770 (Q50, V44) or how I stopped worrying and loved the GMAT

Find out how Beat The GMAT members tackled GMAT test prep with positive results. Get tips on GMAT test prep materials, online courses, study tips, and more.
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First of all, I would like to thank all the beathegmat.com community - the help I got from you in shaping the process of learning was 80% of the success.

Here I want to describe the way I prepared to the exam as well as to list some useful links.

Background
31, male, Russian. Always was successful in quantitative tests, verbals always were worse as my English is not native
Real GMAT was held on May 26th. Actually I did a little worse than expected in Quant (I've expected 51+), but much better in Verbal (I've expected 41). This is my first attempt.

Mock examinations
  • Held in the end of March, PowerPrep 1. 650 (Q45, V34)
    May 1st - 720 (Q50 V39)
    Week before exam - 760 (Q51 V41)
    Thursday - 760 (Q51 V41)
    Friday - 760 (Q51 V41)
Key tips
  • Start with the full simulation of GMAT via free software (PowerPrep or GMATPrep).
    Analyze your strong and weak sides by the results of your first exam
    Make a schedule based on this analysis. Really, that helps.
    Prepare to spend at the least 2-3 hours each day and 8-12 hours a day on weekends.
    Practice, practice, practice. Use the official guides for practice problems. To read all the approaches takes you 2-3 days. All the rest time you should practice.
    Monitor, monitor, monitor. Use the test grid (see below) every time you pass a practice test. Read all the explanations and all forums until you understand exactly why you were wrong in your answer.
    Keep track of your progress. Have mock tests every 1 week or every 2 weeks and see in which sections you became better
    Say "no" to cinemas, concerts, clubs, drinks and your family when you do study, BUT do not prohibit everything for yourself just because you "have to" study. If you feel that you would study much better after you will watch the Avengers - do not torture yourself, go to the movies.
    Be ready for surprises on the real exam. In my case math was MUCH harder than expected, took me all 75 minutes (instead of 55 it took me on mock exams), while Verbal took me around 65 minutes and was relatively easy (and I scored 3 more than expected).
Preparation
Started 1st of April.

First, I've read many many posts here. Here's the list of those I found most useful either here or on other forums. There are really another 10 or 20 I did not enlist because they are more of motivating ones, but thanks again to all the authors

General posts Posts on particular topics Then, I've made up a schedule. Roughly it looked like this
  • 3 weeks - math (I will explain later why I decided to spend so many time on my strong side and why I was right)
    4 weeks - verbal
    1 week - AWA
Before I go through these 3 areas, I should state that a book that helped me a lot in my overall understanding of GMAT and in my approach to each of the sections is Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT. Both the techniques and tools are helpful and the attitudes are motivating. I am pretty sure that the mindset formed by this book saved me some awful minutes on the exam and raised my score. I did not do a lot of practice from this book, though, and I advise everyone to practice on official Guides (the general one and both quant and verbal)

Math
NB: actually, on the real exam math was much much more difficult than on any of the practice tests, either official CAT's (PowerPrep, GMATprep) or not. So while on all of my practice test I solved all 37 tasks in around 55 minutes, here it took me nearly all 75. I had 4 or 5 probability tasks, by the way, so I am either very unlucky or something has changed.

As I've already said, I've decided to spend 3 weeks on math although it it my strong side (on all mock exams except the very first one I did 50 or 51). That was VERY useful, because I've forgot all that stuff about Greatest Common Factor etc you study at school. So, when you are practicing at home you trust your intuition and solve these tasks without any real methodology, but on the exam a methodology will save you a lot of time and nerves, So, it is better for anyone even with very good results in math to refresh the basics once more and to practice in a timed environment a bit. If you aim for a high score in Q, focus on probabilities, combinatorics, geometry and progressions

Personally I've used Manhattan GMAT books. I find them maybe a bit on the longish side in terms of theory, but what is absolutely great in those books is that they make problem sets from official guides. That is just huge. From what I've read it looks like all major books on math are good, so it is the quality problem sets that really matters.

Verbal
In verbal it is extremely important from the very beginning to understand where your weaknesses lie. For example, I was absolutely sure that I am more or less leveled in 3 verbal sections. After my first practice I found out that to my surprise my hit rate in CR and RC was around 80%, while in SC it was around 50%. So I've focused on SC.

Actually, on CR and RC I've only used Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT and it helped me to raise my hit rate up to 95%+ in the last 3 mock examinations. Their approach to these 2 sections is very helpful, and, frankly, in this sections you only need common sense and the right approach/mindset, which this book luckily provides.

Regarding SC, I have to stress once more, that more than in any of the sections practice and analysis of mistakes give the result. Especially for those who, like me, are not native speakers. And of course, as many people here, I say there is no book better than Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction. Be ready to spend 2 weeks on this book only.

AWA (essays)
I do not care too much about the AWA result, so I left the preparation for the last week. I did not read any particular book, and there are many materials here, some of which were very good and some I did not find that useful. Here are the links to materials I liked: Definitely practice writing essays within the time limit. It was very tough on the real exam for me to write each of them in just 30 minutes, cause I've practiced just twice

Last 3 days
Contrary to what most people here state, I do not advise you to relax and do nothing on the last days. My exam was on Saturday, so I saved 2 final mock exams for Thursday and Friday and practiced. 2 last days before the exam were very tough, as I did the 2 mocks, read and re-read essay templates and examples, went through some basics of SC, etc. I think that also might be the right way for dome of you preparing.

Please feel free to ask questions!!!
Last edited by fieldwolf on Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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by fieldwolf » Sat Jun 02, 2012 1:25 pm
Just received the official scores - my AWA score is 6.0 and the 770 overall score is confirmed

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by Ashim88 » Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:49 am
Congratulations and DAMN do you work hard.

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by pinkray » Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:51 am
congrats fieldwolf!

what courses/colleges are you after?

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by Troika » Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:25 pm
Congrats! That's an excellent score and a great debrief!
The only battle you can loose, is the one you abandon.

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by fieldwolf » Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:54 am
pinkray wrote:congrats fieldwolf!

what courses/colleges are you after?
For now I am after some Canadian MBAs, but the final decision really depends on some circumstances that are for now beyond my control :)

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by Shadow88 » Sat Jun 09, 2012 5:38 am
Hi

Im really impressed of your results and work ethic. As i will start with my gmat study in 3 days, i was wondering if 10 hours per day is to much.My background: Im 24 a year old swede and im taking my bsc in economics in days and next semester i will have a bsc in statistics. I im planning to have 8-7 weeks of preperation. Im aiming for 720, which i have to have if im going to the masters. Do you think the time frame and the amount of study time per day is enough?
And if so, was it hard to be focused when you studied 8-12 hours on the weekends

and im not a top grade student, im average..

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by GMAT-Zenith » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:09 am
Did you manage this while Working

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by fieldwolf » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:18 am
Shadow88 wrote:Hi

Im really impressed of your results and work ethic. As i will start with my gmat study in 3 days, i was wondering if 10 hours per day is to much.My background: Im 24 a year old swede and im taking my bsc in economics in days and next semester i will have a bsc in statistics. I im planning to have 8-7 weeks of preperation. Im aiming for 720, which i have to have if im going to the masters. Do you think the time frame and the amount of study time per day is enough?
And if so, was it hard to be focused when you studied 8-12 hours on the weekends
Thanks for the praise :)

During Saturdays and Sunday I definitely studied for 8-12 hours, but I tried to set a goal - to get through this book, for example, or to practice these particular 3-4 topics. So, it was not very hard, as the books were quite well written and the results were improving, so I felt successful.

In my opinion, 10 hours per day for 7 weeks is truly a huge exaggeration. Neither will you be able to stay focused, nor is the scope of knowledge that broad to spend that much time.

Did you take any mock exams or practiced CAT? If so, what are your results? That influences a lot the time you will need to prepare.

So, first try to test your knowledge, find the areas in which you are strong or weak (that means, analyze your mock exam results - in Math understand your hit rate by problem type (Data Sufficiency and Problem Solving) and by area (Geometry, Probability, etc.); in Verbal understand your hit rate by problem type - CR, RC or SC.). Than you will be able to understand the time you need for the studies for each section. But, again, 10 hours a day for 7 weeks truly looks like way too much time for me.

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by GMAT-Zenith » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:20 am
congratulations..all the best fr your applications

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by fieldwolf » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:21 am
GMAT-Zenith

Sure I did :)
Last edited by fieldwolf on Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

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by GMAT-Zenith » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:26 am
How did you manage work and study???

Also, Overall how many months did it take for you to prepare?

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by fieldwolf » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:33 am
divyasabina wrote:How did you manage work and study???

Also, Overall how many months did it take for you to prepare?
As you might have noticed, I started on the 1st of April and my exam was on 26th of May.
Also my study schedule contains 8 weeks :)

I studied for 2 hours every business day when it was possible (to tell the truth, that was no more than 2\3 of the total business days). I also studied for 8-12 hours on weekends.

Again, if you study focused, understand where you need improvement and have a plan, you fix all your results and analyze them thoroughly. you do not spend time on the topics you are already good at - GMAT is no rocket science, the body of knowledge it includes is quite limited and you do not need to know it all, you only need to improve your score up to the level you need.

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by GMAT-Zenith » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:50 am
Thanks :) U have got an amazing score. i targetto achieve the same by August
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by Shadow88 » Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:20 am
fieldwolf wrote:
Shadow88 wrote:Hi

Im really impressed of your results and work ethic. As i will start with my gmat study in 3 days, i was wondering if 10 hours per day is to much.My background: Im 24 a year old swede and im taking my bsc in economics in days and next semester i will have a bsc in statistics. I im planning to have 8-7 weeks of preperation. Im aiming for 720, which i have to have if im going to the masters. Do you think the time frame and the amount of study time per day is enough?
And if so, was it hard to be focused when you studied 8-12 hours on the weekends
Thanks for the praise :)

During Saturdays and Sunday I definitely studied for 8-12 hours, but I tried to set a goal - to get through this book, for example, or to practice these particular 3-4 topics. So, it was not very hard, as the books were quite well written and the results were improving, so I felt successful.

In my opinion, 10 hours per day for 7 weeks is truly a huge exaggeration. Neither will you be able to stay focused, nor is the scope of knowledge that broad to spend that much time.

Did you take any mock exams or practiced CAT? If so, what are your results? That influences a lot the time you will need to prepare.

So, first try to test your knowledge, find the areas in which you are strong or weak (that means, analyze your mock exam results - in Math understand your hit rate by problem type (Data Sufficiency and Problem Solving) and by area (Geometry, Probability, etc.); in Verbal understand your hit rate by problem type - CR, RC or SC.). Than you will be able to understand the time you need for the studies for each section. But, again, 10 hours a day for 7 weeks truly looks like way too much time for me.
First of all, thank you for the very quick and good formulated response.
I see what you meen, it's just that i have alot at stake. I will shorten the study per day to 7-6 hours. I will take a mock test on monday( i will start on wednesday with my study), to see what i need to work on. I would really appritiate if you could give some input to my schedule when i get the results. I was also wondering if this study material is enough: OG 13 + the MGMAT Guides(8)+kaplan premiere.
I doubt my first moch score will be even close to yours but, hopefully i reach 720 in august the ninth.

Sorry for all the questions but this is my only shoot to reach my goal ;)