First of all .. spl thanks to BTG, all of its members & Eric for starting this awesome community...
Its a long debrief.. includes an important note of how Pearson responds if your city is undergoing a crisis ...
A little bit about me, Im supposedly a smart person, and I've always got straight As in uni, got 5 IT certificates under my belt (including one where i scored a 100%), i scored 1310 on my GRE (790Q,520V) & 118 on the TOEFL iBT... BUT... the GMAT.. was a different story ....
Here is some advice (based on my experience) for those looking to study by themselves :
1. GET the MGMAT books.. they are the BOMB .. you can use them to start from scratch or even to improve your weak points
2. Make sure you get your hands on some real CATs.. don't rely too much on the free ones, they aren't really adaptative... so you can buy books that give you access to a few CATs or I guess some test companies sell CAT access as well.
3. The GMAT is just about that.. its the GMAT.. it comes naturally to some ppl and makes some ppl struggle like hell.. so find out which one you are and work a strategy towards it...
My first attempt (year 2010) :
1. I scored a 640... i was hoping/praying for a 7 figure score, but now when I look back, I realize that most of my real preparation was just done the last week... and based on what I knew back then, there was no way on Earth I was gonna make it..
2. I used just Princeton, Kaplan & OG ... well guys... IMO - Kaplan : is the farthest away from the real GMAT ... Princeton : the level of difficulty is too low... I was thrown away by the complexity of the Qs on the real GMAT
3. I kept scoring in the 650 - 700 range in my CATs... if you score in this range when you take a GOOD CAT for the first time (just before your test), chances are that will be your score on test day as well... (don't hope for miracles.. they seldom happen
)4. I was TOO nervous on the test day, loads of things happened and my brain kicked back to its default way of doing the GMAT (the one it felt most comfortable with).. and the result was that I got the score that I usually do... moral : CHANGE the way ur brain naturally handles the GMAT, only then its gonna do the same when under pressure.
Remember the GMAT itself has an error range of +/- 20 points.. so make sure you are consistently scoring atleast 20 points above your target score before you take the test... for those who are extra safe, aim for 40+ (best case CAT n worst case real exam gives you your desires score)...& for ppl like me, throw in another 10 points for nervousness
640 is a good score... I talked to Adcom of various pretty good schools(e.g. UCLA, RSM) and they were already interested in my application and encouraged me to apply... but I still wanted to try again, I had nothing to lose anyway...
What I did between 2010 & 2011 -
1. Most of the time.. nothing.. life was back to normal, got busy with work etc. many of my friends were leavin the country so was busy givin them farewells
2. Then in beginning of 2011, I decided to take the tutoring classes from Princeton for the GMAT.. I took their classes for thr GRE and got a pretty decent score so I was hoping that they could give me good results on the GMAT as well...
IMO - if you are looking to score in 700+ dont go to these guys... they can only help you score 600- 650.. not beyond that... their Verbal training was the PITS.. i learned from the MGMAT books.. my GMAT instructor turned out to be my ex-GRE instructor !!!! I was DOOMED !! :S
3. After that I was forced to take a break.. work forced me to fly around and work late nights and the tho my GMAT book travelled with me, it was just additional luggage n nth else..
4. and so after a long break....i BOUGHT the MGMAT SC book - its the BOMB.. i cant stress enuff how imp this is... it also gives you access to awesome CATs from MGMAT
5. Registered for the GMAT when I did a CAT (official CD) and scored 730
6. Now was the time to "solidfy" my score.. wanted to make sure I get the same score on the real GMAT as well.
7. Took the Chinese burned template
8. Tried to use 1000SC (but I gave up since many of them were not clean) - i dont recommend this
9. Tried to use 193 700+ Qs... did only 50 Qs from them, they were quite good tho.. i recommend ppl to do all of them if time permits
- my CAT results were smth like this :
1. CAT 1 (official CD) - 730 --> registered for the GMAT
2. MGMAT CAT 1 - 720
3. MGMAT CAT 2 - 740
4. MGMAT CAT 3 - 670
5. Veritas Prep (free) - 690
6. CAT 2 (official CD) - 750 --> 3 days before test day
- avg Q : 50 .... avg V - 40
Before test day - didn't do anything much... revisited questions from the official CD's review Qs
TEST DAY -
The city I was in was undergoing issues... so I contacted Pearson to see wat they had to say abt it... in a nutshell.. their rule is - if the center is accessible, then the test WILL be held and they will expect you to come... if you can't leave your home, then it will be treated as a no-show... in order to get a free re-schedule, you will have to fax a letter to Pearson explaining your situation and they will review it... turns out the test center was closed for a week and opened on my test day
I came an hour early, since many test takers couldn't show up, they allowed me to start my test right away and I decided to go ahead (smart choice since I usually get sleepy sumwhr around late afternoon
)...AWA -
i WAS SO CHOKED up with nervousness on my AWA.. i cudnt even make sense of what i was writing.....fortunately it was just the AWA... my mouse wasn't working so well and I landed up clicking on Next twice and I got a popup that asked me if I was sure I wanted to SKIP MY ISSUE writing !!!.. i clicked on NO... and the result was the typing pointer (the straight line that appears when you type) disappeared... I raised up my hand .. nobody came.. raised it up again..nth.. put up both my hands and started waving them around and 5 mins later a proctor came... I explained it to her and she went away and got someone else, and I explained it to her as well and she said "Just give me a minute"... needless to say, I ended my issue writing and she was still having her 'minute'...
The Quant -
For those of you who are used to taking the MGMAT CATs.. Be CAREFUL... IMO: the MGMAT CATs have a high level of difficulty for the Quant... if you get used to it, the real exam will kinda put you off track... I didn't get any difficult Q until 20+... and i was so scared I thought I was doing them all wrong and decided to slow down n re-check my answers (BIG MISTAKE)... after Q# 20.. the real deal came and I was short of time and had to guess the last 3 Qs
Probability & Permutation/Combination questions are discussed a lot in detail on the forums.. but they DO NOT form a significant portion of the GMAT Quant... so dont waste too much time on those topics..
- Note : the MGMAT Quant is THE BEST way to get trained for Quant... but make sure you don't get used to the pacing you use on the MGMAT Quant...
The Verbal -
The Princeton guys r right when they say, the first Q is always a SC.. i took the GMAT twice and on both occasions, the first Q was a SC
SC - No idioms... at least I didnt use them.. I suck at idioms and I used other techniques - grammar, sense & meaning, concision
RC & CR - MGMAT Verbal is a good trainer when it comes to this... I wud say that CR & SC are at the same level of difficulty (if you are scoring in my range 38-42).. RCs are a little more difficult on the real GMAT...
My pacing was good and I only had to guess the last question (I had 50 seconds but my brain was frozen) ....
Then it was praying time.... shut my eyes n prayed hard !!... I kinda did that before clicking on "Report my scores" - note that if you don't make a selection in 120 seconds, it auto cancels your scores... so i selected report my scores n closed my eyes again...
I saw a 710 ... (Q49, V38) ... honestly I feel I deserved a 730, but nevertheless I am satisfied with my score...
... I owe all my success to God ... without His intervention this score wouldn't be "mine"...thats the end of the GMAT journey for me, and I will be more than happy to answer any Qs you guys have got
Note - classroom training might be good if you get good ppl to study with.. unfortunately the place where I took the course, most of the kids were hoping they could score 600...
