I just Beat The GMAT!

I guess I'm the kind of person who works well under stress. Even though I had thought about studying for the GMAT since March, I really didn't starting doing anything until late May for the June 19th test. When I started, I had 3 weeks to go, and I realized that I might have made a huge mistake. I work at a full-time job that requires a lot of over time, meaning that I only had 2-3 hours on week night to work on the GMAT.

Here's a list of books that I used:
1. Nova - wasn't very helpful. The questions were fairly easy, and didn't really categorize anything of the topics well.

2. Power Score Critical Reasoning Bible - I read it in 2 days, and since then, I got every single critical reasoning question right during practice. It is by far the best book for this section. I didn't like Manhattan GMAT's after merely glancing over it, other people might disagree though.

3. Power Score Sentence Correction Bible - very well organized; gave great tips on different types of grammar problems. However, the practice questions weren't as good as the ones from the Manhattan GMAT's Sentence Correction guide. I would recommend using both. Personally I spent a total of 4 days on both books, and that wasn't quite enough.

4. Manhattan GMAT Guides in Number Properties and Word Translation - Very useful to get good scores on the math section. I chose those 2 guides because they targeted at my weak areas. 2 days on each book is enough as most of the materials were still fresh to me. I only needed to learn a few tricks.

5. The Official Guide 12th edition & Verbal & Quantitative - I did about 2/3 of the questions on each of the books. Some people say that only do the last 100 questions, but I disagree. You could familiarize yourself by working on more official practice questions. I wish I had more time to do all of them a couple of times.

6. GMATPrep - I took it 4 times, a week in between each set of 2 tests, 640-690-770-780

What worked for me:

1. Like I said before, I work better under stress. Even though I wish I had started earlier, I doubt I'd put any actual effort into studying that would change the outcome.

2. I read fast. It's the only reason I could finish a study guide in 2 days and study for the test in 3 weeks. I also didn't need to study for reading comprehension at all because I usually get all of the questions right in this section.

What I would do differently next time:

1. Work on sentence correction more. It was by far my biggest weakness that dragged my verbal score down by a lot. I felt like a lot of the sc questions weren't just grammar problems, a lot of them contained logic reasoning that was for some reason hard for me to pick up even though I did really well in critical reasoning.

2. I don't normally drink caffeine, but on the test day I had a mocha. My test was at noon and I was afraid that I might get drowsy after a couple of hours, so I took a few gulps during breaks. It was the worst mistake I could ever make. I was so jittery that starting from the middle of the verbal section I could barely sit still. My mind just stopped working and I could only think about how I wanted to walk around or doing something else. In retro respect it was kind of funny, but I'm pretty sure my GMAT score went down from 780 on the GMATPrep to 730 on the actual test because of it. On the GMATPrep I was consistently getting 48-49 in verbal, but I only got 40 on the actual test.

I'm not sure if I should take it again because I do believe that I can do a lot better, but I'm not really sure if it's worth the effort and the money to do so.

congraz on the score

i think depending on whc schools u want to apply , u need to decide if the score is enough or if u need more than take the gmat again.

good luck

ellielmy wrote:I guess I'm the kind of person who works well under stress. Even though I had thought about studying for the GMAT since March, I really didn't starting doing anything until late May for the June 19th test. When I started, I had 3 weeks to go, and I realized that I might have made a huge mistake. I work at a full-time job that requires a lot of over time, meaning that I only had 2-3 hours on week night to work on the GMAT.

Here's a list of books that I used:
1. Nova - wasn't very helpful. The questions were fairly easy, and didn't really categorize anything of the topics well.

2. Power Score Critical Reasoning Bible - I read it in 2 days, and since then, I got every single critical reasoning question right during practice. It is by far the best book for this section. I didn't like Manhattan GMAT's after merely glancing over it, other people might disagree though.

3. Power Score Sentence Correction Bible - very well organized; gave great tips on different types of grammar problems. However, the practice questions weren't as good as the ones from the Manhattan GMAT's Sentence Correction guide. I would recommend using both. Personally I spent a total of 4 days on both books, and that wasn't quite enough.

4. Manhattan GMAT Guides in Number Properties and Word Translation - Very useful to get good scores on the math section. I chose those 2 guides because they targeted at my weak areas. 2 days on each book is enough as most of the materials were still fresh to me. I only needed to learn a few tricks.

5. The Official Guide 12th edition & Verbal & Quantitative - I did about 2/3 of the questions on each of the books. Some people say that only do the last 100 questions, but I disagree. You could familiarize yourself by working on more official practice questions. I wish I had more time to do all of them a couple of times.

6. GMATPrep - I took it 4 times, a week in between each set of 2 tests, 640-690-770-780

What worked for me:

1. Like I said before, I work better under stress. Even though I wish I had started earlier, I doubt I'd put any actual effort into studying that would change the outcome.

2. I read fast. It's the only reason I could finish a study guide in 2 days and study for the test in 3 weeks. I also didn't need to study for reading comprehension at all because I usually get all of the questions right in this section.

What I would do differently next time:

1. Work on sentence correction more. It was by far my biggest weakness that dragged my verbal score down by a lot. I felt like a lot of the sc questions weren't just grammar problems, a lot of them contained logic reasoning that was for some reason hard for me to pick up even though I did really well in critical reasoning.

2. I don't normally drink caffeine, but on the test day I had a mocha. My test was at noon and I was afraid that I might get drowsy after a couple of hours, so I took a few gulps during breaks. It was the worst mistake I could ever make. I was so jittery that starting from the middle of the verbal section I could barely sit still. My mind just stopped working and I could only think about how I wanted to walk around or doing something else. In retro respect it was kind of funny, but I'm pretty sure my GMAT score went down from 780 on the GMATPrep to 730 on the actual test because of it. On the GMATPrep I was consistently getting 48-49 in verbal, but I only got 40 on the actual test.

I'm not sure if I should take it again because I do believe that I can do a lot better, but I'm not really sure if it's worth the effort and the money to do so.

Congratulations!

Please discuss more about your verbal preparation.

Good luck for applications!

Is this ur first attempt? sorry 2 say but it seems as such u are making stories. We are here to tell the truth , the real hard work which u did and suggestions and advice to others so that they too can improve on their score.

But with ur article it seems as u are overshowing urself that u did in 3 weeks. I can challenge that no one can score 700+ in 3 weeks preparation provided this is his first attempt.

pardeep_10sharma wrote:Is this ur first attempt? sorry 2 say but it seems as such u are making stories. We are here to tell the truth , the real hard work which u did and suggestions and advice to others so that they too can improve on their score.

But with ur article it seems as u are overshowing urself that u did in 3 weeks. I can challenge that no one can score 700+ in 3 weeks preparation provided this is his first attempt.

hahahahah ..pradeep bhai...that was the freakiest cracker I read on the forums lately!!

hmm..to certain extent its not that easy to score that much.... becox CR & RC..to get acuainted with its basics will take time...

but we cant deny the fact...may be he/she could have banged it!!

Anyways I am having a big LOLing now!! Thx man...

He could have said 770 instead of 730 if( read as Big if) that was a fabricated story!!

gmatmachoman wrote:

pardeep_10sharma wrote:Is this ur first attempt? sorry 2 say but it seems as such u are making stories. We are here to tell the truth , the real hard work which u did and suggestions and advice to others so that they too can improve on their score.

But with ur article it seems as u are overshowing urself that u did in 3 weeks. I can challenge that no one can score 700+ in 3 weeks preparation provided this is his first attempt.

hahahahah ..pradeep bhai...that was the freakiest cracker I read on the forums lately!!

hmm..to certain extent its not that easy to score that much.... becox CR & RC..to get acuainted with its basics will take time...

but we cant deny the fact...may be he/she could have banged it!!

Anyways I am having a big LOLing now!! Thx man...

He could have said 770 instead of 730 if( read as Big if) that was a fabricated story!!

Pradeed and gmatmachoman Bhaiyon....tum logo ki baaton mein dum hai....

gmatmachoman wrote:

pardeep_10sharma wrote:Is this ur first attempt? sorry 2 say but it seems as such u are making stories. We are here to tell the truth , the real hard work which u did and suggestions and advice to others so that they too can improve on their score.

But with ur article it seems as u are overshowing urself that u did in 3 weeks. I can challenge that no one can score 700+ in 3 weeks preparation provided this is his first attempt.

hahahahah ..pradeep bhai...that was the freakiest cracker I read on the forums lately!!

hmm..to certain extent its not that easy to score that much.... becox CR & RC..to get acuainted with its basics will take time...

but we cant deny the fact...may be he/she could have banged it!!

Anyways I am having a big LOLing now!! Thx man...

He could have said 770 instead of 730 if( read as Big if) that was a fabricated story!!

bhai gmatmachoman,

Good signature btw

ellielmy wrote: Power Score Critical Reasoning Bible - I read it in 2 days, and since then, I got every single critical reasoning question right during practice. It is by far the best book for this section. I didn't like Manhattan GMAT's after merely glancing over it, other people might disagree though.

Is GMAT CR so easy ?

shit man I have read CR bible 2 times...I am still struggling with CR.

nikhilkatira wrote:

ellielmy wrote: Power Score Critical Reasoning Bible - I read it in 2 days, and since then, I got every single critical reasoning question right during practice. It is by far the best book for this section. I didn't like Manhattan GMAT's after merely glancing over it, other people might disagree though.

Is GMAT CR so easy ?

shit man I have read CR bible 2 times...I am still struggling with CR.

Good point Nikhil Bhai.

2 days powerscore....kaun hai bhai yeh!....I am still not able to understand lot of stuff in powerscore but this Bhai has done in 2 days Hats off to you man!

ssgmatter wrote:

nikhilkatira wrote:

ellielmy wrote: Power Score Critical Reasoning Bible - I read it in 2 days, and since then, I got every single critical reasoning question right during practice. It is by far the best book for this section. I didn't like Manhattan GMAT's after merely glancing over it, other people might disagree though.

Is GMAT CR so easy ?

shit man I have read CR bible 2 times...I am still struggling with CR.

Good point Nikhil Bhai.

2 days powerscore....kaun hai bhai yeh!....I am still not able to understand lot of stuff in powerscore but this Bhai has done in 2 days Hats off to you man!

hahaha Phil bhai,

Its long time we had real fun on the rolls....Anyways..this is a mood lifter!!

Thanks for the kind wrds..actually Pheonix bhai said those golden words..so i dropped there....

pardeep_10sharma wrote:Is this ur first attempt? sorry 2 say but it seems as such u are making stories. We are here to tell the truth , the real hard work which u did and suggestions and advice to others so that they too can improve on their score.

But with ur article it seems as u are overshowing urself that u did in 3 weeks. I can challenge that no one can score 700+ in 3 weeks preparation provided this is his first attempt.

Hi there,

i scored 730 only doing the two free prep tests and the assessment section in the official gmat guide. Honestly I don't think I would have been any better if I would have studied for month like people seem to do, it just helps to get used to the type of questions and the timing. So I can absolutely believe that he did in 3 weeks, since either you're capable or all the studying in the world won't get you 700+

tamburinman wrote:
Hi there,

i scored 730 only doing the two free prep tests and the assessment section in the official gmat guide. Honestly I don't think I would have been any better if I would have studied for month like people seem to do, it just helps to get used to the type of questions and the timing. So I can absolutely believe that he did in 3 weeks, since either you're capable or all the studying in the world won't get you 700+

It's kind of sad if this is what you believe in. Good luck with that attitude in life.

I think maybe this person is the sort of person I was referring to in my other post of the bell curve guy. Studied CR Bible for 2 days (or was it 2 hours?) and never missed another CR question again.

I think these people exist. I have seen people like this. Usually you will have around 1 or 2 people in every company you work for.

FYI, it took me 5 days to go through Powerscore and I still have around a 80% hit rate (last 70 problems or so from OG12). Have read 4th edition MGMAT SC guide, probably took me also 3 or 4 days. Still hit rate around 80% in last 70 from OG12.

Need to get 90% hit rate in last 70 questions of OG to get IMO around 41 or higher (90th percentile).

But I do really envy this guy. Never got a question wrong in CR even in practice. Amazing. Also suddenly goes from 690 on GMATPrep to 770 all of a sudden, all within 3 weeks with a full time job. But I guess taking it twice before there might have been repeats.

Scoring 730 in 3 weeks..........congrats dude.... good u didnt study for the fourth week,,or else u'd hv gone past even 800. history was deprived from being created this time....

But i feel its possible...may be luck was really favoring him... and may be..everything he touched turned out to be gold...its a game of a probabiltiy after all..

( Btw...one of my close friends actually studied for about 3 weeks and managed a 700, he is a scholer student though..never eally left first rank and first bench during college days..)

So whatever is the case...ultimately the final result matters...so congrats for a 730...