I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi All,

I have hung around these forums and used them for motivation over the last 6 months--Thank you! I would not have made it without you.

Yesterday, I scored a 750 (49Q/42V) after spending the last 6 months preparing for the GMAT. I am a normal white dude with no experience in mathematics other than that required in high school and college (base-level). Prior to preparing for the GMAT, I did not know what a participle was or how or how to use one. By using the right tools and continuously staying on this forum, I was able to conquer the GMAT! Here is how I did it:

Materials:
1. Old set of Manhattan GMAT Prep Guides (4th edition) + Math/Verbal Foundations: Of the MGMAT Guides, I used all of the quant guides and the sentence correction guide.
2. Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible: It is the quickest, easiest way to improve your CR skills.
3. Magoosh: I cannot stress the value of Magoosh combined with MGMAT guides. I felt like if I missed something in one, the other clearly explained what was missed. I listened to Magoosh videos during my hour long commute and I used their question bank, which is amazing, excessively.
4. GMAT Club Sentence Correction Guide/Quant Guide: The SC guide was super helpful in gaining proficiency and understanding of verbal concepts. The quant guide helped me think through difficult quant concepts--I attribute this to pushing me from a 48-49.
5. GMAT Club - 100 700+ SC Correction Questions: This was the most valuable set of questions for trying to holistically understand SC.
6. GMAT OG 12, OG V2, OG Q2
7. Youtube - OG12 Q explanation videos

Practice Exams:
MGMAT 1, Q only, untimed: 46
Veritas Math, Q only: 50
GMAT 1: 750 (49/44)
MGMAT 2: 740 (46/45)
MGMAT 3: 720 (48/42)
MGMAT 4: 640 (40/37) <--- I should not have taken this when I did
GMAT 2: 760 (49/44)

NOTE: MGMAT Quant - It would take me about 85-90 minutes to finish each section, but I was able to finish GMAT Prep/Real GMAT w/1-3 minutes to spare.

Studying:
I study a lot! I just kept studying the same stuff over and over and over again. Honestly, I thoroughly believe that most people can score 46+ in Q just by going over the MGMAT Q guides repetitively until you understand all concepts in it, as well as all concepts related to OG12 questions.

Keys:
1. Understand the concepts for everything.
2. Once you have the concepts down, apply them to problems.
3. Apply concepts to tougher and tougher problems, while continuously going over the problems you get wrong.

Let me know any questions you have. Happy to answer!

Great job done Normal Guy!!!

Congratulations!!! (Although in my view you took more time than you should have taken for GMAT prep but since I have no idea the pace that you could keep during studies and the break if you took any during studies)

But finally... Great job done!!!

Prosper!!!

GMATinsight wrote:Great job done Normal Guy!!!

Congratulations!!! (Although in my view you took more time than you should have taken for GMAT prep but since I have no idea the pace that you could keep during studies and the break if you took any during studies)

But finally... Great job done!!!

Prosper!!!

GMATinsight--Your view is the right view! I should have added that! Looking back, I completely believe that I could have taken the test at 4-4.5 months and scored just as high. It was definitely a mistake on my part trying to over prepare. I think that someone with an okay background in grammar rules and mathematics would be more than fine with 3 months of prep time. I needed extra time to solidify those concepts.

GMATSparts1 wrote:

GMATinsight wrote:Great job done Normal Guy!!!

Congratulations!!! (Although in my view you took more time than you should have taken for GMAT prep but since I have no idea the pace that you could keep during studies and the break if you took any during studies)

But finally... Great job done!!!

Prosper!!!

GMATinsight--Your view is the right view! I should have added that! Looking back, I completely believe that I could have taken the test at 4-4.5 months and scored just as high. It was definitely a mistake on my part trying to over prepare. I think that someone with an okay background in grammar rules and mathematics would be more than fine with 3 months of prep time. I needed extra time to solidify those concepts.

This is so nice and Humble of you to write such a comment clarifying that you took more time as other reader will not be biased to form an opinion that 6 months plan is a better one. I hope you get my point.

Cheers!!!

Hey, GMATSparts1!

An inspiring story, I am trying to do this myself within shorter period of time.

Could you please clarify, "normal guy" abilities: for example, what was your score, when you just started GMAT?

Have you tried any CATS? Or alone tests in the very begining? When you have taken the first "DEMO TEST"? I mean, 750 sounds awesome but if you could have scored 600-650 from the very begining,

that would definately makes natural to hit the floor within 6 months

I didn't take a practice to start out. I estimate that it would have been between 600-630 because I did take the LSAT before (164 - 91st percentile at the time and heavy in CR and RC) and I am clever enough in mathematics to figure out enough of the questions. [/quote]

Great post and all the best for the future... normal guy

It's interesting what you said about Magoosh and MGMAT supplementing eachother on topics that you might've missed in one. That was my goal when I purchased both of them. Also, I just wanted to know your opinion on Magoosh's question bank. I've read that their questions are a bit tougher than the Official Guide as well as the GMAT. How true is that? Please and Thank you.

Amazing debrief. All the best for the future.

albertoduro1xx wrote:It's interesting what you said about Magoosh and MGMAT supplementing eachother on topics that you might've missed in one. That was my goal when I purchased both of them. Also, I just wanted to know your opinion on Magoosh's question bank. I've read that their questions are a bit tougher than the Official Guide as well as the GMAT. How true is that? Please and Thank you.

Hi albertoduro1xx,

Re: Magoosh--I think Magoosh's question bank is all-around amazing.

Verbal: There is a palpable difference between the OG questions and the Magoosh questions, but this difference doesn't mean that they do not help you.
1. Sentence Correction: I really liked their questions on SC. Some were really long and others tested difficult, but valuable topics (eg. absolute phrases and past/present participle parallelism). I felt like MGMAT + Magoosh SC really bumped up my verbal. I think these are just as valuable as OG questions. As a side note, I screwed up by not having enough sugar at the break before verbal, otherwise my score would have been a 44/45. Towards the end of the test, I was completely gassed.

2. Critical Reasoning: The CR questions quite different from those of the OG and I thought some of them were a little bit off. I think they are pretty valuable, but not as valuable as OG.

3. Reading Comprehension: I have no clue about reading comprehension. I suck at it and I don't think Magoosh or any other guide under the sun could help me figure it out. The biggest improvement I made in reading comprehension was slowing down, comprehending everything in a paragraph, and understanding how paragraphs transitioned. This is the best advice I can give here. Magoosh's RC can be helpful in the sense that they give you something to practice on.

Quant: Magoosh is probably a tad bit harder than the GMAT. I think Magoosh is on point for all of its quant. You also probably won't run out of great problems on it.

@ OP thanks for the inspirational story, and congrats on crushing the GMAT! Were you consistently putting in 3+ hours a day every day for 6 months, or would you take days off here and there? I was planning to do 2 hours a day for 3 months and more on weekends, but now that seems lazy in comparison to your regimen