I just Beat The GMAT!

Just took the test yesterday after about 5 weeks of studying. I think I could have done a little better on verbal (maybe a 46 or 47) but I don't know how much that would affect my score.

Backgroud: 27yo bond trader, American

I set out to study in the most time efficient way possible for a number of reasons. One, I'm extremely busy at work and studying affects my performance there (and I need a good rec) so I tried to minimize the impact there. Second, I knew that I would lose interest if things became drawn out at all (and I did in the last week as I paced back my studying). And maybe most importantly, had I studied over a long period of time, I would have to restudy a lot of earlier material as I forget it. Firm believer in spaced repetition... here's a great article on the topic: https://www.wired.com/medtech/health/mag ... ff_wozniak

After consulting a few trusted people, I concluded that the most efficient way of studying would be with a private tutor for these reasons: 1. If you don't do the homework, you have to look him in the eye and tell him why you didn't 2. Classes tend to be geared for too wide a range of abilities and I was looking for a 700+ score and 3. The tutor can zero in on your true weaknesses better than you can by yourself.

The tutor I used was excellent and very reasonably priced (total cost ~$1400). PM me if you want his name (in Manhattan).

VERBAL: Almost all of my studying was focused on math, because I've always been better at the verbal section (going back to the SAT's). I did all of the both official guides' sentence correction questions. Did some RC and CR in the LSAT book, but not overkill.

MATH: Lots of studying every day for 5 weeks. After every tutor session, I typed up the notes I thought were important and kept that list of things. By the end, the list was about 5 pages. I read that list about once a week to burn it into my memory (PM me for the list). Did all the questions in the official guide and official quant guide. Redid about 50% of the questions I did incorrectly and read their explanations.

As I mentioned, I think I could get a Q47V47 based on my practice tests (anyone know how that would translate on the 800 scale?), but I'm very happy with the 740. I think I'm retiring from the GMAT for good. Good luck to all.

Great Score! Congrates! Can you compare the difficulty level between the SCs in OG 12 and SCs on the real thing?

great score! how did you prepare for quant? did you just do the OG questions?

Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:51 am
Great Score! Congrates! Can you compare the difficulty level between the SCs in OG 12 and SCs on the real thing?

I thought they were very similar in format and content, although a little more nitpicking, which I assume is because it's a CAT.

Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 11:28 am
great score! how did you prepare for quant? did you just do the OG questions?

For quant, I just did the OG and verbal review questions. I also used the mgmat quant diagnostic tests.

for quant do you think it is enough to do the OG and mgmat tests?

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:16 am
for quant do you think it is enough to do the OG and mgmat tests?

Yes, I think those resources have everything one needs to succeed. I actually found that the textbook style teaching from test prep companies worked to my detriment (which could just be due to my optimal learning style-- I'm not a good listener and I remember concepts better when I figure them out on my own). The answer explanations in the OG were my best learning tool after my tutor.

congrats on the good score

Thanks to all for the congratulations.

I received my official scores today and I got a 4 on the AWA. Not very good. My only guess for the mediocre score is that I wrote only 4 paragraphs for each. I was basically in energy save mode while I was writing these, but I thought I hit on all the required concepts and used correct grammar.

My initial reaction is kind of "who cares, the schools don't really use these", but if anyone would disagree with that, let me know. Guess I'll just have to write some great essays.