I've been a silent reader for quite some time and have gained a lot from this website. I'm hoping to share my own strategy in the off-chance that it may help someone else conquer this beast. As noted in the subject, this was actually my second time taking the test, but more on that later. Reader beware, this post is incredibly long (trying to purge myself of this experience).
Initial Prep Before First Test (November 2009 to June 2010):
I knew from past experience (mostly lack of confidence with standardized tests) that prepping for the GMAT would take a very, very long time. Three of my colleagues who had taken the test had scored 740, 760, and 770. I think this became a motivating factor for me to do well.
I saw that there was a test prep center fairly close to my office and decided to sign-up for a 9-week course without doing much research. I anticipated that I would have to put in significant time after the course to self-study. The class was through Manhattan GMAT. The class and instructor were fantastic (highly recommended), particularly for building the basics. It was a ton of work and a lot of money, but fully worth it in retrospect (it's always easier to justify it in retrospect). I scheduled my actual test for June, mostly because I had a business trip thrown at me last minute that would last for about 6-weeks, starting right at the end of the 9-week course. Unfortunate timing, but it's life.
For Prep materials, I only used the MGMAT guides (all of them) and the 3 OG guides (Q, V and OG12). Save for online forums, I didn't use any other study materials. I found the math guides and SC guide to be invaluable, but didn't use the RC and CR guides at all. As many others have echoed, it's not the quantity of material, but how in-depth you study them. More on this philosophy later.
My first two MGMAT CAT diagnostics were in November and January:
630 (Q42 V34)
690 (Q45 V38)
I felt pretty good when the classes ended and knew that with some additional self-studying, I could boost my score up further. Unfortunately, however, when my business trip started, I stopped studying entirely. I actually threw away my copy of OG12 because I didn't want to lug it around anymore (it's freakin' heavy!). When I got back, I had about 10 weeks to hit the books. I focused strictly on the OG during this time, working through problems at a torrid pace. I kept an error log of all problems. It was during this time that I discovered that I was actually much better at Verbal (getting about 95% of the OG questions correct, and only SC wrong to boot) and not as good at Quant (about 75% correct). I thought this was strange for a math major, but as you all know, the GMAT doesn't test pure math. I didn't do a lot of the MGMAT OG homework assignments because I was saving the questions for this study period.
I took another MGMAT CAT in May:
710 (Q45 V41)
It was after this test that I made 2 critical mistakes for my final study period, which I believe resonated in my first test score.
Critical Mistake #1: I really liked getting questions correct, so I continued to put a significant amount of study time into RC and CR (even though I had literally gotten 2 CR and RC questions wrong to date). I should have simply maintained my level and spent time on the most problematic areas. No one likes to work on what they suck at, but it's a part of doing better.
Critical Mistake #2: I kept on tearing through questions at the same pace and rarely reviewed questions that I got right and spent very little time on questions I got wrong. Reviewing questions you get right, especially if there is a better way to solve the question, was a huge breakthrough, but something I didn't realize until after the first test.
About three weeks before my first test date, I took GMAT Prep #1 under test conditions:
740 (Q49 V41)
I was incredibly happy with my score, but I saw quite a few familiar questions on both sections so had no clue what the score actually meant.
I kept on studying and the week before my first test date, took GMAT Prep #2, again under test conditions:
760 (Q50 V41)
I saw very few familiar questions this time around, but also got lucky on 3 or 4 guesses in the Quant section. Regardless, I was very happy with my progress to date...or so I thought
Last Week Before First Test (June 2010):
I had read about some other success stories on this forum and their "week of" mindset, so for the week leading up to the test, I decided to "put myself in position for success." My test was at 8AM, so I practiced questions at that time every day. I even changed other habits like drinking less coffee and getting more than 6 hours of sleep. The day before the test, I took the day off, did no work and just relaxed. I was pretty confident about my chances to achieve a high score. Again, in retrospect, this is where I made critical mistake #3
Critical Mistake #3: I completely changed my habits around in order to set myself up for success. I typically never sleep more than 8 hours and consume tons of caffeine. In college, I was always sleep deprived and studying up until the last minute...and it worked really, really well...for me. I think you need to do what's worked for you in the past, rather than what's worked for someone else. I've never had an issue with test stamina or focus, so more sleep probably wasn't a solution to anything. Taking that day off of work to "relax" really upped my anxiety level and I had difficulty thinking about anything else besides the test.
Day of First Test (June 2010):
Honestly, I wish I could provide a better de-brief, but I don't remember the details. I was extremely nervous (horrible test anxiety) and my heart was racing pretty much the entire time. I remember the Quant section feeling a bit unfamiliar and I got a lot of question types that I had seen in practice, but didn't spend much time on. Even so, I thought it went ok and finished with a minute or two to spare. I also skipped questions as recommended. Verbal was fine, as always. (as an aside, if you're at all worried about the actual testing procedures, there is a great video on youtube that shows you how everything is done and what the test center looks like - search for "gmat test center")
First Test Score: 710 (Q45 V42)
Mixed emotions. I was extremely happy with my verbal score, but as a math major (albeit many years back), Q45 was unacceptable. After an agonizing internal de-brief, I decided to become one of the crazy few to re-take a 700+. My test had revealed critical mistake #4, which I was determined to rectify on the next exam.
Critical Mistake #4: During the test, I was TOO time focused. I wanted two minutes for every remaining question and failed to consider that some questions may take 25 seconds, whereas others may take 180 seconds. Because of this, I didn't try hard enough on quite a few of the quant sections and simply skipped when I thought I had given them a decent effort.
Prep Before Second Test (July 2010 to August 2010):
I took a full 5 weeks off from studying (3 of them spent on vacation, 2 of them spent regaining some semblance of normalcy in my life) and left myself with 4 weeks before my second test date. I was only going to focus on Quant and SC and focus heavily on the areas that were shaky (absolute value and inequalities). I suck at probability-combinatorics and also decided that on the real test I would spend 10 seconds to review and if remotely complicated, guess and move on. I studied the crap (no other elegant way to say this) out of the MGMAT Quant books (especially the advanced sections). I created about 200 flashcards covering all of Quant and SC and carried decks with me everywhere I went. Each flashcard was an "If" statement. This helped me focus on things to notice in problems and the properties to recall when those things appeared on the test. I believe this was hugely helpful (I'm more of a memorization kind of studier).
For the final two weeks, I did a Quant section of a MGMAT CAT test every other day. I know people have their opinions of non-GMAT Prep diagnostics, but I feel that the difficulty level of the MGMAT CAT Quant prepared me supremely well to succeed on the real thing. I found that it tested similar properties, but was much more complex, clever, and difficult. I also did about 100 of the Challenge Problems (all un-timed). Aside from re-taking GMAT Prep #1 and #2 again, I did no other OG questions during this time and instead spent most of my time reviewing the MGMAT CAT Quant (particularly the explanations), looking over SC flashcards and reading BTG forum posts to GMAT Prep questions.
I scored a 760 on both GMAT Prep re-takes, with Q50's and very few repeated difficult questions and felt as if I was ready again.
Week Before Second Test (August 2010):
Because of work, I got no more than 5 hours of sleep any night and drank 3-4 cups of coffee a day. I thought I was doomed. I didn't change up my study routine at all (MGMAT CAT Quant + SC flashcards) and actually worked up until 8PM the Friday before my test. In some strange way, this was beneficial. I had too much work to be freaked out about the test itself. I also scheduled my test for 12 noon. As an afternoon-evening person, my brain is more on point later in the day and I felt that I would be more "awake."
Day of Second Test (August 2010):
Completely calm aside from a massive "lack of caffeine" headache. Drank a ton of coffee before the test to get the juices flowing. The quant section seemed too easy and I worked completely through almost every question, except for the last two, which were educated guesses because I ran out of time. Somewhere around two-thirds through the test, I got two questions that I swear a semi-competent 3rd grader could answer correctly. So don't try and evaluate the difficulty of the questions, it's a moot task. I was feeling pretty good so I only took a 2 minute stretch break before diving back in. The verbal section was a different story. The SC were all straightforward, but the RC and CR had some question types that were completely strange and foreign, unlike anything I had seen in prep material. I thought I had aced the quant and botched the verbal. Fortunately, as usual, I was completely wrong:
750 (Q49 V45)
Very, very happy to be done with this part of my life. BTG was a huge help and if there's anything I can do to help, let me know! Good luck to you all, I sympathize with how big of a pain in the ass this test can be!
Initial Prep Before First Test (November 2009 to June 2010):
I knew from past experience (mostly lack of confidence with standardized tests) that prepping for the GMAT would take a very, very long time. Three of my colleagues who had taken the test had scored 740, 760, and 770. I think this became a motivating factor for me to do well.
I saw that there was a test prep center fairly close to my office and decided to sign-up for a 9-week course without doing much research. I anticipated that I would have to put in significant time after the course to self-study. The class was through Manhattan GMAT. The class and instructor were fantastic (highly recommended), particularly for building the basics. It was a ton of work and a lot of money, but fully worth it in retrospect (it's always easier to justify it in retrospect). I scheduled my actual test for June, mostly because I had a business trip thrown at me last minute that would last for about 6-weeks, starting right at the end of the 9-week course. Unfortunate timing, but it's life.
For Prep materials, I only used the MGMAT guides (all of them) and the 3 OG guides (Q, V and OG12). Save for online forums, I didn't use any other study materials. I found the math guides and SC guide to be invaluable, but didn't use the RC and CR guides at all. As many others have echoed, it's not the quantity of material, but how in-depth you study them. More on this philosophy later.
My first two MGMAT CAT diagnostics were in November and January:
630 (Q42 V34)
690 (Q45 V38)
I felt pretty good when the classes ended and knew that with some additional self-studying, I could boost my score up further. Unfortunately, however, when my business trip started, I stopped studying entirely. I actually threw away my copy of OG12 because I didn't want to lug it around anymore (it's freakin' heavy!). When I got back, I had about 10 weeks to hit the books. I focused strictly on the OG during this time, working through problems at a torrid pace. I kept an error log of all problems. It was during this time that I discovered that I was actually much better at Verbal (getting about 95% of the OG questions correct, and only SC wrong to boot) and not as good at Quant (about 75% correct). I thought this was strange for a math major, but as you all know, the GMAT doesn't test pure math. I didn't do a lot of the MGMAT OG homework assignments because I was saving the questions for this study period.
I took another MGMAT CAT in May:
710 (Q45 V41)
It was after this test that I made 2 critical mistakes for my final study period, which I believe resonated in my first test score.
Critical Mistake #1: I really liked getting questions correct, so I continued to put a significant amount of study time into RC and CR (even though I had literally gotten 2 CR and RC questions wrong to date). I should have simply maintained my level and spent time on the most problematic areas. No one likes to work on what they suck at, but it's a part of doing better.
Critical Mistake #2: I kept on tearing through questions at the same pace and rarely reviewed questions that I got right and spent very little time on questions I got wrong. Reviewing questions you get right, especially if there is a better way to solve the question, was a huge breakthrough, but something I didn't realize until after the first test.
About three weeks before my first test date, I took GMAT Prep #1 under test conditions:
740 (Q49 V41)
I was incredibly happy with my score, but I saw quite a few familiar questions on both sections so had no clue what the score actually meant.
I kept on studying and the week before my first test date, took GMAT Prep #2, again under test conditions:
760 (Q50 V41)
I saw very few familiar questions this time around, but also got lucky on 3 or 4 guesses in the Quant section. Regardless, I was very happy with my progress to date...or so I thought
Last Week Before First Test (June 2010):
I had read about some other success stories on this forum and their "week of" mindset, so for the week leading up to the test, I decided to "put myself in position for success." My test was at 8AM, so I practiced questions at that time every day. I even changed other habits like drinking less coffee and getting more than 6 hours of sleep. The day before the test, I took the day off, did no work and just relaxed. I was pretty confident about my chances to achieve a high score. Again, in retrospect, this is where I made critical mistake #3
Critical Mistake #3: I completely changed my habits around in order to set myself up for success. I typically never sleep more than 8 hours and consume tons of caffeine. In college, I was always sleep deprived and studying up until the last minute...and it worked really, really well...for me. I think you need to do what's worked for you in the past, rather than what's worked for someone else. I've never had an issue with test stamina or focus, so more sleep probably wasn't a solution to anything. Taking that day off of work to "relax" really upped my anxiety level and I had difficulty thinking about anything else besides the test.
Day of First Test (June 2010):
Honestly, I wish I could provide a better de-brief, but I don't remember the details. I was extremely nervous (horrible test anxiety) and my heart was racing pretty much the entire time. I remember the Quant section feeling a bit unfamiliar and I got a lot of question types that I had seen in practice, but didn't spend much time on. Even so, I thought it went ok and finished with a minute or two to spare. I also skipped questions as recommended. Verbal was fine, as always. (as an aside, if you're at all worried about the actual testing procedures, there is a great video on youtube that shows you how everything is done and what the test center looks like - search for "gmat test center")
First Test Score: 710 (Q45 V42)
Mixed emotions. I was extremely happy with my verbal score, but as a math major (albeit many years back), Q45 was unacceptable. After an agonizing internal de-brief, I decided to become one of the crazy few to re-take a 700+. My test had revealed critical mistake #4, which I was determined to rectify on the next exam.
Critical Mistake #4: During the test, I was TOO time focused. I wanted two minutes for every remaining question and failed to consider that some questions may take 25 seconds, whereas others may take 180 seconds. Because of this, I didn't try hard enough on quite a few of the quant sections and simply skipped when I thought I had given them a decent effort.
Prep Before Second Test (July 2010 to August 2010):
I took a full 5 weeks off from studying (3 of them spent on vacation, 2 of them spent regaining some semblance of normalcy in my life) and left myself with 4 weeks before my second test date. I was only going to focus on Quant and SC and focus heavily on the areas that were shaky (absolute value and inequalities). I suck at probability-combinatorics and also decided that on the real test I would spend 10 seconds to review and if remotely complicated, guess and move on. I studied the crap (no other elegant way to say this) out of the MGMAT Quant books (especially the advanced sections). I created about 200 flashcards covering all of Quant and SC and carried decks with me everywhere I went. Each flashcard was an "If" statement. This helped me focus on things to notice in problems and the properties to recall when those things appeared on the test. I believe this was hugely helpful (I'm more of a memorization kind of studier).
For the final two weeks, I did a Quant section of a MGMAT CAT test every other day. I know people have their opinions of non-GMAT Prep diagnostics, but I feel that the difficulty level of the MGMAT CAT Quant prepared me supremely well to succeed on the real thing. I found that it tested similar properties, but was much more complex, clever, and difficult. I also did about 100 of the Challenge Problems (all un-timed). Aside from re-taking GMAT Prep #1 and #2 again, I did no other OG questions during this time and instead spent most of my time reviewing the MGMAT CAT Quant (particularly the explanations), looking over SC flashcards and reading BTG forum posts to GMAT Prep questions.
I scored a 760 on both GMAT Prep re-takes, with Q50's and very few repeated difficult questions and felt as if I was ready again.
Week Before Second Test (August 2010):
Because of work, I got no more than 5 hours of sleep any night and drank 3-4 cups of coffee a day. I thought I was doomed. I didn't change up my study routine at all (MGMAT CAT Quant + SC flashcards) and actually worked up until 8PM the Friday before my test. In some strange way, this was beneficial. I had too much work to be freaked out about the test itself. I also scheduled my test for 12 noon. As an afternoon-evening person, my brain is more on point later in the day and I felt that I would be more "awake."
Day of Second Test (August 2010):
Completely calm aside from a massive "lack of caffeine" headache. Drank a ton of coffee before the test to get the juices flowing. The quant section seemed too easy and I worked completely through almost every question, except for the last two, which were educated guesses because I ran out of time. Somewhere around two-thirds through the test, I got two questions that I swear a semi-competent 3rd grader could answer correctly. So don't try and evaluate the difficulty of the questions, it's a moot task. I was feeling pretty good so I only took a 2 minute stretch break before diving back in. The verbal section was a different story. The SC were all straightforward, but the RC and CR had some question types that were completely strange and foreign, unlike anything I had seen in prep material. I thought I had aced the quant and botched the verbal. Fortunately, as usual, I was completely wrong:
750 (Q49 V45)
Very, very happy to be done with this part of my life. BTG was a huge help and if there's anything I can do to help, let me know! Good luck to you all, I sympathize with how big of a pain in the ass this test can be!
