I just Beat The GMAT!

My backstory:

I am engineer that just turned 35 years old. I made the decision last year to go back to school after 12 or so years and get an MBA. I had very little intentions of going to a top program because of both family obligations and the fact that my undergrad record, while not terrible, is not going to set me apart from anyone else. That said I wanted to prove to myself that I could still test well and do as best as possible on the GMAT.

Study Plan/Materials

I started my on again/off again studying in February. The first thing I did was to take the GMAT Prep exam to see what the test was like. Needless to say I was overwhelmed by the test, specifically the data sufficiency problems. It had been so many years since I was in college that I had forgotten many of the basic rules in math that are tested on the exam. I believe my initial score was a 580. My wife had bought me the OG 12 which was my first real in depth look at how the test was actually structured, but I also realized that the guide was not really going to help me re-learn all these topics. Around that time I discovered this forum and while I was never a very active participant in the forums I found the site to be extremely helpful in deciding where to look for help in studying.

After much investigation into the various books/companies on the market I decided to take a free practice exam with MGMAT in late February. I liked the test format and after reading the reviews of their books decided to try one out- Number Properties. I purchased this (and all others in the future) through Amazon and found the prices to be very good. The book was excellent and I was hooked on their series of books. I would give them the highest recommendation possible. Based on their book series Id imagine that their actual courses are also excellent. Here are some thoughts on the books I purchased:

Number Properties- Excellent book and a must read for anyone who is far removed from basic math. The book is extremely clear in its explanations and I found the sample problems to be very effective. A must for a primer on prime numbers, consecutive integers, and general properties.

FDPs- Not a bad book, but this was an area I was already strong in and I did not gain as much out of this book as the others. The refresher on percents was good, however on test day it really was not needed.

Equations, Inequalities, VICs- Another solid book that is very straightforward and easy to understand, Material is presented in a very logical manner and they do a fine job in presenting the various approaches to solve the problems.

Word Translations- Probably my favorite book. Does a fantastic job of teaching rates, probability, combos, etc...Also helped me greatly in breaking down what some of the questions were actually asking, specifically on the DS type problems.

Geometry- A wonderful primer on something I had not studied, for the most part, since high school. I found this extremely helpful and its filled with easy to remember shortcuts and examples that should help on test day.

Sentence Correction- A must buy. I cant say that I intensely studied everything in this book as its very big, but everything was broken up nicely into categories so that you could pick the things you wanted to go over the most. I cant imagine getting through the exam without this book. There are so many things we write that are not grammatically correct that you need this book to drill home how to write properly.

Reading Comprehension- Not bad, but I found myself simply using the book for practice more than anything else. They do a good job of explaining the question types and some key words to look for in the passage, but I did not feel that their note taking approaching was worth studying. That's not to say it wont work for others as I think this is the type of question that you have to simply learn the technique that works best for you and go with it.

I did not buy their Critical Reasoning book as I quickly found that type of question was one I was very good at on my own and I felt I did not really need the extra help.

One of the negative comments I have read about the MGMAT series is that they do not include enough GMAT style questions, but I don't fell that this is a very valid criticism. I found that the actual problem solving that they require will make you learn the material much better. The most important thing is to learn the material first and techniques based on the GMAT format later, IMO.

I work full time and have a newborn under 1 at home so finding study time was not always easy. I tried every night after the baby went to sleep to get an hour in of reading the MGMT books and then doing their practice problems. Im sure others would get through the process much faster if they don't have a baby at home that takes up most of the time. Id say my 7+ months of studying could have easily been accomplished in 3.

During breaks at work I would try to browse the forum for relevant questions and use them for practice. it's a great resource. A few pointers- make certain that you read the explanations other give when you don't know how to do a problem or took a long time to solve it. The experts and regular posters really are a great resource for determining the best ways to solve. I cant tell you the amount of times I would see another solution that was just so much more efficient than the way I solved it. Secondly see what the source of the question is. Because I was studying MGMAT and also going to take the GMAT Prep tests I made sure to not read any questions from those sources. You do not want to know the answer to the tests prior to taking the exam.

After I finished all the MGMAT books I went through the OG and solved all the problems. I started right from the beginning of the books, tried to time myself, and did a few questions (10-20)every night. Doing this I felt helped me refine the techniques for the various question types.

Finally in the days before my test I reviewed the Manhattan books and redid the advanced problems in the back of the guides to best keep my skills sharp.

Practice Tests

I ended up taking 5 of the MGMAT tests and two GMAT Prep exams following that first initial GMAT prep. Here were my scores:

MGMAT 1- Feb. 2010 - 620 (Q42 V33)
MGMAT 2- April 2010- 660(Q43 V37)
MGMAT 3- June 2010- 690(Q51 V34)
GMAT Prep 1- June 2010- 710 (don't have the breakdown written down)
MGMAT 4- July 2010- 740(Q47 V44)
MGMAT 5- August 2010- 710 (Q48 V39)
GMAT Prep 2- August 2010 - 730 (don't have the breakdown written down)


Clearly I would say that the scores I received on the Manhattan tests were a good indicator of what I actually did on test day. For those taking the same practice exams I would say the following about them:

I think the math portion from Manhattan is a very good simulation of the actual test. If there was one issue with them I would say that the problems at times were too wordy. I always felt I was rushing badly on the last few questions of the practice content, something which did not happen on the GMAT Preps. On the verbal side I found the actual test to be far easier than the MGMATs, especially SC. Again I felt that the MGMAT was excessively wordy in some of their problems, though I never felt in danger of not finishing the section on the practice tests.

The Actual Test

I scheduled the test during a week of vacation and I think that helped. Rather than worrying about work we got to spend time on the beach relaxing which helped me stay rested for the exam. I don't think it would have been the case had I taken it during a normal work week.

I arrived at the test center about an hour early and they allowed me to start earlier than my scheduled time. I used a set of ear plugs, but I have to say the facility was very quiet anyway. The marker board they give is more than enough room for any work you will have to do, however I found the markers to be awful to work with. They wear out very easily and I probably could have used 4 of them, but I made it through with 2 and just dealt with the issues of sometimes having to re-write an equation to actually make it readable. Regular pen and paper is far easier to work with.

The quantitative part of the exam was very similar to what I had seen in practice tests. There were one or two questions that seemed very similar to GMAT Prep questions I had seen, but I cant say for certain if they were the same or not. The biggest mistake I made during the test came during this portion of the exam. There were three questions I spent far too much time on, despite going into the test saying to myself to just "move on" when you don't know the answer, and I was worried they would hurt my score. Those three probably cost me significant time at the end where I did not have the time to really look anything over or double check something that I felt was a harder problem.

The verbal part I think I got lucky with to some extent. I found the reading comprehension passages to be relatively compelling and it made for easier reading. I have to think a large reason people do poorly in these questions is because the material is of no interest to them and thus harder to digest. I think I was really fortunate here. Again Id say there were two questions here I had seen before, one of which I am 99.9% certain I saw word for word on a prep exam, though I could not remember the answer. The one thing I did with verbal that I believe also helped was to slow down my decision making. I had found that I was finishing the verbal sections on my practice tests with significant time remaining (15-20 minutes) and some of the wrong answers were just from rushing through a question when there was no need to do so. Today I spent far more time analyzing the answers on the screen rather than just going with my initial feeling. What I tried to do (mainly for RC and SC since I was stronger in CR) was narrow it down to two choices and then carefully go over those questions. Id say I overruled my initial thought 4 or 5 times over the course of the exam and if I had to place a bet on it Id say that was the difference between a 44 and a 46.

When the score flashed on the screen I was pleased as could be. I accomplished my personal goal of proving I could do it and ended up with a wonderful score. Even the exam proctor asked if he saw the score on the screen correctly as he logged me out which brought a smile to my face. Even if the official score ends up a touch lower, I exceeded whatever I set out to do back in February.

For those just beginning I strongly recommend using this forum and the great resources they give us as well as using the Manhattan guides. Don't get discouraged by a bad score on a practice test or feeling that others are doing much better than you are and that its hopeless. Just make sure you take the time to actually learn what you are doing wrong and how to correct it. With some hard work you will begin to pick up the basics necessary to beat the GMAT exam.

Any questions feel free to ask and Ill try to answer them when I check back in.