I promised myself that I'd write this post no matter what the outcome of today's exam....thankfully its an outcome I am happy about (730 : Q 47 and V 42)! The reason i'd like to share my experience is because every week I was inspired by the many stories I found here, and this is one small way of showing my appreciation.
So....the journey began in June....I downloaded the prep software, took a mock test with great earnest and was shocked to say the least! I had managed a 600 with a 30 something in quant and a 37 in verbal. In all fairness I had no idea what any of that meant, but I was very depressed, I had 7 weeks till the exam and needed help fast!
In short here are the 5 things I did that helped me get past the 720 mark
1. I took off from work - I know this is not a viable option for many, but I have come to learn that the only way to do it all is to do it all one at a time....GMAT needed my attention, and it was going to have all of it. If I look back now, I can honestly say this was the single most important factor in helping me gain 130 points in 7 weeks.
2. I bought ALL of the Manhattan GMAT quant guides - all of them were priceless for someone like me who really needed to brush up their basic math skills. Do not skim on the MGMAT guides if you need brushing up on quant, they are truly worth it. (Except for the decimals and fractions guide maybe)
3. I burned the midnight oil - I know there are many posts that don't recommend going overboard, but if you think about it, there's no substitute for practice. As per my last count I solved more than 2200 questions in quant and finished all the verbal questions in OG13, MGMAT SC and CR and OG verbal review, in addition to all the additional material I could find. For the first 5 weeks I studied every single day for 8 hours minimum, going up to 12 if needed (depending on the day's goal)
4. Practice the real exam! - Theory is great, as is doing problems but to be honest all of it is worthless if you don't put it all together in mock exams. After my initial week, I took no tests till 3 weeks before the exams. My scores are as follows
1. GMAC prep test 1- 600
2. MGMAT CAT 1 - 670
3. MGMAT CAT 2 - 680 (Q 43, V38)
4. MGMAT CAT 3 - 690 (Q 42 V41)
5. MGMAT CAT 4 - 700 (Q48, V38)
6. Economist CAT 1 (free) - 680 (Q47 V 38)
7. GMAC prep test 2 - 740
5. Never stop believing - I know this sounds flaky but I always always believed I would make it to 720, which is why I never stopped studying or being discouraged by my scores....every exam was a stepping stone to the goal.
Here are a few other things that worked for me that is not necessarily recommended for everyone (it might for you
)1. I did not focus on SC as much as a lot of people I know did. I certainly looked through the 8 basic concepts being tested and practiced these, but to be honest I knew this was a weakness of mine and I was not willing to invest crazy hours learning the entire list of idioms (I am not a native english speaker). Basically I was willing to let SC go ... I think this is important because there are always going to be weak areas that you may not have time to invest in and that's okay, accept it move on and ace the others (BUT do make sure you know the basics!)
2. In RC my one and only strategy was to read the passage till I understood everything in detail. Now I know this does not work for everyone but none of the strategies ever really worked for me (I love reading and having to read strategically killed it for me). I invested upwards of 3 minutes in reading the passage and the questions honestly were a breeze after that so I never really lost time.
3. In Quant - I skipped on counting methods (apart from the most common questions) and in geometry I focused on triangles, circles and quadrilaterals. Honestly this was more than enough...
4. I took GMAT classes - many people are great at self study , I on the other hand value external support (plus I panicked!). I joined crackverbal in bangalore...In all fairness self study helped me actually learn more but having people around to talk to and in some way compete with really motivated me to stay on top of my game.
5. Following a schedule based on priority : For the first 4 weeks I dedicated 6 out of 7 days to quant. I knew this was where I needed to improve the most and I also had the confidence to know that I would catch up in verbal. For many people struggling with everything I would say prioritize - its simple and effective.
Things I did that I did not do so well in and would do differently
1. I am pretty sure I lost at least 1 if not 2 points in quant because I did not bother guessing the last 2 questions. I was too engrossed in solving the 35th question and ran out of time to guess the last 2.
2. Timing : Some people are brilliant at this, I am just all over the place - especially in quant I was never ever on time....the one time I did manage to stick to time I only got a 43 in quant so since then I stopped focusing on timing and started to focus on solving the question....not always the best strategy in hindsight
3. Checking the stationary : Both my pens stopped working when I had 11 minutes left in the quant section - trust me thats not fun! Make sure your pens work!
4. Burnout - By wednesday (2 days ago) I was almost burned out....I took a day off on thursday - my first day off....it really helped...I'd recommend a few more
Material used
Quant
1. ALL the MGMAT guides
2. MGMAT advanced quant guide (an absolute must)
3. OG quant review + OG 13
4. Online resources (great for tough questions)
5. Kaplan 800 (not as difficult as the real GMAT to be honest)
6. Questionnaires by crackverbal
Verbal
1. OG 13 + OG verbal review
2. MGMAT SC guide
3. Kaplan 800 (Absolutely brilliant for advanced verbal!)
Lastly - if you want to know how to compute from MGMAT to realt GMAT - I would say add 3 to 4 points on the quant and verbal is about the same. The best predictor as always is the GMAC prep software hands down....
Okay thats a lot of stuff...I hope its useful to some of you. All the best for your GMAT, I really hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did.
, disappointed I decided to enroll in a class and joined Veritas, though i like the classes because of the teacher and the interactivity but i somehow dont like their books (not as detailed and easy to understand as compared to MGMAT)
