I initially posted my score last week. I finally got around to putting my thoughts in writing about some of my preparation.
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Hello Everyone,
I beat the GMAT, 740 (Q49, V41, 97p - 5.5)
During the quantitative section I came across a few seemingly easy questions that I could not solve. I found this frustrating to the point that I even considered not publishing my scores during that section. By the end of the exam I felt like I could actually cross the 700 mark, so I impatiently completed the ending questionnaire, and clicked Next to view my results. I stared at the brief results screen for a good 3 minutes just absorbing it all. Mission accomplished.
I wanted to come here to thank Eric and anyone who helped set up this forum, and everyone else who participated in it with their valuable experience and advice. I think one of the most important factors in excelling at anything is surrounding oneself with those that have already reached excellence. And I can apply this to my experience with everyone here; you guys made me feel like a 700+ was the norm. With this attitude I could not settle for anything less, and was thus able to bring up my score significantly.
I would like to come back here soon to talk a bit more about how I prepared, but for now I want to remind those still preparing for the GMAT that achieving your goal is really not that far off, it just takes some work and preparation. And remember, aim for the stars, and you'll at least end up in the clouds.
Thanks again,
aabsih
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Studying
The one thing that I’ve noticed is that most success stories recommend the same strategies and resources - just something to ponder. For those that don’t know the site well, here is a link to some very valuable resources that were put together by the people of this forum: https://www.beatthegmat.com/resources.html
A bit about my background:
I finished my undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering, so my quantitative skills are strong. My verbal skills are fairly strong as well.
Resources:
Here is a list of the resources that I used:
• The Official Guide for GMAT Review - 11th Edition
• The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review - Purple Book
• Recommended: The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review - Green Book - I didn’t own this book because I couldn’t find it at the local bookstore
• The Princeton Review’s Cracking the GMAT: Familiarized myself with the test material. Read the math and verbal reviews, and found the Critical Reasoning guide very useful. Presents some interesting strategies, but I personally didn’t use these strategies much. I found the questions to be a bit too easy. It is perhaps a good starting point, but I’m not sure how essential it is.
• Manhattan GMAT - Sentence Correction. Many people swear by this book, and surely enough it did not fail. This is a must for acing the sentence correction questions. Recommended: Buy the latest edition of this book as I’ve read that it gives you access to 6 online CAT exams (please verify)
• Kaplan 800: Solved the entire book. The questions were certainly tough, but I felt that there weren’t enough questions. I did find the Critical Reasoning explanation useful, considering I had no background in approaching these problems.
• McGraw Hill’s Conquering GMAT Verbal and Writing. I only read chapter 4 and 5 regarding reading comprehension strategies.
• BeatTheGmat resources: Spidey's GMAT notes for SC, Free GMAT flashcards, Counting Methods, Probability review.
Overall tips and strategies
- The last two weeks before my exam I took a full CAT practice exam every single day. I sat through the entire 3.5 to 4 hours for each of these exams, and did the AWA, Quantitative, and Verbal sections. I believe this is one of the most important things that I did, since it helped me develop stamina. I walked into the actual exam like it was just another day. I actually did my practice exams at the same time as my scheduled actual exam time when possible (8:00 am for me).
- Try to do a practice exam early on because it will help you gauge where you stand. You can focus your energy on developing your weak areas.
- The first practice exams I did were disastrous, and I found that I would leave an average of 7 questions blank on each of the Quant. and Verbal parts. I got pretty good at pacing myself because of all the CAT exams that I did, as well as the timed problem sets that I did daily. I used the GMAT Practice Grid with timer (https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-practic ... t6208.html) to keep track of my development.
- Whenever I did a practice exam or a problem set and corrected it, I always looked over the wrong answers and tried to solve them myself again. I made sure that I looked over any concepts that I found difficult.
- Give your brain a rest on the last day or two before the exam. I did not do any practice exams on the last two day – my brain needed some rest.
- Develop confidence when approached by any type of question. I strongly believe that confidence goes a long way on exam day.
Quantitative Section
- I noticed early on that one weakness that I had in the quantitative section was pacing myself. I spent too much time on the questions that I couldn’t figure out. I kept telling myself that as an Engineer, I should be able to figure out the answers. I taught myself that sometimes you just need to let go. For questions that I couldn’t figure out, I eliminated what I could and answered with what I thought would make the best answer.
- Data sufficiency questions were another weakness that I had. I simply practiced as many DS problems as possible, and with that I built confidence in my abilities and familiarized myself with as many of the math concepts as possible.
- I noted down any weaknesses that I felt during my practice, and focused my energy in the next day or two on overcoming these weaknesses.
- Do all the quantitative questions from the two Official Guide books. Look at it this way, there are only so many concepts that the GMAT can cover; if you know how to answer all these questions, then you will know how to answer the actual exam questions. Besides, you will likely find a few questions on the actual exam familiar.
Critical Reasoning
- I used The Princeton Review’s cracking the GMAT and Kaplan 800 strategies to understand how to approach the CR questions. It is important to get in the right mindset when looking at these problems, and to understand what to look for.
- I personally did not need to take notes while reading the question and paragraph, but this might be beneficial to some people.
- Remember to read the question first.
Sentence Correction
- I was surprised at how weak I was at these questions when I first started. I was even more surprised by how much better I got at them by just reading the Manhattan Sentence Correction guide. I still made enough mistakes to disappoint myself, but I am confident that I would have done a bit better had I read the book more thoroughly.
Reading Comprehension
- Three days before exam time, I looked at my practice exams and problem sets and realized that I was getting almost every single one of the reading comprehension questions wrong. I decided to do something about it. I read chapters 4 and 5 of the McGraw Hill’s Conquering GMAT Verbal and Writing book, and found some useful strategies. I just want to point out that the only reason I used this book was because it was the first one I came across, but I did find the tips very useful.
- Read the passage and tell yourself that you enjoy it. Read actively, and constantly think about what the author is trying to achieve by the passage as a whole, and what a specific part of the passage is intended to convey. The McGraw Hill book I find puts the things to look for in simple terms. Try to get a feel for the structure of the passage, by finding the purpose of each paragraph.
- The most important thing for me was to develop an overall understanding of the passage and its purpose. I chose to read the entire passage, rather than simply skim through it. Keep in mind that the answer to many of the RC questions are taken straight from the passage, and the ones that need to be inferred can only be answered if you fully understand the passage.
- I personally did not take any notes on the paper while reading; see what works best for you.
- I ended up doing a lot better in the RC questions during my practice, and actually looked forward to these passages on the actual exam. I figured that they come with 3 or 4 questions that can be answered straight from the passage most of the time. Trust me, this portion of the exam is awesome.
Analytical Writing
- The Princeton Review book gives a pretty interesting strategy for approaching the two essays. It basically says that you can develop a template that you can use for each of the essays. I found that the more I practiced, the more my essays became similar in structure. Note any generic sentences that you like in your practice essays, and use them in future essays; this applies especially to the intro and conclusion. Eventually you will just need to fill in the blanks according to the topic – this is an oversimplification, but it is somewhat true.
- Before I actually started writing, I brainstormed and wrote down the main points that I would like to discuss in the essay. I spent a good 6 to 7 minutes fleshing out these points, and then started to write. I generally liked to write an intro, two or three body paragraphs, and conclusion.
- Analysis of an Issue: Start with the brainstorming. For the intro, restate the issue; state your position; briefly introduce the support your going to mention, and then move onto the body. In each paragraph of the body mention a factor that supports your position, and try to include examples from real life situations or known companies. In the conclusion, summarize your position and your main points. Easy.
- Analysis of an Argument: Start with the brainstorming. You will find that the fundamentals for tackling Critical Reasoning questions also apply to this essay. For the intro, you can specify that the argument is weak, and then briefly give an overview of why the argument is weak. In the next two or three body paragraphs, specify why it is weak (wrong assumptions, no evidence etc…) using a weakness for each paragraph. In the conclusion you can discuss how the argument can be made stronger, and summarize your discussion from the body. Easy.
 
Practice GMAT CAT Exams
The first CAT exam that I took was about a month before the actual exam. I do recommend that you do a practice CAT early on in your preparation to get an idea about how you perform. My initial Kaplan CAT scores shocked me, but the forum reassured me that the Kaplan scores are always way off. You can retake some of the exams and still see a lot of fresh questions. If the Analytical Writing topics repeat, open the Official Guide and choose two random topics from there. When you do these exams, do all three sections with no interruptions except for the allowed breaks.
There are about 5 free online CAT exams from various companies (look for them in the forum’s resource page). Do as many practice exams as possible.
Here is a summary of my score results. I did all my practice exams in the last month, and most of them were concentrated in the last two weeks or so.
Kaplan CD Companion - 540
Kaplan CD Companion - 520
Kaplan CD Companion - 570
Manhattan Free CAT - 640
Princeton Free CAT - 680
Kaplan Higher Score - 540
Kaplan Higher Score - 580
Kaplan Free CAT - 690
PowerPrep 1 - 730
GMATPrep 1 - 720
Kaplan CD Companion - 540
Kaplan Higher Score - 610
PowerPrep 2 - 760
Retired GMAT (non CAT) - 640
GMATPrep 2 - 700
Veritas Free CAT - 670
GMATPrep 1 retake - 730
GMATPrep 2 retake - 710
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Actual GMAT - 740 - A7sant
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I hope you found this helpful. Thanks again to everyone in this forum.
Good luck with your preparation.
aabsih
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