I just Beat The GMAT!

I bet that test day is an emotional day for everyone. I know it was for me both times I took the GMAT. Right now, I'm excited, relieved, exhausted and ready for a glass of wine. This Forum has been so helpful to me and I felt that I had leeched so much useful info from everyone here that I wanted to give back with whatever my story provides.

When I was in college, I thought studying was really just about hitting the books hard... and it was (my GPA was a 3.8). So when it came to studying for the GMAT the first time, I thought that I could just do things the same way. I picked up all the books and CATs that seemed to make sense:

*OG13
*MGMAT Guides
*Kaplan 800 (got this from a friend)
*2 GMAT CATs
*MGMAT CATs

2 months later... May 2014... 590 (Q36, V35). Yuck.

My practice scores never got above a 600, so I should have known better than to take the GMAT.

First BIG takeaway - don't take the GMAT if you don't feel ready to really nail it. Rushing it was a bad idea. I should have just bought the new study material immediately instead of wasting $250 on a test that I knew I'd have to retake.

Giving up is not in my nature. I found Beat the GMAT not too long after and started digging through all the success stories. It was interesting trying to figure out what advice to follow - much of it was similar from post to post, but I'll get to that in a moment.

New study materials purchased:
Empowergmat
2 extra GMAT CATs
Kaplan Premier (bought this for the CATs)
Spent a LOT of time reading posts in the various forums

From here, I put together a consistent study plan:
Weekdays:
1 hour study in the morning
2 hours study at night
Weekends:
1 CAT on the weekend, but sometimes there wasn't time (skipping friend's weddings was NOT an option). Review the CAT the next day.

This plan helped me to keep my mind fresh (morning study can be surprisingly peaceful) and avoid over-doing things. Sometimes I'd take a day off if I needed to. I stuck to that pattern for almost 11 weeks.

Then came Test Day #2! I don't think it's necessary to write out every step of Test Day since most other posts say the exact same things that I would say: try to get a good night's sleep, eat breakfast, bring snacks, go to the bathroom during your breaks, stay calm-take notes-think, time slows right before you push the final button...

Here's what I think is the most useful advice from reading through the forum posts (and I've added some of my own):

1: Try thinking differently. Learn to answer questions in more than just 1 way. Actually practice too. Be sure that you can do the math, test values and test the answers. Find a set of verbal approaches that are easy to follow and then practice a lot.

2: The phrase "winging it" should never be in your vocabulary. If it is, then you're not really ready to take the GMAT.

3: Buy a Course. Spend some money and stop wasting time. The end results are worth it. I used Empowergmat and loved it. If someone told me at the beginning that I could have my score for $300 and a bit of work, I would have spent that money immediately.

4: Review all of your practice work!!! Go over your past CAT tests and past practice problems. Figure out what you did wrong and fix the silly mistakes. Drill them away.

5: The experts in this Forum are awesome. I especially liked Brent, Mitch and Rich (that sounds like a band from the 70s ;p). Don't just read explanations though - try to repeat what they show you.

6: Don't be shy about asking the experts (or other users) for help or advice.

I'm really excited now to work on my applications. I want to stay on the West Coast, so I'm shooting for Stanford and Berkeley for Round 1. For everyone who's still studying, keep working hard. If you haven't gotten to your goal yet, remember that you're in the right place and that help isn't far away.

Florence

Congrats Florence! I am about to embark on this journey and I truly appreciate your advise.

Janet

How did you improve your verbal score so drastically?

Great post!

Would you mind including a history of your CAT scores?

Way to go!!! What a great story (and score to go with it!).

Thank you for sharing your story and your practice plan. Congrats on the fab score!

If you don't mind me asking, did you study a different topic in the morning and the evening or did you find your self sticking to Quant on some days and Verbal on others? I'm thinking of going about it in a similar fashion and was just curious about your methodology.

Thanks and Congrats again!

Lisa

Congratulation Florence!

I've read an abundant of successful articles from the BTG forum. Every article is a new motivation for me at the beginning of my reading, but I've droped the GMAT many times from 2010 to now, and really repeatedly feel disappointed to myself. I don't have any friend to ask for help whenever I get stuck at any question of the Gmat materials, then I don't know how to do next. As a result, I quit my studying. I am very bad at math, I cannot find any friend to help me solve mathematic questions - sometimes even verbal and CR.

Thanks to many emails from beatthegmat, my tiny-remained desire to apply for an MBA program is still alive. Hope is still hope if I don't do anything. From your story, Florence, I will do it again from the beginning. Thanks for sharing your way to achieve the score.

Wish you all the best,
Khoa.

Hi everyone!

I treated myself to a post-GMAT mini-vacation, but now I'm home and it's back to business as usual. I'll try my best to answer everyone's questions.

Confused13 - For me, verbal was mostly about learning how the questions and answers were written and what to do with the info in the passage. Other than knowing certain grammar rules, it's about the patterns behind RC, CR and SC. I practiced the steps that I learned over-and-over and after awhile I didn't even have to think about what to do, I just did it. I think verbal is easier than math since in math you actually have to DO something. Verbal is mostly about taking some notes, connecting ideas and knowing how to spot the wrong answers.

Neilwatson - I don't have any of my older scores, but I still have my scores from the last couple of months. Is there anything specific that you want to know?

Ldrich13 - During the weekdays, I just did the next assignment in line (I used the Empowergmat study plan). So some mornings were about math and others were about verbal.

Tlminhkhoa - Don't give up!!! One of the things I learned again and again is that the GMAT always tests the same stuff - and it DOES! Whatever areas might be tough for you can be learned, but you have to be ready to put in the work and the time. This forum helped A LOT. Learn from the people here, ask questions and stick to it!

Keep working everybody! You can get there too!

Florence

Hello Florence,

Helpful post! I wonder how I should be handling pacing in Verbal? Right now I am rushing through to last RC passage just to finish. How can I improve?

Thanks, Jay

Hi

Congratulations on your score.

Even I tried the EmpowerGMAT Free Trial, but felt it does not cover a few topics in depth such as co-ordinate geometry. Although I have heard the program is better for Math than Verbal. What do you suggest? I want to master both the sections.