Beat The GMAT a GMAT & MBA community

To the BTG community,

I just want to thank all of you for the support and insight I have gotten from this website over the past few months. During my test prep time, I was not an active poster, but I became a daily visitor to the site. I discovered new ways of tackling problems, read industry articles, found studying tips, and for inspiration I went to the "I just Beat the GMAT!" forum to stay motivated. Thought I should write a post and hopefully inspire somebody else out there.

Study Material:
Kaplan Premier
Manhattan GMAT- all 8 books
OG 12
GMAT Prep software

Used Kaplan for a month just to get a feel for what the test questions would be like. Great book to get the basics, probably not enough material to get 700+, at least for me. Manhattan books are fantastic, I could not have scored this well without them, they work well alongside the OG 12 book, and come with 6 practice CATs.

I think I overstudied the first time I took the test, and got a 640 in late September, 80 points below my final Manhattan practice test of 720. I was burned out, and studying at least 2 hrs a day, every day, for weeks and really nervous on test day. This is a terrible strategy, and I know lunarpower has posted about the dangers of overstudying many times, search for what he said because it rings true. Another problem was that I did not use the GMAT Prep software before my first exam. I have a Mac at home, and for some unconscionable reason, GMAT Prep is still Windows only software. I thought doing the 6 Manhattan CATs would be plenty of practice.

While the Manhattan CATs are definitely helpful, you NEED to take the GMAT Prep CATs before you take actual GMAT. The Prep test software looks exactly like the actual GMAT, so you will be much more comfortable on test day with the user interface, and the questions are very similar. After taking the GMAT the first time, I figured out how to download the GMAT Prep software on my Mac through a program called winebottler. Don't ask me how I did it though, lots of trial and error, but just know that you NEED to use the GMAT Prep CATs before taking the GMAT.

So I retook the test on November 5th, and got a 720. Here is what I did differently between the two tests.

1) Did not study nearly as much, only a few hours per week, just to keep the material fresh
2) Follow lunarpower on BTG, he gives great advice
3) Took two practice tests using GMAT Prep software, one ten days before exam, the other three days before
4) Did nothing GMAT related the day before the test
5) Broke down the quant questions to simplest form before even looking at answer choices (helps a ton)
6) On verbal, look for which answer choice HAS to be true, helps when stuck between 2 choices on RC and CR especially
7) Try to relax, being nervous is wasted energy when your brain needs all the energy it can get for a 4 hour test

Good luck everybody, and thanks to the BTG community once again![/size]