I took the GMATs just over a week ago and scored a 720 (40 M, 49 Verbal). I have been talking about going back to grad school for a year. I signed for the GMATs on a whim, and just picked the first weekend I could make it to a test center, which ended up being in 5 weeks.
So then it was crunch time! Being a person that works better under pressure, I had finally figured out a way to motivate myself to study. I went out the same day and purchased the Kaplan and Princeton Review GMAT study guides. The following day a coworker told me I should order the Official GMAT books, so I bought the comprehensive study guide & practice questions as well as the mini verbal & math guides.
My goal was one book a week. I work full time so one book in 7 days was no easy feat. I studied 4 to 5 days a week. Saturday and Sunday were big study days. Each book added value I think. Although the Princeton Review had the best advice, I thought, for the essays, and the Official GMAT book was great practice for question structure and logic. Both Princeton & Kaplan did a better job explaining difficult math concepts better than the official guide. All said and done I did over 2500 questions in 5 weeks!
I took the day off before the exam – not to study – but just to rest up and relax. I drove to the test center and back as a trial run, which really helped the day off, since I had no clue where the center was.
The only advice I could give for during the GMATs that I haven’t seen on any posts yet (and forgive if I just missed it) is to breathe deep. Focus on it to calm yourself down. I’m not a person who meditates or anything like that, but a couple of deep breaths between sections helped me focus on the task at hand. If I got flustered in a question, I reminded myself that it was just one question and I was just smart as everyone else.
The most traumatic part for me was the seconds between when I clicked on “keep my scores” and when the scores came up on the screen. I’m sure it was only 5 seconds or less but it may as well have been an hour. I felt like I had done awful and was so burnt out from the exam I wanted to cry. Then my scores came up and I almost cried anyways just to spite the GMATs!
After the test to celebrate completing the GMATs, I’d recommend a couple of really strong drinks …. and then a couple more…
It helped me!
So then it was crunch time! Being a person that works better under pressure, I had finally figured out a way to motivate myself to study. I went out the same day and purchased the Kaplan and Princeton Review GMAT study guides. The following day a coworker told me I should order the Official GMAT books, so I bought the comprehensive study guide & practice questions as well as the mini verbal & math guides.
My goal was one book a week. I work full time so one book in 7 days was no easy feat. I studied 4 to 5 days a week. Saturday and Sunday were big study days. Each book added value I think. Although the Princeton Review had the best advice, I thought, for the essays, and the Official GMAT book was great practice for question structure and logic. Both Princeton & Kaplan did a better job explaining difficult math concepts better than the official guide. All said and done I did over 2500 questions in 5 weeks!
I took the day off before the exam – not to study – but just to rest up and relax. I drove to the test center and back as a trial run, which really helped the day off, since I had no clue where the center was.
The only advice I could give for during the GMATs that I haven’t seen on any posts yet (and forgive if I just missed it) is to breathe deep. Focus on it to calm yourself down. I’m not a person who meditates or anything like that, but a couple of deep breaths between sections helped me focus on the task at hand. If I got flustered in a question, I reminded myself that it was just one question and I was just smart as everyone else.
The most traumatic part for me was the seconds between when I clicked on “keep my scores” and when the scores came up on the screen. I’m sure it was only 5 seconds or less but it may as well have been an hour. I felt like I had done awful and was so burnt out from the exam I wanted to cry. Then my scores came up and I almost cried anyways just to spite the GMATs!
After the test to celebrate completing the GMATs, I’d recommend a couple of really strong drinks …. and then a couple more…
It helped me!
