Beat The GMAT a GMAT & MBA community

Hello everyone! I am perhaps one of the most silent observers of this site (I remember posting a quant doubt once, only to realize that I was just being stupid!). That said this site has been a great help to me - not only for questions and clarifications but also for reading the debriefs of various scores to see what I could do better. I gave my GMAT a couple of days back and got a 720 with Q50 and V36. To be honest, I am a bit relieved that this is behind me, but I am also highly disappointed at my score (especially verbal percentile (79)). Nonetheless, I always wanted to write my own debrief for this site (my heart tells me that I owe one to you guys ) - though I guess writing a 750+ debrief would have been a lot more fun. But, after you guys read this - please do tell me if you think that I should retake it (this ‘it’ should be replaced with ‘the exam’, so as to correct the pronoun-antecedent error, btw).

First I would like to give a little information about my academic background. I am an Indian national who finished his Bachelors in ICT from DA-IICT, India in 2010. After wrapping that up, I did something that people find totally bizarre. I was always interested in the sociology of science and technology, so I came to Netherlands to do a research masters in this field. Hence, you can now categorize me as a social science student. Moreover, I had not done any Math whatsoever in the last year and a half - though I occasionally code for fun. Currently, I am writing my final master’s thesis and will be finishing up this August. I have no full-time paid work experience (yes!) and most of the good colleges outside India have already said that I am not eligible to apply. Hence my only aim now is to go for colleges in India - ISB is one of my key goals - I am motivated enough to be confident, though I am practical enough to doubt my chances. I have 22 months of part-time work experience (not that it counts I think!), good International exposure (though not of working), and a 4-month full time work experience of working as a junior research on multi-country EU-project. I am sure I will definitely have very good recommendation letters as well.

I am afraid I cannot lay down tips for each section (PS, DS, SC, CR etc.). I think there are good debriefs out there that can tell you exactly that. I just want to generally focus on the preparation and the exam, hoping that I might be able to help some of you.

Materials used (apart from this site):

Kaplan free test;
OG12;
Princeton Verbal workout (2nd edition);
Princeton online free test;
MGMAT Set of 8 Strategy Guides;
MGMAT CATs;
GMATprep tests.

I started my preparation at the end of February. I had given GRE (Q800 V580) in 2010 and since then had realized the importance of the official mock tests. So, I chose Kaplan as my diagnostic. I got a 640 in that one. Contrary to public opinion, the knowledge of Maths does not leave your brain cells that fast and I found myself remembering a lot of things. However, I did not know what to make of my score - and that was when I found this website to see what a good score was. Moreover, I realized that I got quite a few wrong and still managed to get a 640 - that led me to read a lot about the GMAT scoring algorithm. I read quite a few articles on it and only when I fully understood what was being tested, did I go into the preparation. Some people may say this is redundant and that you have to give your best at every level, I believe otherwise. Let us be realistic, if you are trying to get every question right - well “Best of Luck!” You have to understand that no matter how much you prepare - you CANNOT know all grammar rules. You may get every question right in Math - that is quite doable. But to get 41 verbal questions right in 75 minutes, I think even Shakespeare would fail miserable considering that his English was always wordy and awkward (according to the GMAT, of course!). You have to know three things:

a) you can make mistakes,
b) the GMAT will not judge you for a single stupid mistake, and
c) sometimes the GMAT is just having fun with you through experimental questions.

But yes, long story short, I think reading about the scoring information not only makes it less cryptic but also helps you understand the process of traversing through the test.

Firstly, I finished OG12. I did each section in parts of three (for example 240 questions in PS became 3 sets: 1-80, 81-160, and 161-240), taking some questions from each part. I never timed myself for this as my speed is really quite fast for Maths. I did not time myself on Verbal sections as well - because I was, back then, focussing more on content rather than a score. I distinctly remember myself saying again and again - “Damn! So many grammar rules!”, “WHAT! Wordy and Awkward - what does that even mean?”

Keeping in mind that I am a social science student and that I read philosophy, history and sociology texts very often - I would like you all to safely believe that I had a good command over non-GMAT English back then. I never practiced writing any essays. However, after my 3.5 in AWA in GRE, I had realised that the key to winning the AWA section is not to write beautiful and poetic arguments but to keep it simple. Hence, I made an easy template for myself and just followed it through. Sitting in the exam, there were so many arguments coming in my head but I chose the simplest ones as I did not know who would be reading it. I still have not received my AWA scores, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for now.

Side by side with OG12, I finished Princeton Verbal workout as well. This is not that great a book in itself, but I think it gives you a certain sense of the verbal section and tells you (in quite a generic way) what all you will face on the D-day. I highly recommend this book to all non-native English speakers to understand a few nuances of American English. Once I finished both these books (took me around 15 days), I gave the Princeton free online exam. I got a 710 - needless to say I was happy, not just for the score but because I could feel that I was getting a hang of doing the verbal section. I guess it is not hard for any of you to guess what my weakest section was (and is) - Sentence Correction! I sucked at it and the weird reasons and the strange grammar mythical heroes (like ‘the gerund’ and ‘command subjunctive’) made me constantly feel threatened. This was when I decided to search this site for grammar stuff, and it led me to the MGMAT strategy guides.

These are a set of 5 Quant guides and 3 Verbal guides. I must say the quant books are not that great, especially if you know quite a bit of Math already. However, they do give you good tips sometimes and believe me there were at least two DS questions in the GMAT exam that I could do in under 30 seconds (each) because of a couple of tips provided in the MGMAT math guides. On the other hand, the verbal guides are far better. The RC guide was a bit of a drag, and the CR guide was better than the RC one. The best, as everyone knows, is the SC book - I kind of swore by the book. This book made a feel a lot relaxed. After finishing up the book, I could look at any SC question and instantly eliminate at least 2-3 choices. This might look normal - but believe me, to be able to do this is to win more than half the battle already.

Since I had to work on my thesis, attend classes, and meet my supervisor constantly, I studied for relatively few hours till April 10. I was only able to finish the strategy guides by then, and did not give any test during that time. After than I gave the Princeton verbal test that is given in the book and got 34 right out of 41. I should have felt happy, but I knew that the book was only testing what it had taught me and hence the score was definitely inflated. So keep that in mind for all your prep stuff. The book/material that you are reading from - the score from that source is not to be taken at face value. I will list down all my test scores at the end.

I did not ‘just’ revise OG12; I did it through the MGMAT strategy books. They list OG questions at the end of each chapter and I would go back and do the questions (that I had got wrong) again in the OG. This was a great help as it made me realize my mistakes. I then took 3 MGMAT CATs and revised alongside. Around the 20th, I finally had the courage to give GMATprep-1. I blazed through that exam. I found it really easy and got a 750 (I don’t remember my individual scores). After that I finished the remaining MGMAT CATs and then one day before the D-day, gave my last GMATprep exam. I have doubts whether I should or should not have given this test. I got a 720 - the EXACT same score that I was to get on the next day. Somehow, seeing the 720 a day before, I had the weirdest feeling in my gut that I was going to get the same thing. The verbal on the GMATprep-2 is similar to the verbal you face in GMAT in terms of difficulty. Though, if my experience counts, the SC in the real GMAT verbal section ripped me apart. During the test I was constantly stuck between two really good options with nowhere to go. I regret not doing more of grammar but then as my friend says, “There is no limit to it!”

Kaplan: 640 (--)
Princeton: 710 (--)
MGMAT-1: 710 (Q50 V36)
MGMAT-2: 730 (Q50 V40)
MGMAT-3: 720 (Q49 V39)
GMATPrep-1: 750 (--)
MGMAT-4: 730 (Q51 V39)
MGMAT-5: 730 (Q51 V39)
MGMAT-6: 780 (Q51 V45)
GMATPrep-2: 720 (--)

GMAT : 720 (Q50 V36)

In conclusion I would like to say a few things:

a)No matter what anyone tells you, GMATprep is the real deal. Take it extremely seriously.

b) Quant section is quite a lot about concepts- I picked up my pen in only half the questions.

c) MGMAT CATs are tough - yes! However, if you get 700+ in the first three tests, the next three scores would be highly inflated. This is because, as someone had said earlier, you have exhausted their 700-800 range questions. In my final MGMAT test, I got a 780 with almost all Verbal questions from 600-700 range - not very helpful.

d) I think it has been said so many times that it should be declared a GMAT verbal proverb now - “Do not just aim to get the correct option, understand why every other option is wrong.” I failed miserably at it, I think.

e) Take all the breaks in your exam just to stretch or smile about the previous section. On the contrary, do not sulk about the previous sections.

f) Respect the test, but be competitive with it. You are not going in for the kill, you are helping the test to understand how you think logically.

I hope this would help some of you. I would like to thank "Beat The GMAT" once again for all the help !

Now, tell me guys, any thoughts whether I should give it again? I know that no one can give me the surety that the GMAT will not ask me something that I would not have seen before. I am just a bit confused. Please feel free to ask me any questions, though I am not sure 720 gives me any expertise to answer anything. Best of luck with your preparation! (Y)

PS: On a side note, I think playing a computer game is a good time pass if you have some free time while preparing for the exam. I finished the Mass Effect Trilogy in the two months as well! Excellent game btw!