As you can see I never post. The only reason why I put up this debrief of my test is because I couldn’t have done it without beatthegmat.com. I created my study guide for the test from beatthegmat.com and every time I had a question about a problem I would google the question and find the answer here in perfect clarity. For this I want to thank everyone and in return for all the help I am going to debrief my experience here.
Background: Bachelors in Bio/Minors in Chem and Entomology from Va Tech. I worked for 3 years as an associate scientist for a biotech company in Maryland. I am presently a PhD student in Oncology at Georgetown University with graduation quickly approaching. For anyone who would like to question the motives for having both degrees, please just know that I have done extensive research regarding where I see the biotech industry going and what I need to get to where I want to be within that industry the most efficient way possible. Thank you for any concerns.
I took the Kaplan class about 2-3 years ago but since I was dating a psycho at the time, I was unable to take the test. Once I got rid of her I began thinking about taking it again. Last year I studied for about 5 months, scheduled the test and thought I was ready to take it. I took the week before the test off from everything, locked myself in my room and began churning out practice tests to get ready. Yeah, I know…to make it worse, I started by taking Kaplan tests. By the second day of only getting 560’s I was almost crying. I was stunned that I wasn’t able to get my target score. This is when I found beatthegmat.com. However, the first thing I did was to cancel my appt (-$250 ) then I took about 4 months off to relax. When I was ready to get back on the horse again beatthegmat.com helped me create a study plan which is what lead me to success.
Study plan:
1.I studied for about 7-8 months
2.Every question that gave me a lesson I couldn’t forget or was even remotely difficult (also those that I got wrong ofcourse) I put in a study guide. This includes going over every problem in every book and in every practice test. I also included problems that I found online that were similar to those that were difficult for me.
I did this for every question type and made the study guides to include all question types (I mainly only studied PS, DS and SC. I put a few RC and CT questions in but since these were my strong question types I didn’t focus on them to much)
I ended up with 13 study guides about 40 pages each.
3.I went over these study guides over and over again to make sure that I understood each and every concept to the best of my ability.
I studied these for months, finishing one and going onto the other and starting over again from the beginning. I got to the point where I knew the questions by heart could go through 2-3 in 1 sitting.
4.I took 15 practice tests (a couple twice) and each question I missed I made sure were in my study guides.
5.I tried to take a practice test a week while timing them so that the weekend before the actual exam I was practice test free….Here is the list. I didn’t keep the Q and V scores, sorry.
MGMAT Free 7/23/2008 620
GMAC GMATPREP 1 1/25/2009 640
MGMAT CAT 1 2/10/2009 630
MGMAT CAT 2 3/1/2009 690
MGMAT CAT 3 3/17/2009 560 (Hungover and missed timing…didn’t answer 3 questions)
MGMAT CAT 4 3/27/2009 700
MGMAT CAT 5 4/17/2009 630
Re-MGMAT CAT 1 5/1/2009 780 (I already had all the hard ?’s in my study guide)
PR CAT 1 5/17/2009 670
PR CAT 2 5/24/2009 640
PR CAT 3 5/28/2009 710
power prep CAT 1 6/6/2009 720 (Gorilla Test prep has the old POWERPREP software)
PR CAT 4 6/11/2009 630
GMAC GMATPREP 1 6/14/2009 710
GMAC GMATPREP 2 6/20/2009 720
GMAT 6/29/2009 730 Q48/V42
6.I memorized and followed a timing schedule that I found here….at 50 mins I should be on question 13 in Quant and 14 in Verbal….at 25 mins I should be on question 25 in quant and 28 in verbal.
The books that I used:
GMAC 11th ed, verbal and quant books as well – doesn’t get any better than these. The majority of the questions in my study guides were photo copied pages from these three books.
Princeton Review – good when I was just starting, it gave me a good idea of the test, but the problems were very easy. The practice tests were strange to me and I didn’t like them, but the help on timing was great.
Power Score Critical Reasoning Bible – HIGHLY recommended. This book helped me create a strong strategy for each type of these questions.
Manhattan GMAT SC – HIGHLY recommended - I ended up photocopying the majority of this book and reading a chapter at the beginning of each of my study guides to make sure I got as many of the SC rules down as possible. MGMAT CATs were the best…not like the actual test, but the best from what I found.
Kaplan 800 – I didn’t think this book was much of any help at all.
2006-2007 Kaplan Class books – I think that most of these programs aim more at helping students guess than actually answer each question. So for me, it wasn’t helpful…I think this is why their tests are so difficult. The strategies are somewhat helpful, but I ended up picking my strategies for each question type from different companies. I didn’t like anything from Kaplan….except this is where I learned the DS question strategy AD/BCE which is very helpful.
Prep:
I studied every day for at least 2 hours a day. I would take a day off here and there, but for the most part it was every day.
Two weeks before the actual test I began waking up at 8am (test was at 12) every morning and going to the gym to run for 30mins. I found that every time I got less than a 700 on my practice tests it was because I was tired. So I began waking up early and running to get my blood flowing. Each test I took after starting this morning routine I reached and exceeded my target score.
Test Day:
Kept the same routine, up at 7.45-8am…starbucks…drink half the coffee on the way to the gym…stretch and run 30 mins…finish coffee on the way home…eat BIG breakfast (test day was steak n eggs
)…shower…study half a new study guide that I made from pieces of all the others…10am go to testing center…10.45 get kicked out of the testing center b/c I was to early…studied outside…went up at 11.15…signed in and started.I read from a few people that the quant section on the actual test is easier than the GMATprep. I disagree. I thought it was excruciating. The verbal was hard as well. I ended up running out of time on both sections and had to guess the last 1 for math and the last 2 for verbal. During my verbal section I had to use the bathroom as well. Instead of holding it I got up, signed out, ran to the bathroom, came back, signed back in and started again. I ended up with a 42 in Verbal and I think I could have done better if I didn’t leave to use the bathroom. I was a little frazzled when I got back. When the test was over I swore that I only got something like a 640, but a 730 popped up.
I probably studied to long...I was def almost wiped out over a month ago, but stuck it through and found a second wind. I think I could have done this with much less studying, but this plan def worked for me.
Hope this helps. I sat here on this site for so long and took so much away that I understand that my debrief doesn’t compensate for everything that I gained. But I hope this helps someone. Thank you everyone.
Man, I envy you !!! I am sure you would have score 44+ if you had not taken the break. Great score !!
