Score of 490 - 1 Month of prep everyday - Need to Retake

Question

Hi all,

I've been involved in this forum for a few months, but I didn't realize my application deadline of June 15th until about 1 month ago. Therefore, I started studying the beginning of May, and took the test last Saturday, June 5th. I took the 2 GMAT Prep Tests, receiving a 480 and 500. I was much higher in Verbal than Quant. My goal was 550.

Results on 6/5 - Q(32) V(25) - Yikes.
I'm a journalism major, former journalist for college newspaper, and in general better at Verbal than Math. Struggled with Math concepts the entire month.

During the actual test, I was 100% positive I bombed the Math. And I thought I KILLED the verbal section, I actually finished with about 1 minute to spare, and was confident I was answering questions correctly left and right. BOOM. Exact opposite. My Math score was significantly higher than Verbal. Crushing blow.

Books utilized (not a ton):
1. GMAT for Dummies (sounds silly but it helps with basic concepts, in easy terminology and included 2 full length paper practice tests with explanations)
2. OG 11
3. All practice software that comes with the test from initial MBA website

I know most people in this forum are super intelligent, and complaining about not getting a 700, but all I want to do is go to the University of Colorado in Denver. I went to CU Boulder, graduated in 2004, and now just want to earn an MBA to get a better job, further my education, and brighten my future.

Suggestions or help would be great from anyone listening out there. I wish everyone good luck this summer who is taking or retaking the test!

Thanks,
Rachel
:-D

wonderland130 · Answer

Go Kyle Orton! (Boiler up!)

But besides that. Buy the Manhattan Gmat books. what sections do you have difficulties with? CR, SC, RC? take the free manhattan test and take a look at the score distribution to see what your strengths and weaknesses are and attack them using manhattan gmat.

DAYNE · Answer

more time and better materials....

akaydee · Answer

Rachel,

Your final score was pretty much in line with the practice scores from GMAT prep. Now this doesn't mean you can't do better.

You definitely need to spend some more time on both the quant and the verbal part of the exam. For the quant side I'd suggest you buy the Manhattan GMAT Guides (Number Properties/Inequalities and Word Translation). These would definitely help you bump up your score.

On the verbal side I don't think you can say that just because you are Journalism major you'll do well. Lawyers would tend to do well on the verbal section because there are two components in the GMAT that are similar to the LSAT (Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension). Sentence Correction is unique to the GMAT and as many have said before the best book is the Manhattan SC Guide.

All said and done your best friends are the Official Guides (OG 12/Verbal Review/Quantitative Review 2nd Edition) and the GMAT prep software. Now get rid of that Dummy you don't need it

Rachcu13 · Answer

Hey thanks for those who have responded. I am looking into the MGMAT books and the Powerscore Verbal Bible as well. After reading this forum and others, those seem to be the choices among many.

My thoughts are, that it will be difficult to increase my math "understanding" of concepts and overall math ability, so if I can increase my Verbal, and kill the verbal section then I can get a new score of 550.

I understand i need more time and more material. If anyone can give specific suggestions of online material or tips/tricks for questions? I think I did most poorly in the CR. SC and RC I am more consistent, but I think I got fatigued during the exam during verbal and got bored of reading. Any tips for that?

One last thing - Since I already took the 2 GMAT prep exams, when I sign up for the test a 2nd time, do I get 2 new ones?

Thanks!
Rachel

bakfed · Answer

You do not get two new GMATPrep CATs as it is the same program whether you sign up for a test or not. However, I'd recommend taking some additional CATs from other tutoring companies, such as ManhattanGMAT (you get 6 CATs with just the purchase of 1 book from MGMAT), Princeton Review (1 free), Knewton (1 free), or many other ones. Keep in mind that none of the tutoring places uses the same algorithm but they do strive to get as close as possible to the real score. Use these tests to simply brush up your skills and endurance.

DAYNE · Answer

best-gmat-books-reviews-recommendations-for-your-prep-77703.html?highlight=ml306

BlueRobin · Answer

If your looking at 550, You just need to either improve Math or Verbal.

Anyways, i suggest you spend everyday working on atleast 4 RC continously non stop in the morning, which will take initially 2 hours because of yawning and dozing but your mind will get more accustomed to read more information which is not very interesting. Even if you have a flight waiting to russia, spare 1 hr on RC it will improve both your mental and CR, SC because you need to observe the correct grammar and sentence formation in RC.

Try thinking 
what is the main idea of the passage?
What is the main idea of Para 1,2,3
Tone of author?

If you can work on Mgmat SC and Powerscore CR in 2-3 weeks then by all means work on them SC is great, lots of facts.

But if you do not have sufficient time, just work on being focussed during the exam.i.e more practice tests.

BM · Answer

Another option is to start with the Number Properties book, and continue with the Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook. For verbal, the best books include Manhattan SC and Powerscore CR.

Rachcu13 · Answer

Hey thanks again for your responses.

What does anyone think about taking a weekend or online intensive course? I noticed PowerScore offers a 2-day weekend course in Denver area that is 2 days 8 hours per day.

Does anyone know of the benefit of a non full length course like a weekend or online only? The weekend course appeals to me because it's not online and in actual classroom format. It's about $390.

Thoughts?

akaydee · Answer

Regardless of whether you take a weekend or an online intensive course you will have to put in 3x to 4x as many hours in practicing on honing your test taking skills.  No  course whether it's a 16-hour course/42-hour course can help you bump your score dramatically without the required effort on your part. All courses (online/offline) give a broad overview (some go a little deeper depending on the number of hours in the course) of the the materials tested in the exam as they cater to students who score anywhere from 500 - 750. I think what separates the better courses is (1) Access to practice material (this includes practice drill material as well as tests) they give you and (2) the support they provide in terms of clarifying doubts.

DAYNE · Answer

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