750 (Q47, V47) with 26 days of prep

I decided rather late in the process to apply for Executive MBA programs this spring. As a result, I faced an accelerated timeline for preparing for the GMAT (less than one month).

I registered for the GMAT on 2/18. I had never taken the GMAT. I had never studied for it. I was not even familiar with the format.

I took the GMAT on 3/12. I scored a 750 (Q47, V47).

Here is how I approached the challenge of preparing for the GMAT under a short timeline. I hope it is helpful to those who may be in a similar situation.

After I registered for the GMAT, I almost immediately ordered Princeton Review's online course ("GMAT Online," $499). While the course helped familiarize me with the format and outlined general concepts germane to the test, I do not feel that GMAT Online was challenging enough. Furthermore, the presentation of lessons was awkward and the navigation was confusing and frustrating.

A commenter on an online forum (I do not recall which) remarked that they thought Princeton Review was too easy, and geared towards people scoring below 650. The commenter also said that they thought Kaplan was a better solution for people seeking scores above 700. This turned out to be good advice, because I purchased the Kaplan online course ("GMAT On Demand," $475) and found it to be very helpful.

The Kaplan course began with a diagnostic test. My score was 660 (Q: 61st percentile, V: 96th percentile). I could tell I had a long way to go on the quantitative section. Although I had done well on the quantitative section of the GRE (790/800) back in 2003, I found the GMAT quantitative section challenging-and particularly the Data Sufficiency questions. I felt that my brain wasn't properly wired to answer these questions and I stumbled through a lot of the early exercises and quizzes.

I viewed almost all of the lessons in Kaplan's online course and took virtually all of the quizzes. One tool that I found particularly useful was the "Recommended Next Steps" section, in which Kaplan proposes additional steps and activities based on the strengths and weaknesses demonstrated on practice tests. I was able to view additional lessons (including "Intermediate" and "Challenge" workshops) and design customized quizzes in the QuizBank based on section, subject, and level of difficulty. I wound up answering hundreds of quantitative questions in a quiz format on the medium and hard level of the QuizBank. I typically answered 15-20 questions (timed) at one time. For a few days in a row I focused entirely on my areas of weakness: number properties and data sufficiency.

I think another very important factor was taking a lot of full-format practice tests. I completed the AWA section on 3-4 of the practice tests in order to work on my stamina and get used to the long duration. On the others I completely skipped the AWA section. Here are my results (including the Princeton Review tests, my GMATPrep test the day before the test, and my actual GMAT test):

PR GMAT CAT 1 (02/25/12) - 730 (Q48, V43) (I had already taken this one as the "free" online test)
PR GMAT CAT 2 (02/26/12) - 710 (Q48, V41)
Kaplan GMAT Diagnostic Test (02/26/12) - 660 (Q61%, V96%)
Kaplan GMAT CAT 2 (02/28/12) - 730 (Q63%, V99%)
Kaplan GMAT CAT 3 (02/28/12) - 660 (Q70%, V78%)
Kaplan GMAT CAT 4 (03/01/12) - 700 (Q53%, V99%)
Kaplan GMAT CAT 5 (03/09/12) - 720 (Q75%, V99%)
Kaplan GMAT CAT 6 (03/10/12) - 690 (Q55%, V99%)
GMATPrep (03/11/12) - 760 (I forgot the scaled scores but I got 9 wrong on Q and 2 wrong on V)
GMAT (03/12/12) - 750 (Q47, V47)

I never got my quantitative scores up to where I'd like them to be but the Kaplan lessons and practice tests definitely helped me get consistently high (99th percentile) scores on the verbal section that carried over onto the GMAT itself.

While I encountered several challenging questions on the quantitative section of the GMAT, I recalled the Kaplan tests being more difficult. In the Kaplan practice tests, I recall seeing 5 or more extremely difficult quantitative questions on which I ultimately just guessed. On the actual GMAT, I think that number was more like 3. I obviously recorded many more wrong quantitative answers than 3, but I felt like I could have solved many of them if I weren't so concerned with time management.

I used the Kaplan On Demand course for most of my preparation in the weeks leading up to the GMAT. In the days leading up to the test itself I used the QuizBank extensively for focused practice. I also did the first 100 or so problems in the Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review in the two weeks prior to the test.

This post is already a lot longer than I anticipated so I will try to summarize my experience:

1. The Kaplan GMAT On Demand online course is great. It is accessible and well-structured and I feel that it helped vault me into the 99th percentile on the verbal section and that the program helped me limit my errors on intermediate-level quantitative problems and have a much better shot at answering higher-level quantitative problems correctly.

2. The "My Performance" section of the online Kaplan course is excellent for identifying weaknesses and hopefully finding some "low-hanging fruit" that can be remediated with additional practice and quizzes.

3. I think that taking as many full-format CATs as possible was a huge benefit. I don't know whether it mattered that I skipped the AWA section on most of them.

4. I also think that the Kaplan tests are more difficult than the actual GMAT. (It makes sense-they probably want to manage your expectations, after all.) While my average score on most of my Kaplan practice CATs was around 700, I scored a 760 on the GMATPrep the day before the GMAT and I scored a 750 on test day.

I hope this information is helpful to anybody who may be trying to prepare for the GMAT under an accelerated timeline. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

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