Beat The GMAT a GMAT & MBA community

760 (50Q,42V)

I would like to begin with a big thank you to beatthegmat and those who respond to it.

At the outset, I would like to state these views are my own and may not work for everyone. I think they are most suitable for someone who is in the 680-720 range but feel free to read (I took a really long time to type this!!!!), who knows what you may find useful.

My story was a bit different- my prep started off really well, my friends had done well on the test so I thought I would do to. A few weeks into OG (12th Guide) and I got a 760 in my first mock from the CD, thought all was well and decided to switch back to CFA L1 study (That was on Dec 3).

A week before CFA I had taken some time off from work to study (ostensibly for the CFA, ), which is when I gave some Kaplan mocks. 610, 640, 610....thought something must be wrong with the scoring, so gave the 2nd Official Mock, got a 690......

What was going on??? That was 2 days before the CFA and 8 days before the GMAT. I realised (almost too late)I had some serious problems.

Without getting too preachy, I would list some of the things which helped me get on the right path and I hope can help some readers-

1) Don't be overconfident- Yes, I was. Most people would not be so, but I let that first mock lull me into a sense of certainty. Which leads me to my next point.

2) Take mock scores with a pinch of salt- Ok, I really don't know what was wrong with Kaplan, my highest was 640 on those and I ended up with a 760 on the real thing. My Manhattan scores were around the 720 mark, good but not outstanding. However, my greatest learnings from these tests was observing that I was getting far too many questions wrong on an absolute basis and also getting them wrong together in a bunch. Diagnosis- Concepts weak in certain areas, awful time management

3) Know the basics of the test - At this point, you must think I am really stupid. But till 8 days before the test, I didn't know how the scoring system worked- most importantly the high penalty for getting a string of questions wrong and how key time management was.

Some articles I found really useful were -

a) Manoj's initial post- set the stage really, mentioned its not necessarily raw genius but also hard work which can get you in the 760 zone. The GMAT can be tamed. You just have to be smart about it (I wasn't initially). Reassuring.

b) Know thyself, but know thy enemy as well-

http://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-uncovered.cfm

c) Time Management-

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/keeping-pace.cfm

Trawl through the Manhattan website, some very useful articles throughout.

4) Go Manhattan!
I found their material to be really good. Each of the books really emphasizes the concepts, this should be your first port of call. Both for Math and Verbal, I think it was excellent.
I was doing well in Math on my mocks, but did most of the Math anyway (focused on troubling areas), found my time management improve a lot and just finished questions a lot quicker, so while my score stayed at 50 throughout, I was more IN CONTROL - critical.

Verbal was giving me a rough time, the sentence correction book is great but contains tons of rules, which freaked me out with such little time left. So I had to use it selectively, to address the types of SC problems I was getting wrong completely. But it is good, and if you can invest time from Day 1, it should be helpful. CR and RC- explains some basics, nothing groundbreaking, but found it useful in parts. I mean really the most important thing to remember is to pay attention and READ THE QUESTION, thats all I used to tell myself. As I said, you don't have to be a genius for the test but you HAVE to be alert.

Not sure if the authors will be too happy with me here, but Kaplan really didnt live up to expectations after the good things I had heard. The practice sets were quite random in terms of difficulty and overall I think its too easy. Some of the strats are good, but I think time is better spent on Manhattan throughout. Use Kaplan as an additional question bank if you want to test a strategy or something.

5) Some more on Time Management -
This is what I suggest,
a) In the beginning, do the Manhattan books really well and get your concepts solid. Yes , they don’t have too many practice questions but just try and master what they have, there is plenty of time to practice don’t worry. The important thing is to understand why something is right/ wrong, see the common mistakes etc.

b) Once you think you have done justice to Manhattan, move on to OG. Do at least 40 questions of each topic (DS, PS, CR, RC, SC), slowly and try your best to get them right. Really study the ones you get wrong and go back to Manhattan if necessary. Aim for high accuracy levels (remember the supposedly easier ones are in the beginning). (I used to hit 80-95% by the middle of my prep).

c) Once you are happy with that, its time to bring out the stopwatch. Please remember, it is best to understand the concepts very well before Step 3, because getting a whole bunch of questions wrong is not a good feeling. But also know this, there must come a time when the stopwatch is integral to your study. The timing article above provides full details, try and follow that. For example, I used to choose 15 questions of say CR, give myself 30 mins and make sure they are done by then. Later on, I would choose my target time for SC and RC questions, then do them one after the other with no breaks, around 1 -1.5 hour sessions at a stretch. Not meant to be a substitute to the actual Verbal section, but does aim to simulate switching from question type to another and being able to concentrate on those questions for 1 hour +. Make sure you get a high accuracy rate.

d) Give a mock or two, see weak spots and fine tune. Seeing what you do wrong is very important, you will keep doing it otherwise.

6) Ask for help- I signed for private tutoring from Manhattan. I figured I was getting the same things wrong again and again so something needed to change. Sometimes just discussing strategy or getting persistent doubts solved can prove very useful. Otherwise the tutors can provide guidance on a personalised and individual basis. They are very expensive no doubt (450 USD for 2 hours) but I am glad I took a couple of classes, just get the problems out of the way and refine your prep.

7) Don't mix too much up - I had a full time job (in investment banking, no prizes for guessing why I gave the GMAT), CFA Level 1 and the GMAT. I managed all 3 but it wasn't pretty. If you have a choice, try your best to focus on the GMAT and as little else as possible - it really helps.

8) Be brave- I rescheduled my GMAT by 2 weeks to get 2 additional weekends as it was too close to the CFA (I only had 1 weekend to study after realising my stupidity, and weekends were the only time to actually get work done). I didn't know anyone who took a tutor and was aghast at the cost, yet I went ahead (my tutor from Manhattan was very sweet and supportive, I am not sure if I am allowed to mention names). Both were very good decisions in hindsight. I knew I wasn't prepared as well as I could have been. Everything above helped me. I gave the OG mocks again (very few repeat questions), and got a 750 in both so I felt much more confident and could see my weak areas had been addressed fairly effectively. By the end of it, I WANTED to give the real thing.

The discerning (dare I say ‘critical’) reader will notice the above points are not necessarily in logical order. They are more a string of observations in the order of which I observed them. Please use the above info to create your own plan.
I really don’t have a career plan at the moment, temporarily at the mercy of ‘esteemed European ministers’ (permanently so before the GMAT…). Fingers crossed, doing well on the GMAT feels good, but does B-School really make sense in this climate? I don’t want a ton of debt and a poor job after…Also on another note, I am not sure what I want to do in my career, switching jobs is difficult at the moment, any advice on how better to answer the following questions- what am I good at, and what would I enjoy doing? Can an MBA ever help answer these questions (I assumed practical work ex is the only way, but am happy to hear ideas)?
Hopefully I never give the GMAT again (assuming I don’t bomb AWA), but
Good luck ladies and gentlemen!