Retake advice + study planComing from a 4 months study break

[César PabloG847]

I took the GMAT test on December 4th after an 8 week preparation and with zero experience for standardized tests before this one. I got 530 (V/30, Q/33, IR/4, WA/3).

I had gotten these results before:
- 460 (1st GMAC mock 2 months before) (V/23, Q/29, IR/2)
- 530 (Manhattan mock 1 month before) (V/27, Q/37, IR/5)
- 560 (2nd GMAC mock 2 weeks before) (V/25, Q/43, IR/4)
- 650 (3rd GMAC recycled mock 1 week before)

I spent over 150 hours in total studying for this test, not sure how many but it definitely increased as time passed by (consistent however rushed at the end). The first month I read the entire OG 2019 to get some grasp on the content while I solved their first (easiest) prep questions for every section (PS, DS, etc).
These are my stats based on accuracy percentage for easy level OG questions: PS (27/31=87%), DS (49/56=87%) + (10/13=77%) for medium level; RC (31/33=94%) + (11/15=73%) for mid-level, CR (30/33=91%) + (12/23=52%) for mid, and SC (28/32=87%) .
I didn’t know about this difficulty level at that time so as I far as I knew I was performing better at quant than at verbal.
Then I took the Manhattan mock and I did poorly on Q, so I focused on that. Reread the OG content and searched on other basics explanations from other sources. Meantime I took other mock tests on quant only, but modeling the test-timed conditions. I also completed more OG questions (medium): PS (10/20), DS (8/11).
Then, I took my second GMAT mock. After the results I decided to focus on my verbal and review the other two sections (AWA and IR). I did more OG questions of medium level: RC (7/12), CR (5/10), SC (7/14). I thoroughly reviewed all the OG answer explanations and read from other sources about the Verbal logic.
The third GMAT mock that I took is very unreliable as it used some questions (not too many though) that I had already answered in my previous mocks. However it was very satisfying to see a 650 on my screen. I continued working on my verbal during my last week and I got these results on both medium and hard questions: RC (13/16=81%), CR (6/8=75%) hard only, and SC (9/15=60%).
During my preparation I had problems managing the time, mostly in Verbal.
On test day I started with Verbal, as I thought it was my weakness, and I did it well. However in the Quant section I completely lost it, I spent way too much time on the first half so I had to rush during the second. Just to mention that I couldn’t even finish all the questions and just had about 5 minutes to complete the last quarter. I felt very bad with this but I completed the entire test. On my defense, the Quant questions that I saw were more difficult that the ones that I had seen on mocks.
My current position (4 months after taking the test) is: got accepted into an MBA program, but I want to retake the test as I think that there is some room for improvement and if so, it will benefit me on a scholarship reconsideration. I say it worth trying again if I could ultimately save some grands on scholarship. I am planning to retake the test on July.

My questions are:
- How should I focus my preparation plan?
- What other sources can I consult?
- What strategy should I use after 4 months off?
- How can I relearn all the content without being annoying (I hate doing things twice)

PS: Sorry for the extension

[StaceyKoprince]

Welcome to the forums!

Before we dive in, you mentioned using the OG—what other materials did you use? The OG is great in terms of practice problems, but it doesn't teach you everything you need to know in order to get better at answering those problems. Most people need material from a test prep company (mine or another one, your choice!) in order to see any significant improvement on the exam.

Next, you made great progress on your own to get up to a 530, even though you crashed a bit on the quant section. Depending on the specifics of how that section went, there's a good chance that your "true" scoring level is actually in the upper 500s.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that you spent a lot of time keeping track of the percentage of questions you answered correctly, which is how we were graded in school—but the GMAT is not actually scored based on percent correct. In fact, the way the GMAT is scored is so counter-intuitive that people who approach the exam using what I call a "school mindset" really underperform compared to people who are able to approach the exam using a business or executive mindset.

This short post explains what executive reasoning is and how it works on the GMAT:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

So the first huge task is just to get your brain wrapped around this different way of thinking about the exam—because you're going to use that way of thinking to inform not just how you take the exam but how you study for it in the first place. Here's more:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2016/05/26/develop-a-business-mindset-to-maximize-your-roi-on-the-gmat/

Next, studying for the GMAT is not like studying for school tests in another way. Remember in school when your math teacher would give you practice problems that were almost identical to what you'd see on the exam, just with different numbers? It was common in school for our homework to very closely mimic our exams, so you would just do a ton of problems over and over until you'd memorized every possible way they could play out, and then you just spit that back during your exam.

That's not going to be the case on the GMAT—when you go in, the problems are going to seem quite different...superficially, at least. There are still connections to problems you've done before, but not obvious ones. What you're really doing when you study for the GMAT is training yourself how to think your way through new problems. You're trying to train yourself to do something we call Know(ing) the Code.

Search for "know the code" on our blog and read some of the posts to get an idea of how to analyze problems to learn in this way.

Executive reasoning has major implications for your time management decisions on the exam as well:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gmat-time-management-part-1-of-3/

And we haven't even gotten into content yet. Yes, there's a bunch of content to learn / practice / review, but if you don't have the above locked down, then your score will be 50+ points below where it could (should!) be.

You asked what other sources to consult. We have a ton of materials, but of course I'm going to be biased towards my own company, so you should also do your own research. If you don't have any of our materials yet but you are interested, I would take a look at the All the GMAT bookset. It comes with 3 books, 6 practice tests (5 additional after the one you already took), and a full study plan for the included materials—so you wouldn't have to figure out your own study plan and you won't have to worry about being bored redoing other material. You can read a description on our website or on Amazon*. (Amazon's showing it at 35% off right now. )

*Note: A couple of people have posted Amazon reviews saying that the books are "riddled with errors." Our errata pages list all errors publicly (link included so you can check for yourself); there are a total of 14 errata across the 1,200 pages of material in these 3 books. The books have been out for >6 months now; it's likely that all or almost all errata have now been found. https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/errata/

If you'd rather put together your own study plan, here are some guidelines:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/new-years-resolution-get-your-score/

Note: With a Q score in the 30s, you may also want to take a look at our GMAT Foundations of Math book. It's designed to help you build up a solid foundation across all topics—not just in terms of the actual math but in terms of your ability to think logically about the quant topics such that you can avoid doing the actual math a lot of the time.

Question for you: Do you have an idea of a goal score? Have you researched any scholarships that have stated any guidelines around GMAT scores? Do those scholarships look just at the Total score or do they also pay any attention to the Q, V, and IR scores?