I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi All,

First off let me apologize if this is a little choppy. I used Dragon to write it since I didn't feel like typing.

I just took the GMAT for the first time. I would like to take it again, but due to time constraints I probably won't have time to take it again before applying for schools.

This site has been a great resource for me, and I wanted to share what I've learned about test prep, my experience in preparation, and my experience in taking the actual test, in order to help other would-be test takers.

Starting about five months ago I began preparing for the GRE. I studied for the GRE for about a month and a half but when I realized some of the schools I wanted to apply to would not accept it, I decided to change gears and start studying for the GMAT instead. I took the Veritas Prep GMAT prep class. I had done some research on the different GMAT preparation programs out there and decided to go with Veritas Prep because it seemed to have the highest overall rating. I did the home program with online classes, it took about six weeks and I found it to be a good program. I studied in my spare time, but had limited time to study since I work about 70 hours a week. I took the last two weeks off from work, and studied about 2 hours a day.

I took 3 Veritas Prep practice tests, I score 580 on the first one, 590 on the second and 610 on the 3rd. I was weakest on quant, so I spent the majority of time working on quant problems. I spent so much time on quant that I ignored verbal almost altogether until the last couple days. My last day I spent about 3 hours making a summary sheet, and going over verbal material, and planning my timing strategy.

I took the test today in Denver, CO. I got up, ate a healthy breakfast and then headed in to the testing center I got a coffee on the way.
I got to the testing center about a half hour early. I gave them my ID and checked in. They gave me a locker and I went and put my stuff in the locker. For snacks I brought a banana, a couple granola bars and a sugary lemonade drink. I emptied out my pockets, had a snack, and went back to take the test. They scanned my palm print, gave me a whiteboard and some markers and I went on back.

I was surprised by how long the whiteboards were! The practice one that I had received with my Veritas prep kit was much shorter. I had been a bit nervous about running through my boards too fast, but the boards they gave me were large enough that I was able to complete quite a few problems before I had to raise my hand to get another.

I had developed my template for the AWA speech before hand and found my template to be sufficient for a model to use for my essay. I would have liked to use a little bit more variation in transition language but overall I feel like I did a good job on the essay. If you do a good job of brainstorming, writing down assumptions, and coming up with flaws in the argument that is a good beginning for the essay. After that, you just wanted to be well organized and make a cohesive argument. I don't know what I scored on the AWA yet but I'm sure I will find out before long I will update this posting.

I did not do very well on the IR. I only got three out of the eight. I got stuck on one question and ran low on time and it forced me to have to rush on the last three questions. I spent literally zero time preparing for the IR and it showed at the end. However, even though I would've liked to have done better on the IR I knew that ultimately it was not crucial to my score and I wanted to focus more on other parts of the test.

I felt like the quantitative portion of the test was relatively easy. I didn't feel like I got stuck on too many questions, although there were 2-3 questions I didn't know how to solve and ended up guessing rather than wasting too much time on it. I had decided to use the timing strategy recommended by one of the posters on beatthegmat.com, however, I tried to write out my timing information on my whiteboard once the quantitative portion had begun, and got a bit flustered when I could not remember how to write out the intervals for question versus time. I then got a little bit more flustered because I had lost time trying to do so and was not sure how much time I was ahead or behind. I decided to forget about my timing strategy for the moment and focus on questions, and to try to get ahead so that I would have more time to write out my timing strategy. About halfway through the test I remembered my timing strategy and wrote it down. I did find it to be helpful, and though I cut it close on time I did not have to rush at the end and completed all the questions in time without having to guess at the end.

As I stated before, I spent very little to almost no time preparing for the verbal section of the test. On my first practice test I scored in the 80th to the 90th percentile on the verbal section with no preparation, but without any practice scored in the 30th percentile on quant and so decided to almost solely focus on the quantitative section in my study. I did not struggle too much on the verbal section. I took my time to read and understand the passages rather than skim through them. On the strength and weaken questions I would read the passage and then write down my own statements that I thought would strengthen or weaken the passage before I looked at the answer choices. I found that doing this help me to find the correct answer and to not be fooled by trick answers. One piece of advice I got from beatthegmat.com about how to approach the reading comprehension passages was to read the passages as if it was something that I was interested in learning. I also took my time to read the passage and really understand what they were saying while also paying attention to the structure of the passage and what its main purposes were. I found that by reading for comprehension rather than just skimming and looking for keywords or certain passage it helped me to answer the questions with more confidence.

This was my final score on the sections:

Scaled Score | Percentile
Section
IR 3 23
Quant 33 31
Verbal 38 84
Total 590 58


As you can see I scored fairly strongly on verbal but my quantitative score left me lacking. I think this is due to several things: For one, I read a lot, on a lot of different subjects. I enjoy learning, and was a science major in my undergraduate and I am used to reading scholarly papers. I have been out of school for five years and I have not had to use math much in my career up until this point. So before I began practicing for the GMAT I was quite rusty on my math skills.

What could I have done better:
I wish I had time to take the test again, because I feel since I have now taken it, I would be more confident on my second attempt, and would have a better feel for what it takes to succeed on the test. I am not bad at math, and in fact I'm quite good at algebra and solving algebraic equations. However, I think there are other more important keys to succeeding on the quantitative section on the GMAT. I don't think it's enough to be good at solving equations. I think to succeed on the quantitative section, you need to catalog all of the different types of questions that exist. For each type of question you need to know several things. You need to know which equations are necessary to solve that type of question, you need to have a step-by-step process for how to solve each type of question, and you need to know a numbered list of what are the traps that the GMAT will provide to try and trick you into choosing the wrong answer. Having a systematic way to approach each quantitative problem will allow you to correctly solve the answers without being sucked into a trap. While I was taking the quantitative section I felt like I was doing quite well, and most of the questions actually felt easy. I am guessing that probably on several questions I felt confident that I had gotten the right answer because perhaps I had chosen the correct method to solve, but then had answered the wrong part of the question, or had chosen the wrong part of the solution as the answer.

I scored close to what I thought I would score on the test. I figured I would score somewhere between the low 600s and the high 500s. These are the types of scores that I was getting on the practice tests, and I knew that the practice tests were fairly accurate in predicting actual test performance. I knew that I was fairly well prepared for the test but not quite enough, and it showed in my results. Unfortunately due to the time constraints I had, I did not have additional time to prepare. I spent quite a bit of time studying for the test, but I probably should've spent about 20 to 30% more time. As many of you may be, I can become distracted or sidetracked, and there were many days where I should've spent 3 to 4 hours studying, and instead only spent 1 to 2. I would get distracted on days there was football, on days when my girlfriend wanted to go somewhere, or if I was out studying at a coffee shop or somewhere else and got sidetracked talking to friends or socializing. If you are like me and you are easily distracted, your best bet is to go somewhere where you will not be distracted and force yourself to stay there for 4 to 5 hours and not allow yourself to leave or do other activities until that amount of time has passed. It's a known fact that after you spend an hour to doing something you get into a groove, and it's better to just continue studying rather than to quit after one or two hours.

Some people who go take the test and get a score less than 700 are going to beat themselves up. While I would've liked to have gotten a higher score, I am still proud of myself, because I worked hard to prepare for the test, and now I can move on to the next part of my application process. I have a strong background in business and business management, having owned several companies, and generated several million dollars in revenue. I will now work to overcome a mediocre score with well-written essays and good letters of recommendation.

Good luck to everyone preparing for this exam, do your best, and be satisfied with your results. Many of us preparing to go to business school are working under stringent time constraints, and we just have to do the best we can with the time we have available.

Thank you to everyone else on beatthegmat.com for sharing your stories and for your excellent advice which I have found invaluable.