I just Beat The GMAT!

First of all, Yes!!!

I was hoping to score this high but was afraid nerves would get the best of me.

Studying strategy and experience:

I bought the Manhattan GMAT Complete Prep Set (4th edition), OG12 and both the verbal and quant official guides. I went through each of the MGMAT books and worked on the basics starting with sentence correction (I viewed this as my weakness). I progressed through the other two verbal guides and then took the verbal portion of MGMAT Cat 1 and got a 37.

I then worked my way through the Quant books which took about 2 and a half weeks. Midway though the quant books I took the verbal portion of MGMAT 2 and scored a 38. I finished up the last of the books and took the quant portion of MGMAT 3, scoring a 40. I was shocked and really disappointed. Math has always been my strength so I assumed I would score higher (percentile wise) in the Quant than in the verbal.

I spent the next few days reviewing the questions I missed (on cat 3) and the concepts I was deficient in. I took the complete MGMAT cat 4 and scored 660 (Q42,V38). I was still disappointed by my quant score, but read on this forum that they may be slightly lower than actual GMAT scores.

I spent the next week going through all the quant books again, doing only the end of chapter problems I couldn't solve right away. I also reviewed all the OG 12 questions I had missed throughout my quant studying. I took MGMAT cat 5 and scored a 710 (Q47,V40).

The next few days I reviewed all the quant questions I missed on all the prior Cat exams. I then took MGMAT 6 and scored 700 (Q46,V39). I ran the diagnostic feature from the MGMAT cats and realized geometry was absolutely killing me. I then purchased the challenge set from GMAT hacks.com and worked exclusively on these for a few days. This was extremely helpful. The geometry book from Manhattan is good for basics, but the challenge set offered 100 difficult question and very helpful explanations. I highly recommend these sets if you have a particular weakness in quant.

After working though the challenge set I took the MGMAT cat 1 quant portion and scored a 50 (I did see some repeat questions though). The next day I took the GMAT prep test one and scored a 720 (Q47,V43?...don't remember exact breakdown). I studied for another week and took GMAT prep cat 2 and scored 750 (Q50, V42).

I took the second prep test last saturday afternoon. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I went through all OG 12 data sufficiency, problem solving, and sentence correction questions. I spent a significant time studying what problems I got wrong and why. I also continued to work on my timing for quant by retaking the official GMAT cats (total of 4 times). I disregarded my scores on these because there were repeat questions.

Wednesday (yesterday) I just relaxed, went over a few formulas (mostly geometry) and tried not to think too much or do anything to make my eyes sore (like staring at a computer screen or tv).

This morning I woke up, ate a light breakfast and got to the test site a few minutes early. The center had noise canceling ear muffs and earplugs which I found helpful. The AWA was ok, though I couldn't think of any good examples for my analysis of an issue essay. I took the 8 minutes break before quant. Q section was pretty much exactly like the official GMAT cats. The data sufficiency questions were very tricky. I had a few geometry questions but very few permutation/combinatorics stuff. I finished the quant with about 30 seconds to spare

Verbal section was also comparable to the official prep. I could tell I was doing well because the RC questions started getting really hard. After finishing the verbal section I clicked on report scores and held my breath. I actually covered the screen with my hand and then slowly uncovered my quant score. I saw it was a 48 and let out a deep breath.

Suggestions/Lessons learned

-As previously emphasized by other posters, quality not quantity! Review all the questions you answer out of the guides and on the cats. On the ones you missed, find out why you missed them and review those concepts. On the questions you got right, review the explanation to see if there was a faster way to solve it.

-Half the battle in quant is identifying what type of question it is and how you should set it up. The faster you can accomplish this for each question the better off you are. Practice looking at questions and quickly making this identification.

-The other half of the quant battle is taking what you figured out and knowing how it will help you answer the question. Make sure all your calculations give you the number the question is actually asking for-or that you modify it accordingly. The GMAT tricksters will purposely put a little twist in the question so after all your hard work, you look up and see that number (the wrong answer) in the answer choices. Often though, the question requires you to slightly modify the calculation-for example, a question might require you to calculate the cost of a meal based on the price of the tip. You do all the work, get the price of the meal and see the answer in the choice. If you re-read the details, it might be asking what the total cost is, so you would have to add the tip cost to the meal cost for the total. Be careful!!! It's worth taking the extra 5 seconds to re-read part of the question to see exactly what answer entails.

-MGMAT cats are excellent but don't get discouraged by the quant scores. The quant is much harder than the actual GMAT (granted I only scored a 48 so never saw the hardest GMAT questions), and the questions take much longer to work through (I had to pause the test during every cat I took). The explanations for the MGMAT quant questions, and the diagnostic features are outstanding though. Use them as an assessment tool to expose your weaknesses, and then focus on them.

-Use as much official material as possible leading up to the test day. The official guides are the closest thing to the actual exam. I did all the DS, PS, and SC questions out of OG 12 in the days leading up to the exam and I think it really helped. Also, save the GMAT prep cats (the official ones) for the very end of your prep. I saved mine for the last two weeks, and then took them multiple times (especially the quant). This will give you a good indication of what you should expect, and what you need to focus on, and will keep questions types you may actually see fresh in your mind. Work on your timing and test simulations with other material (MGMAT cats or some of the others)

-Data sufficiency can make or break you. Know the tricks the GMAT uses to fool test takers. Often the harder questions will be answer D. Also double check before you put down E, especially on hard DS questions. I found that the answer to difficult DS questions is almost never E and (in my experience) tend to be either D,B, or A.

- stay calm during the test!! This is easier said than done obviously. The good thing is that you get alot of your nerves out during the AWA. I took the breaks, drank some water, paced a little bit, and then went into each section like I couldn't wait to start answering questions.


Thanks to all who contribute to this forum and especially the Tutors and Mods! Good luck to everyone who still needs to take the GMAT!! Sorry for the rambling post, I left the better part of my brain at the testing facility

Congrats! Awesome score!

Always good to see hard work paying off - super debrief. Thanks

congrats on the score! and great tips, especially the part about not getting discouraged by the MGMAT test scores. good luck on the rest of your apps

Great Score..

How would you rate the actual quant questions vs Gmat prep/OG (latter part)

Cheers!

Great balanced score!

Thanks for the debrief!

Snipertrader:

The actual GMAT quant questions I saw were definitely comparable to the GMAT prep Cats and the OG12 content. The problem solving questions were pretty straightforward, the Data sufficiency questions were tricky but were always my weakness. The last sections of the DS and PS from OG 12 were as hard or harder than all the questions I saw on the real exam.

The most important thing (unless you're trying to score in the very upper echelon in quant) is to know when to guess and move on. On all the official GMAT prep cats I took I missed between 8 and 13 of the total 37 quant questions. My scores ranged from 50 to 47. So missing 13 questions still puts you close to the 80th percentile which is adequate for the top end b-schools (assuming you score well in verbal). I think I probably missed the same amount of questions on the actual GMAT and got a 48 in Quant. There were multiple data sufficiency questions that I immediately realized would take too long for me to work through or that I knew I wouldn't be able to figure out. I then looked at information and quickly decided whether to pick D, A, or B. This probably saved me 10 minutes that I used on questions I could actually figure out.

So unless you're shooting for the 99th percentile, don't be afraid to guess and move on. The questions you spend significantly more than two minutes on are ones you'll likely miss anyways. Don't waste all that time and then have to guess on the last 5 or more questions because you're out of time. Those are questions you might have answered correctly with better time management.

dalecooper09 wrote:Snipertrader:

The actual GMAT quant questions I saw were definitely comparable to the GMAT prep Cats and the OG12 content. The problem solving questions were pretty straightforward, the Data sufficiency questions were tricky but were always my weakness. The last sections of the DS and PS from OG 12 were as hard or harder than all the questions I saw on the real exam.

The most important thing (unless you're trying to score in the very upper echelon in quant) is to know when to guess and move on. On all the official GMAT prep cats I took I missed between 8 and 13 of the total 37 quant questions. My scores ranged from 50 to 47. So missing 13 questions still puts you close to the 80th percentile which is adequate for the top end b-schools (assuming you score well in verbal). I think I probably missed the same amount of questions on the actual GMAT and got a 48 in Quant. There were multiple data sufficiency questions that I immediately realized would take too long for me to work through or that I knew I wouldn't be able to figure out. I then looked at information and quickly decided whether to pick D, A, or B. This probably saved me 10 minutes that I used on questions I could actually figure out.

So unless you're shooting for the 99th percentile, don't be afraid to guess and move on. The questions you spend significantly more than two minutes on are ones you'll likely miss anyways. Don't waste all that time and then have to guess on the last 5 or more questions because you're out of time. Those are questions you might have answered correctly with better time management.

completely agree about not being afraid to guess and move on. in fact, i'd take it a step further - even if you're shooting for the 99th percentile, you still need to be aware of the time you're spending on a question, and should be ready to guess and move on if need be.

DaleCooper

Can you please provide timelines as to how many weeks and how many hours per day you studied? I am just starting and any help would be appreciated

Also, I was thinking of solving OG 10 OG 11 and OG 12 completely and do the GmatTest Prep. Wasn't planning on anything beyond this. Given your experience, would you suggest this is enough prep? Or would you suggest going through MGMAT course material as well.

Also, could you perhaps mention if the MGMAT SC book was enough for you ? Many seem to be having problems with SC. Many thanks.

I would like to know as well your timeline. You mentioned OG 12 as a great resource. I've completed all of OG11 and in the middle of 12. Noticing a distinct difference in level. Do you think OG11 is helpful at all and if so, at what point? PS problems from 100? 150? DS problems from 100?

Congratulations on a terrific score!

drabblejhu:

I only used OG 12 so I'm not sure how the early editions compare.


gmattesttaker2009:

I studied for just under 7 weeks for my prep; Usually about 3 hours a day during the week, and 5 hours total for the weekend. The MGMAT SC book was more than sufficient for me, but the verbal section seemed to come easier in general. Depending on how well you're doing on the problems in the official guides, you might not need any additional books. I just used the books to help me out with the basics. If you're getting all the questions right and your time management is ok you might not want to waste money on the other books.