Hi,
I have been a regular visitor of this site but have never commented. I finished GMAT yesterday and got a score of 740. I am putting down my strategy here just in case it helps someone...
I gave 4 months to it. I was not really very serious in the first 2 months but became serious in the last 2. Also I gave an average of 2-2.5 hours each day on week days and about 6 hours over the weekend.
I bought OG-11 in the mid of April. First I did the diagnostic test in OG. I found that my quant was excellent (
) but the lowest rating was for SC.
Now my prep was divided into 2 parts. Let us call them part A and Part B
Part A:
This began from mid of April and continued up to mid of June. Here I did OG 11, OG 12, Manhattan SC, CR and RC. OG verbal Review and Kaplan premier
The minuses of the prep in part A
This was the starting of prep. I was not really concentrating. For example, in SC I was getting around 85% correct answers but they were mostly flukes. I could tell you the right answer but if you were to ask me why that is right and why others are wrong, I would not be able to answer that.
I just looked at the right answers. I completely ignored the wrong answers (BIG MISTAKE)
GMATprep
I gave both tests towards the end of this period. I got 710 in the first and 700 in the second one
I could have given GMAT then but there was something amiss. I knew I could do better. Till then the only maths questions I had done were those in the OG diagnostic test and in the GMAT power prep. So I felt there was ample scope for improvement though I was touching 48 in the quant score.
The verbal scores stayed around 38-39 which needed a lot more work
Part B:
I did the following now:
1. I read, reread and rereread the briefs put by folks on forums like this.
2. I not only read briefs of students who had aced GMAT but also of those who had not been able to. This gives you a great idea about what to do and more importantly what not to do.
3. Once you read a coupe of briefs you will start seeing some common things these people say. Those are the things you need to take up.
4. This exercise took me around 2 whole days and by the end of this time I knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it.
The strategy
1. I did verbal from OG sources ONLY. This included OG 11, OG12,OG Verbal review. (Observation after giving GMAT- the final thing is very close to what is given in the OGs and the GMATprep. You do NOT need to go beyond this official material. Trust me on this!)
2. The only other book I used for Verbal now was Kaplan 800. That was useful as it opened my eyes to scope shifts which I feel are important.
3. Each of these books was done 3 times. And the explanations read and reread for all options. This I felt was most critical for SC and has to be done if you wish to get more SC answers correct
4. By this time the OG questions where my accuracy was about 80-85 % moved to 90-95%. This was a good sign and I felt that I was going in the right direction.
5. For quant: Well, it is indeed true that the final GMAT level is tougher than that in OG. But you don't need to worry about this. Just need to tweak your strategy a little bit. I just did the last 50 questions in PS and DS in OG 11,12. I concentrated mostly on Kaplan 800 which I actually found quite easy. Apart from this I concentrated on tough GMAT problems available in this forum.
6. Each question I did was timed.
\
7. Each mistake, no matter how small or silly was logged. I revised this log book twice before I gave the exam
8. AWA I did only on the last day. I am still to get a score for that and I believe I would have done quite badly in it
9. During this time I gave 2 mocks again. I score a 740 in the first one and a 770 in the second one.
I gave my exam on the 24th. I felt verbal is the same as it is in the s/w and in the OG. Maths was also easy only. You just need to be careful about careless mistakes and read everything properly.
Only thing was that the room was very small and there was no ventilation. The AC went bust mid way during the verbal section and I started feeling very claustrophobic. For 5-6 minutes I just could not concentrate and felt very weak!! Then the administrator, seeing my discomfort, came and worked on the AC. I was fine once the AC started working but I feel I might have done a lil better had this not happened.
In conclusion
So finally, I have a 740 in GMAT. I scored 50 in quant and 40 in Verbal. I honestly believe GMAT is VERY easy. It is quite easy to score 750 if you work well. Keep your target high!! You just need to keep your calm. Also compared to the MBA exam we have in India ( called CAT) it is just cake walk. For those appearing for the exam, my honest advice is to be calm and most importantly be VERY ALERT during the exam.
I know 740 is not great enough as a score to merit such a huge post, with 770s 780s common on the forum, but I just hope this would help people around because briefs from others really helped me
I have been a regular visitor of this site but have never commented. I finished GMAT yesterday and got a score of 740. I am putting down my strategy here just in case it helps someone...
I gave 4 months to it. I was not really very serious in the first 2 months but became serious in the last 2. Also I gave an average of 2-2.5 hours each day on week days and about 6 hours over the weekend.
I bought OG-11 in the mid of April. First I did the diagnostic test in OG. I found that my quant was excellent (
) but the lowest rating was for SC.Now my prep was divided into 2 parts. Let us call them part A and Part B
Part A:
This began from mid of April and continued up to mid of June. Here I did OG 11, OG 12, Manhattan SC, CR and RC. OG verbal Review and Kaplan premier
The minuses of the prep in part A
This was the starting of prep. I was not really concentrating. For example, in SC I was getting around 85% correct answers but they were mostly flukes. I could tell you the right answer but if you were to ask me why that is right and why others are wrong, I would not be able to answer that.
I just looked at the right answers. I completely ignored the wrong answers (BIG MISTAKE)
GMATprep
I gave both tests towards the end of this period. I got 710 in the first and 700 in the second one
I could have given GMAT then but there was something amiss. I knew I could do better. Till then the only maths questions I had done were those in the OG diagnostic test and in the GMAT power prep. So I felt there was ample scope for improvement though I was touching 48 in the quant score.
The verbal scores stayed around 38-39 which needed a lot more work
Part B:
I did the following now:
1. I read, reread and rereread the briefs put by folks on forums like this.
2. I not only read briefs of students who had aced GMAT but also of those who had not been able to. This gives you a great idea about what to do and more importantly what not to do.
3. Once you read a coupe of briefs you will start seeing some common things these people say. Those are the things you need to take up.
4. This exercise took me around 2 whole days and by the end of this time I knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it.
The strategy
1. I did verbal from OG sources ONLY. This included OG 11, OG12,OG Verbal review. (Observation after giving GMAT- the final thing is very close to what is given in the OGs and the GMATprep. You do NOT need to go beyond this official material. Trust me on this!)
2. The only other book I used for Verbal now was Kaplan 800. That was useful as it opened my eyes to scope shifts which I feel are important.
3. Each of these books was done 3 times. And the explanations read and reread for all options. This I felt was most critical for SC and has to be done if you wish to get more SC answers correct
4. By this time the OG questions where my accuracy was about 80-85 % moved to 90-95%. This was a good sign and I felt that I was going in the right direction.
5. For quant: Well, it is indeed true that the final GMAT level is tougher than that in OG. But you don't need to worry about this. Just need to tweak your strategy a little bit. I just did the last 50 questions in PS and DS in OG 11,12. I concentrated mostly on Kaplan 800 which I actually found quite easy. Apart from this I concentrated on tough GMAT problems available in this forum.
6. Each question I did was timed.
\
7. Each mistake, no matter how small or silly was logged. I revised this log book twice before I gave the exam
8. AWA I did only on the last day. I am still to get a score for that and I believe I would have done quite badly in it
9. During this time I gave 2 mocks again. I score a 740 in the first one and a 770 in the second one.
I gave my exam on the 24th. I felt verbal is the same as it is in the s/w and in the OG. Maths was also easy only. You just need to be careful about careless mistakes and read everything properly.
Only thing was that the room was very small and there was no ventilation. The AC went bust mid way during the verbal section and I started feeling very claustrophobic. For 5-6 minutes I just could not concentrate and felt very weak!! Then the administrator, seeing my discomfort, came and worked on the AC. I was fine once the AC started working but I feel I might have done a lil better had this not happened.
In conclusion
So finally, I have a 740 in GMAT. I scored 50 in quant and 40 in Verbal. I honestly believe GMAT is VERY easy. It is quite easy to score 750 if you work well. Keep your target high!! You just need to keep your calm. Also compared to the MBA exam we have in India ( called CAT) it is just cake walk. For those appearing for the exam, my honest advice is to be calm and most importantly be VERY ALERT during the exam.
I know 740 is not great enough as a score to merit such a huge post, with 770s 780s common on the forum, but I just hope this would help people around because briefs from others really helped me
