New and Improved Beat the GMAT Practice Questions Review

Happy November everyone!

Today beatthegmat.com launched its new practice questions!

There are two sections: math and verbal. Each section is broken up into question types. You can customize your own practice session by choosing different question types in the filters options. Let's say you just want to practice 700+ level data sufficiency integer property and percent questions; just check the boxes and begin. Or you can practice just math and have the question difficulty adapt to how you answer them, just like the real GMAT.

I think what I like the most about the new practice questions is the video explanations. The videos go over not just the question and the answer, they also go over the wrong answer choices and explain why they are wrong. Understanding what makes the other answer choices wrong is really an important part of GMAT studying.

BeattheGMAT.com practice questions is reasonably priced at $99. BUT WAIT! It's on sale for $49 until November 15th! Discounts are my favorite! Plus you get access for a year.

I highly recommend the Beat the GMAT Practice Questions. It's really showing me that I have major work to do in math. The video explanations are helping me as a private tutor would because I need to SEE someone do it for me before I fully understand how to break a question down.

End Vacation

I have taken a huge break from the GMAT after my dismal score. My AWA score came back and I got a 3.5. I'm not surprised by this since my essays weren't stellar, but they weren't the greatest either.

It's time for a new plan. Back to the basics. My boyfriend had a gift card and bought me Number Properties and Fractions, Decimals, and Percents by Manhattan GMAT since those seem to be my weaknesses.

I need to stick to a schedule. Since all my classes are done, my availability has opened up at work and I hope to go back to closing shifts. Opening the store at 4:30a was killing me. it made it very difficult to absorb information and concentrate later in the day even if I had a nap. I found it easier to study after my TV job because I get there between 7-7:30a and that's like sleeping late compared to 4:30a.

I'm still on the fence for trying to meet Round 2 deadlines or just try again next year. I have already secured one person for my letter of recommendations.

Irritated

I just want to express my level of irritation with the GMAT right now.

Last night I took another practice CAT (MGMAT) and scored 50 points lower than my last practice CAT.

WHAT THE CRAP???

Have I reached burn out? The test is coming up soon and I hope I can perform.

Is that...rain?

It's been so hard to write a blog entry lately between work, studying, and class. Somebody call me a whambulance!

IT RAINED YESTERDAY. I stepped out of my building and I thought I was in Boston or New York. It usually only rains in Los Angeles a few times a year in the "winter" months of January and February.

I've been amping up the studying. Veritas assigns so much homework! I'm not complaining. It's just a lot of problems and then you have to review every problem you did whether it was right or wrong. It just adds up to a lot of time. I hope it adds up to a big score as well. ;-)

I haven't started any essays yet. I have been jotting down ideas here and there.

GMAT Day is approaching fast and I don't want to burn out. I have been using Grockit and Beat the GMAT practice questions for in-between "fun" studying. Is studying ever fun? Ha Ha

Six - seven years ago when I was preparing for the GMAT I would study math maybe twice and then take it and get an abysmal score. But the AdCom was looking at my essays, transcripts, and reel of my work. GRE was a formality. GMAT is a whole different beast. AdComs look at it as an indicator of how you will perform in b-school. Under 65% in quant? Your ass may FAIL out so that's a big strike against you.

My next steps in the application process rely heavily on how I do on the GMAT.
GMAT GMAT GMAT GMAT GMAT Let's get some pump up music, GMAT!!!!!

MGMAT CAT #4

My verbal score has skyrocketed!!
My overall score is still crap but it went up:

Quantitative 31 31 %
Verbal 32 67 %
Total 530 46 %

I was getting consistently in the 20th something percentile in quant and 40th something percentile in verbal.

I finished the quant section with 20 minutes left, shortest time ever, and a little over 5 minutes left for verbal; also the shortest time ever.

I still have a lot of work to do, which sucks because its already September, but I still have to keep going.

I started a post about my visit to Paul Merage at UC Irvine. I shall finish it tomorrow. Now it is bedtime.

still coughing

I didn't take my cough medicine in the afternoon so I was the annoying coughing kid during my GMAT prep class. I feel a little better about the quant prep of the course. The math instructor seems to be on top of it with tricks and techniques. We shall see how it goes.

You all know how I love freebies, right? Beatthegmat.com is hosting a bunch of webinars that break down the top b-schools' essay questions. A lot of schools have similar essay questions (why mba? why now? long term and short term goals), so even though I may not apply to Columbia or Haas I can still get something out of the presentations.

Last week I attended Kaneisha's August master class for Despite the odds applying to b-school. She went over things like when to ask your potential LOR writers if they would be willing to write your LOR, how to prepare them for it, tips on sitting down and starting your essays and choosing the school that fits you the best.I really enjoyed it. Kaneisha's webinars are like sitting down and talking to someone over lunch. The way she speaks is just so welcoming and friendly; but informative! I think the biggest thing I took away from the webinar is that I should prepare packets for my recomenders with bullet points of my accomplishments at work, descriptions of each school I am applying to, and the essays questions and my responses. It should take a lot of the pressure off of my recommenders.

::cough cough::

Hi everyone!

I've been so busy I haven't posted anything with much substance in a while.
First off I was sick for a while. I had another sinus infection which made it hard to do anything. I missed work, I slept, and then I went to the doctor! Exciting stuff I know!

Also school started again. I am taking a geometry class at SMC. So many people tried to add the class on the first day. There were 45 people registered in the class and another 33 people tried to add! The teacher said he wanted no more than 50 people in the class. Then he said he wasn't sure if he really wanted to add anyone at all. It depended on how he felt later. Sounds like if you aren't already in the class, you're out of luck.
Right now we are working on logic which kind of reminds me of CR GMAT questions.

During my lunch break at work I have been going through PowerScore's Critical Reasoning Bible and then after work I go through a MGMAT SC Chapter and do the associated problems in the OG Verbal Book.

I haven't touched my prep course materials in a week partly due to being sick, but mostly because there are no explanations for the question sets. If I get something wrong and I can't figure out why, I will never know because there are no explanations for the answers. I am going to save those questions for when I have a better grasp on the material.

Tomorrow I am going down to Orange County to attend an information session at the Paul Merage school at UC Irvine. My cousin lives near there so I am hoping to meet up with her while I am in the area. I'm planning on heading down there early to avoid traffic and to study in one of their libraries.

I also need to schedule another practice test to see if I have improved at all.

hmmm

I have a $50 Coupon for Kaplan's Advantage Anywhere course that expires Tuesday but Veritas Prep's Online course isn't that much more expensive.
These courses weren't an option for me previously because they required their fees to be paid upfront. Now both companies have a monthly payment plan.


Self study isn't working too well and the prep course I am enrolled in now really isn't up to date with the latest questions or techniques.

GMAT is priority right now.

I have more thinking to do.

New Plan

The day before I was going t take the GMAT reality hit me and I went into a panic, "I CAN'T TAKE THE TEST AND MAYBE SCORE A 500 THAT LOOKS STUPID!!!!"

I rescheduled for October 29th.
But wait, if you reschedule less than 7 calendar days it costs another $250. Yes. I ate the $300 I already paid and shelled out another $250 to reschedule. I hate life and I hate how GMAT Prep just eats money, but at least I won;t have a 500 on my score report.

My GMAT Prep class starts next month. Instead of taking college algebra and retaking intermediate algebra online, I am just going to take elementary statistics.

I am going to put all my focus into an application to one school : UC Irvine The Paul Merage School of Business. I will apply round 1 for Fall 2011 and if I don't get in I can decide if I want to apply to Pepperdine University's Graziadio Graduate School of Business and Management since their deadline is usually in May. Or I can spend the year strengthening my application by retaking the GMAT and taking business calculus and accounting and applying to UCLA and USC.

The road to an MBA is epic, even before you get into a school!

My algebra class ends in a few weeks. I'm so excited! Working seven days a week and going to school four days a night is exhausting!