Practice exams, timeline and strategy

[akshat_kumar]

Thanks Stacey !!

Thats very helpful.
I will send that email today.
Rate for me as a previous GMAT interact student would be 225/ hour. If after speaking to Jeremy, I do decide to retake the GMAT then I will really appreciate if you can recommend a private tutor for me. Any ideas on approximate number of hours it will require ?

Will get back.
Thanks again
Akshat

[akshat_kumar]

Hi Stacey,

I sent that email yesterday. Hope you received it.

Thanks
Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

I emailed you both today - hopefully you've seen it by now.

And, yes, after you guys have talked, we can figure out next steps as far as the test is concerned.

[akshat_kumar]

HI Stacey,

Thanks once again for getting me in touch with Jeremy. Will let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile, I received an email from GMAC for the pilot project where I can chose the order.
The opportunity looked too good to pass and at worst a waste of 250 dollars and a few weekends.
So I went ahead and scheduled my exam on the last available date for the pilot- and that is 5th of March.
I chose- Quant-Verbal-IR-AWA as the order.

The pilot invite in a way made the decision for me (at least for the time being). I am actually excited about giving GMAT one more shot. Trying to figure out best way to utilize my one month of preparation time. I have started with the safest option- bought GMAT Navigator again and doing the OG questions- again- with detailed review of errors. Going back to the SG's on as needed basis.

What will your advise be for this retake ?
Am still open to the option of a few hours of private tutoring. But have a feeling finding a good tutor who can very quickly zero in on my specific shortcomings in this short time frame will be difficult. Though I do have 3 enhanced GMAT score reports and 6MGMAT score reports to help with the process.

[StaceyKoprince]

Oh, good - lucky you! Yes, I think this Section Select (or whatever they're calling it) is really a great thing - I hope the tests go well and they offer it to everyone in future!

If you do want to do some tutoring, then a month is just about enough time to get some targeted help. It wouldn't be enough for someone just starting out or for someone who needed a large score increase, but you're looking at a more targeted situation and you have lots of data.

Fill out the private tutoring form here to get started in the system: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/prep/tutoring/

You aren't commiting to anything just by filling that out - you can change your mind! But that will help get the ball rolling. I will send an email to our tutoring coordinator with your name and tell him to keep an eye out - if you do fill it out, I will ask him to tell me who's available and then I can recommend a specific person.

I hate to just recommend tutoring because I know how expensive it is. But in your case (720 to 750, have already studied a lot, only have a month, etc), I really do think that the best thing is to get someone who can dive into that data and really diagnose what's going on and figure out exactly what will give you the best chance of adding a few more points. It's so hard at that level, because a 720 is already amazing!

In general, just remember this: even at a 750-level, you're not going to get everything right. Your goal is not to study every last possible thing so that you could try to get everything right. You will be offered some really hard problems and you will still need to be able to decide which ones to let go. (And you will also need to be really anal and systematic about everything, because you can't afford to have many careless mistakes or holes in your foundation at that level.)

[akshat_kumar]

Thanks Stacey.

I can never thank you enough for your support and help throughout this never ending admission process. You have now gone out of your way multiple times for me.

Your advise has already helped me a lot in many specific situations- for example I would have not managed 720 without your voice in my head that just let that tough quant question go.

I am going to fill the form now and see how that goes.

Best
Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

You are more than welcome. Let me know how things go!

[akshat_kumar]

Hi Stacey,

I am back !!
You know I did not make it to B school last year. Was on waitlist at MIT for months but then it did not happen.
As you know I tried giving the GMAT again ( after speaking to Jeremy)- but again scored the exact same score- 720. Even with the pilot advantage that GMAC offered me, I could not break the 720 jinx .

Since then I have moved on. Work has kept me busy. And plus with the same score I reapplied to some schools in Round 1 this year. Schools where I came close last year.

Thinking of applying to a few more schools in Round 2. In those schools, I just may need a GMAT score of 750 to make the final cut. So contemplating whether to take it one more time.

From 720 to 750- nothing has worked for me yet ( 4 times) . Any advise ? This time I am actually thinking of in person live class in NYC/NJ to learn from my peers also. Any recommendations on a specific tutor? Is there a Manhattan class specific for people with scores already above 700 and looking to break 750?

I thought of personal tutoring but its just too expensive.

Thanks
Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi again!

Short answer: the higher you go into the 700s, the harder it gets to go even higher. We've had people who wanted to teach for us keep taking the test over a period of a year or two and keep falling 10 points short of 99th percentile. It's really not easy to get to a 750-type score.

We don't have classes that specifically target a certain scoring level, no. (Something to think about, though, thanks.) I think the single biggest factor is the teacher: you want to find someone who teaches in a way that fits your brain / learning style. So I'd go onto our website and just start signing up for the free session 1s (they're called trial sessions—basically you can sit in on class 1 for free) until you find a teacher that makes you think, "Yes! I can really learn from this person!"

Pay attention to your classmates, too. You can get a sense of how talkative / participatory they are and at what level they seem to be functioning, so that you can find some "kindred spirits"—both so that the class itself will be functioning at a higher level (because multiple of you will be contributing to make that happen) and so that you can find people with whom to study, a great way to motivate yourself and learn better.

Let me know what you decide to do!

[akshat_kumar]

Thanks Stacey.

That helps. I actually signed up for Ryan Starr's class starting today.
Lets see how that goes. Will keep you posted !!

Best
Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

Great—I hope you'll enjoy the class. I really like Ryan. Let me know how it goes.

Good luck!