After a 3-day drinking binge and celebration, I have finally landed and am ready to share my experience from this challenging ordeal called the GMAT: I will shamelessly use the standard layout I’ve seen in the more detailed debriefs, so please don’t accuse me of plagiarism.
Background:
I am 22-year-old junior at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Non-native (Bulgaria – Southeastern Europe). One of the “great” things Drexel has going for it are the 6 months co-op programs that are part of the education process. Currently, I am on my last (out of 3) co-op and have been working for Comcast Internal Audit Dept. since the end of September 2007. As many of you may know, there are many visa issues and concerns among international students, so I decided to take the GMAT for two reasons. First, my chances to be employed in the States are greatly increased by an MBA. Second, I wanted to be productive during my 6 months at work and not at school, and what better way than to secure the future of your education. I’ve thought about an MBA since day 1 of my undergrad years, so getting this dreaded test out of the way was a relief to say the least. In general, I prepared for 1-2 hrs a night during the week, and for 2.5-3 hours an evening on weekends.
Pre-Prep (1 week):
I spend a week browsing through various forums, reading debriefs, collecting resources I thought would be valuable and getting an overall feel for the test. I’d like to highlight Eric’s, Ursula’s and Twin Splitter’s debriefs. They heavily influenced my view on prep as well as helped me develop my own study plan. Before jumping into prep I strongly encourage everyone to check out the above-mentioned debriefs and just browse through all the documents in the wiki / del.ici.ous directories and collect whatever you find interesting. I also used the test magic forums’ debriefs and resources (valuable). In general, I would browse through these resources once-a-week and check for any new valuable documents for prep, or any new successful debriefs to keep the spark going! At this point, based on reviews, I also decided to purchase the following textbooks:
1. Princeton Review 2006 (picked up form a friend)
2. OG 11
3. OG Verbal Supplement
4. OG Quant Supplement
5. Kaplan GMAT 2006 (picked up from a friend)
6. Barron’s GMAT 2006 (picked up from a friend – btw, don’t bother. TERRIBLE book)
7. MGMAT SC Guide
Prep (3 months):
I developed a master sheet with timeline for prep. I used Twin Splitter’s advice and decided to concentrate on one area at a time, revising passed areas as I moved into new ones. Here is prettymuch the breakdown of my prep:
1. Princeton Review – for 1 week I went through the whole Princeton Review textbook. This book is obviously easier than all the others and is a nice way to start your prep and get familiar with the test. At the end of that week I decided to take my first practice test and pinpoint my strengths / weaknesses and what to focus on.
2. GMATPrep 1 – 600 (44Q, 28V). Results were shocking to say the least. I did ok on math (average on both ps and ds), but I was stupefied by the low verbal score. I know I am an int’l student, but verbal has always been my forte and I had 780/800 on my SAT II English, so this was a sobering reality check. I guess 4 years in the States are enough to destroy anyone’s grammar rules. Ah well, I swallowed my pride, finalized my plan and jumped into serious preparation. In general, I devoted 2 weeks to every type of problem (3 for ps), with the first week reading all the possible sources (textbook strategies as well as dl-ed strategies) and doing a few problems in between, and the second week just exhausting all the possible problems from all the sources – Ogs, Kaplan, Cds from textbooks… All throughout my prep I kept a thick notebook divided into parts for each section, as well as CATs analysis and lessons learned. This notebook was INDISPENSABLE! By constantly revising its contents, I never forgot lessons learned from even 2 months ago, and constantly kept my brain fresh. It also helps you avoid repeating mistakes, after you’ve noted down concepts you’ve found hard or just plain interesting!
3. PS – For PS, Kaplan is a must. The amazing Math recap at the back of the textbook gives you pretty much all the theory you’ll need. For anything additional – just use the forum! That’s how I mastered permutations, combinations, Binomial and Hypergeom distributions, Coordinate Geometry…. After getting all the theory down, it’s practice time baby! PS problems are abundant, that’s why I devoted 3 weeks to that area, making sure to double check every problem I got wrong, as well as researching and hunting for sources on any types I found I was weak at. It is crucial to jot down a list of recurring themes and topics you find you are weak at, so that you can research them thoroughly and master them. At the end of each week I would resolve all the problems I got wrong during that week. If I got any of them wrong again, I would resolve it again, until I learn that concept and make sure I know what to do next time I see a problem of this type. I think this is the whole point of prep – not just mindlessly going through 1000 of problems, but LEARNING from every mistake, and making sure never to repeat it again.
4. CR – This was my lowest verbal score from my first test so I decided to focus on it in the beginning, so that I could constantly revise it afterwards. CR is actually real easy after enough practice. The Critical Reasoning.doc document I found in the wiki helped a lot, as well as an old textbook I found from the Critical Reasoning class I had taken 2 terms earlier. CR is definitely an acquired test and the best way to improve is to PRACTICe, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I went through all the OG, OG V, Kaplan, Kaplan CDs and Powerpre problems. Read the solutions, even of the problems you got right, and very soon you’ll notice that your mind will just click at certain passages. It is all pattern recognition, and the more you practice, the better you become at it. By the end of my prep I had 95-100% hit rate. I would also like to point out that the OGs problems are by far the best. Kaplan seems to rely on just making vague answer choice to create a “hard” problem” instead of really asking you to think. The rest is obvious – negation test for assumption qs, Difference b/n Inference and Assumption, how to relate parts in BoldFace qs… it is all in the forums resources section, so good hunting!
5. SC – This was an area I was strongly devoted to kicking the living hell out of. I’ve always had solid verbal and English scores throughout high school, tests, and college, so the first Gmatprep kickback unnerved me. There have been written countless guides for SC, so I will just reiterate: Start with MGMAT SC Guide – thoroughly take notes as you are going through it. REVISE those notes every day! After the MGMAT SC guide I just followed up with Sahil’s notes – very thorough, detailed, and nicely organized. Those 2 sources alone will give you all the theory you need to ace the GMAT SC part. The rest is just practice. IMO, Spidey’s notes are overrated, and after trying to read through 5 pages of this random conglomerate of pastes from different forums and sources (all in different fonts and boldfaces) I wanted to gauge my eyes out. Practice is key in this area (like in every other one duuuh), so make sure you do all the problems you can get your hands on! Also, reading vehemently every day HELPS! Subscribe to The New York Times. Read editorials. I finally started to read Fortune and Businessweek magazines for which I’ve been subscribed for almost a year. Soon, you’ll just LEARN correct patterns just by looking at them.
6. RC – I’ve never had problems with RC. I have a good attention span, extremely fast reading speed, and after all those years in college, I have developed a knack of understanding the most important points in passages (you try reading required BIO textbook (and I am finance major – go figure!), and these “science” passages on the GMAT will look like a cakewalk!). There are no strategies for RC really: Jot down some notes while reading to keep you occupied, FOCUS (why do people seem to have a problem with that? Just approach the text with an attitude of excitement and you won’t be able to veer away from the screen), and answer the questions being ASKED! Inference qs, admittedly, can get tricky, but after reading a couple of lines above and below the referred part of the text, you can almost always easily infer what the author is trying to say.
7. DS – I placed DS last in my prep, because I wanted to finish with fresh knowledge in this admittedly new area. The theory is the same as in PS, so for the 2 weeks I just solved problems and got used to certain patterns in DS problems. Practice is key, as well as getting comfortable with your N. Properties qs. I was still shaky in those by the end of my prep, although I devoted the most time to them (I had a hit rate of 95+% on Geometry and Algebra, but N Properties qs always seemed to offer something unexpected). The approach should be the same as to PS – solve, solve solve, check answers, and make sure that when you are resolving the problems, you are NOT repeating the same mistakes – if you are, you didn’t learn! Go back, write down the solution if need be (DON’T JUST READ IT) and research this area on beatthegmat forums.
8. Tests – I did a lot of practice tests throughout my prep. My timing problems was kind of the opposite of Mayonai5e – I always left TOO much time at the end of each section. For my first test, I had 10m left on quant and 15m left on Verbal. If I wanted to raise my score, I had to invest extra time on certain qs, and to overcome this, I took a lot of practice tests. Here are all my scores with some comments:
1. GMATPrep 1 – 600 (44Q, 28V) – My first test before prep. Made me realize I had a lot of studying to do.
2. MGMAT CAT I – 700 (44Q, 40V) – Half-way through my prep. 44Q for MGMAT CATs is STRONG (they are famous for their notorious Q part). I was also glad to see my V reaching 40. Obviously my study plan was working
3. MGMAT CAT II – 640 (43Q, 35V) – I was sick for 2 days and still decided to take the test. Huge mistake. I thought My had was going to explode half-way through but somehow I finished it. Of course I didn’t care about the score, but still, seeing that 600+ on the screen was unnerving
4. MGMAT CAT III – 700 (44Q, 41V) – back on track.
5. PowerPrep Test 1 – 780 (50Q, 48V) – I took this right before my last study section – on DS. The score was great (although I did see a lot of repeats from OGs) and boosted by confidence.
6. PowerPrep Test 2 – 760 (49Q, 44V) – After this test I decided to register for the exam. I was getting tired of prep, and the last 2 scores clearly showed that I was ready. For the last 3 weeks before the exam, I just revised hard problems (I had developed a spreadsheet for every q type where I noted problems (and their sources) that I found difficult), theories I had written in my notebook, as well as did a lot of tests
7. MGMAT CAT IV – 720 (47Q, 42V) - Continuous improvements make my day.
8. MGMAT CAT V – 710 (44Q, 42V) – Those high Quant and Verbal scores on admittedly HARD exams really boosted my confidence
9. Kaplan CAT I – 640 (41Q, 37V) – I know Kaplan’s scores are deflated, but I had problems not only with the score. Some questions were obviously ridiculously worded just to make them look tougher, instead of really making you think.
10. Kaplan CAT II – 560 (38Q, 29V) – This really pushed my buttons and I just threw the CD in the corner. Some Math problems were basically RETARDED with graphs that can hardly be deciphered. To top it off, the SCs were ridiculous, with difference of only ONE word between answer choices (and if you’ve been through the OG problems, you KNOW that’s not how the GMAT works), meaningless CRs, and what can only be written from demented mental patients RCs. I was really disappointed – just wasted 3 hours of prep on worthless material
11. MGMAT CAT VI – 740 (47Q, 45V) – The last MGMAT. Ended on a high note. I was really happy with my continuous improvement!
12. GMATPREP CAT I – 750 (46Q, 47V) – I had reinstalled Gmatprep from 3 months ago when I first took it. Saw some repeats, which I know inflated my score, but seeing this on the screen 5 days before my exam was great!
13. GMATPREP CAT II – 760 (49Q, 44V) – 3 days before my exam. Only 2 repeats in quant and 2/3 repeats in Verbal. I knew I was ready! The next few days I just resolved some hard problems from my spreadsheet and went through my whole notebook cover-to-cover.
9. AWA – The last 2 dyas before the test, I just dl-ed the 800score guide, went through it and brainstormed 5-6 topics form the official pool. I also downloaded the sample essays document form the wiki and read through 10 Argument and 10 Issues to get a gist of how to structure my essay. Wrote 2/3 practice essays and felt ready.
Test Experience:
First off, I can’t believe a huge city like Philadelphia doesn’t have a test center! Had to drive to Wayne, PA. It is close, but still, just another thing to worry over on test day. I got there 30 mins early, had a cigarette, a little innocent chat with the receptionist who took my picture and gave me my locker key and off I was. Note to all test takers: DON’T worry over the laminated paper and marker. I never had problems with them. They give you 5 sheets (10 faces) and a pretty THIN marker. This was a key for me, since I am used to writing small letters. Never had a problem during the test.
First was the schools screen. I haven’t even started researching schools yet, since I got one more year till I graduate, so I just threw in the top 5 names off the top of my head. Little did I know that my score would be so good haha.
After that is a lame tutorial (just like in GMATPrep), which is just enough to relax your nerves, and the essays part. I was very lucky with the essays./ Both the Argument and the Issue topics were of those 15-20 that I had read 2 days earlier. Needless to say, everything went smooth. My essays were highly structured, used a lot of transitional verbs, and got my points clearly. Made some nice insights and musings n my Issue ending as well. Overall, I couldn’t ask for a better starting.
My first break went out fast! I ate a banana, had some water, went to the bathroom and got back and the timer showed only 30 secs left. Perfect timing I guess. The Quant part was pretty straightforward. Honestly, I am very surprised by my relatively low Quant score. I never felt time pressured throughout the quant section, didn’t over invest in the beginning, and was moving at a nice pace. I guessed on 3-4 problems midway through, first because I didn’t get any ideas within the first 30 secs of staring at them, and second because I wanted a nice buffer at the end. Come to think of it, maybe I over invested some time in problems that looked a little weird (experimental?) and required more logic. If they were truly experimental, and I got them right, while getting the regular questions wrong, then … I guess stupid me he he. Finished with minute and a half to spare, double-checked my last answer and off to my second break. In retrospect, none of the questions seemed impossibly hard, they were very professional and good brain-teasers, nothing like the ridiculousness I witnessed on Kaplan, or some nitpicky questions on MGMAT q parts.
I went out for a quick smoke during my second break and ate some chocolate. I was relatively relaxed. I knew I was prepared and there was nothing else I could have done differently in my prep, so with refreshed mind I went back to the room (with 30 secs on the break clock again). Verbal started with 5 SCs in a row. These questions made me appreciate the professionalism of the golks at GMAC. Clear answer choices, with clear differences between them. If you know the error you are looking for, you WILL find it. Nothing like the one word / apostrophe difference at Kaplan. I was picking up speed fat and was feeling good. Next I had 3 CRs, which, were pretty straightforward (as far as I reckon, the third was even a Boldface, albeit a very easy one). Then came my first RC passage. I was concentrated and the subject was interesting, So I just breezed through the questions. I was humming along nicely throughout the verbal section until I reached the 20q-30q stretch. The SCs got trickier, some CRs really had me thinking between two or even three answer choices, and two very close RC passages had some challenging inference questions. I pushed through without losing too much time and kept my pace. At the last sc problem I had 2 minutes left, and was happy that all those practice tests had helped me fix my timing and taught me how to use my time best on the Verbal part. Double checked my answer hit confirm and, after some meaningless screens, saw my score.
Honestly, after all those practice tests, 720 was my bottom line. I thought I were a ~750 material (especially judging from my last 3 tests leading to the exam), but my percentage score, as well as my killer verbal percentage made my day. I got my unofficial screen and left the test center happy I had achieved what I had come for.
P.S.
Two days after the test I have made up my mind I won’t be taking it again. I know Q is the easiest score to raise, but thinking in perspective, I don’t think that +20/30 points on my score would make a difference. There is a certain point, after which your score doesn’t really boost your application, but other factors come into play. I believe my score and percentage are at that point, where, scorewise, I can go to any school, so I’d rather focus on the rest of my plan for an MBA application (which, with only 1.5 years of working experience, will be CRUCIAL!), instead of milking the cow for 20 more points.
Honestly, the whole preparation process was EXHAUSTING! I alienated my friends for the last 4 months, not going out in the evenings or even missing birthday parties. If you don’t get your priorities straight, don’t even start studying for the GMAT. I knew that if I aced it form the first time, I could get on with my life, so was willing to put everything else on pause. My job at the Internal Audit dept requires a lot of traveling, and that’s where my discipline and perseverance showed: I studied on airports, didn’t go out with colleagues to dinner but instead went back to the hotel to study for 2 hours. It is a gruesome process, that requires tons of sacrifices, so be willing to make them. Also, to keep the sparkle going, browse through the forum for 10 mins every day, read successful debriefs and always approach the study session with a willing-to-learn attitude. I also can’t imagine going through those months without exercising every dya for 45 min – an hour. You need something to get your brain off the GMAT, so whatever hobby works best for you – use it! I believe that my strict diet-and-exercise regime helped me build the needed stamina for the exam, as well as helped my blood flowing every time I solved problems. If you are just going to sit in front of the textbooks and stare, don’t even bother! You must be alert and aggressive during every study session! And getting that blood flowing is one of many ways to increase your concentration.
I will still be browsing the forums in the coming year. I have yet to decide to which schools to apply, as well as educate myself about the whole application process. Another journey begins, but I am positive that with the help of beat the GMAT and its many resources I will prevail again. I guess I will have to talk with Stacy to find out how realistic it is to enter in a top 10 school with 1.5 years of experience, but I am not feeling down – bigger miracles have happened.
I hope you guys enjoyed this debrief. Feel free to post any questions concerning my prep.
Once again, I want to thank Eric and the whole forum community for all the resources and wonderful advices they provide to the test takers.
) and my verbal is better than my quant haha - go figure! I guess something to stand out with from all that crowd of 51Q and 30V people.
