Advanced GMAT Quant Book

[alexjohnhumphries]

In reading through the syllabus, I see that there is an Advanced Quant book that is available to students scoring above 44. I recently broke 44/45 on my practice GMATPrep CATs. I took the exam this past week scoring a 49 Q. I am planning to retake since I did not break the 700 mark however (690 49 Q 34 V). How do I get access to this advanced quant book to increase my quant to a 51?

As an aside, I have been stuck in a rut on verbal for a while. I will post in the verbal forum as well but I am looking for general tips to significantly increase my verbal score quickly (1 month max, that is probably my breaking point with this test and gives me time to get it done in time for adcoms to see a new score after submitting Round 2 apps although my 690 on my first attempt is now making me rethink applying altogether or at the very least cutting my list in half). By way of background, I started out scoring a 32 V cold for my first MGMAT CAT (10/7). After completing 6 week of the syllabus in 4 weeks, my verbal dropped to a 30 (on 11/10) and I was extremely shocked to say the least. I waited 4 days and powered through the three weeks of verbal material (not working at the moment), took my third test and my verbal went back to a 32 on 11/14 (baseline). A few days later I took another MGMAT CAT and scored 34 (11/19). Not feeling ready for my test date (11/25 - 2 days before Tgiving) and in part because I couldn't download the GMATprep software at the office I use due to admin rights on 11/21 in time to take a GMAC mock, I pushed it back. After Tgiving I became unmotivated and found it hard to study (lost 2 weeks), however I jumped back into studying by taking my first GMATPrep exam and scored a 38 V (12/10). This gave me confidence going into my final 10 days of prep for the test, so I planned to take it Dec 20th. I took another GMATPrep exam a week later on Dec 17th and scored a 35 V, which was disappointing, but still I was confident after achieving a 38 a week prior. 3 days later I sat for the exam which was yesterday and scored a 34 V. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed and can't seem to figure out the verbal section at all. I know I am struggling with pacing and consistently find myself rushing with 8-10 questions left in the last ten minutes. However, when I scored a 38 I was rushed as well so I can't figure out what is the determinant of my inability to break out of the mid-30s. Taking a detailed look at my CATs I noticed for MGMAT I was being massively penalized on the back-end and my percentile would nosedive due to rushing and guessing. However, when I scored a 38 V on GMATPrep I somehow managed to miss the last 8/9 questions which was more than ever and still was higher than I had ever scored (missing 15/41 questions in total). On my second GMATPrep exam which I took 3 days before the test, I somehow scored lower with a 35 V but only missed 2 out of the last 8 questions and missed 13/41 in total. I can't seem to figure this section out at all and its driving me crazy because it makes it seem like the 2+ months of prep was in vain. From my perspective, the math material has been great and I've picked it up by just reading and osmosis. However, the verbal material has not proven sufficient. I've done far more verbal OG questions than math and I meticulously reviewed my OG practice problems, particularly in CR and SC. For RC, I found the course to be extremely light, but I tend to do well on RC (high % correct at hard topics, however I could desperately learn to read faster). I have tried to take all of my CATs under test conditions. However, on test day there were a few surprises that I couldn't have prepared for. To begin, after being signed in I had to go the bathroom before the proctor checked my ID and was about to lead me to the room for AWA. She said I could go. I went and ended up having to relieve myself to feel comfortable (had to have been the huge coffee I had and meds that I recently started taking). Upon re-entering the lady at the front desk tells me she had to report me for taking too long in the bathroom (I was prob there for 8 minutes tops)! She said they would let me go in but that I was now past the time that I should have started and she didn't know what would happen to my score. She had been a huge pain when looking for my registration as well. During the instructions I kept thinking about what might happen but when AWA came up, I told myself to brush it off and forget about. I contemplated discussing it with her at the next break but figured it would only distract me so I pushed it aside. Later, 10 minutes into the quant portion I had to go to the bathroom badly again and just had to hold it ( I drank water before the quant). By the end of that portion I was ready to jump out of my seat and it definitely caused me to miss the last question. I also lost 2+ minutes to start the quant due to the handprint/sign-in process but I obviously recovered from that time deficit. I figured I had 2 minutes plus left to spare after eating my apple during the first break. However, I learned that the clock starts ticking right away after you hit yes and it takes time to get the proctor to sign you out. She was dealing with other people. I also planned on setting up my verbal scratch at the end of the quant section after seeing how they handled the first break (i.e you can't write anything and the test starts immediately upon being signed back in), but I couldn't because I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I ran out when quant ended. Setting up my scratch at the beginning of verbal cost me a minute at least. Needless to say, there are things I would do differently on test day. But I need to increase my verbal score. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long essay.

P.S. I digressed, but I would greatly appreciate being able to obtain access to the advanced quant books as well. Can we get them in paperback or is it only available in e-format? Thanks in advance MGMAT.

[RonPurewal]

hi,
this kind of thing belongs in the General GMAT Study Strategies folder (= first folder on the forum home page).

also, when you re-post your query over there, please do divide it into smaller paragraphs.

thank you.