I just Beat The GMAT!

Well, I am very please to share with everybody on this forum that I finally got a 710 on the GMAT last week, this has been my third trial and finally I got a satisfying score; I won't detail a study plan, but hoping to help other test takers, I just need to share the SEVEN most significant lessons learned during my preparation.

1 - DON'T LOSE HOPE...in my first attempt I got a 650...in my second attempt I went down to an extremely disappointing 610, thankfully in the last attempt I got a 710. Although I know why I got a 610 on the 2nd attempt - which I will discuss later - I was very disappointed, but I took it too personal as well. I decided that it doesn't matter if I apply to b.schools this year or not, I will get this GMAT whatsoever. And finally I got it after the third attempt. If I didn't get a good score, I would do it again. It just became too personal.

2 - EXAM NIGHT, RELAX and GET SOME GOOD SLEEP .... that was my mistake in the 2nd attempt, I was nicely prepared and confident, but I just over killed my case, I studied too many flashcards, study notes and challenging questions in the exam night and early morning in the exam day....I drove an hour to the test location...I finished the 1 hour AWA...and right after 10+ quant. problems, I was sure I don't have enough power to focus during the rest of the exam, and the 8 min.s break between the Quant. and the Verbal didn't save me. Although I expected to get below the score I want, I didn't expect to get lower than the first time while I am way better prepared, and that's why it was extremely disappointing. So, do your best and study as long as you can, but do not exhaust your self in the exam night. Additionally, your last home test must not be less than three days before your exam; finish it, review it the next day, review your notes and challenging questions the day after and then relax.

3 - BUILD ENDURANCE, BE PATIENT... the exam is exhausting and LONG, but every question counts. You need to be extra patient till the very last verbal question. Surprisingly, that doesn't only involve the exam; I found out that I had to be calm and tolerant during the preparation period in both my professional and personal lives. Train yourself to be tolerant and calm all over the day, believe me, IT HELPS BIG TIME. It will reflect on ur performance during the home tests and will lead to a smooth ride during the final exam. Also, try to solve exams in different times of the day and not only under the best conditions, 15 minutes after you wake up solve an exam, half an hour after coming back from work solve another exam, and so on. Solving an exam in these severe conditions and training your self to be calm till the completion will help you be even more tolerant during the real thing. Don't do it too much however since the scores might not reflect the truth, just do it twice or so to test how patient you are.

4 - DO NOT IGNORE THE AWA.... whether you want to prepare for it or not, don't solve a single exam without it. It takes an hour of mental fitness to finish the AWA section of the exam, and it absorbs a lot of your energy; train yourself to always finish this hour before starting the Quant. section; otherwise, you will feel urself under a lot of pressure during the exam. And moreover, your scores without it won't be so accurate.

5 - LEARN TO FORGET....yes, forget how well or bad you performed in the previous question or section. Get out of the AWA and think about the last movie you saw, get out of the Quant. and think about what you would do in the weekend...just think about anything that has nothing to do with the exam; Don't let your performance affect your mental state for the next section, all what you have are 8 minutes to calm down. The reason is simple, if you did well in a question, you will be almost sure you solved it correctly, if you did extremely bad on a question and you ran out of time, you will probably make a guess; so, you won't ever know whether you made the right guess; therefore, you don't need to worry, you might have made the right guess anyways, paying more attention to what comes next is more important. Even worse, you might have chosen the wrong answer in a question that you are sure you answered correctly, so what is the point of thinking the prev. question or section over and over again; do it and you will just get more and more tense.

6 - TIME, TIME, TIME...probably you read a lot about managing time and doing educated guess for difficult questions; luckily that is all TRUE. But more importantly, learn how to track your time in the exam, and please don't do it question by question, you will probably waste more time doing this. I followed a simple strategy, for the quant. I trained my self that each 5 questions should take 10 minutes, not more. So I used to look at the timer every 5 questions and see how far I am from the 10th or 20th or 30th....minute. Same applies for the Verbal section; each 10 questions should take no more than 18 minutes, so every 10 questions I used to check where I am from the 18th, 36th, 54th minute. Do this in your home tests and you will master it and learn how to spend more time/guess and move on in the exam.

7 - STATISTICS. I don't mean the Quant. related questions, I mean the exam statistics. Do a lot of comparisons and evaluations for your home tests. I don't intend to do some marketing here, but Manhattan GMAT tests proved to be the most helpful for me - and also the most accurate scoring mechanism. After I finish an exam I look at the "Assessment reports" for all my previous exams compiled. By time, you will notice what is your weak area, for example, the Quant. "Number properties", "Word translation" and the Verbal "SC - Modifiers" were almost behind my low score and loss of time. Study the questions you failed to answer, study related challenging questions in this forum or somewhere else and get ready for the next exam. Finish it and include it your next assessment report, and so on.

I am sure every one has his/her own strategy and feels comfortable following a certain study plan or schedule, but I felt that the advices above are generic for anybody taking the exam. I learned them the hard way during my several attempts, and I hope they would be as valuable to somebody as they were for me.

Seriously, GMAT is not easy but sure can be killed, just be persistent. Good luck to any one planning to take the GMAT and wish me good luck completing my application(s) �.

Congrats for your great score bro !! Good luck for application.

Congrats...buddy...keep it up and good luck for your applications

Hi Ahmad,

Congratulations..I gave Gmat two times and got first 590 and than 640. I am not sure to take it again but your post is really encouraging. Anyways, how did you manage to drive additional benefits from your resources for the last GMAT. I always remember the question that I did before. It is really reducing the efficiency and hypnotizing me. Second question: How much did you wait after your second exam?

Good luck,

Thank you guys, Good luck in your preparation as well.

@haptas: I would definitely encourage you to take it again, don't rush it however. The question repetition was a problem for me as well, however I will link it to how did I drive additional benefits from the previous attempts, but please note that my problem was the Quant. Section and that's why I put most of my effort on that.

I didn't change a lot of study materials in the three attempts. For my first preparation I had a look at some online tutorials to refresh my math. skills, used the official guide, and I also bought the MGMAT exam set online. I only studied from these three resources, which got me a 650 - with a really low score in the Quant. Following this attempt, I realized I am definitely missing some concepts, so I decided again to go for the MGMAT number properties and word translation guides; that helped me a lot as well, I felt I am prepared, I just did this mistake of doing too much in the exam night and that's why I got a 610. I went home and booked the 3rd attempt after 2 months. I felt that 2 months are enough for me to prepare without pushing myself too hard, I already started to feel bored from studying the same thing again and I didn't need to study the concepts once more, so I didn't want to rush it, I wanted to have the chance of not studying for a couple of days if I wanted to.

In my third attempt I realized that my problem is not the concept anymore, it is how I would approach the question in hand. So, I decided to prepare differently. I didn't start with solving home tests again, because I know I would remember the questions and the scores won't be truthful. So, I decided to just have a detailed look at the assessment reports for all my previous exams and pinpoint two things, the questions that took me more than 2 minutes to solve and those that I didn't answer right. Then, I ignored the time factor for like a month, I tried to solve each of these questions again even if it took me 15 minutes; but more importantly, I tried to solve in different ways and carefully study the MGMAT answers. For example if a question allowed me to solve it with algebra or with picking numbers, I tried both. This approach really helped me get acquainted with different approaches for each question, which later on allowed me to pick the most relevant approach for a question upon seeing it. Moreover, I always had an alternative path to follow if I got stuck in any question.

During the second month of preparation, I started retaking the MGAMT and GMATPREP exams, and guess what, although sometimes I knew I saw this question before, I didn't remember a distinct solution, and I think the only reason behind this is that I got used to solve each question type in multiple ways, so when I saw a repeated question I didn't remember a certain way to solve it, it always felt new. The second thing I focused on during the 2nd month was the time factor; I got my self comfortable to track my time in the exam and know whether I am late.

I hope that helped and good luck in you next attempt.