740 (48/44)....Imp. Lessons Learnt

Hi everyone. Have never participated in any discussion over this forum but went through lots of posts and it helped me big time in putting things into perspective. Just wanted to say thank you to everyone and put up my debrief which might be of help to those planning to take the GMAT anytime soon.

First up a bit of background – Am 28 yr old from India, Commerce graduate; MBA from one of India’s better known B-schools – class of 2003; Worked for a while than launched a startup; looking to get back into the corporate world hence another MBA from an overseas univ.

Was only interested in applying to top 10 univ. so target was at least 700-710.

Disclaimer – The strategies outlined are what worked for me but they may not/will not work for everyone. Do go through the ‘Lessons Learned’ part at the end though since these might be of help to everyone taking the test.

Preparation Time –Around 5 weeks full time. Started preparing around the 5th of July and gave the test on 11th August (yesterday)

Material Used (in order of study), with brief reviews:

-Started with Princeton Cracking the GMAT Very few practice questions
-Not comprehensive enough
-Teaches smart shortcuts & test taking strategies
-Good AWA section
-Next was Kaplan Comprehensive Program
-Good number of practice questions
-More comprehensive than Princeton
-Did not find it to be any great shakes, overall
-OG 11
-Most of the Questions are rather easy but I guess this is good enough since it’s designed by the GMAC guys themselves
-Kaplan 800
-Interesting book, good for confidence boosting
-Did not think too highly of their Problem Solving & RC sections, have come across much more difficult questions elsewhere

Material I did not use (despite having some of these):
-Most of OG 10
-OG Quant & Verbal Review (Purple & Green) Guides
-Manhattan Verbal & Quant
-Spidey’s Notes
-1000 SCs
-Did not make any flashcards

The reason I’ve put up this list is just to make the point that there is no ‘one’ way to prepare that can guarantee your success on the GMAT. While almost everyone recommends using the above material I didn’t use these but still managed to do fairly well. Basically figure out what works for you and go with it, there are no rules cast in stone as to how to study or what to study from.

Practice Test Scores:

Kaplan Online – 660
Princeton Online 1 – 680
Princeton Online 2 – 710
GMAT Prep 1 - 700 (with very little preparation)
GMAT Prep 2 - 740 (better prepared)
MGMAT - 1 - 730
GMAT Prep 1 (Retake) - 690
GMAT Prep 2 (Retake) - 760
MGMAT 1 (Retake) - 730
GMAT Prep 1 (Retake) - 730
GMAT Prep 2 (Retake) - 750

A word on the practice tests. As everyone has already said on this forum the GMAT Prep algorithm is completely different from that of Kaplan or Princeton. I used to get a lot of questions wrong (sometimes upto 10-12 in Quant) and still score well over 700. The MGMAT’s algorithm in my opinion comes closest to that of the GMAT though its difficulty level is probably a little higher. Do not bother with scores of Princeton or Kaplan.

On the Test Day (yesterday)

Test was scheduled for afternoon 1pm but am an early riser so was up by 6, completed my usual morning routine and sat down at 9 to go through the Math Review at the back of Kaplan Comprehensive. Went through the AWA templates in Princeton after this making note of some structure words that I planned on using in my essays. Closed the book and switched on the TV to see Abhinav Bindra winning India’s first Olympic Gold Medal. Would not mean much to most of you guys (unless you are an Indian) but trust me it was a proud moment and actually inspired me to do well in the test. Had a small snack, played with the dogs for a while, and left for the test centre.

Suggestion – Watch an inspirational movie the night before the test. The Gladiator would be my recommendation.

Murphy’s Law comes into play – There are 2 routes to get to the test centre from my house, one has a lot of traffic with frequent jams while the other is an expressway on which I’ve never ever been stuck in traffic. Took the expressway and for the first time ever got stuck in a massive jam. Thankfully I had had the good sense to leave a couple of hours early so still managed to reach the test centre just in time. Phew!
Lesson Learnt – Leave well in time ‘coz Mr Murphy might just decide to make an appearance.

Actual GMAT Review:

The security procedure is pretty high-tech with digital signatures & fingerprints everytime you go in and come out of the testing room. Also there were cameras all around (including one over my head) and I found this rather disconcerting during the initial part of the test but thankfully forgot all about it once Quant started. Selected my 5 schools (Harvard, Wharton, INSEAD, LBS, IMD) and moved on to the Essays. Here let me reiterate that the user interface is exactly the same as that of the GMAT Prep right down to the depressing blue background.

AWA

Let me state up front that I had never practiced writing the essays in any of the practice tests that I had taken. Just could not muster up enough enthusiasm to make myself do it. Not sure if it’s a good idea or a bad one but I did well on both the Argument as well as the Essay. Incidentally the Argument came first and I think I wrote a good 6-7 short paragraphs in both.

There’s a 10 minute break after the AWA, I got back to my seat within 5 minutes and started off with the Quant.

Quant

Now for the real thing, my Quant started badly (the questions that I got were definitely more difficult than those on GMAT Prep or maybe I was a little too stressed out up front). The first question was ok but the subsequent 3-4 questions involved a lot of calculations and I found them to be very difficult. Also on all my practice tests I always used to be well ahead of the time but here I saw that it had taken me around 10-12 minutes to get through the first 4-5 questions (in practice tests I usually used to do around 7-8 questions in the first 10-12 minutes). This got me flustered and I tried to quicken my pace which meant I ended up guessing on quiet a few of the next 8-10 questions which were quiet difficult in any case.

By this time I had started getting a bad feeling in my stomach since I realized I was doing badly, but the good thing was that I was finally once again again ahead of the time so I slowed down and also maybe after the first 15 minutes your nerves settle down or maybe I was just desperate to get a good score. Whatever it was I got my act together around the 20th Question and I don’t think I got any questions wrong after this point in the section.

The worst part was that I ended up completing this section with around 12 minutes to spare so had I spent some more time on the questions I got wrong initially I could have perhaps done better. (Or maybe done worse had I still not been able to answer those questions despite spending even more time on them)

Key Learning – Time management is the key and it’s not a good idea to go very fast. Also stress levels in the actual test are much higher than in the practice tests, specially in the beginning, so make sure you factor that into your equation.

Forgot to mention I did not get any question on Perms & Combs.

Anyway Quant was finally over and I got another much needed 10-minute break. Went out and had a chocolate & did some introspection. Before the test I had given myself Good, Bad & Average score levels for both Quant & Verbal. Figured I had had a Bad outing with Quant so was expecting around 47-48 (turned out I wasn’t much off the mark). Wasn’t too dejected though because I figured if I got a 46-47 in Verbal I could still get around 750.

Lets see how it goes……

Verbal

Started out with a SC followed by another one, than a couple of CRs and finally RC. Was well ahead of the time and don’t think I got any questions wrong till the 12-15 question mark. Was unsure of few of my answers after that but never got hopelessly stuck on any question. All the RC passages, except for one, were pretty short and more or less straightforward. There were maybe a couple of tricky CRs but all in all pretty manageable section, the same difficulty level as the GMAT Prep.

Completed the section with around 15 minutes to spare and moved on to the survey which I zipped through to get to the Report Scores screen. Figured I had had a Bad day in Quant and a Good Day in Verbal so was expecting around 740-750. Clicked on the Report Score link (it’s funny but the moment you do this your heartbeat quickens rather appreciably and the next 3-4 seconds become quiet unbearable). Anyways saw 740 on the screen & figured I had done well given the kind of start I had, got out of the centre and left for home.

IMPORTANT Lessons Learned

Finally the part of my debriefing which could add some value to the rest of your preparations:

1.If you get the first few questions wrong you are NOT dead – Nothing could be further from the truth as is reflected in my scores. Actually the reason why I didn’t panic despite starting badly in Quant was because in one of the GMAT Prep practice tests I had got the first 3 questions in Quant wrong and still went on to score 730 so I was pretty certain this doesn’t hold true any more and was proved right.

2.Time management is very important – The fact that you are left with a lot of spare time in the end could also be a problem since this time could have been utilized to solve some questions that you might have rushed through in the test. Pls also keep in mind that stress levels are high, specially at the beginning of the test, which might affect your timing in the actual tests, a fact which might not be reflected in the practice tests.

3.Take lots of practice tests – I personally believe that practice makes perfect and took a lot of practice tests, in fact I remember taking 2 tests in a day several times. Know it sounds a little taxing but it really helps you get into the groove. However don’t bother with the scores on most of these tests since GMAT Prep tests are the only ones that will give you a fair idea of your actual score.

4.GMAT Prep score is the only one that matters – Maybe I would add MGMAT to the list since I thought their scoring algorithm was similar to GMAT Prep. It’s no point bothering with the scores of either Kaplan or Princeton or any of the others since the scores will not be a reflection of what you are likely to score in the actual test. By all means take these tests but more as a practice to develop stamina than for their scores.

5.Make sure you take GMAT Prep several time – As one can see I took each test thrice but even in my third attempt I was getting around 60-65 % new questions specially in Quant. Plus this helps you get really comfortable with the user interface.

6.Make use of the Web – There’s a lot of free material right from practice tests to complete ebooks on Verbal & Quant (including some very popular ones) available in the public domain. Those who aren’t aware of this, please visit www.esnips.com and do a search for GMAT. You’ll be surprised how much money this site can help you save.

If anyone has any specific questions, would be happy to answer those & Good Luck to all those taking the test in the next few weeks……..

CHEERS!

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