-
mountreblah
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 7:30 am
- Thanked: 3 times
It was a long hard-fought battle, but I beat the GMAT last week. My goal was to score a 700, which I had cracked only twice out of seven practice exams (720, 740). I could hardly believe it when I looked up and saw a 750 on the screen at the end of the exam, I was overcome with emotion and felt my eyes beginning to tear. Luckily I pulled it together (although in a state of shock) and made it out of there score report in hand, called the folks, went to happy hour to celebrate. Done and done.
I knew a 700 would be an uphill battle and I believe BeatTheGMAT community helped me reach my goal. My practice scores seemed to be peaking around 680 but the perspective of different students and instructors on this website helped me to develop my own approach to the test. I did not do anything new or different, I simply observed what other students reported on this website and took to heart some best practices. My abbreviated and then long recipe for success is as follows:
Abbreviated:
1.) Set a goal.
2.) Take a diagnostic.
3.) Know the content.
4.) Thoroughly understand why you are getting questions wrong.
5.) Focus on areas that you need to improve, not on what you are already good at.
6.) Stick with it, you can do it!!!
7.) Test taking strategy is essential. Have a gameplan.
8.) Finalize gameplan, prep, and execution.
Long version:
1.) Set a goal. If you do not have a specific goal and a specific timeline for achieving that goal, then you will find it difficult to stick to a study plan. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
2.) Take a diagnostic to see where you stand relative to your goal. DO NOT be discouraged by your diagnostic score, it's a heck of an exam to beat. The value of the diagnostic is to see what you are up against. Taking a practice exam every few weeks (not every week) is also valuable to see your progression and will reinforce that your studying is working.
3.) Know the content. This means thoroughly understanding each of the question types and the commonly tested quantitative skills. You do not need to memorize thousands of idioms, or obscure geometry rules which are rarely tested. You do need to learn commonly tested idioms and commonly tested quant rules.
4.) Understand why you are getting questions wrong. I mean, really understand why you are getting questions wrong. Look for patterns, such as; you always seem to forget of zero as a nonnegative integer, you didn't add 1 for an inclusive set, or you can't seem to spot difference of squares. I took a practice exam and got 4 quantitative questions wrong simply because I wasn't spotting the difference of squares. I understood difference of squares heading into that practice exam, I just wasn't seeing it during the exam. I never missed a difference of squares opportunity after that practice exam. If I found myself repeatedly missing questions due to a pattern, I would write it down on a flash card and commit it to memory.
5.) Know what you are good at and focus on areas that need to be improved. After a few practice exams, I realized that I was solid in reading comprehension and critical reasoning. However, I needed to focus on sentence correction and all quant question types. From that point on I studied approximately 80% quant,19% sentence correction, and 1% critical reasoning/reading comp.
6.) Stick with it. There were many times that I would have a less than impressive practice exam (650 only a month before actual test) and it would hurt my confidence and diminish my desire to study. The key is to shake it off and remember ONE QUESTION AT A TIME. You have to absolutely believe in yourself and that you can achieve your goal, otherwise it may never happen.
7.) Test taking strategy is key. It is not enough to know the content, you have to be good at taking the darn exam. This means having solid pacing skills, knowing when to skip a question, and understanding how the testmakers try to trip you up. Solid pacing comes with taking practice exams to hone it in. Also means not moving too fast... I often found myself going too quickly through data sufficiency questions and making careless mistakes. One pacing technique that people do not like to swallow (myself included until I gave it a try and my scores improved) is to skip tough questions! If you have no idea where to begin on a quant question after 20 seconds, 2 read-throughs, whatever... just skip it!!!! This will help in the long run as you absolutely have to get the questions right that you have the skills to get right. I skipped a couple of questions during the exam to allow myself to focus more time on questions that I actually had a shot at answering.
8.) Final prep. Once you can consistently score where you want to on your practice exams... it's time to do the real thing. For the week leading up to the test.... 7 days out, develop your final gameplan for the upcoming week, personal schedule, test strategy etc. 6 days out, final tweaking any concepts, review your flashcards daily, 4 days out, practice exam, 3 days out, review your practice exam thoroughly, review flashcards, 2 days out,practice exam, 1 day before exam, light study, flashcards only... key to the day before is to rest up, don't use your brain too much. Also make sure you know the type of environment your exam is taken in. It's somewhat nerve racking as they take away all of your belongings, scan your palms, etc.
Best of luck!
I knew a 700 would be an uphill battle and I believe BeatTheGMAT community helped me reach my goal. My practice scores seemed to be peaking around 680 but the perspective of different students and instructors on this website helped me to develop my own approach to the test. I did not do anything new or different, I simply observed what other students reported on this website and took to heart some best practices. My abbreviated and then long recipe for success is as follows:
Abbreviated:
1.) Set a goal.
2.) Take a diagnostic.
3.) Know the content.
4.) Thoroughly understand why you are getting questions wrong.
5.) Focus on areas that you need to improve, not on what you are already good at.
6.) Stick with it, you can do it!!!
7.) Test taking strategy is essential. Have a gameplan.
8.) Finalize gameplan, prep, and execution.
Long version:
1.) Set a goal. If you do not have a specific goal and a specific timeline for achieving that goal, then you will find it difficult to stick to a study plan. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
2.) Take a diagnostic to see where you stand relative to your goal. DO NOT be discouraged by your diagnostic score, it's a heck of an exam to beat. The value of the diagnostic is to see what you are up against. Taking a practice exam every few weeks (not every week) is also valuable to see your progression and will reinforce that your studying is working.
3.) Know the content. This means thoroughly understanding each of the question types and the commonly tested quantitative skills. You do not need to memorize thousands of idioms, or obscure geometry rules which are rarely tested. You do need to learn commonly tested idioms and commonly tested quant rules.
4.) Understand why you are getting questions wrong. I mean, really understand why you are getting questions wrong. Look for patterns, such as; you always seem to forget of zero as a nonnegative integer, you didn't add 1 for an inclusive set, or you can't seem to spot difference of squares. I took a practice exam and got 4 quantitative questions wrong simply because I wasn't spotting the difference of squares. I understood difference of squares heading into that practice exam, I just wasn't seeing it during the exam. I never missed a difference of squares opportunity after that practice exam. If I found myself repeatedly missing questions due to a pattern, I would write it down on a flash card and commit it to memory.
5.) Know what you are good at and focus on areas that need to be improved. After a few practice exams, I realized that I was solid in reading comprehension and critical reasoning. However, I needed to focus on sentence correction and all quant question types. From that point on I studied approximately 80% quant,19% sentence correction, and 1% critical reasoning/reading comp.
6.) Stick with it. There were many times that I would have a less than impressive practice exam (650 only a month before actual test) and it would hurt my confidence and diminish my desire to study. The key is to shake it off and remember ONE QUESTION AT A TIME. You have to absolutely believe in yourself and that you can achieve your goal, otherwise it may never happen.
7.) Test taking strategy is key. It is not enough to know the content, you have to be good at taking the darn exam. This means having solid pacing skills, knowing when to skip a question, and understanding how the testmakers try to trip you up. Solid pacing comes with taking practice exams to hone it in. Also means not moving too fast... I often found myself going too quickly through data sufficiency questions and making careless mistakes. One pacing technique that people do not like to swallow (myself included until I gave it a try and my scores improved) is to skip tough questions! If you have no idea where to begin on a quant question after 20 seconds, 2 read-throughs, whatever... just skip it!!!! This will help in the long run as you absolutely have to get the questions right that you have the skills to get right. I skipped a couple of questions during the exam to allow myself to focus more time on questions that I actually had a shot at answering.
8.) Final prep. Once you can consistently score where you want to on your practice exams... it's time to do the real thing. For the week leading up to the test.... 7 days out, develop your final gameplan for the upcoming week, personal schedule, test strategy etc. 6 days out, final tweaking any concepts, review your flashcards daily, 4 days out, practice exam, 3 days out, review your practice exam thoroughly, review flashcards, 2 days out,practice exam, 1 day before exam, light study, flashcards only... key to the day before is to rest up, don't use your brain too much. Also make sure you know the type of environment your exam is taken in. It's somewhat nerve racking as they take away all of your belongings, scan your palms, etc.
Best of luck!
