A little advice, please?

[goingtobtg]

Hi ,

I just started my GMAT prep, have not booked a date for the exam yet. And, I don't intend to do so until I hit a score somewhere close to my goal score.
The reason I am telling you all this is because I would like you to understand the background. So, basically, I am in no rush whatsoever.

Now, moving on to my dilemna- Despite an engineering background, I suck at Math AND I know it :) Unnecessary trivia- I took the GRE back in 2007 and scored a 710 on the Quant portion. Now, anyone who took the GRE during those times, will know how easy the questions were/are. Despite supposedly easy questions, a 710 is what I could manage.

Now, having been out of touch with Math as such, I took the basic diagnostic that is offered at the Student Center portal, to check if I needed the GMAT Math Foundations Book- however, I scored a 100% on that. Found it quite easy.

Yesterday, I took a diagnostic CAT and score a 590 on the whole.I must have guessed on close to 15 questions on Math, I kid you not. Surprisingly, I did not get a raw score from Kaplan for the test- however, I did get these details: My overall score is at the 63rd percentile.
My quant score at the 51st percentile and my verbal score at the 58th percentile.

I apparently got 17 correct and 20 incorrect on the Quant portion and 21 correct and 20 incorrect on the Verbal portion.

Now, I have read your articles on analyzing a practice test and will do that soon enough. However, I need to understand this- on the diagnostic, what exactly are the key points we are trying to understand. Reason I ask is because, frankly, I can see that my problems exist in both sections, so what else am I trying to understand from a diagnostic?
Perhaps, I felt comfortable while answering Verbal because my inherent comfort with the language and I felt extreme discomfort handling some of the Math questions being woefully out of touch.

Also, I have HUGE timing issues on the Quant portion and I realized that yesterday. However, the good thing is it was my first exam and so, hopefully, I will get better from here.
And the other thing I discovered from taking the exam was that I find it hard to concentrate for that period. So, will have to work around that considering I am a *very* restless person, as such.

Moving back to what I asked initially, do you think I need the MATH foundations book? I am really clueless about this because I did SO badly yesterday, as in, I remembered the REALLY basic formula but forgot some stuff too. I don't know, or rather, I am unable to decide.
Also, my goal score is ideally a nice high score, above 750 even. THAT is my goal score, how I get there, remains to be seen!

I would really appreciate any kind of help from you, thank you so much for reading this badly written essay.

[StaceyKoprince]

It looks like you're fine on the fundamentals - though you may discover small holes in your foundation as you go along and, if so, you should obviously take appropriate steps to plug those holes.

Now, I have read your articles on analyzing a practice test and will do that soon enough. However, I need to understand this- on the diagnostic, what exactly are the key points we are trying to understand. Reason I ask is because, frankly, I can see that my problems exist in both sections, so what else am I trying to understand from a diagnostic?

Do you mean the diagnostic / first CAT that you take? What you're trying to understand is what the analysis tells you. So go do it. :) You're basically trying to figure out what your main strengths and weaknesses are so that you can set up an appropriate study plan.

I'll include the link here just in case:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

One of the things that you can discover, for example, is that you have timing problems - as you did. (Most people do.)

Read these and start doing what they say:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

Mental concentration / stamina is also difficult for most people. When you're studying, figure out everything you're going to do for a 2 hour period. Then GO for 1 hour, no stopping, no checking email, no grabbing a coffee or something to eat, etc. Just GO like it's a test section. Then take a 10-15 minute break, then GO again for 1 more hour. Then you can take a longer break or stop for the day. :)

When you take practice tests, be sure to take them under 100% official conditions, including the essays (or essay / IR, depending on when you're taking the exam). If you skip the essay(s) / IR, you just made the test a lot shorter, which makes the multiple choice easier.

So. I don't think you need to start with Foundations, no - I think you can start with the regular strategy guides. But you may find, at times, that you do need to go back to Foundations for certain things (eg, maybe you need to drill your exponent and root manipulations until they become easy / second-nature again).

You may also want to take a look at this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ould-i-do/