Guidance for a begginer in Gmat world ( 630 - 50 Quant and 25 Verbal)

Question

First of all, thank you to those that took a time to read and help my case.

I would like to ask some help to undestand where to obtain guides to study and how to structure my studies

My background  
I am an Engineer, currently working in management consulting boutique and I'm changing to a bigger consulting firm that sponsors MBA in the beggining of 2021. I'm a non-english speaker, but somehow fluent (Ielts 7.5) with 1 year of my undergrad in in a London university and using english in a large extend due to my job.

I am from a weak currency country, thus, redoing tests and somehow buying many resources are cost prohibitives, so DIY resourcers are the best, but if necessary I'm prepared to spend some extra money.

My gmat journey

After reading some topics in here and talking with some of my collegues they pointed out that I should do a CAT practice test to assess my strengths and weaknesses, therefore, in 18/07/20 I used the gmat free test scoring 630 (50 Quant and 25 verbal) and 5 Integrated Reasoning .
That shocked me although, because I thought that somehow my verbal wouldn't fail to hard.
From what I've learned 50Q is a good grade and I should focus only in maintain it. On the other hand my verbal need practice and while during the test I notice 3 large points:

1. My reading is slow/ I couldn't grasp the whole context with just one read (I think it is because of the way I work which is not reading the full text but search for key words/data)
2. I did not know about the existance of Sentence Correction, so for my first SC 5-6 questions I missed all of them and I just understood the type of question in the last ones
3. Lack of time - due to 1. and 2. I lagged behind spending to much time in each question and had no time for the last 5-6 question (the same occured in Integrated Reasoning, how ever in Quant I finished with 11 minutes left)

Additional preparations points  
From some topics I read that I should read The Economist magazine cover to cover word by word, is it a valid suggection? Should I go after another magazine? I believe that with a solution with 1. I could considerable raise my grades and therefore focus on peculiarities of SC but yet do not know who. I also bought the GMAT official 3 books bundle 2020 is it sufficient?

I also feel insecure about the Analytical Writing Assessment, however, I do not know how relevant it is this grade and how well should I peforme and how to prepare myself.

I intend to take the test in a test facility (not only) in the next 6-8 months, how ever I intend to apply for schools in the next 2-3 years (to guarantee firm sponsorship) and I believe that a 760 grade is a master goal (44/45 verbal) but could do with a 740 grade (40 verbal).

Guidance  
From the whole story I would like some help, it can be some links from other topics, books, websites, youtube videos, podcasts, to:

1. Structure my study plan
2. Structure my mock tests plan (Always CAT as I read it is the only real assessment)
3. Structure my process of studing (resources)

Again, thank you for reading!

GMATinsight · Answer

Hi sleeppillow Here is the link to download the required material from GMAT CLUB. GMAT CLUB offers a great opportunity to you to interact with many other aspirants and work with them constructively. There are new questions posted on forums everyday in which you can participate an earn some benefits alongwith a great amount of practice. You can also watch free webinars on GMAT CLUB YouTube Channel and enlighten yourself on many admission and test related queries. Other than GMAT CLUB there are many other channels as well that you may subscribe and use the free resource for your practice. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for FREE resource (1000+ Videos) Subscribe Topic-wise UN-bundled Video course. CHECK FREE Sample Videos Just three suggestion:

1) Keep teh diration of preparation 3-4.5 months and not longer 2) Practice verbal primarily from Official sources instead of any source. There is more bad content on verbal than good practice content. 3) You look comfortable in quant as per your test scores but still, a lot of practice is a must to get the score that you deserve. All the best!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi sleeppillow,

Since you seem to need some overall structure regarding your study plan, you may find it useful to use a self-study course. To see what is available, you should check out some of the  success stories of past GMAT students  as well as reviews of  various GMAT prep courses  to see what prep materials have worked for other test-takers.

Lastly, you may find it helpful to read this article about  how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi,
First of all, your quant score is really good. Working on your verbal skills and maintaining the same level on quant will get you a good score on GMAT. Let me share my insights on how to do that.

What should be the approach? 
You might have now understood the types of questions you will come across on GMAT. All the concerns you mentioned can be addressed by learning the right strategies. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a certain way. GMAT test makers set a lot of traps to confuse students by using similar words in answer choices. You need to have a strong conceptual understanding and you need to use the right strategies to make sure not to fall for those traps. Let me briefly tell you what should be the approach for each module.
  to solve SC questions, you have to approach them from a meaning stand-point. Most students think that knowing grammatical rules would suffice, but what GMAT actually tests on SC is the ability to convey the right meaning without ambiguity. 
 To solve CR questions, you need to develop the ability to pre-think the answer before you jump into the solutions. For this, you need to understand the framework behind the question. 
 To solve RC questions, you need to have the right reading strategies so that you can read the passage in an inferential manner and draw proper inferences.

What should be the plan? 
As the verbal part is the main concern, the focus should be on developing the verbal skills and at the same time making sure to maintain the same level on quant. So, the ideal plan should be to:
  Learn the concepts of each module on Verbal (SC, CR and RC) 
 Learn the right methodology 
 Start taking sectional quizzes of each topic and make sure to move to the next topic only if you get easy-medium questions right 
 Identify the weak areas and work on them 
 Once you are done with all the topics, start taking mocks every week and analyze the score pattern 
 Once you see a consistent score, you are good to book a slot 
 While doing all this, make sure to practice a few quant questions daily so that you do not lose the momentum.

Is it better to rely on random resources or a standard resource? 
Most students start their GMAT preparation using OG and a few other study materials. While these are great resources for GMAT like questions, it is really important to ask whether just practicing questions would help you get a good score on GMAT. Most students realize it very late that GMAT is not just a test of concepts but a test of their application. To apply the concepts well, you need to learn the right approach to do that.

Below is the comparison of what you’ll probably do when you prepare using random resources and a standard one
 Random resources  
  Solve “N” number of questions  
 Refer to vague solutions  
 No change in approach and will be stuck at the same score  
 Standard resource 
  Learn the concepts and the methodology 
 Refer to detailed solutions 
 A significant improvement can be achieved by referring to the step-by-step solutions and there by learning the right methodology

As it is really important to use the right methodology to solve questions on GMAT, I think you might have understood the importance of using a standard resource. The best way to select the course is to  check the free trial of the course and then decide  whether it is suitable for you or not. There are plenty of online courses available, so, I would recommend to check the free trial of the courses you feel are suitable for you and then decide.
There are few factors to consider while evaluating which course is the best one. As you do not want to invest your time, effort and money the second time, I recommend you to do a proper research by using the right constraints to evaluate. You can check the blog below to understand the factors better.

Link to the blog

If you are open to suggestions, I would like you to take a check at the course of GMATWhiz. 
  It is one unique course which offers you the best quality content and employs an artificial intelligence driven learning. 
 It offers you a personalized study plan which is integrated with the course. The concept booster and practice quizzes after every concept video help you solve GMAT like questions using the right methodology.  
 It offers you real time improvement modules so that you can work on your weaker areas right away.

There are many more exciting features offered by the course. I would recommend you to check the free trial of GMATWhiz before taking the decision. Finally, I would like to end with a stat that GMATWhiz has an average score improvement of 117 points which is the highest in the industry.

Hope it helped! If you have any more concerns regarding the GMAT preparation or wish to know more about study strategy, you can always write back or a better way would be to discuss over a call. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

Guidance for a begginer in Gmat world ( 630 - 50 Quant and 25 Verbal)

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