760 (Q49, V45, 99%), Mexican engineer (non-native speaker)

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Location: Mexico
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GMAT Score:760
Background
-EE from Monterrey, Mexico
-Strategic Planning and Marketing

Materials
I used only MGMAT and OG. I read somewhere that that's all you need, and it was for me. I ordered the full set from MGMAT and went through the books one by one, taking notes and building summaries (I have one Google Doc per MGMAT book). Some of the stuff there is just way too complicated and you'll never see it on the exam, but most of it is extremely useful. MGMAT single-handedly made me improve my score enormously, I couldn't have done it without it.

CATS
MGMAT: Q is ridiculously difficult. Whatever you're getting, assume you're gonna get +5 points more on the real thing. They're very good for practicing timing, however, and also the V section is pretty accurate.

Princeton Review: Stay away from these. The score they gave me was off my about 120 points from my actual level. They're awful.

GMATPrep: Obviously very similar to the real thing, and the best at predicting your score. I took 2 from the current version and 2 from an older version (although questions do repeat, they're very few and I didn't remember what the answer was).

My scores were:

MGMAT1: 710
MGMAT2: 700
MGMAT3: 740
Princeton Review: 650
GMATPrep1: 750
MGMAT4: 720
MGMAT5: 700
GMATPrep2: 760
GMATPrep OLD1: 740
GMATPrep OLD2: 770
Real GMAT: 760 (49Q, 45V)

I took all the tests using MGMAT's laminated book and pencil. It paid off, as I was very used to it on D Day.

AWA
I blindly trusted these templates: https://www.platinumgmat.com/about_gmat/ ... y_template
I ended up with a 5.5... I did my very best... no advice there.

Test day
Apparently, they just closed the test center in Monterrey, and they have no plans of reopening it, so I had to fly to the US to take it (it's cool, except that you need to take your passport with you, as they won't take other Mexican IDs).

Everything went perfect, though. Everyone was nice and I managed even to go out to smoke during the breaks and remained relatively calm.

Miscellaneous
1. MGMAT helped on my CR and SC, but it's of no use with RC. The note-taking thing didn't work for me, so I had to make my own strategy, and it worked better.
2. I didn't practice almost AT ALL the days prior to my exam. The last practice CAT was 1 full week before D Day.
3. Afraid of getting nicotine withdrawal symptoms, I bought a very expensive pack of nicorette chewing gum. It was wasted money, though, since I then realized they don't allow you to chew gum in the test room.
4. Once you score your target score on the GMATPreps, schedule immediately. They're a very good predictor, so just bring yourself to do it and don't look back.

I wanna thank you guys for everything. It's an amazing community and I was continuously inspired by you guys.

Thanks, and good luck to everyone!
Last edited by hcueva on Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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by wxwill » Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:23 pm
Congratulations!

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by ame84 » Sun Jan 02, 2011 6:37 pm
Que bien!! Felicidades, yo acabo de empezar a estudiar para el GMAT, también compré todos los libros de MGMAT, a ver que tal. Tienes alguna otra recomendación?? Tipo, hacias un número específico de ejercicios al día??

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by Cox » Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:02 pm
Congratulations on your score!!!

Could you talk a little bit about your strategy for Reading Comprehension? I have the same problem with the MGMAT approach, I just can't seem to make it work for me.

Thanks and congratz again!!

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by hcueva » Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:09 pm
@ame84, La verdad no. Decidí estudiar cada libro de MGMAT sin ponerle atención a cuánto me tomaba. Lo que te recomendaría es estudiarlos muy a detalle independientemente del tiempo. Creo que eso es lo de menos.

@Cox, I didn't really develop a very defined approach, to be honest. I just made sure I read the first question before reading the passage, and applied a very methodical "rule out answers" process. I was never able to be sure which answer was correct, but I think I did develop the ability to be sure which answers were definitely not correct.

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by ksear » Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:59 pm
Materials
I used only MGMAT and OG. I read somewhere that that's all you need, and it was for me. I ordered the full set from MGMAT and went through the books one by one, taking notes and building summaries (I have one Google Doc per MGMAT book). Some of the stuff there is just way too complicated and you'll never see it on the exam, but most of it is extremely useful. MGMAT single-handedly made me improve my score enormously, I couldn't have done it without it.



Hi hcueva,

Since you mentioned that you have made one Google Doc per MGMAT book, have you attached it somewhere or uploaded it somewhere for others to take advantage of? If so, kindly let me know the URL. Thanks.

Regards,
Kashif Sear.

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by hcueva » Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:36 am
ksear wrote: ...have you attached it somewhere or uploaded it somewhere for others to take advantage of? If so, kindly let me know the URL. Thanks.

Regards,
Kashif Sear.
Kashif. I don't know man, they're summaries of everything in the books (they even include full page scans). I'm not sure how legal (or moral) it'd be.

I'm sorry.

Still, they're just summaries -as in I didn't really include illuminating personal notes or anything, so you're not missing out on much.

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by ksear » Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:21 pm
Kashif. I don't know man, they're summaries of everything in the books (they even include full page scans). I'm not sure how legal (or moral) it'd be.

I'm sorry.

Still, they're just summaries -as in I didn't really include illuminating personal notes or anything, so you're not missing out on much.


No worries. As a matter of fact, I'm taking MGMAT's course right now myself and using all of their 8 study guides; however, even though their books are pretty self-explanatory, I do tend to get stuck in some of the advanced sections. So far, we have done the Number Properties book and Equations, Inequalities and VICs. I wrote one of the MGMAT's CAT exams as well and only ended up getting a 550 (35Q 31V). Even though I thought I was fairly good in Math but after looking at my score, I don't believe I am; maybe one of the reasons is that I'm touching Math after a gap of 10 years.

I just wanted to get your view as to where you started on both i.e. Quant and Verbal and how long did it take you to see an improvement? Any words of advice are highly appreciated!

Regards,
Kashif Sear.

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by hcueva » Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:51 am
ksear wrote:I just wanted to get your view as to where you started on both i.e. Quant and Verbal and how long did it take you to see an improvement? Any words of advice are highly appreciated!


Ok, several things to say about that:

1. Some of the topics in the advanced sections are just not gonna show up on your exam (I didn't see half that stuff in my real exam of 49Q or in multiple practice exams in which I got 50Q. I mean do study them 'cause it'll make you better at the easier stuff, but don't expect to master everything (such as the advanced inequalities stuff, it gets a bit ridiculous... I actually think MGMAT should remove some of that).

2. At least in my experience, my average MGMAT CAT score was 717 (5 tests) and my average GMATPrep score was 755. So do not worry too much about the MGMAT results; use those tests only to hone your timing skills, and assume an improvement once you take GMATPreps -particularly in Q.

3. So if you're getting 35Q on MGMAT CATs, I think you could already score a 40Q on the real thing, plus what you'll improve as you study further. Regarding the verbal section, however, I did score the same on MGMAT CATs vs. GMATPreps/RealGMAT. So I'd say that's what you should focus on, 'cause you'll never reach 700 with a 30V.

--> Try to master the "rule out answers" approach.

Just the change in strategy of trying to find the right answer vs. trying to spot obviously incorrect answers helped me a lot (in all 3 V sections). I also studied the Aristotle SC Grail for a bit and, although mostly similar to the MGMAT SC book, I did find it a bit clearer in its explanations and it did help me a bit.

Just do a ton of V problems. I got me a word document that someone posted around here that has 100 CR questions, and another with 100 SC questions and just doing one by one very slowly and trying to find patters to the GMAC approach to things helped me a lot.

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by ksear » Sat Jan 08, 2011 1:52 pm
Thanks a lot buddy...really appreciate it! :)

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by cesar.augusto » Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:29 am
Felicidades ! acabo de ver tu post. Te queria preguntar si todavia tienes los libros de MGMAT? Estoy estudiando yo tambien, pero la guias no es suficiente, y creo los libros son muy utiles. Vivo en Monterrey . Espero poder contactarte para ver si podemos acordar algo con los libros, como ves? mi email: [email protected] y mi celular 0448111819530.
Un saludo, y espero tus comentarios