GMAT Strategy

Hey guys!

I have read religiously the GMAT Club Forums and advices for almost half a year now, but I never thought I would be writing my own GMAT experience, moreover, I never thought I would be writing asking for desperate help.

As having attempted the GMAT two times already without getting the desire outcome, I will share with you what I think have been my main mistakes during my prep period. I hope that with this info the people that are just starting their preparation can see what things they should avoid and I hope that those GMAT experts could throw some comments on my strategy for the third attempt.

Thanks in advance!

1st Attempt

Prep Time: August to November 2014 (3 months and a half).

Score: 600 (Don't remember well but I think it was IR 6; Q40 and V31... I cancelled my score)

Mistakes on 1st Attempt
- Creating a Study Schedule not a Study Plan.
- Lack of discipline following that schedule.
- Changing my study approach almost every third day during the last month of the process.
- Saturation of information.
- Lack of mistakes assessment.
- Lack of self-evaluation throughout the study process.
- Undermining the time and stamina factor.


2nd Attempt

Prep Time: 1st of February - 7th of March 2015 (5 weeks).

Score: 640 (IR 5; Q42; V36)

Mistakes:
- Lack of consistency on my study sessions.
- Following a good strategy but not customizing it to my needs.
- Covering the whole GMAT theory but not working on developing it as a second nature.
- Worked on time management but not on speed.
- Not developing enough stamina.
- Reviewing mistakes without following an Error Log.


3rd Attempt Planned Approach

1. I don't want to get rusty so I think its better to retake my prep this weekend.
2. Again, a prep duration of 6 to 7 weeks, I might have a 4 days interruption.
3. Study in the mornings during weekdays since I think is the best time to learn and now I control of my schedule (LIKE A BOSS), and on weekends perform a CAT and have 6 hours study sessions.
4. Hardcore Study Session composed by:
a. One hour of theory review. (25% of session)
b. Two hours of problem solving. (50% of session)
c. One hour of Error Logging. (25% of session)
5. Study plan structured as follows:
a. Two weeks (prior my trip) focus on theory but in an active way; for example re-reading MGMAT SC, Number Properties and Word Problems. (No Hardcore Study Session during this period)
b. Two weeks focus on accuracy and skillbuilding. I will solve the problems untimed and I will do it on an incremental way (as bb said on a post, first assuring I have +90% accuracy on 600 problems before moving to the +700).
c. One week (or two) focus on speed solving timed problems.
d. Last 10 days focus on stamina. Full sets or CATs each day with just one hour of review at nights.

First, yes you could have done better but your score went up. I am partly mentioning this because having a positive outlook can help you score higher.

While preparing, doing questions, taking the test, or doing anything else, one has many opportunities to freak out and get all negative or stay calm and positive. The more you can do the latter at any given moment, the better you will do at anything.

As far as your strategy goes, I am not clear regarding how many problems you intend to do while doing the reading, but from what I can see it looks as if you are planning to do too much reading and not enough practicing.

Do you really need to reread all of the MGMAT stuff? This is not a history test. This is a test of how good you are at playing a game. So while it may make sense to reread some of it, maybe you would get more value out of spending more time doing questions and figuring out what you need to do, in your way, to figure out how to choose credited answers.

Another dimension of this whole thing is figuring out what your own weaker and stronger areas are. Then, rather than go over theory in general, learn about specific topics that apply to your weaker areas and do questions until your weaker areas are no longer weak.

So while your strategy is ok, I would like to see it look less as if you are preparing for a book test and more as if you are working on getting better at a game, and as part of that you research specific areas that apply to aspects of the game you are working on.

Also, doing multiple complete CATs the last ten days sounds pretty intense, and may burn you out. One or two might be good, and probably you should be doing more CATs earlier in the seven weeks to get some practice playing the full game and to see how good you are getting at the game as you go along.

Get it? It's a game. Practice the game. Read up on the game. Practice some more. Take a CAT to see how good your game is getting. Analyze your performance. Practice some more, and so on.

For practice you could use question banks such as those provided by Veritas, BellCurves(for quant only), Grockit and the GMAC question pack, among others. Notice, these resources are all on screen, which attribute can itself confer benefits.

Hey, maybe your way is better for you? Could be, but maybe you will get some ideas from what I am saying here.

Hi patodrums89,

I'd have to agree with Marty here. It sounds like you're on pace to burn yourself out a bit, which is obviously counterproductive.

With your most recent score, it's clear that you have a good base to work off of. Focus more of your attention on really drilling down to the areas you need the most work on and start there. Also, 6-7 weeks sounds a bit intense. Consider how much you'll actually get out of that time and whether or not you can actually dedicate the time to that plan. You might discover that once you know the areas you're weakest in, you won't need 6-7 weeks to bone up on those areas.

Best of luck,
Rich