I wanted a 650. To prepare I did the OG questions and Kaplan Online every day for 2 hours without studying by topic. I saw my error there and tried to make it better the next time.

I took a break until beginning 2021 where I bought a Manhattan GMAT book read it and did there entire study guide sheet (found it very basic). I also bought another OG book for 2021. I did this for a couple months. When I took their mock exams they were too difficult and I scored around 530 max. I then found TTP on gmatclub where I studied for 2 months and I did it thoroughly without the HARD questions quizzes (not enough time to cover everything) and without the Verbal since they didn't have it yet. I also did mock tests almost every Saturday at 8am and scored a 580-630. My best was Q42 and V35 on Kaplan tests, which I think now are too easy compared to the real GMAT. I scored a 550 in May 2021 Q39 V25 and felt defeated again. In the test, I felt right away it was harder than my studies, especially the verbal.

Any thoughts on where I can begin again? I saw Magoosh is good but would it be worth it to start TTP again? I want to apply for this fall but GMAT score is the only thing holding me back. Thank you!

Shawn

Russ19 · Answer

Hi  Shawn05 ,
Magoosh SC videos are small in size, so you can cover a lot of good stuff in a short time. Its RC & CR video lessons are not that good. Quant videos will cover all concepts, but practice questions are not satisfactory.

TTP is a great option but it does not have concept video lessons for verbal, but it has a lot of good reading content for concepts. It has some video solutions to practice problems. TTP is good for quant.

Best Wishes!

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

If your concepts on Verbal are solid, consider working on time management and solving approach. A lot of the Verbal tutoring I do, for example, doesn't necessarily go over fundamentals. Here's a post of a verbal student I had this quarter. It was just a bit of method tutoring (6 hours) I gave but it helped them out. Official V31 to V40 in roughly 30 days.

All the best.

All the best.

Yogananda · Answer

Hi Mate,

Write a mock and find your base line. Start topic wise studies.Looks like your Quant is weak, go for topic wise sectional tests and improve.
All the best.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Shawn05,

Based on what I see here, it seems as though you used TTP for some time but did not complete the entire course? Do you still have access to your TTP analytics? If so, I'd love to see a screenshot of what is going on.

nislam · Answer

Hi  Shawn05 , 
TTP is great for verbal in every way. On this forum,  MartyTargetTestPrep , TTP verbal curriculum designer, is super active; so you can ask him question if you fail to understand any concept.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Shawn,

To start, if you have not taken any GMAT Exams (whether the Official GMAT or a practice CAT/mock) since May of this year, then it would make sense for you to take a NEW, FULL-LENGTH CAT sometime soon - so that we can get a sense of your current skills, strengths and weaknesses. Make sure to take it in a realistic fashion that matches-up with what you will face when you take the Official GMAT (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, if you will be at a Test Facility, then wear a face mask, etc.). Once you have that Score, you should PM me and we can discuss the results and how you might best proceed with your studies.

Considering the prior work that you've done, you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of time relearning concepts, but some review of specific Quant and Verbal material will be necessary. A 650 is a reasonable Score Goal (and since you're not facing an immediate application deadline, then you don't have to try to 'rush' through this next phase of your studies). Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on your timeline and your goals:

1) For your next attempt, are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?
3) Are you planning to apply to any other Programs besides BYU's?

If you took your Official GMAT (from back in May) at a Test Center, then you might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Shawn, Let me share my insights here. OG may be a great source for solving GMAT like questions, however, it is definitely not the ideal way to prepare in your case. Moreover, you may find that the OG is a good option as a question bank but lacks detailed explanations for you to use for improvement. It’s always better to prepare with a definitive resource to help you learn concepts while formulating a consistent strategy to solve questions before practicing them from the OG. This way, your preparation will be a lot more structured, and the chances of you leaving gaps in your learning will be significantly less. Focus on improving the method you follow to solve questions because that's what stops people from scoring 700+. Looking at your individual break up of score, you are surely on the wrong path for preparation. Your score clearly indicates there are many conceptual gaps and you may need to start from scratch, revisit the concepts and get a clear understanding of them before you solve the questions. GMAT quant tests only specific types of questions from each topic. So, if you know those questions types and how to solve those using the right methodology, then you can score well on GMAT quant. So, I would suggest you to not ignore any topics you are struggling with. Instead, ● focus on learning the right methodology, ● get to know the question types and then ● practice a few questions to solidify the learning. ● repeat the process for all the topics. Coming to Verbal, Verbal questions on GMAT are very tricky. Let me help you with the right way to approach your Verbal Prep. How to Ace your Verbal Prep? For GMAT Verbal, it is very important that you follow the right methodology and the logical approach . Your focus has to be on eliminating four incorrect choices rather than choosing the right one . The key is to develop a solid understanding of the concepts that are typically tested on the GMAT and master the process skills that are required to solve GMAT questions. Only then, you will be able to smartly avoid the traps set by the test makers. Before you start learning, it's important to understand what is actually tested using the questions. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a different way. For example, before you start learning the concepts of SC, you need to understand that SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the process to approach SC questions is to: • Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence • Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise) • Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning You can go through the link below to understand the process in a better way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM Once you start solving SC questions using a systematic approach as detailed above, you will be able to avoid taking too much time in SC questions as there will be no confusion in your mind regarding the approach. Also, improving in SC alone won’t fetch you the desired score. You need to prepare for RC and CR as well in a structured and efficient manner. You have to follow a methodical and systematic approach while solving the questions in order to work on your accuracy and increase your score. For example, • In CR, you have to understand the argument, identify the premise and the conclusion and then pre-think the answer before looking at the solutions. • In RC, you need to have the right reading strategies to understand the inferences which are not directly stated in the passage. I’d recommend you to follow this order for the verbal part - SC->CR->RC . The reason for this is very specific. Each question type on the GMAT is testing a specific skill. SC tests your comprehension skills. CR tests comprehension & analytical skills. Finally, RC builds on the previous two skills and also tests your ability to be able to grasp the central point of the passage i.e. Your inferential skills. Thus, when you learn in this order, it's much more effective. The importance of using a standard resource: The only method to make sure that you invest your time, money and effort in an effective way is to use a standard resource which teaches you the concepts, strategies and also helps you work on your weaker areas. Studying using OG or a few random resources might help you to solve GMAT like questions but I’m afraid that they won’t be able to help you much from a strategy perspective. I would suggest you to go for some standard course for your preparation which can help you prepare in a structured and efficient manner thereby increasing your productivity. It’s always better to spare some more time on your preparation until you are ready instead of missing out on your dream colleges/ b-schools in hurry. GMATWhiz helps you with all these things as we follow a structured and methodical way of teaching things , which makes the learning process simpler and efficient. It also helps you to develop an understanding of the test maker’s intention behind asking the question. It uses an AI powered learning platform to provide you with real time improvement modules after every practice quiz. It provides you with additional concept videos and practise quizzes which helps you overcome your weaker areas in a specific topic right away without having to put in additional effort to identify your weaker areas . You can check out GMATWhiz and go for it. Here’s a link to our free trial – https://learn.gmatwhiz.com/?page=signup You can check out the verified reviews here: https://gmatclub.com/reviews/gmatwhiz-345345722?fl=menu Hope this helped and feel free to contact if you have any further queries. You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link. Click here to schedule a call

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