I have been studying GMAT on and off for the last two years. I started to study almost nonstop since last year summer and also took two months off from work (November and December) to only focus on GMAT study. I studied the Manhattan strategy guidebooks and official guidebooks, tok the CAT exams and the practice GMAT exams you get when you enroll for the exam. The last GMAT official exam I tok on December 9th last year, I got 570. The first GMAT official exam I tok on August 2014, I got 560. I had an online course in 2014 fall with Manhattan. I also had two session 1:1 with instructors and got guidance on my strength and weakness areas and what to do while studying to improve. I plan to take a new official exam on 1st feb but I tok one practice GMAT exam from GMAC and got 560 last week. I feel tired and stressed and don't understand what to do next to improve my score. I am thinking of postpoining my GMAT exam on 1st feb and enroll myself in the online boot camp starting on 5th Feb. Can anyone please help/guide me on what should I do the next month to improve my score?
I followed the advice given the the Prepare for the GMAT 3- interact session and make a list of my weakness areas (getting below 50%). Its quite long. I would appreciate if you can advise me on which ones to pick and which ones to drop. I need to take the test by 22nd Feb to manage the school deadlines for this year. Is it realistic to get 620/630 score working the next three weeks? I have many of the areas below in 40% region. Should I focus on them more than the others?
Geometry
-Coordinate plane
-Circles and Cylinders
-Triangles and Diagonals
Number Properties
- Probability
-Positives and Negatives
-Combinatorics
-Odds and Evens
- Divisibility and Prime
Word Problem
- Extra Problem types
- Consecutive integers
-Rates and work
FDPs
-Percents
-FDPs
-Fractions
Sentence Correction:
- Comparisions
-Pronouns
-Verbs
-Idioms
-Subject-verb agreement
-Concision
GMAT Forum
2 postsPage 1 of 1
- RumanaH250
- Course Students
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:16 pm
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: How to improve my GMAT score
I'm sorry that this test has been such a struggle.
Your goal is to improve by 50 to 60 points and your timeframe is about 3 weeks. In general, that would be an ambitious goal for most people - but you have a deadline, so you might as well just try your best and go for it! It sounds like you have a decent amount of time to study (since you're considering bootcamp), so you might make it!
There are a few common reasons why someone might study a lot but not see much of a score increase. Do any of these apply to you?
1) Mindset / approach to the test. Are you approaching the test (and your studies) with the mindset described in the two articles below?
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
If now, how does your mindset differ and what do you need to do in order to move yourself more towards the mindset described in these articles?
2) Timing. This really follows a lot from mindset: if you are, for example, prioritizing getting things right over making good decisions about what to do and what not to do, then you will mess up your timing. And that will mess up your score.
This more in-depth article describes how to analyze your tests more deeply (more than just below 50% correct - which is one important factor, but several other factors are just as important):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats
For instance, if you got 40% correct on problems whose average difficulty was 650, then that would actually be good, not bad (given that your score is ~570). If, on the other hand, you got 40% correct on a category and the difficulty of those problems was lower than your score, that's a problem: missing those questions is pulling your score down. Or if you missed a question mostly because you were rushing and made a careless mistake, the remedy is very different than when you miss a question because you just didn't know how to do it in the first place.
This article talks more about how to learn to manage timing on the test:
http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement
Watch out for certain pitfalls:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -to-do-it/
And know when you should let go (this one is a series that covers all of the question types):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/09/ ... gmat-quant
3) Holes in Foundation. If you are great at pure algebra but really bad at story problems, the strength may not be enough to offset the weakness. The story problems you miss will pull your score down, so that the algebra problems you're offered aren't even as hard as you could do. It's better to work to have a roughly equal level of skill across all major topic areas than to be really good at some things and really bad at others.
4) Careless mistakes. The test makes allowances for a few careless mistakes--they know you're human--but if you make too many, your score will obviously be pulled down.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
5) Nerves / anxiety. Everyone feels at least a little nervous when taking the GMAT, but some people have strong enough reactions that their scores are really affected. Do you have a history of underperforming (relative to your practice) on high-stakes tests? Do you consistently do a lot better in practice than you do in a testing situation? Do you have physical reactions: racing heart, sweaty palms? Significant difficulty concentrating?
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/
Do a more in-depth review of your test using the article I linked under timing (note: this analysis will likely take you at least an hour). Of the topics you listed in your last post, here are the most important based on frequency:
NP: divis and prime, odd even, pos neg
FDPs: percents, fractions
SC: subject-verb, comparisons
But again, don't assume that that list is really "the" list. When you factor in difficulty level and timing, you are likely to have to edit the list.
In terms of whether you should do bootcamp, that could give you some daily focus and structure. Given that you are stressed out and losing motivation, that could be valuable.
On the other hand, you already took the course before; it won't be exactly the same as last time, but it will be similar. Another option might be to use that same money to do some more private tutoring instead, so that you can target your issues more specifically. You won't have as many hours of instruction, since tutoring is more expensive, but the sessions will be 100% focused on you. (Did you do "full" tutoring sessions before or were you doing the 30-minute office hours sessions? Those are still valuable, but not the same as spending 2 hours diving into your weaknesses and working on problems together.)
Do you feel more that you have a pretty good idea of what you need, but would like a daily plan and access to teachers just to ask questions and structure your study? (boot camp)
Or do you feel that you would benefit more from someone looking at your specific data and working with you to help you figure out how best to focus / prioritize and how best to study? (tutoring)
Your goal is to improve by 50 to 60 points and your timeframe is about 3 weeks. In general, that would be an ambitious goal for most people - but you have a deadline, so you might as well just try your best and go for it! It sounds like you have a decent amount of time to study (since you're considering bootcamp), so you might make it!
There are a few common reasons why someone might study a lot but not see much of a score increase. Do any of these apply to you?
1) Mindset / approach to the test. Are you approaching the test (and your studies) with the mindset described in the two articles below?
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
If now, how does your mindset differ and what do you need to do in order to move yourself more towards the mindset described in these articles?
2) Timing. This really follows a lot from mindset: if you are, for example, prioritizing getting things right over making good decisions about what to do and what not to do, then you will mess up your timing. And that will mess up your score.
This more in-depth article describes how to analyze your tests more deeply (more than just below 50% correct - which is one important factor, but several other factors are just as important):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats
For instance, if you got 40% correct on problems whose average difficulty was 650, then that would actually be good, not bad (given that your score is ~570). If, on the other hand, you got 40% correct on a category and the difficulty of those problems was lower than your score, that's a problem: missing those questions is pulling your score down. Or if you missed a question mostly because you were rushing and made a careless mistake, the remedy is very different than when you miss a question because you just didn't know how to do it in the first place.
This article talks more about how to learn to manage timing on the test:
http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement
Watch out for certain pitfalls:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -to-do-it/
And know when you should let go (this one is a series that covers all of the question types):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/09/ ... gmat-quant
3) Holes in Foundation. If you are great at pure algebra but really bad at story problems, the strength may not be enough to offset the weakness. The story problems you miss will pull your score down, so that the algebra problems you're offered aren't even as hard as you could do. It's better to work to have a roughly equal level of skill across all major topic areas than to be really good at some things and really bad at others.
4) Careless mistakes. The test makes allowances for a few careless mistakes--they know you're human--but if you make too many, your score will obviously be pulled down.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
5) Nerves / anxiety. Everyone feels at least a little nervous when taking the GMAT, but some people have strong enough reactions that their scores are really affected. Do you have a history of underperforming (relative to your practice) on high-stakes tests? Do you consistently do a lot better in practice than you do in a testing situation? Do you have physical reactions: racing heart, sweaty palms? Significant difficulty concentrating?
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/
Do a more in-depth review of your test using the article I linked under timing (note: this analysis will likely take you at least an hour). Of the topics you listed in your last post, here are the most important based on frequency:
NP: divis and prime, odd even, pos neg
FDPs: percents, fractions
SC: subject-verb, comparisons
But again, don't assume that that list is really "the" list. When you factor in difficulty level and timing, you are likely to have to edit the list.
In terms of whether you should do bootcamp, that could give you some daily focus and structure. Given that you are stressed out and losing motivation, that could be valuable.
On the other hand, you already took the course before; it won't be exactly the same as last time, but it will be similar. Another option might be to use that same money to do some more private tutoring instead, so that you can target your issues more specifically. You won't have as many hours of instruction, since tutoring is more expensive, but the sessions will be 100% focused on you. (Did you do "full" tutoring sessions before or were you doing the 30-minute office hours sessions? Those are still valuable, but not the same as spending 2 hours diving into your weaknesses and working on problems together.)
Do you feel more that you have a pretty good idea of what you need, but would like a daily plan and access to teachers just to ask questions and structure your study? (boot camp)
Or do you feel that you would benefit more from someone looking at your specific data and working with you to help you figure out how best to focus / prioritize and how best to study? (tutoring)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
2 posts Page 1 of 1