780 (51Q, 47V, 6.0 AWA) [Diagnostic: 610]

Find out how Beat The GMAT members tackled GMAT test prep with positive results. Get tips on GMAT test prep materials, online courses, study tips, and more.
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780 (51Q, 47V, 6.0 AWA) [Diagnostic: 610]

by 78Omg » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:38 am
I lurked this site during study breaks as I prepped for the GMAT and got a lot of motivation from it, so I figured the least I could do to give back was summarize my preparation for others.

About me: Currently in undergrad, applying to PhD programs (avg GMATs are between 710-740, so the bar was set high)

One caveat before I begin is that I'm not sure I have a "silver bullet" tip that will make a huge difference for people, but I'll share nonetheless. Last year, I spent about 6 months preparing for the LSAT and took it twice. Given this, my reading comprehension and critical reasoning skills heading into my GMAT preparation were already strong. Having now taken both tests, I would say that the level of difficulty of both the critical reasoning and reading comprehension on the LSAT exceeds that of the GMAT, but that is not much of a surprise. For this reason, I had somewhat of a headstart on the Verbal section and focused on sentence correction in my studying.

Scores
PR Diagnostic - 610 (36V, 39Q)
PR #2 - 680 (40V, 44Q)
PR #3 - 690 (43V, 44Q)
PR #4 - 730 (44V, 48Q)
MGMAT #1 - 700 (39V, 46Q)
MGMAT #2 - 750 (44V, 48Q)
MGMAT #3 - 710 (40V, 47Q)
GMATprep #1 - 770 (forget breakdown)

A word on preptests: don't read too much into your scores. I always felt I was at a slightly higher level than my scores were showing, and this was confirmed by the GMATprep score and obviously my actual GMAT. This is not to say that you should add 50 points to your preptest scores, but just that you should view them as practice for the "experience" of the GMAT and not to put too much weight on the scores that they give you since the algorithms are imperfect. Focus much more on how you handle the OG questions for a measure of your abilities.

Prep Materials
Princeton Review Live Online Course
OG 12
BeatTheGMAT.com flashcards (highly recommend)
MGMAT CATs

It seems that MGMAT is viewed as the gold-standard of prep courses on forums. While I did not actually take their course, having taken their CATs and compared them with the PR CATs, I actually found that the PR CATs were closer to the real GMAT in the composition of questions and level of difficulty (though the algorithm always felt like it understated scores).

I'm not trying to knock MGMAT, but their CATs seemed to have an unnecessary emphasis on permutations, and also their quant questions seemed a lot longer than real GMAT questions. In hindsight, it seems like PR's questions did a better job of simulating the actual GMAT experience. MGMAT's CATs definitely felt harder than the real GMAT, but this was a good thing, because the math on the actual GMAT seemed much easier by comparison. If you are taking the MGMAT CATs, just remember to not get discouraged, because I actually got slightly worried about my quant prep after taking their first test, and I ended up with a 51 on the real thing lol.

How did I study?
As stated above, I highly recommend the flashcards from this site. I printed them out and carried them around in my backpack. Between classes, during lunch, or whenever I'd have some idle time, I'd pull them out and review 30-40 of them. Especially for the quant section, it's important to just commit certain formulas to memory. Also, PR gave us 3-4 pages of idioms, so I carried this around and made a point of reviewing it at least a few times a day. Again, its important to just familiarize yourself with these concepts. You'll remember concepts a lot better if you see them a couple times a day for a few months rather than for a few hours at a time once every couple of weeks.

Since I took the PR course, I had access to question banks for every question type and at varied difficulty levels. I would do each question set (10-15 questions) and then review the explanations for the ones I got incorrect and also the ones that I got correct but had to think about. Focusing on your mistakes is so important. Doing hundreds of questions over and over will teach you nothing if you do not review your answers.

My advice on quant is to always think twice on data sufficiency. On 700-800 DS questions, I found there is always another technique that can be used that might not be obvious. The test writers hope you go with the obvious strategy, but I would always say "let's take a moment and think if there is another, less obvious way to do this". Usually this related to cases when you could actually solve the question with one piece of information rather than two by using some trick, shortcut, or identity. Taking those extra 30 seconds can make a huge difference.

For sentence correction, I would always read each answer choice as part of the whole sentence. A lot of times, the underlined portion will have something that doesn't agree with something in the non-underlined portion, such as "their" in reference to a singular subject, and its easy to not catch this if you are not reading each choice as part of the whole sentence. When doing sentence correction, I would check: (1) idioms, (2) subject agreements, (3) parallelism, (4) does it "sound" right?

What did I NOT do?
I did not do any practice for the essay section. As a current undergrad who has always excelled in writing courses, I was comfortable with my writing. I did not read any example essays either. The extent of my prep was glancing over the sampling questions in the OG 12 just to get a sense of what type of mindset I would need when the question popped on screen on test day. This may not be advisable for everyone, but its important to know your strengths and not waste your limited study time on them.

Mindset
I think its important to set high goals for the GMAT, but also be comfortable with your ability level. Basically, I'm saying that you should prepare for the test with the mindset of "I'm going to perform to the best of my abilities" and not "Its 700+ or bust". I approached this test with the goal of quantifying my abilities for admission committees. When I sat down at the computer on test day, I knew I had prepared for a few months and had done everything I possibly could. Assuming the test went smoothly, whatever score popped up on screen 4 hours later was going to be culmination of months of effort and I was going to accept whatever it was. Sure, its easy for me to say this with a 780, but I think a big part of why I got a 780 was the mindset I had during the test. I just want to suggest this because I see a lot of "beaten by the gmat" posts and I don't think people should necessarily adopt this defeated mindset if they really did the best they could.

During the test
It's been said many times, but I'll repeat it: don't waste a second of your time trying to guess how you are doing based on how easy or hard the questions seem.

One thing I did that I think made a big difference for me was taking a quick break with 10 questions left in Verbal. During all of my preptests, I would finish with between 15 and 30 minutes to spare on Verbal, so my plan heading in was to take a quick break during the section if I was on a similar pace. I used the time to wake myself up and get pumped to finish strong, and as you'll find when you take the real thing, its hard to not get fatigued by the end. This likely may not be an option for a lot of people, but its worth considering if you can safely do it. I still finished comfortably with 5 minutes to spare, so this was not a risky strategy.

That's all I can think to say off the top of my head, just trying to "share the wealth". Let me know if I can answer any specific questions. If you have questions, ask them here, rather than through private messages.

P.S.
My username relates to my reaction when seeing the score. I saw 7__ and thought "Great, I broke 700!". My eyes then processed the _80 and I was blown away. Definitely one of the best moments of my life :)

Best of luck to everyone!
Last edited by 78Omg on Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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by Victor Creed » Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:02 pm
Congratulations on a great score!

"Finished verbal 15-30 mins to spare" :o ......unbelivable, either you are born genius or must have really slogged your a** off to get there.....either ways...AWESOME score!

ATB for your application.

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by 78Omg » Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:24 pm
Victor Creed wrote:Congratulations on a great score!

"Finished verbal 15-30 mins to spare" :o ......unbelivable, either you are born genius or must have really slogged your a** off to get there.....either ways...AWESOME score!

ATB for your application.
Actually, I think this is one aspect of my testing that I owe to the LSAT. Each section on the LSAT is 35 minutes, so I was used to racing through questions to beat that clock. 75 minutes for the section seemed like a luxury.

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by ShiftyPig » Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:01 pm
78Omg wrote:
Victor Creed wrote:Actually, I think this is one aspect of my testing that I owe to the LSAT. Each section on the LSAT is 35 minutes, so I was used to racing through questions to beat that clock. 75 minutes for the section seemed like a luxury.
This. So much this.

Scored a 770 (49Q, 47V, 5.5AWA) last week - been meaning to do a debrief but haven't gotten around to it. I strongly recommend practicing on LSAT RC/LR questions. Having taken the LSAT, the GMAT variations of these questions seemed like a walk in the park.

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by sashish007 » Sun Jan 02, 2011 9:12 am
78Omg wrote:Mindset
I think its important to set high goals for the GMAT, but also be comfortable with your ability level. Basically, I'm saying that you should prepare for the test with the mindset of "I'm going to perform to the best of my abilities" and not "Its 700+ or bust".
congrats! and well said pal.
78Omg wrote: My username relates to my reaction when seeing the score. I saw 7__ and thought "Great, I broke 700!". My eyes then processed the _80 and I was blown away. Definitely one of the best moments of my life :)
kewl!
Ashish
Share not just why the right answer is right, but also why the wrong ones are not.