Taking the GMAT 2.5-4 weeks, practice scores unimpressive...

[Maideneer]

I took the PowerPrep tests and I got somewhere between 450-490, and I even took the 1st one twice and still got a 470. I thought I did a lot better on the quantitative, but that is going to be the death of me, I swear.

One of the schools I am applying to has a minimum of 450, so I am right around there. I had an excellent GPA as an undergrad, and I write very well, and I am generally a solid student.

I am just REALLY worried. REALLY.

[sruthi82]

Hi Maideneer,

Dont panic! Thats all what i have to say. This is what the situation i was in 1 week back.I got only 610 which was very dissappointing to me. I feel PP is really an indicator of thy actual scores. So do practise well on thy weak areas and get ready for thy exams.
Wish u all the best!

[Maideneer]

I have the Kaplan book on my lap as we speak. I heard it has the hardest questions. But I thin before I can tackle that, my theory and knowledge of concepts has to improve. I am certainly trying hard. It's just that 2-4 weeks is a relatively short period of time.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[jackson24nj]

get the Kaplan GRE/GMAt Math book it has a great step by step math review. it divides ?'s by dificulty as well.

[Maideneer]

I just said I had it. I'm still having trouble.

[Sybersport]

I wasn't that good at the GMAT either, but I improved quite a bit over where I started with a few simple rules.

First, whenever you see a question with % (like 40% of this, 20% of that) or with fractions (1/4 of the people were in group A, 2/5 were in group 2) etc... start off with a total number - I usually used 100. So if you have a number written down, then 1/4 means 25 people - 2/5 means 20 people. So you know that 1/4 and 2/5 of the group equals 45 people in total - much easier to work with, in my opinion.

Second, when you see a complicated algebraic expression (like xy+y-x+x^2) or something like that, substitute numbers for the variables. So x=2, for example, y=4. When you do that, you can see what the result is, and then can take this result to the answer choices and plug it in to find the right answer. I used this process many times in my studies, and it worked like a charm.

For the other questions, you just need to practise practise practise. You also need to know the formula's for triangles (a^2+b^2=c^2), and you need to know the formula's for circles (diamater = 2-Pi-r, radius is r, diamater is 2r, area is pi-r^2). Also, brush up on the other skills like medians, and standard deviation.

Do you have the Official GMAT study guide? I found that doing all of the questions in the book (over 700 questions I believe), it really helped me brush up on my skills, and on my confidence. If you don't have this book, I suggest you pick it up. I found it 4 days before I wrote the GMAT, but it still helped ALOT!