710- Here is my debrief

Hey guys,

I just took the GMAT in Chicago (710 Math 47 79%, Verbal 41 92%). I would have not been able to crack 700 without this forum, so I hope that my debrief helps somebody else.

Before sitting on the test I was a little nervous for the AWA since I am from Bulgaria and was concerned that I won't have any ideas to write on the issue essay, which happened in my practice. However, it was a relatively easy topic and went great. After the essays I relaxed and wrote the timer that I found on this forum: Q: 5:66, 10:56, 15:46, 20:36, 25:26, 30:16, 35:6, V: 5:67, 10:58, 15:49, 20:40, 25:31, 30:22, 35:13, 40:4

I believe that having a timer like that is crucial to successfully tackle the math portion, because you will certainly have some problems that you won't be able to solve within 2 minutes and knowing where you are exactly on time at every point will help you make a decision whether to guess or not.

I know the first thing everybody asks is how was the real test compared to GMAT Prep. I found the math on the real test to be little harder than GMAT Prep. I don't think it was because of anxiety. I was relaxed during the test. Probably, the experimental questions to be tricky. Nevertheless, I did the GMAT Prep test about 6 times and was scoring 740-760 and I hardly had any questions that I did not know how to approach. There were bunch of questions on the test I was clueless about.

A big problem for me was that it took me 4 minutes to solve the first question right, and there were a few questions where I did all the calculations and didn't get the right answer, so I had to redo them. So the whole time I was behind on the clock trying to catch up, which hurt me. At the end I had 1 minute for the last two questions, so I had to guess even though the last question was exactly the same as one of GMAT Preps, but with different numbers. It made me mad.

After I completed the math portion I felt discouraged and under prepared, because I felt the score was much lower than my sample tests and I thought I was scoring in the low 600s. I took a break and managed to focus on the Verbal. It is very important to mentally block your thoughts before you start a section, because it will definitely affect you.

For those of you who worry about the writing pad, there is more than enough space to write, the sheets are legal size. However, since the binders are on the top of the page, I wrote my timer on the top of the sheet and when I flipped the pad a few pages it took time to find the page with the timer every time I needed to check, which was frustrating. I wish I had memorized the thing.

The verbal was similar to the GMAT Prep. There were some tricky CR and SC questions in which I had to guess. On the SC I would always be able to find the main errors tested, but then there will be two answer choices which will fix the original error, but one of them will introduce some minor error, which is often not explained in the training materials and I would have to guess. It might be because English is my second language. On the Verbal I wrote ABCDE under each other and made lines across the page to get an empty square grid. I only eliminated answer choices on the sheet for SC. For CR and RC my strategy was to start reading the answer choices first. When I get to an answer choice that seemed right I would select it and continue. I will usually be able to narrow it down to two choices, so there was no point for me to take the extra time to write it on the sheet. The online Manhattan sample test (highly recommend) shows you if you have made a choice and then changed it. It was interesting to see that with my strategy I ended up changing it almost every time.

Also, some times especially on the CR if I find the answer choices A or B to be correct, I would not read the other choices carefully, so I had to pay extra attention on that. It is funny how the mind sabotages us in so many ways, or maybe it's just me. My RC texts were various lengths. One of them was very long and one of them was very short.

Onto my preparation for the test. I studied for a little over two months. I didn't have any available days to take off, so I studied some nights during the week and every weekend did two sample tests and went through the answers. When I started my math was terrible. It's been 9 years since my last math class, so I decided not to take the GMAT Prep at the beginning, but to brush up on all the fundamentals first. I went through Cracking the GMAT which was good for a beginning book, but the math is much lower level than the actual test (if you score in the 700s). I also bought the Kaplan Math workbook which I found to be great for reviewing the basic math. I also studied from the Kaplan 800 and liked the explanation on the math. I did all practice problems from OG11 and the OG Math workbook.

I downloaded the flashcards from this forum and I bought non-stick post it notes. Whenever I found a concept I did not know especially on math I wrote it down on a post it note. I read these post it notes on the subway, before I go to bed, etc. and it was extremely helpful. Most of the time I did practice questions in set of 40 to get used to the time. I bought a kitchen timer and timed myself every time. By the end I had a very good feeling on when two minutes end without looking at the clock. I used one of the answer grids I downloaded from this forum and always indicated questions that I was "not sure" or "slow". My last week I reviewed all questions I got wrong or was unsure or slow.

Here are some strategies for specific questions based on my experiences.

PS- I did not logically eliminate answer choices before solving as Cracking the GMAT suggests. I found that I have no extra time to do that. On percent problems I always used 100 as my total. On answers that stated "in terms of" i always picked numbers. Basically, when I had an opportunity to backsolve or pick numbers I usually took it. If I had to start over again I would not spend as much time on probabilities. I would spend majority of my time on number properties, averages, percents, ratios and slopes.

DS- My week point. The most useful strategy I found was to always write on the sheet whether the question needed a Value or a Yes/No. I always wrote the AD-BCE split. I found that on hard questions I select "E" way more often that I should. On the DS word problems I always tried to write the equation.

SC- I studied from the Manhattan SC guide and spidey notes, sahil notes, and amateur notes. I felt pretty comfortable with SC, because I can always identify the main problem, but I would always make 4-5 mistakes per test because of the small errors I mentioned earlier. I did all problems from the UG and about a 100 more from the 1000SC series, which I didn't like much.

CR- The only guide you need is the CR GMAT Bible. It is around 300 pages. If you don't have the time to read it all, read the beginning chapters and the chapters on assumptions, weaken and strengthen the argument. Did most of the questions from the OG. I also did not read the question stem before the passage. I tried both ways and I found that when I read the stem first I start to think about it and get distracted. GMAT bible suggest you don't look at the question stem as well.

RC- I hardly did any studying. I read a lot of business magazines, so this part my strongest point in the whole test. I didn't skim through the text. I always read it completely once without writing anything. I gave myself up to 4 minutes to read. I would re-read a paragraph if I don't get it. Then I spent only about a minute per answer. On main idea, purpose or title questions I would read the first sentence of each paragraph and the first and last sentence of the first and last paragraph to come up with the answer.

I believe that the biggest reason I managed to do decent on the test was the GMAT Prep. I did each one 3 times. The verbal repeats quite a bit, but the math portion has a very large bank of questions. If I had more time I would have kept doing just the math section until I come to a point when I don't make any errors. Whenever I did the sample GMAT Prep, I would use "print screen" to save all questions, then I would come to this forum and search all the questions I got wrong or wasn't sure on the methodology. I always found the questions explained on the forum. Especially great are the posts from Stuart and Ian. In fact you should search their names on the forum and read through all questions that they answer and try to think like them when you solve the questions. This helped me tremendously. At the end I knew how to approach every question that came on the Prep software which gave me confidence for the test.

If you have any questions let me know. Thanks to everybody on the forum. I am only applying to the European schools ESADE, INSEAD, RSM and HEC. If everybody else is applying there hit me up and we can exchange some knowledge.

Sample tests

GMAT Prep1- 690
Kaplan Free Paper 590
GMAT Prep1-2 - 720
Manhattan GMAT (Free Online) 690
GMAT Prep2 740
GMAT Prep1-3 730
GMAT Prep2-2 760
GMAT Prep2-3 740

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