GMAT Strategy

Hello, let me give you some background information firstly- I am going to be a senior this year and earlier last year I decided I would like to go to Grad School and began studying for the GMAT. I would study off an on until the beginning of June when I was 6 weeks out and began taking my studying seriously. My practice tests ranged from 510 to 580 (510,540,560,580) which I was pretty satisfied with considering the schools I would like to get into have an average GMAT of 550 (I live in Ohio, and my main schools that I am looking at are Akron, Xavier, and Cleveland State- mainly for location reasons). During the practice GMATs, my verbal scores were solid and consistent (pretty much between 70-80 percentile) and my math was slightly low, but after concentrating my studying towards the Quant section, improved to an area I was happy with.

Anyway, yesterday I took the test and the whole time I was taking it, I thought that the real thing was easier than the CATs, but when I got my score I saw to my dismay that I scored a 480- with my quant score being higher than my verbal score! This shocked me because, while my Quant score was consistent with what I averaged on the CATs, my verbal score was waaayyy off track. I plan on taking the rest of the week off and then getting back into studying again and would like to shoot for the retake Mid-September.

Finally, I was wondering if I could get some studying advice. My weaknesses for Quant seem to be Data Sufficiency and putting word problems into algabra equations. Near the end of my studying, I noticed my verbal scores slightly suffered (but not much) from dedicating my time to Quant, so during that time it seemed like my weaknesses were RC (seemed like i had problems with the scope of the passage) and CR.

I have a GPA of 3.5 so I know my GMAT score doesn't reflect what I can do and it really frustrates me- especially since I know I can do so much better on the GMAT. I just feel like this score was a fluke.


P.S. I used mainly the KAPLAN book and materials and the GMATPrep software.

I suggest you use MGMAT Quantitiative material. They tend to be the most popular guides for strengthening your quant skillset. For CR, I recommed PowerScore's CR Bible. It really helps you with knowing which answers are wrong, helping you save a lot of time.

thanks for the advice.... I decided to buy the 6 MGMAT books and bought the OG12, i set up a study plan and will stick to it for a solid 6-8 weeks and retake it at the end of Sept...

Sounds like a great plan! Good luck!

I read from another forum that you need the OG AND the supplemental guides when you get the MGMAT books- is this true? I figured the OG contains a mix of all the questions while the supp books just offer you more questions to work on.

Would I be fine for the time being just using the OG with the MGMAT books?

On a more positive note- I got my official score report back and I scored a 5.5 on the awa!