First off I'd like to say thank you to the Beatthegmat.com community. There were many posts that inspired me a lot along the way and I want to give back to all of you. I'll try my best to give an accurate debrief and then I will answer any questions over the next few weeks. I sat for the GMAT August 1st.
Background: I'm a 29 year-old male. I went to a small liberal arts college ranked between 50 and 75 in the US according to US News and World Report. I majored in business and had a GPA around 3.5 or so. I have always had an affinity for math so I was probably ahead of the curve in quant before I began studying for the test but verbal has never been my strong suit (790/540 SAT split).
In late March I began thinking about business school. I am in a strange profession in that most of my peers haven't gone to b-school but I wanted a challenge nonetheless. I went to Barnes & Noble and bought Kaplan's GMAT Premier Program 2009 Edition Book. I read very little about the test and decided almost immediately to take the practice test in the back of the book. I don't know if I even realized at the time that the actual test would be computer adaptive. The quant section killed me. (BTW, why does the word killed always look weird on this site?) I got 25 of 37 questions correct - the data sufficiency was like nothing I had ever seen. On the verbal I got 32 of 41 questions right which I thought was pretty decent.
A couple of months went by and in early May I decided to put a lot of effort into the GMAT. I had originally planned to attend a school only about 10 minutes from my house. The average GMAT score of those students is around a 630-650. I have an interesting background to say the least so I really wanted to blow the GMAT out of the water. I next day I signed up for an advanced class with Kaplan. You must have a qualifying score of 600 or better to get in to the advanced class but I figured that if I studied before I could get to at least a 600. I had read somewhere that it's best to take the GMAT right after you finish a class so I went directly to MBA.com and scheduled the test for just 2 days after I finished my class with Kaplan.
About a week later I got a package in the mail from Kaplan. Inside were 2 Kaplan workbooks and the Official Guide 12th Ed. I had read about the Official Guide and it was around that time that I found these forums. I immediately devoured the quant section of the OG. I also made the mistake of marking up the book instead of using scratch paper. Of course, if I had it to do all over again I would definitely not do that. After going through about 50-75 quant problems every day and reading the explanation of each question I missed and/or guessed on I finished in about 5 or 6 days. Without looking at verbal I decided it was time to take another practice test. I had read on this forum that the best practice tests were GMATPrep1 and GMATPrep2. I should have saved one but hindsight is 20/20. My 2 scores are as follows:
GMAT Prep 1: 740 (Q49, V41) May 23rd
GMAT Prep 2: 700 (Q47, V40) May 25th
I ran into major time problems on the first test and had to guess the last 5 quant questions. When I went back over the test I noticed that I got the first 13 or so quant questions correct which helped me get a 49 despite missing 4 of the last 5. I think I missed 10 quant questions overall so I am very surprised I got a 49 there. I also became very apparent that my biggest weakness on the verbal side was sentence correction.
After those two tests I knew what to work on and as a result I was feeling pretty confident. That changed really quickly the next week when I took Kaplan CAT 1.
KAPLAN CAT 1: 640 (Q46, V35) May 29th
This test was really tough and the verbal section was freaking impossible. Looking back I think Kaplan tests are absolutely worthless. I'll talk more about the class later but the verbal section of the Kaplan tests is not representative of what you will see on the actual GMAT. I would definitely suggest you spend your time elsewhere. I was still reeling from that Kaplan test the next week when I ran out of all the questions in OG12. As an aside, I never purchased the official guide verbal and quant supplements. I found out about them too late and frankly I don't even know if they are available for the 12th edition. Looking back I wish I had those for extra practice. Anyways, after I ran out of OG12 questions I took a Manhattan GMAT practice test.
MGMAT 1: 680 (Q48, V35) June 4th
It was at that time that I really began using these forums as a resource. Data sufficiency was still a minor problem, so was timing on the quant side, on the verbal side sentence correction was killing me. I decided to purchase the Manhattan Sentence Correction book. That was a MAJOR help - thanks to everyone on this forum who suggested that book. It's really a must. I spent a lot of time on idioms which may seem weird since I'm a native english speaker. I have to say though that my idiom flashcards probably got me an extra 20-30 points on the actual exam.
Besides studying sentence correction I really didn't do much except for online problems in the month before my Kaplan Class. I found a grid online of hardbin problems from the OG11. I don't know if I found it in TwinnSplitter's debrief on the testmagic forums but it was invaluable. I continued working on hardbin problems but I think I burned out a little bit towards the end of June. I realized that I scheduled my class and test too far away from my study start date.
In the beginning of July I started the advanced Kaplan Class. My instructor was very competent but I don't recommend taking a class if you want to score in the 700s. Even an advanced class is geared more towards getting a 600 or 650. I felt that I was learning more from the forums then from my class. On the first day of class they give you a paper and pencil test that is supposed to simulate the GMAT. Of course, since that test isn't computer adaptive it isn't that helpful but I scored a 720 which was nice since the Kaplan CAT was a disaster.
Going to class was nice because it forced me to think about the GMAT for 2.5 hours straight twice a week. I still think the verbal questions are way too dissimilar from the GMAT to be of any use. My instructor told us he would grade our essays for the AWA section which was nice. A couple of days before the exam I wrote an argument essay and an issue essay. Those were literally the only essays I wrote before the actual exam. My instructor said they would get 5s which was fine with me.
My exam was scheduled for 8 am and I don't normally have to be at work until 11 am. I know I should have practiced getting up early but I didn't. The day before my exam (Friday) I got up at 6 am and did some light practice questions. I went to work and when I got home I did just the quant section of GMAT Prep 1 (reinstalled). I got a 50 and felt really good about it. I then went to bed super early and slept like a baby.
Test Day:
I woke up about 6 am. Made sure I remembered a couple of rules on my flashcards and drove to the Pearson VUE Center. I arrived at 7 and the doors were locked. By the time they opened the doors there were 15 people there! I ended up drawing number 14 out of 15 to sign up for the test and the wait was excruciating. I had heard that if you are late they can deduct time for your exam so I was a little worried when I finally checked in at 8:05. Everything was fine though as they took me to my station. The essays were cake. I had seen the argument essay before and I probably got a 5 or a 6. The issue gave me a tiny bit of trouble and I finished with less than 2 seconds on the clock. I probably got a 5 on the issue essay but it could have been a 4. Honestly, I don't exactly know how the scoring goes but I'll be shocked if I get below a 4 or above a 5.5.
I took a short break and stretched a bit. I had brought 2 bananas and a Dr. Pepper. I planned on eating a banana at the break but instead I just walked around for a bit and started the quant 4 minutes later. Question 1 took me about 3 minutes - maybe I was nervous. I notice that a lot of people have had that problem. Once I got through that it was smooth sailing. I probably didn't put enough effort into quant looking back. I was only 90% sure on most of my answers but rather than waste valuable time I just clicked my answer and moved on. Timing wasn't really a huge problem - I had about 5 minutes for the last 3 problems. Question 34 or 35 or 36 (I can't remember) was so freaking impossible. I don't want to get in trouble but it involved a sphere and I almost started laughing it was so tough. Strangely, that almost calmed me down. I figured that if they were going to give me an impossible question (maybe it wasn't that difficult but I still can't figure it out) I must be doing well. I made sure to get the last few questions correct and finished the section with a whole 3 seconds to spare. Also, I'm left-handed which made writing on those notepads almost impossible. I had practiced doing that on every practice test I took on the computer though which prepared me.
I went out in the hall and had a banana and a mini Dr. Pepper. I came back to take the verbal with about 1 minute left in my break. The verbal section went about as perfect as I could have hoped. Maybe taking those impossible Kaplan practice questions helped because the first 20 verbal questions seemed really easy. The answer seemed to jump out at me. After that it was definitely a struggle though. I still felt super-confident as I reached the last 4 questions. I took my time and finished the verbal section with about 45 seconds to spare. I got through all the personal questions and waited for my score. I didn't know what to expect. I had told myself that I would be ecstatic with a 730+. I was absolutely shocked to see the 770 pop up. Truth be told I got a little emotional but pulled myself together and got my printout.
Now I am waiting for my official score report and deciding where to apply. I'm fairly certain that I'm going to apply to 3 schools. 2 of them are in the top 5 and one is ranked between 25 and 50 but is very close to my current residence. I want to apply in Round 1 so now I have the fun (not really) task of writing essays and getting recommendations.
Again, a huge thanks out to everyone on this forum. Your tips and questions helped me immensely. Good luck to all of you!
Background: I'm a 29 year-old male. I went to a small liberal arts college ranked between 50 and 75 in the US according to US News and World Report. I majored in business and had a GPA around 3.5 or so. I have always had an affinity for math so I was probably ahead of the curve in quant before I began studying for the test but verbal has never been my strong suit (790/540 SAT split).
In late March I began thinking about business school. I am in a strange profession in that most of my peers haven't gone to b-school but I wanted a challenge nonetheless. I went to Barnes & Noble and bought Kaplan's GMAT Premier Program 2009 Edition Book. I read very little about the test and decided almost immediately to take the practice test in the back of the book. I don't know if I even realized at the time that the actual test would be computer adaptive. The quant section killed me. (BTW, why does the word killed always look weird on this site?) I got 25 of 37 questions correct - the data sufficiency was like nothing I had ever seen. On the verbal I got 32 of 41 questions right which I thought was pretty decent.
A couple of months went by and in early May I decided to put a lot of effort into the GMAT. I had originally planned to attend a school only about 10 minutes from my house. The average GMAT score of those students is around a 630-650. I have an interesting background to say the least so I really wanted to blow the GMAT out of the water. I next day I signed up for an advanced class with Kaplan. You must have a qualifying score of 600 or better to get in to the advanced class but I figured that if I studied before I could get to at least a 600. I had read somewhere that it's best to take the GMAT right after you finish a class so I went directly to MBA.com and scheduled the test for just 2 days after I finished my class with Kaplan.
About a week later I got a package in the mail from Kaplan. Inside were 2 Kaplan workbooks and the Official Guide 12th Ed. I had read about the Official Guide and it was around that time that I found these forums. I immediately devoured the quant section of the OG. I also made the mistake of marking up the book instead of using scratch paper. Of course, if I had it to do all over again I would definitely not do that. After going through about 50-75 quant problems every day and reading the explanation of each question I missed and/or guessed on I finished in about 5 or 6 days. Without looking at verbal I decided it was time to take another practice test. I had read on this forum that the best practice tests were GMATPrep1 and GMATPrep2. I should have saved one but hindsight is 20/20. My 2 scores are as follows:
GMAT Prep 1: 740 (Q49, V41) May 23rd
GMAT Prep 2: 700 (Q47, V40) May 25th
I ran into major time problems on the first test and had to guess the last 5 quant questions. When I went back over the test I noticed that I got the first 13 or so quant questions correct which helped me get a 49 despite missing 4 of the last 5. I think I missed 10 quant questions overall so I am very surprised I got a 49 there. I also became very apparent that my biggest weakness on the verbal side was sentence correction.
After those two tests I knew what to work on and as a result I was feeling pretty confident. That changed really quickly the next week when I took Kaplan CAT 1.
KAPLAN CAT 1: 640 (Q46, V35) May 29th
This test was really tough and the verbal section was freaking impossible. Looking back I think Kaplan tests are absolutely worthless. I'll talk more about the class later but the verbal section of the Kaplan tests is not representative of what you will see on the actual GMAT. I would definitely suggest you spend your time elsewhere. I was still reeling from that Kaplan test the next week when I ran out of all the questions in OG12. As an aside, I never purchased the official guide verbal and quant supplements. I found out about them too late and frankly I don't even know if they are available for the 12th edition. Looking back I wish I had those for extra practice. Anyways, after I ran out of OG12 questions I took a Manhattan GMAT practice test.
MGMAT 1: 680 (Q48, V35) June 4th
It was at that time that I really began using these forums as a resource. Data sufficiency was still a minor problem, so was timing on the quant side, on the verbal side sentence correction was killing me. I decided to purchase the Manhattan Sentence Correction book. That was a MAJOR help - thanks to everyone on this forum who suggested that book. It's really a must. I spent a lot of time on idioms which may seem weird since I'm a native english speaker. I have to say though that my idiom flashcards probably got me an extra 20-30 points on the actual exam.
Besides studying sentence correction I really didn't do much except for online problems in the month before my Kaplan Class. I found a grid online of hardbin problems from the OG11. I don't know if I found it in TwinnSplitter's debrief on the testmagic forums but it was invaluable. I continued working on hardbin problems but I think I burned out a little bit towards the end of June. I realized that I scheduled my class and test too far away from my study start date.
In the beginning of July I started the advanced Kaplan Class. My instructor was very competent but I don't recommend taking a class if you want to score in the 700s. Even an advanced class is geared more towards getting a 600 or 650. I felt that I was learning more from the forums then from my class. On the first day of class they give you a paper and pencil test that is supposed to simulate the GMAT. Of course, since that test isn't computer adaptive it isn't that helpful but I scored a 720 which was nice since the Kaplan CAT was a disaster.
Going to class was nice because it forced me to think about the GMAT for 2.5 hours straight twice a week. I still think the verbal questions are way too dissimilar from the GMAT to be of any use. My instructor told us he would grade our essays for the AWA section which was nice. A couple of days before the exam I wrote an argument essay and an issue essay. Those were literally the only essays I wrote before the actual exam. My instructor said they would get 5s which was fine with me.
My exam was scheduled for 8 am and I don't normally have to be at work until 11 am. I know I should have practiced getting up early but I didn't. The day before my exam (Friday) I got up at 6 am and did some light practice questions. I went to work and when I got home I did just the quant section of GMAT Prep 1 (reinstalled). I got a 50 and felt really good about it. I then went to bed super early and slept like a baby.
Test Day:
I woke up about 6 am. Made sure I remembered a couple of rules on my flashcards and drove to the Pearson VUE Center. I arrived at 7 and the doors were locked. By the time they opened the doors there were 15 people there! I ended up drawing number 14 out of 15 to sign up for the test and the wait was excruciating. I had heard that if you are late they can deduct time for your exam so I was a little worried when I finally checked in at 8:05. Everything was fine though as they took me to my station. The essays were cake. I had seen the argument essay before and I probably got a 5 or a 6. The issue gave me a tiny bit of trouble and I finished with less than 2 seconds on the clock. I probably got a 5 on the issue essay but it could have been a 4. Honestly, I don't exactly know how the scoring goes but I'll be shocked if I get below a 4 or above a 5.5.
I took a short break and stretched a bit. I had brought 2 bananas and a Dr. Pepper. I planned on eating a banana at the break but instead I just walked around for a bit and started the quant 4 minutes later. Question 1 took me about 3 minutes - maybe I was nervous. I notice that a lot of people have had that problem. Once I got through that it was smooth sailing. I probably didn't put enough effort into quant looking back. I was only 90% sure on most of my answers but rather than waste valuable time I just clicked my answer and moved on. Timing wasn't really a huge problem - I had about 5 minutes for the last 3 problems. Question 34 or 35 or 36 (I can't remember) was so freaking impossible. I don't want to get in trouble but it involved a sphere and I almost started laughing it was so tough. Strangely, that almost calmed me down. I figured that if they were going to give me an impossible question (maybe it wasn't that difficult but I still can't figure it out) I must be doing well. I made sure to get the last few questions correct and finished the section with a whole 3 seconds to spare. Also, I'm left-handed which made writing on those notepads almost impossible. I had practiced doing that on every practice test I took on the computer though which prepared me.
I went out in the hall and had a banana and a mini Dr. Pepper. I came back to take the verbal with about 1 minute left in my break. The verbal section went about as perfect as I could have hoped. Maybe taking those impossible Kaplan practice questions helped because the first 20 verbal questions seemed really easy. The answer seemed to jump out at me. After that it was definitely a struggle though. I still felt super-confident as I reached the last 4 questions. I took my time and finished the verbal section with about 45 seconds to spare. I got through all the personal questions and waited for my score. I didn't know what to expect. I had told myself that I would be ecstatic with a 730+. I was absolutely shocked to see the 770 pop up. Truth be told I got a little emotional but pulled myself together and got my printout.
Now I am waiting for my official score report and deciding where to apply. I'm fairly certain that I'm going to apply to 3 schools. 2 of them are in the top 5 and one is ranked between 25 and 50 but is very close to my current residence. I want to apply in Round 1 so now I have the fun (not really) task of writing essays and getting recommendations.
Again, a huge thanks out to everyone on this forum. Your tips and questions helped me immensely. Good luck to all of you!
