My Best Advice, Stay Calm! 730 (47Q,44V)

While I was studying for the GMAT I checked this site constantly for motivation and inspiration, so I think it's only right I return the favor!

The number one thing I learned from my GMAT experience is to stay calm on test day, and relax as much as possible the day before. As someone who never broke 700 in ANY of my practice tests, I was absolutely floored/thrilled to see the 730 pop up after I finished the test. I think the main reason I was able to score so well is I pretty much felt like a jedi master during the test, I was calm, collected, and not concerned with questions I didn't understand.

What Contributed to My Success?

Beat the GMAT website
OG GMAT 13th Edition
EMPOWER GMAT course
MGMAT online practice tests

I mainly used the EMPOWER GMAT course to learn about the test, review the material that was covered on the test, and discover tips and tricks for how to approach the questions. I think this was invaluable and I'd really suggest it to anyone who doesn't know where to start. It's a very easy format, it's all online so you can follow it anywhere (I would go to Starbucks after work or to the Library), AND most importantly, it shows you that the test is really not as fearsome as you think it is. Once you have learned all the math formulas, grammar rules, etc., it just becomes a psychological test.

After about a month of getting the basics down, I started taking practice tests. I started with the MGMAT ones because I wanted to save the official GMAT practice tests for closer to the test date. Here are my scores:

2/1 MGMAT Practice Test 1 - 610
3/2 MGMAT Practice Test 2 - 620
3/9 MGMAT Practice Test 3 - 670
3/22 GMAT Practice Test 1 - 680
3/29 MGMAT Practice Test 4 - 620
4/1 MGMAT Practice Test 5 - 670
4/5 GMAT Practice Test 2 - 680

As you can see, I pretty much plateaued around 670/680 so I was fairly sure I'd have to retake the test if I wanted to get in the 700s. I'd also like to point out the 620 I got 9 days before my test. This DEVASTATED me and made me feel defeated and honestly, dumb. But, like I said, this test becomes psychological after a certain level of preparation. So please, DON'T let a bad practice test or rough study session dissuade you!

Test Day

I took my last practice test on April 5th, a Saturday, and once I had finished reviewing the questions I got wrong, I pretty much shut my brain off. I went out to dinner. On Sunday I spent all day hanging out with my boyfriend and friends, who had all been rather neglected during my months of studying. I had scheduled the test for noon on Monday, so I woke up leisurely, ate a big breakfast, watched some TV, then got to the test center 20 minutes ahead of time. The whole time I was sort of surprised by how calm I felt, but I just went with it.

The essay was pretty basic, I probably did 3-4 essays before test day and mostly studied structure the week before, so it was pretty formulaic to write. Then came the IR, which I had also probably only studied for 2 weeks and I wasn't particularly stressed about. I actually think it's a pretty interesting section and I somewhat enjoyed doing it. I got an 8 on that by the way, and a 5.5 on my AWA.

Then came Quant, which is my personal beast. I dumped at least 3-4 questions, which may seem like a lot, but my biggest problem was always pacing and getting stuck trying to figure out a problem for 5 minutes. So for me, dumping questions I knew would take me too long to figure out or were not worth a lot of points was worth it. I also felt like the questions were easier than the MGMAT practice test questions

I wasn't sure how I did after the Quant section, but I didn't let that get me down. I took my break, went to the bathroom, danced around a bit to pump myself up, ate a snack, then went in for the Verbal section energized. I have always been naturally good at Verbal (all the way back to taking the SATs in high school), so I knew that if I focused, I could do very well. I felt the questions were much harder than the MGMAT practice test questions, and I definitely second guessed myself many times. One of the things I learned from my practice tests, and this is probably not the best advice for everyone, but if you're down to 2-3 answers, go with your gut. This was useful for me because if I overthought the questions too much, in a 50/50 situation I tended to get the wrong answer. But if I went with my gut I was right the majority of the time. I should also mention that I'm a huge reader (I've had a subscription to the Economist for 4 years and generally have at least 2 books in rotation at a time), so I trusted my instinct.

When I saw that 730 I was VERY surprised, it was my goal score!

Overall Thoughts

I studied for 2.5 months, which I think is sufficient. Give yourself a month to understand the material covered, then start getting to work practicing pacing, making educated guesses, dumping questions, and using tactics like testing the answers and testing numbers.

Ultimately, my best tactic was to stay calm on test day and understand that this test is only one part of your application and doesn't define you, your intelligence, or your future. Good luck!

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