Please help !!! GMAT JOURNEY KEEPS GETTING HARDER

Question

My Gmat goals keeps getting harder to achieve day by day i started to study beginning of this year everytime some or the other issues at work comes up and i give up studying for few weeks.

I am unable to keep track or maintain a pattern to study. I have subscribed to math revolution and i am unable to decode the videos into notes.

My target score is 650 and two months back when i gave a mock I scored 490 whats the chances of me getting to the 650 level by end of September!!

I mean what should be my plan ? How do cover all the topics ?

Please help

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Joe01 · Answer

Hi Nirejan, 
Unfortunately I wish I could be of help to you but I’m in the same situation as you’re in now. Work is having a toll on my preparation efforts such that even the very day I decided to sit for the GMAT I had to pass by the office to do some work before heading to the center though I was on leave. I am aiming at 700 but ended up with a 340. 
I’m thinking of taking more timed tests to identify areas I need to work on whiles working on my pacing. 
I hope something good will come out of this strategy.

Regards 
Joe01

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Nirenjan · Answer

same here I actually had my exam scheduled on 11 june 2018 i had to skip it coz i was not confident to give the test

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EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Nirenjan,

Many GMATers have busy jobs/lives/etc., so you're not alone. Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, but if you cannot study consistently, then there will likely be a limit to how much you can improve. Assuming that your current 'ability level' is around 490, then raising a 490 to a 650+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. You might have to push back your planned Test Date though.

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 how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) What type of studying have you done over the last 2 months? Are you now coming back to your studies after some time off?
2) What study materials have you used besides the Course you named?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Nirenjan · Answer

1) I normally solve questions in gmat club ( spend 30 to 60 mins alternative days )
I go to library watch math revolution course videos / solve some official guide problems
This i have been doing since last 4 months but on and off not consistently

2) official guide , ecomistgmat free version , math revolution, gmat club

3) i havent given any proper full gmat test but when i took a economist gmat mock I scored 490
And when i took gmat club mock i score around 400 something cant really recall

4) ideally i am supposed to submit the application successfully before November 30th 2018 in order to get a tuition fee discount

5) i am looking at manheim business school germany ( i am not sure what will be the best score for my profile ) website suggests 600 plus is required

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EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Nirenjan,

From what you describe, it sounds like you are primarily just working through groups of practice questions - without an overarching order or progression to your studies. GMAT skills take time to develop - and you might be surprised by how making improvements in one area of the Exam can help you to improve in there areas. Without the guidance of a formal study plan though, your overall studies might not be organized or efficient enough to help you to hit your Goal Score.

Since your application is not due until the end of November, you have lots of potential study time - which is good - but you'll need to be efficient with your studies going forward (and you'll have to study on a more consistent schedule than you have been).

Since you have not taken a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT Test yet, I suggest that you take one soon (perhaps this weekend). You can take 2 for free at www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). That score will give us a good sense of your natural strengths and weaknesses and will help provide a basis for comparison as you continue to study. A FULL CAT takes about 3.5 hours to complete, so make sure that you've set aside enough time to take it in one sitting. Once you have those scores, you should report back here and we can come up with a study plan.

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

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Hey  Nirenjan 
It sounds to me like you need a structures study plan - you are simply solving more and more questions, but at a certain point this won't lead to much improvement. you need a study plan, one which includes:

- a solid grasp of the fundamentals
- a focus on answer strategies: are you using ones which are efficient? 
- an in-depth control of the material - are there rules and formulas that make solutions quicker?
- an examination of overall test strategy - what should your pacing be? should you skip questions intentionally?

you should also probably consider whether you want to take a course. If so, some thoughts on the different kinds out there: 
--  A classroom based GMAT Course 
makes sense if you feel comfortable in a classroom setting, your budget is very high, you are self-motivated and don’t have big gaps in your knowledge that need special attention, and your schedule can accommodate a course that meets at a specific time every week. However, as every GMAT student knows, the real work happens back at home, outside the classroom, when you practice and try to figure out solutions by yourself.
-  online courses  allow us to choose our own time and place. However, many of these are videos of a power point presentation showing the course material followed by a bulk of practice questions.
-  Live online courses  are also an option. These have a similar experience to the old fashioned GMAT class except you watch the tutor through a screen. When taking an in-person or live-online course we should make sure that we will have enough face time.
-  Private tutoring  makes sense if we need a very high score and an individual study plan, and especially – if we have extra money to spare in order to get additional attention and feedback or to spend more time on certain areas. Putting cost aside, even the best private tutors only know what they see in the few questions that you’ve solved in front of them. 
-  examPAL  (my company) has a different type of course,  online computer assisted customised learning . This uses personalised machine learning to monitor thousands of students, and provides you with the approaches that proved most efficient for each given question.

Before I offer you any more personal advice, I'd appreciate the answers to a few questions:
1. Have you maintained and used an error log?
2. When you took your CATs, did you make sure to take them in the same time conditions as the real exam? (without pausing / splitting into parts)

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Nirenjan,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. As you know by now, it takes a lot of motivation and concerted effort to achieve a high GMAT score. Since you are currently at a 490, it’s clear that you lack certain GMAT quant and verbal fundamentals that are necessary for a high score. Thus, you really need to look at HOW you have been preparing, and potentially make some changes. Looking at your current study routine, it appears that your prep is centered on doing practice questions. While engaging in practice is a necessary part of improving your GMAT skills, such practice is only beneficial after you have studied the necessary topics on which those questions are based. Thus, moving forward, consider adjusting your study plan such that it allows for linear learning. Specifically, consider using a resource that allows you FIRST to learn the concepts and strategies related to GMAT quant and verbal and SECOND to practice with a large number of realistic questions.

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.

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. 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.

You can work on verbal in a similar manner. For example, let’s say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each Critical Reasoning question type, do focused practice, so that you can track your skill in answering each type of question. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific Critical Reasoning question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly. Follow this process for Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction as well.

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 it helpful to read this article about 
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

egmat · Answer

Hi  Nirenjan ,

A lot of GMAT aspirants face this problem of balancing work with study and to help students like you we have written an article on   Study Plan for Working Professionals - Balancing Study with Work  . I think you will find it helpful.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Aditee

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