Any suggestions to help me on GMAT?

Hi All,
I'm open to suggestions on how to improve my GMAT score. I'm taking the exam in December and have been studying everyday for the past two months. I took the exam 10 years ago when I went for my MBA but now I have to take it again because I want to pursue another masters. However, on my practice exams I score between 550 and 630, and can't seem to stay consistent. I was shooting for a 700 but it looks like that ain't happening. However, I want to still do well and get out of the 500's. The caliber of school isn't important to me because I already have an MBA and 10 years of work experience. I just want to get into a school and get the degree over with. Although, I'm looking to score well as a challenge to myself that I can do it.

I seem to score around the same percentile for both math and verbal. But I'd prefer to improve my score through mastering more of the math concepts.

Can anyone offer suggestions as to how I could go about improving my score?

Can anyone who's scored about 700 help me out with some strategies?

Thank you.

 

1st try - 480 in 2006

2.5 years go by

Studied with Princeton Review as a primer

Then studied KAPLAN GMAT 800 for the hard questions

The I did 7 manhattan GMAT CATS and two official practice CATS from the GMAT people, highest score was a 710

Took the GMAT a 2nd time---660. After a few hours of banging my head on a wall I re-registered for exactly 30 days after.

The next 30 days: minimal studying, relaxed, walked in and took the math portion. I thought I was bombing it and said "fuck it." The verbal came up and I was totally kicking the shit out of it. Score: 720.

480 to 720. It can be done. The machine can be broken.

 

Hi GG, Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into the Kaplan GMAT 800 stuff. I've pretty much exhausted the manhattan curriculum and practice tests. My best score on manhattan was a 650 but I looked up some hints in my notes while taking the exam so I don't count that as a legit score. I also too the practice cats from the people at mba.com and scored the 550's.

I'm going to have to take a more relaxed approach like you did at the end there. I seem to make too much of a big deal about it and that's when I do bad.

Anyway, thanks again.

 
ronburgundy:
Hi GG, Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into the Kaplan GMAT 800 stuff. I've pretty much exhausted the manhattan curriculum and practice tests. My best score on manhattan was a 650 but I looked up some hints in my notes while taking the exam so I don't count that as a legit score. I also too the practice cats from the people at mba.com and scored the 550's.

I'm going to have to take a more relaxed approach like you did at the end there. I seem to make too much of a big deal about it and that's when I do bad.

Anyway, thanks again.

Ron - are there particular areas of the exam that you are weak on? sentence correction? data sufficiency? etc?

 

I've been approaching the DS questions with the plan you mention as it helps me to get some right simply through the process of elimination. But, what I'm noticing is that on some of the questions one of the two conditions is the easiest to know that it satisfies the question, but its being able to determine whether the other condition can satisfy it too. So, in questions where the correct answer is a D I always end up choosing the wrong answer as either A or B simply because I have trouble determining whether the other one of the two conditions can satisfy the question.

On critical reasoning I'd say I've done roughly 200 for practice.

 
Best Response
ronburgundy:
I've been approaching the DS questions with the plan you mention as it helps me to get some right simply through the process of elimination. But, what I'm noticing is that on some of the questions one of the two conditions is the easiest to know that it satisfies the question, but its being able to determine whether the other condition can satisfy it too. So, in questions where the correct answer is a D I always end up choosing the wrong answer as either A or B simply because I have trouble determining whether the other one of the two conditions can satisfy the question.

On critical reasoning I'd say I've done roughly 200 for practice.

I think on critical reasoning and sentence correction, if you drill long enough and then REVIEW the right answers and why you got them right or wrong you will eventually start to see the same patterns over and over again and the same concepts. they can only ask so many types of questions, and the faster you become at identifying the answer, the more time you give yourself for the more difficult questions.

It really is a test that can be mastered with sufficient practice and drilling (assuming you are using a structured way to study and you are reviewing what you get wrong in detail to make sure you can identify a similar problem in the future).

good luck, Patrick

 

i'm guessing you're not from a quant background. unless you are, i'd say bust your ass on the verbal, coz the gmat precentile in quant is raised constantly by engineers and computer geeks. the verbal percentile is easier to bust.

but no two ways about it - you gotta practice for hours on end. after thoroughly ingesting the manhattan strat guides i spent almost a week of 5-8 net hours of daily study and concentrated mostly on the rough points i had. obviously practice with the official guides as well. manhattan is good for the verbal but i feel it was a little soft on the quant - i found myself banging my head during the quant stage of the exam coz i only used the manhattan and official guides to prepare. had i had an extra week and some extra patience i'd have used the kaplan 800 for the quant and maybe even gotten a higher score, tho i shouldn't be complaining, what with my crazy 760

"... then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."
 
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MGMAT guides are good but I feel the questions are nothing like the real thing. As for approaching DS questions, it's just a matter of practice. A lot of people say approach DS some sort of strategy, but in my opinion, all you need to do is master the concepts. I suggest downloading the flashcards from beatthegmat.com I also suggest reading through kaplan or MGMAT. I suggest buying the mgmat guides and nailing the concepts.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I just downloaded the flashcards from beatthegmat and will be digesting them. I'll go ahead and review my manhattan practice cats again and also delve into Kaplan. I've pretty much exhausted the official guides.

 

dunno if this will help but here's my gmat experience:

did nothing, not a single practice test until i signed up for the 9-week prep course with manhattan gmat. took the course, studied intensively for 2 weeks after the course and took the test 730 (96th percentile) score, satisfied.

so i put in 11 weeks total and will never think about it again. manhattan gmat definitely helped a lot since i did pretty horribly in the diagnotic test and the next couple throughout the course. but im also a senior in college and my brain isnt quite so dried out yet. thoughts to consider...

 

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