I just Beat The GMAT!

GMAT: 720 (45q 44v) 94%

Greetings. I first discovered this forum in February and I have become an "I Just Beat the GMAT" addict. It is the first thing I look at everyday hoping to find some wisdom or hope for a great score. I would read each debrief and look forward to the day when I could write my own. So here it is. But before I go through my test preparation and the test itself, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed their stories to this forum and I sincerely hope that everyone gets into the school of their dreams (or at least a scholarship to that second choice). I also want to give kudos to all of the non-English speakers who have destroyed this test. This test is deliberately designed to keep you out of business school and I think it's amazing that you conquered it. Perhaps when you get your degree and become "important" you can change admissions criteria.

A little about me: I'm from NY and I just turned 28. I had a solid B average at a well known liberal arts college (economics major) which I graduated from in 2004. I sold cars for a year and then went to law school at a (recently demoted) 3rd tier school (LSAT: 164). In law school I earned honors and took a job with the government where I work in a business capacity. I bought the OG the week after I passed the New York bar in the fall of 2008 but did not start seriously studying until the spring of 2009. I studied pretty solidly for 2 months from May through June 2009 thinking I was going to apply last fall, however, an excellent opportunity came along at work that pushed my plans back a year so I restarted studying in February of this year.

Books:
OG (Official guide) 11th (great)
Barron's GMAT flash cards
REA GMAT book
Petersons GMAT book
McGraw Hill's GMAT book
Manhattan GMAT test simulation booklet (I know, this is really over the top but I wanted to be ready)
OG Quantitative and Verbal supplements (great)
Quantitative and Verbal Supplements (once again great book)


My study method was pretty simple. Admittedly, it probably was not the most effective use of my time. I started by reviewing all the notes from platinumgmat.com which is a great resource that hardly gets mentioned on this forum. It also has a great outline for the AWAs. Then I would just buy a book and do all the questions cover to cover. I never had any difficulties with CR or RC, however, I believed that the more of these I did the better I would do on the exam so I did all the questions. Because CR and RC were so easy for me I didn't mind doing them because I considered them a break from the real studying in SC and quantitative. In high school I did well in math (I'm sure we all did) so I was hoping for the best. I'm also a strong believer in what so many people have stated on this forum: "What one person can do, another can do." This means that if one person can do well on the GMAT then anyone else, with enough hard work, can do equally as well.

I kept notes/flashcards. As part of my studying I kept notes on all the math problems I thought would be useful to know. I've scanned them in and attached them below. Obviously they are for free for everyone to use and hopefully get a good score. They scanned sideways but you can rotate the view in whatever .pdf viewer you're using.

Studying gets harder. It was something I hadn't realized when I started. At first all the questions in the OG are easy and I breezed through them. When I got something wrong I would review the question and say, "whoops, I knew that!" But when I got up past question 150 things changed. Now when I got something wrong I had no idea how to attack the question - sometimes even after reading the answer. I think this is where the 700s are separated from the 600s. If you push on and persevere there is a reward at the end - trust me. If you want to absolutely torture yourself do the 198 math questions that are available for download on this site. I never finished those - I think I got to around 170 because the test was getting too close and I wanted to review my notes. But those are some intense questions and they are painful. I have a group of smart friends at work that I would frequently share these questions with. One of my friends has a Phd in geology from Columbia and the other got a 1600 on his SATs (a perfect score at the time). They both increased my abilities because sometimes it's easier to hear someone say it than it is to read that.

I did not take a formal course. I realized a long time ago that I do most of my learning on my own when I sit down with the material. Therefore, a course would be a waste of time and money. Obviously, some of the books I used were better than others. In my experience the only good books were the OGs. All the other books/flashcards I did were purely to learn and not go gage how I would do on the test. I believe that I learned something from each book but if you only had time to do one book it should certainly be the Official Guide.

Ten weeks ago I started my timed test practice. I did each of the below tests once a week (usually on Friday) and reviewed the test either that day or on Saturday. One of the reasons I am posting my scores, in the order they were taken, is to prove once and for all that the free practice tests out there are not true indicators of test day ability. As you can see I took GMATPrep 1 on April 23 and got a 710. I think this was a lucky score and I probably was testing more in the 690 range. Each of the following weeks I took a free test and scored significantly lower. This has also been confirmed to me by a friend who used to work for one of the major companies who was in the room when it was discussed openly how the free tests should be harder than the real thing in order to generate business. BUT, I don't care. I think these tests are great and I am very thankful for the opportunity to take them. Timing was always my weakest point and that's what these tests helped me with. Additionally I don't think the math problems are all that bad. On the other hand MANY of the verbal questions are HORENDOUS. As you will note on GMATPrep (and in all the OGs) I was doing very well in verbal. I believe that if you spend too much time away from OG verbal questions it's possible to actually lose skills.

GMATPrep 1: 710 (42q (12 wrong), 45v(6 wrong))
Knewton: 630 (36q 42v)
Manhattan: 650 (42q 37v)
CrackGmat: 600 (47q 19v)
Veritas: 640 (44q 35v)
Kaplan: 670 (44q 42v)
Petersons: No score given 32/37q 25/41v
GMATPrep 2: 730 (48q (9 wrong) 42v(6 wrong))
GMATPrep 1a: 750 (49q (12 wrong) 44v(6 wrong))
GMATPrep 2a: 750 (50q (8 wrong) 42v (7 wrong)
**Obviously in the GMATPrep retakes are a poor indicator of score because there are question repeats. This is even more so for me because I had done so many of the 198 math problems at this point.

The one part of my studying that I would probably change would be to purchase the Manhattan SC guide early on and work my way through that. It was about two weeks out when I realized how much more the verbal part of the test is worth than the quantitative. My advice: When you are 2 weeks out focus on verbal. One extra question right on SC can be equivalent to 3 or 4 in quantitative. I largely focused on SC for the last two weeks by making sure I had done every question in OG 11 & 12 and each question in the supplement twice.

I think my total study time for this test was enormous to say the least. I would put it at approximately 7 months of daily studying. Studying time was between 1 and 5 hours a day. I discovered a long time ago that I work better by studying less seven days in a row than studying a lot for four days in a row. The number of problems I did is easily over 2000 and probably closer to 3000. More than one people said to me, "but you studied for the bar, this should be nothing." Ooh, how VERY wrong. On my first day of studying for the bar with BARBRI (a bar prep company) they told us that the New York bar at my school had a 90% pass rate. I happened to be sitting in a row of 10 people so I looked down the row and thought, "huh, I only have to do better than one of these people." I knew all of them because we had had classes together for three years and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief because I saw four people that I knew I worked harder than. The GMAT is so different. Now imagine you're standing in a room of 100 people and you're told you have to beat 93 of them (I got in the 94th percentile). Now imagine that many of them majored in and worked in the exact topics that the GMAT is designed to test. It's a very different situation.

I also briefly want to mention the "haters." I work with a TON of MBAs and many of them encouraged me not to study at all because the test was "so easy." Yes, it is easy to get a 600. There were also a lot of people who were offended when I told them I was aiming for the 700s. They hadn't gotten in the 700s so why should I? Of course no one says this but that's what they're thinking. On some strange level studying hard for this test is almost considered cheating by people who got in the 600s. But it's not. If you stopped by Harvard and went to a random class and asked who studied they're all going to raise their hands. Anyways - that's my two cents.

Test Day: Pretty normal. I showed up about an hour early and they let me start immediately. I'm not disappointed in my score, however, I believe that I had the potential to do a little better on the math. My timing on the math was great all the way up through question 25, but somewhere after that the wheels fell off the wagon and I had to randomly guess on the last two questions. This was disappointing to me but it happens. My timing on verbal was excellent and I finished with about a minute to spare. I was not surprised with my score, but the break down was different than I had expected. I had expected a 48q and a 42v for a 720. Unfortunately, a lot of the test is luck and depends on what questions happen to roll at you on that day. This isn't quite as true for quant as it is for verbal. Most likely my 45 in quant means I got around 10 questions wrong out of the 37. However, my 44 in verbal means I got around 6 questions wrong out of 41. Take from this what you will but I am strong supporter in killing yourself in the verbal section even if that means quant slides a little. If I had to guess I most likely got 5 verbal questions wrong: 1 RC, 1 CR, and 3 SC.

I made a list of things to watch out for on the exam and here they are:

1. I will pace.
2. I will guess when the math takes too long.
3. I will not solve DS all the way when it is not necessary to do so.
4. I will expect to be panicked at some point during the test because everyone with a good score gets panicked at some point.
5. I will work deliberately and check my work and the givens again.
6. I will keep DS choices separate until it's time to examine them together.
7. I will remember many sentences have 2 errors and not get hung up if some idioms look equally valid (because they probably are).
8. I will remember to breathe. (A friend gave me this one. He said that during period of high stress focusing on breathing can help regulate mental acuity.)

Thank you for reading this. I apologize for any poor grammar or spelling. I would love to hear your comments about my prep. I would also appreciate any input on some great resources for the admissions process. I still have no idea where I want to apply but I look forward to the process. Once again good luck everyone!