I just Beat The GMAT!

ashok27 wrote:

CarlosP wrote:

ashok27 wrote:
True that. The scoring and the type of questions is bad in Kaplan CD companion

I'd recommend people to buy the additional tests that GMAC has released. GMAT tests are the closest that you can get to the real GMAT. Worth the money

Yeah, they are pretty good but when should one starting using all the GMAC tests ? Towards the end of the prep or keep only 1-2 towards the end ?

CarlosP wrote:

ashok27 wrote:

CarlosP wrote:

ashok27 wrote:
True that. The scoring and the type of questions is bad in Kaplan CD companion

I'd recommend people to buy the additional tests that GMAC has released. GMAT tests are the closest that you can get to the real GMAT. Worth the money

Yeah, they are pretty good but when should one starting using all the GMAC tests ? Towards the end of the prep or keep only 1-2 towards the end ?

I think one should start taking the gmac tests approximately 3 weeks before you actual gmat day? Too close to the actual day means you will not have much time to improve. Too far from the test day means you won't be finished with your prep properly to take the tests. 3-4 weeks is a good time

CarlosP wrote:

ashok27 wrote:

CarlosP wrote:

ashok27 wrote:
True that. The scoring and the type of questions is bad in Kaplan CD companion

I'd recommend people to buy the additional tests that GMAC has released. GMAT tests are the closest that you can get to the real GMAT. Worth the money

Yeah, they are pretty good but when should one starting using all the GMAC tests ? Towards the end of the prep or keep only 1-2 towards the end ?

I think one should start taking the gmac tests approximately 3 weeks before you actual gmat day? Too close to the actual day means you will not have much time to improve. Too far from the test day means you won't be finished with your prep properly to take the tests. 3-4 weeks is a good time

CarlosP wrote:

ashok27 wrote:

CarlosP wrote:

ashok27 wrote:
True that. The scoring and the type of questions is bad in Kaplan CD companion

I'd recommend people to buy the additional tests that GMAC has released. GMAT tests are the closest that you can get to the real GMAT. Worth the money

Yeah, they are pretty good but when should one starting using all the GMAC tests ? Towards the end of the prep or keep only 1-2 towards the end ?

I think one should start taking the gmac tests approximately 3 weeks before you actual gmat day? Too close to the actual day means you will not have much time to improve. Too far from the test day means you won't be finished with your prep properly to take the tests. 3-4 weeks is a good time

gauravdangi wrote: I'd say that 4-5 weeks before the GMAT should be a good starting point for taking full length tests.3 weeks maybe a little on the tighter side.

gonegirl76 wrote:

gauravdangi wrote: I'd say that 4-5 weeks before the GMAT should be a good starting point for taking full length tests.3 weeks maybe a little on the tighter side.

I've taken 4 CATs so far and planning to take 6 more in the last 2 weeks. Should this be sufficient? I m spending a great time in analyzing the tests and seeing my scores improve. Should 6 more be enough?

CarlosP wrote:
6-7 more should be enough but make sure that you spend 5-6 hours post each exam to analyze the test. manhattan tests especially have very good analysis section. do utilize that fully

CarlosP wrote:

gonegirl76 wrote:

gauravdangi wrote: I'd say that 4-5 weeks before the GMAT should be a good starting point for taking full length tests.3 weeks maybe a little on the tighter side.

I've taken 4 CATs so far and planning to take 6 more in the last 2 weeks. Should this be sufficient? I m spending a great time in analyzing the tests and seeing my scores improve. Should 6 more be enough?

6-7 more should be enough but make sure that you spend 5-6 hours post each exam to analyze the test. manhattan tests especially have very good analysis section. do utilize that fully

sameer.pinto wrote:

CarlosP wrote:

gonegirl76 wrote:

gauravdangi wrote: I'd say that 4-5 weeks before the GMAT should be a good starting point for taking full length tests.3 weeks maybe a little on the tighter side.

I've taken 4 CATs so far and planning to take 6 more in the last 2 weeks. Should this be sufficient? I m spending a great time in analyzing the tests and seeing my scores improve. Should 6 more be enough?

6-7 more should be enough but make sure that you spend 5-6 hours post each exam to analyze the test. manhattan tests especially have very good analysis section. do utilize that fully

But what would you do in 5-6 hour analysis?

hemant02 wrote:Got done with the GMAT yesterday and scored a 760. Had joined BTG almost 6 months back and finally after so many inspiring stories here, feels so good to be writing one myself

Total 760
Quant 50
Verbal 44
Background:
I belong to the over represented demographic segment of Indian,IT, Male working in one of the supposedly "great companies to work for" so had to get a good GMAT score

The decision to go for an MBA..
There were three primary reasons I wanted to do any MBA I
a)don't want to do the boring work that I'm currently doing
b)don't want to progress slowly.Hey who the hell gives a damn about becoming a team leader/project manager in an IT anyway
c) don't want to earn peanuts b) want to move to silicon valley-the place which is changing the world that we live in

Okay, let me not digress from the topic and make it a "Why MBA" essay and let me share with you my thoughts about my prep and what helped me achieve a good GMAT score. This is less of a debrief and more of a retrospection as I think about what helped me succeed. Here are some words of wisdom from a not-so-wise person who has beat the GMAT!

1. Start early AND finish early : Although I had started my prep quite early, I finished it quite late. I already missed the deadline of ISB Hyderabad and though I'm primarily targeting the US Business schools but I'd have ideally liked to get over with the GMAT in October

2. My struggle with a Busy Work schedule...
This was a huge problem with me as I have a tight working schedule and sometimes I have to stay back in office till 8 in the evening. But I knew one thing for sure, that either I can rot in my current life and work like this earning peanuts or move to the next stage in life which could happen only by doing an MBA. So come what may,I need to study for the GMAT

3. The resources that Helped me crossed the barrier

Official Guide 12th and 13th edition- Don't waste questions in these books by practicing the questions randomly rather extract every bit by doing questions systematically and learning from them

Sentence Correction- Used SC Grail 3rd edition. Use the topicwise question matrix while practicing the 125 questions at the end of the book.I went through the book at least twice. I did use other books for SC but found them confusing. This one is a great book.

Critical Reasoning- CR comes naturally to me but I needed to learn the strategies and question types so that you take lesser time on them. Used CR Grail. Good for additional practice problems.

RC- Practice makes a man perfect and that couldn't be more true for RC. Did around 70-80 passages in all- 26 from OG13+ 30 from Aristotle RC Practice sets+20 from OG11 and OG12. Focus on building your mental stamina and analyze the passages well.

Quant- Used ManhattanGMAT Advanced GMAT Quant Guide for theory. Did around 180 practice questions from Aristotle PS & DS Boosters. Did all the OG Math problems. The initial ones frankly suck but it's the last 50 PS and DS each that you should do really well.

CATs- Did 2 Kaplan, 6 ManhattanGMAT,1 grockit and 2 GMATPREP tests.so in all I did around 12 full length CATs spread over 20-25 days. GMATPREPs are the closest and MGMAT are the next best ones!

5. How I learnt to prioritize
I'm a member of 3 social clubs and NGOs and an active sportsperson and catch up with my friends regularly. However, during the prep phase, I cut down on most of these things. Why? Think about the amount of time one ends up wasting in coordinating/travelling/meeting with friends in big cities. Going for a game of squash would mean that my entire Sunday would just vanish firstly in getting ready for the game, then playing it and then resting after coming back. It's about prioritizing things and focusing on what is important.

It's not being hard on yourself; it's just about not losing focus. Now when the GMAT is done, I can resume all the things

6. My advice for the G-day
The only advice I have for the test day is to not try predicting your score. I thought that I hadn't done well enough on the Quant section but was surprised to see a good score. Think of all the sections as independent ones and don't let your performance in one affect the other

7. What I learnt to Do Right After Doing It Wrong
Focus on learning.Not on doing.I think in the first month all I did was do more and more problems. I would just focus on doing maximum number of questions but learnt that it was not taking me anywhere so learnt the best strategies here and started focusing on doing the things the right way

8. Error Log-Does it help?
Even I had the same question when I read stories of people here who found error log very helpful. I always wondered do I need one.
Now most of us aren't very systematic and maintaining an excel sheet is something that we hate. But I think that error log helps a lot simply because I could come back to the problems I had gotten wrong and needed to review.

9. What I learnt from Full length Practice Tests
One thing I learnt the hard way is that your accuracy on timed practice tests is bound to be less than what it'll be when you'll do only a handful practice problems so one needs to LIVE with this fact and don't lose your sleep. Initially I would get frustrated a lot after seeing the mistakes I'd make in a test.

10. My success Mantra
One of my guiding philosophy in life is that If you do the same thing, you'll get the same result
Probably,this couldn't be more true for the GMAT. If you keep on doing things the same way, you'll get the same results. I had to fundamentally change the way I studied to move beyond the ceiling that I had hit.

Hope you find my tips,advices helpful. I'm absolutely grateful to rishi raj, the forum moderator here for helping me achieve this score.Pestered him with a lot of PMs. Kudos to you buddy!

ashok27 wrote:@oquiella- books are written to cater to all students studying it. If you feel that you are good in one area, why spend a lot of time on it but going through the content always helps. You never know what new way of looking at solving a particular type of problem you may come up with.
PS and DS boosters are good for practice.some in ds boosters are not the best of the questions, but overall decent for practice.

neha.gar wrote: Best for quant is the last 50 questions in the official guide in ps and ds..they're the closest to the actual gmat.