I don’t know what to do..

Question

Hi All,

Long story short I have no idea what to do next. I just got out of my third gmat attempt and scored a measly 470 after consistent study.

I work in finance and my hours are insane, so i sacrifice my nights/mornings/weekends for this test.

A few years ago out of college I decided to take the gmat, took an person Kaplan class and thought that was enough took the exam and did terrible. Last year (Nov ‘20) after about 1.5 months going through the manhattan online platform on my own (I didn’t finish it, was in week 7) I took another gmat and did terrible.

Starting this past March I hired a private tutor, lightly going over material in OG and some gmatclub, I decided in beginning of September to nail a test date down (Today). The past month or so I’ve been going through the gmatclub mega threads (more specifically quant) and scored a 31 on verbal which was better than my quant. Also my IR is a 2.

I’m starting to lose hope. Any help suggested would be great.

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi RedSox12,

I'm sorry to hear that this recent attempt did not turn out better. We last discussed your studies almost 1 year ago - and with this most recent post, it sounds as though you have been performing at the same general level for some time. As such, it's possible that you developed some 'bad habits' during your earlier studies that have kept you from scoring higher during each of the various times that you restarted 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 how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) On what dates did you take your 3 Official GMATs and how did you score on each (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each)?
2) Over the last 3 months, how many hours did you typically study each week?
3) What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used over the course of ALL of your studies?
4) Over the last 3 months, on what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
5) What is your overall goal score?
6) What are your current application plans?

If you took your recent Official GMAT 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

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello RedSox12,

GMAT Club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, etc.

Learning is a continuous process, and it shines with practice. Math is a very tricky subject that is easy to understand and difficult to apply. Success in GMAT Math is entirely based on vital concepts, rigorous practice, complete knowledge of math question types and patterns, quick approaches, and time management.

Your current GMAT score is shaky but you can surely improve your score. Don't lose hope.

You can schedule a Free counseling(https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session) session for 20 mins with one of our experts to have detailed advice on your current study plans.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• Not detailed knowledge of GMAT Math patterns and Question types
• Inefficiency by using time-consuming Conventional method to tackle DS and PS questions still
• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Precisely, there has to be one end-to-end solution encompassing all the points mentioned above. We also want to understand your approach to solving PS and DS questions. You can try our free diagnostic test https://www.mathrevolution.com/diagnostic/dtExamMember and receive a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas.

The diagnostic test report will give us detailed insight into various topics and your performance. After an in-depth analysis, we will draw out the category of the topics in which you are already better and those where you need more improvement. Also, we will be able to compare your performance while solving the PS and DS questions.

Also, make a note of various possible combinations to achieve your target score. The possible scores will help you track your performance after taking the mock or practice test. It will also help you maintain balance in both the sections, and you will always be in a great position to allot the study hours to a specific area accordingly.

We recommend that you learn the Variable Approach for solving DS questions and the IVY approach for solving PS questions to improve your accuracy and save time while solving the question types.

These approaches are the robust self-designed time-saving techniques that will help you learn efficiently, thus raising your score in the quick nick of time.

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-days on-demand course for free trial lessons.

700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too. Start with the learning of the concepts. Make a habit of taking notes during the initial learning of the concepts.

After registering, you will have access to the practice section. Initially, try solving the DS and/or PS questions from very easy and easy category questions on the topic(s) you have learned. You may also connect with one of our experts to get one of the best tutoring supports, which will help you understand the topic(s) and solve questions and learn how to manage time and accuracy.

Below is the useful link we will recommend you to visit on GMAT club to experience the power of DS and IVY approaches.

Ultimate Q51 guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ultimate ... l#p1613600

Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

Regular tests will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and hence will be able to learn time management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

EducationAisle · Answer

From my limited knowledge of GRE, my impression is that Quant on GRE is easier than Quant on GMAT.

So, if you target schools accept GRE, that might be an option worth exploring.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi RedSox12,

I’m sorry to hear about how things have been going wtih your GMAT.

Looking at your study plan, it seems as though you have been following a study plan that I call “practice first and figure the rest out later.” In other words, you are doing practice problems before understanding the concepts on which those problems are based, and thus you are trying to learn solely from reading solutions to problems. Following such a study plan will lead to disorganized studying and ultimately hold you back from improving your quant and verbal skills. If you would like some more advice on how to move forward with your prep here is a helpful article:

The Best Way to Study for the GMAT

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi RedSox12,

Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. The key to scoring well on GMAT is to focusing on the right aspects. If your score doesn't improve even after months of prep, then that means that there's something wrong with the preparation strategy. First let us understand the right way to prepare for GMAT.

How to prepare for GMAT in the right way?  
Before you start preparing for any test, it's important to understand the structure of the test, what is tested on it and then prepare accordingly. In this case, GMAT is a test which focuses on your application skills along with the conceptual knowledge. So, just learning the concepts and practicing questions without focusing on the right methodology will not do any good. So, I suggest you to first focus on the methodology to solve questions of a particular topic and only then move to practicing questions of that topic.

So, the right way to prepare would be to first

learn the concepts of a topic,  
 learn the right methodology to solve questions of that topic 
 practice a few questions of that topic to solidify your learning and then move to the nest topic 
 Repeat the process for all the topics

And working on weak areas is equally important. You move to the next topic only if you get a decent accuracy in the previous topic. If not, you revisit the concepts, fill the conceptual gaps and then move to the next topic only when you are 100% confident. There are a couple of articles which you might find helpful.

How to effectively plan your studies for GMAT

How to score 700+ on GMAT

How to start preparing for GMAT

And you can go through the recording below to understand how to strategize your GMAT prep in an effective way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65n8_LIbPIM

What might have gone wrong?  
As we have understood the right way to prepare, now let's analyze what could have gone wrong with your previous attempt. You must have learnt the concepts of the topics and you must have practiced questions as well.  But did you focus on the methodology part? Did you focus on working your weak areas?

These two could be the major reasons for you not scoring well on GMAT. So, this time make sure you do your prep in the right way by focusing on all the above parameters. So, you need to make sure that you select a standard resource which helps you learn the concepts, learn the methodology and then lets you practice questions and take timed quizzes. And the  best way to learn the right methodology is to analyze the solutions . Spend considerable time on analyzing solutions even if you get the question right. Compare your approach with the right one and narrow down the gaps if any. So, all in all, look for a resource which provides you all the content on a single platform, thereby reducing your effort to shuffle among various resources.And a study plan would be an added advantage as you will have clear deadlines.

How to make a proper study plan? 
The right way to make a proper study plan is to organize the concepts based on their difficulty level, dedicate a few hours to study every day and then make clear deadlines for every week. Having clear deadlines will help you stay motivated right till the end. Having said that, as you are a working professional, you might find it difficult to make a proper study plan as it may be a tedious task for you. And following a  generic study plan is not advisable because you need to create a study plan based on the number of hours you can dedicate for studies .

You can get your  personalized study plan for free  by signing up for   free trial   of the course. The dashboard asks you for the number of hours you can dedicate in a week and then creates a study plan for you. You will be provided weekly deadlines as well. So, all you have to do is to follow that study plan.

And regarding how to proceed further and the study strategy, I think it would be better if we can get in touch over a call and discuss the same as I would like to ask a few questions about your current preparation strategy and your weak areas. You can use the below link to get in touch with me.

Click here to schedule a call

I don’t know what to do..

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