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earnit
Joined: 06 Mar 2014
Last visit: 21 Dec 2016
Posts: 161
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 84
Location: India
Schools: INSEAD Jan '16 Tepper '16 ISB '16 Simon '18 (A)
GMAT Date: 04-30-2015
Products:
11 Aug 2014, 07:38
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hi,
As my subject reads i am well aware that by now I should be having my GMAT score and all geared up to apply.
Here is the situation, I am very perturbed by the fact that I have successfully managed to delay giving my GMAT Exam. Having said that, my current situation is that I am struggling a bit with the CR Questions as no specific method seems to work 100% on it. It is pretty general. The RC is totally subjective, sometimes I do well in it sometimes the questions are tricky or the passage itself is too awkward in terms of style of writing.
All in all I know i need more practice in Verbal.
Quant on the other hand is average to say the least, last few months i have specifically focused on Verbal (SC specific...mind you irregular otherwise i would have been discussing my score rather, by this time)
So My Deepest Concern is and I really hope and plead our experts for their two cents here:
As per my evaluation, i am targeting exactly a month from the day of this post as my GMAT EXAM. Given the fact that I DO NOT want to waste a year.
Firstly, do you see any flaw (as per your experience) in this target?
Secondly, I am clear about US as my destination and top 50-60 schools. So if God forbid i don't get 720+ and i wish to retake it, then as per GMAC rules my next date will be Oct 11, 2014. So will I be too late to apply for schools and to avail the option for applying for scholarships for US B-schools?
Kindly Respond as soon as you can.
If possible, please be a little specific and by that I mean you can totally criticize/censure me based on my approach here. Past I cannot change but NOW is with me.
Would be really really grateful for any help.
Thanks & Regards
Earnit
As my subject reads i am well aware that by now I should be having my GMAT score and all geared up to apply.
Here is the situation, I am very perturbed by the fact that I have successfully managed to delay giving my GMAT Exam. Having said that, my current situation is that I am struggling a bit with the CR Questions as no specific method seems to work 100% on it. It is pretty general. The RC is totally subjective, sometimes I do well in it sometimes the questions are tricky or the passage itself is too awkward in terms of style of writing.
All in all I know i need more practice in Verbal.
Quant on the other hand is average to say the least, last few months i have specifically focused on Verbal (SC specific...mind you irregular otherwise i would have been discussing my score rather, by this time)
So My Deepest Concern is and I really hope and plead our experts for their two cents here:
As per my evaluation, i am targeting exactly a month from the day of this post as my GMAT EXAM. Given the fact that I DO NOT want to waste a year.
Firstly, do you see any flaw (as per your experience) in this target?
Secondly, I am clear about US as my destination and top 50-60 schools. So if God forbid i don't get 720+ and i wish to retake it, then as per GMAC rules my next date will be Oct 11, 2014. So will I be too late to apply for schools and to avail the option for applying for scholarships for US B-schools?
Kindly Respond as soon as you can.
If possible, please be a little specific and by that I mean you can totally criticize/censure me based on my approach here. Past I cannot change but NOW is with me.
Would be really really grateful for any help.
Thanks & Regards
Earnit
11 Aug 2014, 16:29
Kudos
Bookmarks
earnit
Dear Earnit,
I'm happy to respond.
Well, a month can be a reasonable time in which to prepare for a GMAT, but you want a 720+, a truly elite score, and it sounds as if you are hovering around average in math and below average in verbal. That would make a getting a 720+ in a month a rather daunting challenging.
Three months of intense study would be better than one month of intense study, and it would bring your target into somewhat more realistic range.
First of all, here's a set of free GMAT idiom flashcards:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/flashcards/idioms
Here's a three-month study plan for across-the-board improvement:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/3-month-gm ... beginners/
You are hitting a roadblock in GMAT CR right now. You need to READ. You need to force yourself to read for a hour a day: that's over and above any time spend on GMAT-specific preparations. You need to read hard, sophisticated reading in English. Since you want an MBA, you already should be reading the Wall Street Journal every day and the Economist Magazine from cover to cover every week. Those publications are full of arguments, real-world arguments --- some are made by the editors, but most are contained in the articles, covering arguments made by politicians, business folks, scientists, and other experts. Many articles have person #1 making some argument, and then person #2 making a counter-argument. You need to fight your way through these highly sophisticated arguments. For each one, what is the evidence, what is the conclusion, and what is the assumption? What would strengthen or weaken it? What can you infer? What kind of information would you need to evaluate the strength of the argument? If there's a counter argument, how does the counter-argument respond to the original? Does it present new evidence? Does it attack an assumption? You need to figure all this out for all voices in the article. When you are comfortable reading all of those arguments, GMAT CR will seem much easier.
Part of the reason that outside reading will help is: GMAT CR doesn't depend on having specific knowledge of individual situations in the real world, but it absolutely depends on having general instincts about how the real world operates, about the typical motives and goals of real people in the world. You can only develop this intuition by reading about problems & issues in the real world. Having that intuition will make the GMAT CR that much clearer.
My friend, for you, I highly recommend Magoosh. We just revamped all our Verbal Lesson videos, so you will get cutting edge presentations of content and strategies for the Verbal section. Here's a sample SC lesson:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/944-substantive-clauses
Here's a sample CR question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3140
Here's a sample SC question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3586
When you submit your answer to each of these, the following page will have a full video explanation. Each one of Magoosh's 800+ questions has its own VE. This immediate feedback accelerates the learning process, which is exactly what you need to achieve a lofty goal in a relatively short amount of time.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Mike
12 Aug 2014, 23:21
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earnit
So here are my two cents:
- If you are not close to feeling prepared right now, a month may not make a whole lot of difference. Aim for round 2 admission and accordingly, take the test in October. The only reason you might want to take the test without feeling prepared is for practice purposes. Scholarships for international students are hard to come by anyway.
- If you are targeting top 50 schools, you don't need 720+. A 680+ should be good enough. Even though this doesn't change anything, it relieves some pressure from your mind. Of course, higher the score, the better!
- Improving in CR is the easiest. If you understand it conceptually, most questions will fall in place - just as it happens in Quant. Check out some of our CR posts to get an idea of what I mean.
- Sometimes you fare well in RC, sometimes you don't. Probably, when the passage is based on a topic that interests you or is written in simple language, you fare well. Perhaps, you get discouraged if the passage seems tough. Reading articles on various subjects will help and so will working on tough passages with a strategy in mind e.g. at the end of every paragraph, jot down in 4 words what it is about. That will make you answerable at short intervals and your mind will find it more difficult to wander.
