1. Took the official paper test about a month ago. Got about a 550 based on the numbers and comparing it vs. the charts. This is an approximate value given it's 80-90% accuracy, and I figure it's about right given that I have been out of school for a decade.
(those $!$!$! triangles problems!)
2. Read the Princeton 2007 guide (bought at stores), and that gave me the usual Joe Bloggs tips on guessing and reducing the number of wrongs.
Useful and recommended in addition to practicing with real GMAT questions from the 11th ed below. (after all, if you are totally lost, a good guess that can even take one out of 5 answers out is better than nothing!)
Takes a few days to get through this, and it's helpful for everyone starting fresh!
Also, had a used Princeton from a few years ago from their classes - similar to the 2007 guide, but covers harder Qs you'll see on the GMAT.
3. After that, started with the most difficult questions (last ones) out of the Official GMAT 11th ed. for each chapter in order. Did about 50-100 of each, checking answers along the way, and making sure I knew how to solve them.
Very boring, but you gotta do it. Spend about 4-8 hours a day and just chug through problems! You do want to start with the HARDEST (one with the highest number in each section) FIRST!!!! No point at all testing questions you can answer.
4. Took the offical computerized GMATPrep exam (CAT) from mba.com at this point, two days prior to the test.
680 - 90%
Q 48 - 86%
V 35 - 77%
4. Then, two days before, saw this site, learned about ManhattanGMAT, and hunted down a friend studying with it. Read through the manuals, did the problems, and figured if it will help, then there you go.
5. Scheduled the test for the morning - only convenient time they had left.
I knew going in that being a night owl, this would hurt my scores.
SO KEEP IN MIND!!! - if you're an early bird, take the test earlier in the day; if you're a night owl, take it later in the day!!!!!
Physiology and other studies have shown the human performance does vary depending on what type of person you are, and peak performance will max at different times in the day.
THIS is a VERY IMPORTANT thing to keep in mind when scheduling tests!
---
That said, I knew it would affect my 680 GMATPrep - it's been said maybe 50 points variance, so I figure anywhere from a 630-720 would be my normal range.
Had a McDonald's egg mcmuffin and soda (sprite + coke) on the morning of. More coke (caffine) would be nice if I could drink through the test, but otherwise, half-half is better since you don't want to spike on caffine then crash later in the test.
Protein + oil = long term energy, so recommended in some form (eg. peanut butter sandwich, etc also good) - something that'll last 4-5 hours.
Realistically, the test is very ARTIFICIAL vs. real life food-wise. I always oink down gallons of caffinated soda in a crisis/deadline, and a constant level of caffine + sugar in the system is key to higher real-life performance (as sports people and others have found in studies). Four hours is enough to reach the end of most basic sugar + caffine supplies, so short of having something to oink down in a break, gotta plan for this late Q/V section crash.
DEFINITELY HAVE food if you're doing a morning test!! blood sugar levels will be low and brain will be pooped w/o it (unless you're just unusual and do super-well w/o breakfast).
6. Test center - oh, is this the most boring job possible! Test center people! And honestly, they're way of making the $50+million dollars a year from us MBA hopefuls for a dumb computerized test!
(honestly, they could simply make 10,000+ questions for the MBA that everyone could know about beforehand, and simply give anyone taking the MBA a subset. Just like the STEP I-III series for doctors and the 10,000+ Qbanks out there, there would be no way for anyone to memorize the answer for all of them. This would reduce costs of the MBA test to almost nothing since the questions could be reused forever, and you'd only have to have a place to take the tests - which shouldn't be that expensive to host! Open bidding would certainly reduce MBA fees from $250 to next to nothing!)
Anyways, very dull. Grab a number, sit down. Wait, then go up and give them your driver's license. Listen to them blab, or tune out, until they ask for your fingerprint and photograph. Sign, and sit. Wait for the guy to call you, go into the testing room, listen to him blab. Wait for him to give you the laminated yellow graph paper (legal size, spiral bound on the short edge (annoying - both in binding and size), and
ASK FOR A TISSUE TO bring in!!!! (you'll realize w/o it, the ink from the pen will smear all over your hand, clothes and arm as you work problems!) You can also ask for as much as you need if you have a cold.
After that, simply wait to be led in to the cubicles, sit, take the test just like the GMATPREP.
HOWEVER!!!!!!
Unlike home and your laptop, there are problems!!!!!
a) the monitor resolution was not set to the LCD resolution!!!!
so no only do you have to deal with a big test, you have to deal with a crappy setup for the monitor - blurry fonts and all!!!!!
So you think you're totally ready, but get ready for some eye watering text to read!!
b) Monitor brightness is set too high! In the subdued lighting of the rooms, the brightness is glaring!!! You can simply turn down the brightness, or ask, but do it prior to the test starting! Otherwise, get ready for another roadblock to a good score!!!
c) Monitor is stacked on a slim dell PC on it's side, so it's higher than ideal, even with the seat all the way up!
The center of the screen, for a 5' 9" guy, is a little bit about centerline for your eyesight. Thus, get ready to crane that neck as well as you take the test. Eyeballs will dry out, and you'll get eye and neck strain.
Ideally, it should be lower than centerline of your eyesight and it should be stationed lower than that.
d) Do move the keyboard and mouse around as needed to get that paper into position! I just stacked the keyboard on the dell and put the paper right in front of the computer! The paper is longer than letter, so it's not convenient either - too long either way you lay it out --- very annoying!!!!
Stupid dry-erase pen is a dumb idea as well! rubs off on the hands w/o a tissue underneath, and it's horrible! Wish they'd simply waste paper + pen/pencil for us. After all, what's the $250 fee for?!?! to pay the poor guy monitoring the stations to spray down and wipe off all of the markings after the test????
Pen is like an extra-fine point sharpie. Long, thin barrel.
7. Took the test.
Do take the breaks if your bladder can't hold out! Also, they're a good thing anyways since you'll be tense after each section.
However, I took only the break after the essays, not between the Q/V sections - just wanted to get the latter done all at once. Had the energy and time to push through Q+V, so figured why not.
The break after the essays is a good 'reset' break to take however.
8. offical 650 - 82%, Q 47 - 81% V34 - 80%.
gmatprep 680 - 90%, Q 48 - 86%, V 35 - 77%
Also, On the gmatprep, I missed 14 questions on each section------!!!!!
So as you can see, well on target, and I tend to be a 'repeater' on standardized tests (based on ones I've taken in the past). Thus, the 30point difference comes down to the early morning (sleep brain) test time for me.
Keep in mind that I knew this coming in, and made sure I compensated as well as I could for that (breakfast, sleep, caffine). Not much you can do against human biorythms.
That said, although the GMATPrep may use slightly older % vs. the actual test, notice the significant decrease on the Q and actual score %'s!
Thus, if you have to focus, aim to bump up that Q and time your energy reserves for that section!!!! (My scores are useful to analyze this since the values are only 1 point off in each section.)
9. Will the ManhattanGmat help two days prior - probably not for most people already prepped from other sources on the basic to mid level Qs. Not enough time to absorb all of what they said, and a lot of it was easy to understand but not directly applicable to the type of questions that popped up in the Q section on the real GMAT.
(yep, there are Q's that other books like Kaplan or Princeton covered in their books or classes, not convered in MG for the Q section)
10. GMAT did throw in some tougher Qs, that were solvable, but gobbled up lots of time. I'll assume these are the ones covered in the classes by all major test preps, as well as the tougher Qs in the better books.
A few of these I knew right away were the tough/testing questions in the Q section because they didn't resemble any of the other common ones in the rest of the exam. These DEFINITELY WERE NOT COVERED AT ALL in the 11th offical GMAT book!!!! but are covered in the better books/classes!! However, even the latter cannot cover all of the intersting yet tough math questions because there are so many variations they can come up with.
11. Thus, those who think GMAT 11th is all you'll need are wrong - GMAT11th will get you to the 600-650 level, but above that, you really need to be able to solve tough Q's quickly.
Notice that my GMATPrep had 14 missed questions on each Q,V section!!!!!!! for a 680!!!
Thus, IT IS TRUE - you do not need to answer all questions correctly for a great score, but you do need to hit the tough ones!
----
12. On both GMATPrep and GMAT, I found that my pacing allowed me to spend lots of time for the first half of the Q test, then had to pay attention to time the next 1/2 or so, and the last handful of questions were either quickly done (simple ones) or guessed (hard ones).
Thus, you can spend lots of time on the first 1/2-3/4 of questions and not worry much about guessing on the last 5-8 questions for a decent baseline score (650-680 i'd say in my case).
V, I had more than 10 minutes free after, so there you go. (lots of skimming/reading internet on the PC helps you to read fast on the test)
13. Now, that said, my goal was to get a decent score, not 700+, in a month. From experience, I would start with the Princeton to learn how to guess (very valuable), try a few easier GMAT 11th, then the ManhattanGMAT, then the hard GMAT 11th, then classes/otherbooks as needed. I'd keep a GMATPrep CAT test for after all of that, one maybe at the beginning to baseline (although I would rather just save it for mid-way since baseline won't help much when wasting a good GMATPrep test).
Instead, if possible, I'd do a ManhattanGMAT test to baseline near the beginning, so you'll have two 'offical' GMATPrep CATs midway and towards the end to baseline - which more accurately gives you a feel of the actual test and numbers as well (so you don't get thrown off course by a non-offical test score).
ManhattanGMAT books are like an advanced Princeton's Joe Bloggs in giving you what you need for attacking the majority of Q's from I'd say low to mid/mid-upper level difficulty. Poor? Princeton + GMAT 11th + GMATPrep + look online in forums for the HARD questions to solve (that'll get you to a basic 600 level I figure). Very poor? library/bookstore for the above books.
For a 700+, which would be easy for me with more time, I'd focus on the hardest GMAT questions and make sure I can solve them quickly, with far more emphasis on the Q section rather than the V section now that I've seen that a 1 point difference in each section doesn't count the same % wise. Besides V can be particularly hard with a fuzzy screen, poor hight adjustment, and boringly dry nuances of what may be right or not right in the English grammar on the toughest questions vs. Q questions, IMO.
For me, it probably came down to a difference of 2-3 questions right vs. wrong that made the difference between 650, 680 and 700+.
SO KEEP THIS IN MIND!!! I can miss 14 questions on each section for a 680 GMATPrep, but if I had missed 1-3 questions less, that probably would bump me right into the 700+ range. YOU CAN MISS ~10+ questions on each section to get a 700+, but only a few key Questions will keep you from a 700+!
14. okay, background, computer guy, brilliant at it, asian, so V will naturally be lower. 10 years out of undergrad, too, so keep in mind the 'general' trend of lower GMAT scores as one gets older. (ha ha, which probably would have meant an easy 750+ 10 years ago)
oh, back to 700+.
I would guess I'd need 1-2 months more to prep for that on my own as well. Have to grind through the tough questions first to make sure I know how to solve them, then grind through them again to solve them fast.
Classes will naturally be able to help push you along faster if you need them, and if you're willing to pay the $1000+ for them. I wasn't given my goals, but they're certainly worth looking into if you just can't break an easy 650. ( I honestly would not benchmark 600 or less - the 50 point variance could mean 550-650 if your norm is 600, and 550 is far too low. I'd benchmark 650 so you could sit in the comfortable 600-700 range for a basic MBA college. But Aim for 700+ if you're aiming for the top colleges!)
After doing a bunch of GMAT 11th questions at the toughtest level, if you can solve them and know what you're doing wrong on your own, then you'll be fine for the 650 level, IMO.
Past that, the tough questions are not anywhere on the GMAT 11th or GMATPrep tests, so you'd better be ready to study from other books/classes/forum posts to get you up there.
Tough questions will require multiple steps and concepts, and have you solve them one after another accurately without stopping to double-check! You gotta look at a problem and just start calculating w/o questioning yourself if that equation or theory you're using is correct. And the numbers have to keep flowing, too - who cares if it's 1317334/914 - just make sure you can do the math quckly and accurately.
---------
15. That said, you're not that good in Q, but much better in V, you'll have to work harder to get fewer questions wrong due to the % difference in weighing I've seen. But, you can probably still get a decent 600-650 pushing hard on the V section if you're just so-so Q-wise. but for sure, these rules weren't taught in HS, and they're using more advanced English editing and correction rules and Q's you'd normally see of an English or newspaper/writing major than most kids will see in their English classes. (well, at least in public schools I've attended....)
(those $!$!$! triangles problems!)
2. Read the Princeton 2007 guide (bought at stores), and that gave me the usual Joe Bloggs tips on guessing and reducing the number of wrongs.
Useful and recommended in addition to practicing with real GMAT questions from the 11th ed below. (after all, if you are totally lost, a good guess that can even take one out of 5 answers out is better than nothing!)
Takes a few days to get through this, and it's helpful for everyone starting fresh!
Also, had a used Princeton from a few years ago from their classes - similar to the 2007 guide, but covers harder Qs you'll see on the GMAT.
3. After that, started with the most difficult questions (last ones) out of the Official GMAT 11th ed. for each chapter in order. Did about 50-100 of each, checking answers along the way, and making sure I knew how to solve them.
Very boring, but you gotta do it. Spend about 4-8 hours a day and just chug through problems! You do want to start with the HARDEST (one with the highest number in each section) FIRST!!!! No point at all testing questions you can answer.
4. Took the offical computerized GMATPrep exam (CAT) from mba.com at this point, two days prior to the test.
680 - 90%
Q 48 - 86%
V 35 - 77%
4. Then, two days before, saw this site, learned about ManhattanGMAT, and hunted down a friend studying with it. Read through the manuals, did the problems, and figured if it will help, then there you go.
5. Scheduled the test for the morning - only convenient time they had left.
I knew going in that being a night owl, this would hurt my scores.
SO KEEP IN MIND!!! - if you're an early bird, take the test earlier in the day; if you're a night owl, take it later in the day!!!!!
Physiology and other studies have shown the human performance does vary depending on what type of person you are, and peak performance will max at different times in the day.
THIS is a VERY IMPORTANT thing to keep in mind when scheduling tests!
---
That said, I knew it would affect my 680 GMATPrep - it's been said maybe 50 points variance, so I figure anywhere from a 630-720 would be my normal range.
Had a McDonald's egg mcmuffin and soda (sprite + coke) on the morning of. More coke (caffine) would be nice if I could drink through the test, but otherwise, half-half is better since you don't want to spike on caffine then crash later in the test.
Protein + oil = long term energy, so recommended in some form (eg. peanut butter sandwich, etc also good) - something that'll last 4-5 hours.
Realistically, the test is very ARTIFICIAL vs. real life food-wise. I always oink down gallons of caffinated soda in a crisis/deadline, and a constant level of caffine + sugar in the system is key to higher real-life performance (as sports people and others have found in studies). Four hours is enough to reach the end of most basic sugar + caffine supplies, so short of having something to oink down in a break, gotta plan for this late Q/V section crash.
DEFINITELY HAVE food if you're doing a morning test!! blood sugar levels will be low and brain will be pooped w/o it (unless you're just unusual and do super-well w/o breakfast).
6. Test center - oh, is this the most boring job possible! Test center people! And honestly, they're way of making the $50+million dollars a year from us MBA hopefuls for a dumb computerized test!
(honestly, they could simply make 10,000+ questions for the MBA that everyone could know about beforehand, and simply give anyone taking the MBA a subset. Just like the STEP I-III series for doctors and the 10,000+ Qbanks out there, there would be no way for anyone to memorize the answer for all of them. This would reduce costs of the MBA test to almost nothing since the questions could be reused forever, and you'd only have to have a place to take the tests - which shouldn't be that expensive to host! Open bidding would certainly reduce MBA fees from $250 to next to nothing!)
Anyways, very dull. Grab a number, sit down. Wait, then go up and give them your driver's license. Listen to them blab, or tune out, until they ask for your fingerprint and photograph. Sign, and sit. Wait for the guy to call you, go into the testing room, listen to him blab. Wait for him to give you the laminated yellow graph paper (legal size, spiral bound on the short edge (annoying - both in binding and size), and
ASK FOR A TISSUE TO bring in!!!! (you'll realize w/o it, the ink from the pen will smear all over your hand, clothes and arm as you work problems!) You can also ask for as much as you need if you have a cold.
After that, simply wait to be led in to the cubicles, sit, take the test just like the GMATPREP.
HOWEVER!!!!!!
Unlike home and your laptop, there are problems!!!!!
a) the monitor resolution was not set to the LCD resolution!!!!
so no only do you have to deal with a big test, you have to deal with a crappy setup for the monitor - blurry fonts and all!!!!!
So you think you're totally ready, but get ready for some eye watering text to read!!
b) Monitor brightness is set too high! In the subdued lighting of the rooms, the brightness is glaring!!! You can simply turn down the brightness, or ask, but do it prior to the test starting! Otherwise, get ready for another roadblock to a good score!!!
c) Monitor is stacked on a slim dell PC on it's side, so it's higher than ideal, even with the seat all the way up!
The center of the screen, for a 5' 9" guy, is a little bit about centerline for your eyesight. Thus, get ready to crane that neck as well as you take the test. Eyeballs will dry out, and you'll get eye and neck strain.
Ideally, it should be lower than centerline of your eyesight and it should be stationed lower than that.
d) Do move the keyboard and mouse around as needed to get that paper into position! I just stacked the keyboard on the dell and put the paper right in front of the computer! The paper is longer than letter, so it's not convenient either - too long either way you lay it out --- very annoying!!!!
Stupid dry-erase pen is a dumb idea as well! rubs off on the hands w/o a tissue underneath, and it's horrible! Wish they'd simply waste paper + pen/pencil for us. After all, what's the $250 fee for?!?! to pay the poor guy monitoring the stations to spray down and wipe off all of the markings after the test????
Pen is like an extra-fine point sharpie. Long, thin barrel.
7. Took the test.
Do take the breaks if your bladder can't hold out! Also, they're a good thing anyways since you'll be tense after each section.
However, I took only the break after the essays, not between the Q/V sections - just wanted to get the latter done all at once. Had the energy and time to push through Q+V, so figured why not.
The break after the essays is a good 'reset' break to take however.
8. offical 650 - 82%, Q 47 - 81% V34 - 80%.
gmatprep 680 - 90%, Q 48 - 86%, V 35 - 77%
Also, On the gmatprep, I missed 14 questions on each section------!!!!!
So as you can see, well on target, and I tend to be a 'repeater' on standardized tests (based on ones I've taken in the past). Thus, the 30point difference comes down to the early morning (sleep brain) test time for me.
Keep in mind that I knew this coming in, and made sure I compensated as well as I could for that (breakfast, sleep, caffine). Not much you can do against human biorythms.
That said, although the GMATPrep may use slightly older % vs. the actual test, notice the significant decrease on the Q and actual score %'s!
Thus, if you have to focus, aim to bump up that Q and time your energy reserves for that section!!!! (My scores are useful to analyze this since the values are only 1 point off in each section.)
9. Will the ManhattanGmat help two days prior - probably not for most people already prepped from other sources on the basic to mid level Qs. Not enough time to absorb all of what they said, and a lot of it was easy to understand but not directly applicable to the type of questions that popped up in the Q section on the real GMAT.
(yep, there are Q's that other books like Kaplan or Princeton covered in their books or classes, not convered in MG for the Q section)
10. GMAT did throw in some tougher Qs, that were solvable, but gobbled up lots of time. I'll assume these are the ones covered in the classes by all major test preps, as well as the tougher Qs in the better books.
A few of these I knew right away were the tough/testing questions in the Q section because they didn't resemble any of the other common ones in the rest of the exam. These DEFINITELY WERE NOT COVERED AT ALL in the 11th offical GMAT book!!!! but are covered in the better books/classes!! However, even the latter cannot cover all of the intersting yet tough math questions because there are so many variations they can come up with.
11. Thus, those who think GMAT 11th is all you'll need are wrong - GMAT11th will get you to the 600-650 level, but above that, you really need to be able to solve tough Q's quickly.
Notice that my GMATPrep had 14 missed questions on each Q,V section!!!!!!! for a 680!!!
Thus, IT IS TRUE - you do not need to answer all questions correctly for a great score, but you do need to hit the tough ones!
----
12. On both GMATPrep and GMAT, I found that my pacing allowed me to spend lots of time for the first half of the Q test, then had to pay attention to time the next 1/2 or so, and the last handful of questions were either quickly done (simple ones) or guessed (hard ones).
Thus, you can spend lots of time on the first 1/2-3/4 of questions and not worry much about guessing on the last 5-8 questions for a decent baseline score (650-680 i'd say in my case).
V, I had more than 10 minutes free after, so there you go. (lots of skimming/reading internet on the PC helps you to read fast on the test)
13. Now, that said, my goal was to get a decent score, not 700+, in a month. From experience, I would start with the Princeton to learn how to guess (very valuable), try a few easier GMAT 11th, then the ManhattanGMAT, then the hard GMAT 11th, then classes/otherbooks as needed. I'd keep a GMATPrep CAT test for after all of that, one maybe at the beginning to baseline (although I would rather just save it for mid-way since baseline won't help much when wasting a good GMATPrep test).
Instead, if possible, I'd do a ManhattanGMAT test to baseline near the beginning, so you'll have two 'offical' GMATPrep CATs midway and towards the end to baseline - which more accurately gives you a feel of the actual test and numbers as well (so you don't get thrown off course by a non-offical test score).
ManhattanGMAT books are like an advanced Princeton's Joe Bloggs in giving you what you need for attacking the majority of Q's from I'd say low to mid/mid-upper level difficulty. Poor? Princeton + GMAT 11th + GMATPrep + look online in forums for the HARD questions to solve (that'll get you to a basic 600 level I figure). Very poor? library/bookstore for the above books.
For a 700+, which would be easy for me with more time, I'd focus on the hardest GMAT questions and make sure I can solve them quickly, with far more emphasis on the Q section rather than the V section now that I've seen that a 1 point difference in each section doesn't count the same % wise. Besides V can be particularly hard with a fuzzy screen, poor hight adjustment, and boringly dry nuances of what may be right or not right in the English grammar on the toughest questions vs. Q questions, IMO.
For me, it probably came down to a difference of 2-3 questions right vs. wrong that made the difference between 650, 680 and 700+.
SO KEEP THIS IN MIND!!! I can miss 14 questions on each section for a 680 GMATPrep, but if I had missed 1-3 questions less, that probably would bump me right into the 700+ range. YOU CAN MISS ~10+ questions on each section to get a 700+, but only a few key Questions will keep you from a 700+!
14. okay, background, computer guy, brilliant at it, asian, so V will naturally be lower. 10 years out of undergrad, too, so keep in mind the 'general' trend of lower GMAT scores as one gets older. (ha ha, which probably would have meant an easy 750+ 10 years ago)
oh, back to 700+.
I would guess I'd need 1-2 months more to prep for that on my own as well. Have to grind through the tough questions first to make sure I know how to solve them, then grind through them again to solve them fast.
Classes will naturally be able to help push you along faster if you need them, and if you're willing to pay the $1000+ for them. I wasn't given my goals, but they're certainly worth looking into if you just can't break an easy 650. ( I honestly would not benchmark 600 or less - the 50 point variance could mean 550-650 if your norm is 600, and 550 is far too low. I'd benchmark 650 so you could sit in the comfortable 600-700 range for a basic MBA college. But Aim for 700+ if you're aiming for the top colleges!)
After doing a bunch of GMAT 11th questions at the toughtest level, if you can solve them and know what you're doing wrong on your own, then you'll be fine for the 650 level, IMO.
Past that, the tough questions are not anywhere on the GMAT 11th or GMATPrep tests, so you'd better be ready to study from other books/classes/forum posts to get you up there.
Tough questions will require multiple steps and concepts, and have you solve them one after another accurately without stopping to double-check! You gotta look at a problem and just start calculating w/o questioning yourself if that equation or theory you're using is correct. And the numbers have to keep flowing, too - who cares if it's 1317334/914 - just make sure you can do the math quckly and accurately.
---------
15. That said, you're not that good in Q, but much better in V, you'll have to work harder to get fewer questions wrong due to the % difference in weighing I've seen. But, you can probably still get a decent 600-650 pushing hard on the V section if you're just so-so Q-wise. but for sure, these rules weren't taught in HS, and they're using more advanced English editing and correction rules and Q's you'd normally see of an English or newspaper/writing major than most kids will see in their English classes. (well, at least in public schools I've attended....)
