First attempt 520 (Q32 V28)

Question

Hi everybody, I'm practically new here and I would like to share my experience

I had about 3 months to study for the GMAT but I work full time and have little time to study.

I have been in this forum from time to time but I have not been an active poster.

I took the GMAT and did it poorly. In each section I had to guess the last 10-15 questions because I was running out of time.

Now I have also little time to study but I'm going to try harder.

How can I get more speed? I'm planning to practice, practice, and practice... are there other complementary ways to improve speed?

One of my problems is that I forgot all about probabilities. I did not give much attention to them, because I thought that only 700+ scorers have to answer that kind of questions, however, in the test the fifth question was about probabilities.

I have read a lot of posts today and took some notes. I am going to be an active member of the forum and I hope you can help me improve, since I could notice that most of you (if not all of you) are really great people.

I hope that my little knowledge would help others to, so from what I've read in some post I can summarize that a good plan to study would be the following:

1. Take a practice test and identify your weak areas
2. Work OG questions and work harder on your weaker areas (under timed conditions)
3. Spend some time reviewing your answers. Specially those you got wrong and those in which you had doubts.
4. Keep an error log
5. Practice this forum's quantitative questions, since the real GMAT is harder than OG
6. Remain calm and positive.

I have about a month to retake the GMAT. And I'm planning to get a 600+ score.

Any pearls of wisdom??

HongHu · Answer

For people who work full time while preparing GMAT, I would suggest you take the last week off work. I did it before my test. Although my kids had been sick at that week so I didn't get as much time as I hoped it still helped me immensely to clear off everything else from my mind and to focus myself on the test.

edu · Answer

thank you very much HongHu. Like many others I've read your story and also about your GMAT score and I think it is wonderful to have people like you in this forum.

One question 

Math from OG is not as difficult as in the real GMAT. 

I'm thinking about studying Verbal from OG and Quantitative from Kaplan's CD (I have the 2003 edition by the way).

What do you people suggest????

Paul · Answer

I agree with you that math from OG, for the most part, is easier than math from the exam. However, it depends what Q-score you are currently at. At Q32, there is still much room for improvement and I would still suggest you to go through the OG math questions. Only the last 60DS questions will be overly difficult so don't worry too much.

Kaplan is a good math resource and don't forget to  learn concepts . You should spend at least half the time you do working on CAT correcting your errors. A good place to improve your math skills (definitely a higher difficulty bin) is in the math section forum of GMATclub.  Actively participate  and solve those questions preferably under timed condition. Go through other people's explanation to learn their tricks on how to approach a problem the most efficient way as possible

edu · Answer

Thanks Paul, you see, my problem with quant questions is mostly speed. I can solve a good number of OG quant questions in about 2 minutes. When I took the GMAT those little harder questions took me even more time, that made me nervous and you know the rest of it.

I guess I have to practice more under timed conditions

Greetings, :wink:

Hjort · Answer

Edu,

How were you scoring on practice tests before you took the exam?

edu · Answer

hummm actually I did not take any complete practice test before the exam.... However I took kaplan's diagnostic and I scored about 580. I know, I know, I should have taken complete practice exams

I'm going do that this time

Paul · Answer

You just answered your own question. Stamina building is crucial. It's like running a marathon without any proper training

edu · Answer

You're right Paul, now I notice that. Well, now I have a second chance to take a good GMAT, and I'll be prepared :wink:

Thanx a lot for your answers!

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First attempt 520 (Q32 V28)

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