7.5 Months of Hard Work, and I've Finally Beaten the GMAT

I have to say, I think that a lot of it has to do with luck. Going into the exam, you know what your strengths and weaknesses are. If you happen to get hit with questions based on topics that are more difficult for you, you may not do as well and there's nothing you can do about it.

In addition to that, I am a firm believer that the first 13 questions are critical. These 13 questions are when the algorithm hones in on your score. If you get several of the first 13 questions wrong, it is much more difficult to bring your score back up to a mid-600 or 700 level.

When I took the exam for the first time, I went in thinking that there was not any other material that I could have covered. I had gone through each of the Manhattan GMAT books and had outlined them (taking notes helps me to solidify the material), I had been through virtually all of the questions in the Official Guide, and I had taken about 10 practice tests - Manhattan GMAT, Kaplan, and Power Prep. I actually thought that I had aced the quant section when I took the exam the first time, and I was shocked to find that my score was significantly lower than I thought it would be. The joke was on me, though - if you feel like you're acing the section, it's obviously because the questions are not tremendously difficult. You should feel like you want to bang your head against the wall.

So, after that first exam, I went back and evaluated how I prepared. During the week leading up to exam, I studied probability and combinatorics like it was my job; I wanted to learn it backwards and forwards because that was my weakest topic. I think I did not spent enough review time on some of the topics of easier or medium difficulty levels, and that may have been the problem.

I had also been having some problems with timing. I tend to be a perfectionist, and if I got stuck on a problem (especially early on in the quant section) I had a lot of difficulty letting go and moving on. I had to keep telling myself that I could not spend more than 2 and a half minutes on one of those problems in the first 13. (By the way, I gave myself a little longer than 2 min on the first 13 questions, because I think you can sacrifice some of the questions in the middle or toward the end of the exam).

I actually thought I bombed the quant section when I took the exam the second time. I got stuck on a problem early on, and I spent way to much time on it even though I promised myself I wouldn't do that. Looking back, I think I may have guessed on a few problems in a row toward the end. If you know that you sometimes have to guess, it's crucial to be a smart guesser. The new Manhattan GMAT book (Advanced Quant) has some good strategies for eliminating answer choices when you have to guess. Fortunately for me, I did much better than I thought. I was shocked when the 680 popped up on the screen.

I also took a few more practice tests after taking the exam for the first time. I think that the Manhattan GMAT practice tests are great, but their flaw is that they are not adaptive like the actual exam. For this reason, it is important to take practice tests from a company like Kaplan (even though I think their scoring is a little skewed) in order to get a true sense of how you are doing.

You should also look over problems that have given you trouble in the past. Make sure you can do them and that you understand WHY certain answers are wrong and why the correct answer is correct. Then try changing some of the variables. Thing about how that might impact your answer.
It's important that you have this understanding and mental flexibility with the math.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

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