How can Manhattan Help ?

[avonkar]

Hii,

I spoke to Micheal from student services and he asked me to contact Stacy for a better advice on this forum.

I am Onkar and currently work for GM as a supply chain engineer. Recently, I took a shot at GMAT and my performance was not good. My GMAT score 530 ( Q-47, V-18, AWA 5) Below is the road map and study material I used for my prep.

Studied on & off for about 3-4 months Quant and verbal concepts.

Last 2 months before exam, I dedicated 3 hrs daily and practiced quant and verbal on alternate days.

Every weekend I took 2 test for 8 weeks and in last 2 weeks took a test every alternate day.( GMAT Prep, Kaplan, Princeton, 800 score, also practiced paper test from Arco, Mcgraw hill and MBA.com)

I used a mix of study material available on the web and some from libraries. (Princeton, OG-11, Kap 800, Kaplan Premier Program, Manhattan Sentence corr, Critical reasoning by Power score)

My scores during practice exams seemed to be between 600-650. (Q- Avg around 42-47, V- Avg sround 30-35)

My observations were I could not score beyond (30-35) in my verbal section..Could not zone in on my weak areas.

I wanted to know what things I can do differently and how Manhattan can help me get a better score.

[StaceyKoprince]

Your quant score was very high; your verbal score was the problem.

Couple of things:
DO NOT take so many practice tests and do not take them so closely together. The amount you learn from the act of taking a practice test is only marginal. Most of your learning comes from analyzing that test and setting up a study plan based on your strengths and weaknesses. It can take 4-6 hours of review to analyze one test and develop a study plan and it should then take 2-3 weeks to implement that study plan. If you aren't finding 2-3 weeks' worth of things to do based on a test, you aren't analyzing that test enough.

DO NOT take practice tests within a minimum of 3 days of the real test - and I prefer to take the last practice test a full week before the real test. All you do is tire yourself out - it's like running a practice marathon a couple of days before you run the real marathon. Bad idea. Besides, you don't have enough time to learn what you need to learn from a test if you're taking the real test just a few days later.

Can you provide more data re: your experience on the verbal section of the official test? How did it feel the same and how did it feel different, compared to your practice tests? How was the timing? Did you find yourself either very behind or very ahead at some point? How did you handle that situation? How was your timing at the end of the section - the last 10 questions or so? How were your energy levels? When you took all those practice tests, were you also taking the essays, and were you taking the practice tests under full timed conditions (essays, 10 min break, quant, 10 min break, verbal)? Etc.

Also, you mention that your practice test scores were in the 600-650 range but you don't mention what you'd like to score on the test. Were you hoping to score in that same range on the official test?

There are a number of things that we could help you with in terms of improving your performance, starting with figuring out why you didn't perform as you would've liked on the official test and including figuring out your weak areas by question type, content area, and pacing, and how to improve those weaknesses. If you want to work with an instructor, your two basic options are to take a class or to do some private tutoring. A class has the advantage of giving you everything - quant and verbal - for a (relatively) reasonable price, but the disadvantage is that you will have to go over everything on the general class schedule. Tutoring has the advantage of allowing you to cover only the things that you need to cover, completely tailored to your needs, but the disadvantage is that it is very expensive. You'll have to make the call as to whether one of those options is right for you - the web site includes details on how the classes work and what they cover, or you can also ask Student Services about that. If you were to choose tutoring, your tutor would develop a specific plan for you based on your own strengths, weaknesses, and goals.

You can also choose one of our self-study packages that allow you to study on your own but still have accesses to our resources (and, for one package, tapes of the class sessions). This one is the most economical of the three options. You can find details about the different packages on the web site (or you can ask Student Services). FYI - you mentioned that you had difficulty figuring out your own weak areas, so this one might not be the best choice for you - or you might want to do mostly self-study with some sessions of private tutoring to help you figure out what you need to do differently.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

[Guest]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks a lot for your response. My after thoughts were some what similar to your comments.

I took a lot of practice test in last 15 days.. It seemed like cramming a lot of stuff in few hrs.

your experience on the verbal section of the official test? How did it feel the same and how did it feel different, compared to your practice tests?

It seemed really tiring after AWAand quant sections. Also, it seemed like I could not recollect the strategies for SC, CR. My practice test were more relaxed. When I

started giving practice exams I could only complete 30 questions but my speed slowly improved but always had issues with completing last 5-6 questions. During the real test,

there was more anxiety and I dragged my self during qns (13-22).

I spent a long time on RC that showed up early in my exam and ended up guessing last few questions.

How was the timing? Did you find yourself either very behind or very ahead at some point? How did you handle that situation? How was your timing at the end of the section - the last 10 questions or so?


Regarding timing, I use to plan 20-25 mins for first 12 questions.

I tried to be on qns (20-22) with 40 min remaining and leave about 20 min for last 10 questions.

I practiced this timing regimen for my practice exams but couldnt implement this in real test as I spent long time on early questions


How were your energy levels? When you took all those practice tests, were you also taking the essays, and were you taking the practice tests under full timed conditions

I was feling really tired during the verbal section. For me, it is the difficult section of the exam and it hits in the end. :(

I admit I was not very disciplined with the breaks. I gave about 3 exams with AWA section. I use t skip it mant times during practice.

I plan to give a second shot at the GMAT. My aspirations are breaking the 700 barrier. I am planning to enroll in the online class that begins on 08/23.

Also wanted to know if the instructor can help a student strategize, help to find weaknesses, how to handle stress during exam, guessing, shortcuts, etc..

Will they help me develop a individual plan during office hrs ? Does it help studying in groups for GMAT ?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks
Onkar

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for the detail. The good thing is that you pretty much know what the problem is. Now you just need help fixing it.

I'd talk to your instructors (you'll have two because it's an online class) on the first day - explain your situation (strike a balance between giving good information and not saying so much that they'll get lost in the details) and ask for advice. You can also do the same during the office hours, absolutely. And I definitely think it helps to study with other people - I strongly recommend that. You can try to meet some people during your class so you guys can get together online, or you can meet up in person with people you know who are also studying for the test.

You should also take a look through the Interact and Learn section of our website. There are some great articles in there about stress management, guessing strategies, etc. Click on Interact and Learn from our home page and then click on ManhattanGMAT Strategy Annex. Scroll down to see the article links.

Finally, they'll explain this on the first day of class, but if you take the three practice exams assigned on the syllabus, at the time that each one is assigned, you can sign up for a personal review and study plan at the end of the course. One of your instructors will give you suggestions about what s/he thinks you should do between the end of the course and the official test.