I just Beat The GMAT!

It was a long hard-fought battle, but I beat the GMAT last week. My goal was to score a 700, which I had cracked only twice out of seven practice exams (720, 740). I could hardly believe it when I looked up and saw a 750 on the screen at the end of the exam, I was overcome with emotion and felt my eyes beginning to tear. Luckily I pulled it together (although in a state of shock) and made it out of there score report in hand, called the folks, went to happy hour to celebrate. Done and done.

I knew a 700 would be an uphill battle and I believe BeatTheGMAT community helped me reach my goal. My practice scores seemed to be peaking around 680 but the perspective of different students and instructors on this website helped me to develop my own approach to the test. I did not do anything new or different, I simply observed what other students reported on this website and took to heart some best practices. My abbreviated and then long recipe for success is as follows:

Abbreviated:
1.) Set a goal.
2.) Take a diagnostic.
3.) Know the content.
4.) Thoroughly understand why you are getting questions wrong.
5.) Focus on areas that you need to improve, not on what you are already good at.
6.) Stick with it, you can do it!!!
7.) Test taking strategy is essential. Have a gameplan.
8.) Finalize gameplan, prep, and execution.

Long version:

1.) Set a goal. If you do not have a specific goal and a specific timeline for achieving that goal, then you will find it difficult to stick to a study plan. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

2.) Take a diagnostic to see where you stand relative to your goal. DO NOT be discouraged by your diagnostic score, it's a heck of an exam to beat. The value of the diagnostic is to see what you are up against. Taking a practice exam every few weeks (not every week) is also valuable to see your progression and will reinforce that your studying is working.

3.) Know the content. This means thoroughly understanding each of the question types and the commonly tested quantitative skills. You do not need to memorize thousands of idioms, or obscure geometry rules which are rarely tested. You do need to learn commonly tested idioms and commonly tested quant rules.

4.) Understand why you are getting questions wrong. I mean, really understand why you are getting questions wrong. Look for patterns, such as; you always seem to forget of zero as a nonnegative integer, you didn't add 1 for an inclusive set, or you can't seem to spot difference of squares. I took a practice exam and got 4 quantitative questions wrong simply because I wasn't spotting the difference of squares. I understood difference of squares heading into that practice exam, I just wasn't seeing it during the exam. I never missed a difference of squares opportunity after that practice exam. If I found myself repeatedly missing questions due to a pattern, I would write it down on a flash card and commit it to memory.

5.) Know what you are good at and focus on areas that need to be improved. After a few practice exams, I realized that I was solid in reading comprehension and critical reasoning. However, I needed to focus on sentence correction and all quant question types. From that point on I studied approximately 80% quant,19% sentence correction, and 1% critical reasoning/reading comp.

6.) Stick with it. There were many times that I would have a less than impressive practice exam (650 only a month before actual test) and it would hurt my confidence and diminish my desire to study. The key is to shake it off and remember ONE QUESTION AT A TIME. You have to absolutely believe in yourself and that you can achieve your goal, otherwise it may never happen.

7.) Test taking strategy is key. It is not enough to know the content, you have to be good at taking the darn exam. This means having solid pacing skills, knowing when to skip a question, and understanding how the testmakers try to trip you up. Solid pacing comes with taking practice exams to hone it in. Also means not moving too fast... I often found myself going too quickly through data sufficiency questions and making careless mistakes. One pacing technique that people do not like to swallow (myself included until I gave it a try and my scores improved) is to skip tough questions! If you have no idea where to begin on a quant question after 20 seconds, 2 read-throughs, whatever... just skip it!!!! This will help in the long run as you absolutely have to get the questions right that you have the skills to get right. I skipped a couple of questions during the exam to allow myself to focus more time on questions that I actually had a shot at answering.

8.) Final prep. Once you can consistently score where you want to on your practice exams... it's time to do the real thing. For the week leading up to the test.... 7 days out, develop your final gameplan for the upcoming week, personal schedule, test strategy etc. 6 days out, final tweaking any concepts, review your flashcards daily, 4 days out, practice exam, 3 days out, review your practice exam thoroughly, review flashcards, 2 days out,practice exam, 1 day before exam, light study, flashcards only... key to the day before is to rest up, don't use your brain too much. Also make sure you know the type of environment your exam is taken in. It's somewhat nerve racking as they take away all of your belongings, scan your palms, etc.

Best of luck!

That is a fantastic score! I am in the middle of the 60-day study plan and am trying to learn the content. I have plenty of time to take the exam so I am making sure I learn the content first. Do you think that it would be better to first read/watch all the videos to learn the content and then practice the problems, or do the practice problems at the same time. In my mind I feel like I would waste the problems because I don't really know how to answer most of the questions with confidence. I would like to hear your thoughts on this. Congratulations once again!

Brycejl,

I used the Veritas Prep books/online course. That course is broken up into 12 lessons/books. I would watch the lesson and then attempt the problems associated with that lesson before attempting other question types that you haven't learned. For example, if you haven't studied probabilities and combinatorics, then it would be a waste of time to attempt those types of problems. You really must be comfortable with the content in order to score well. (the exception to the above is during your practice exams as you just have to take those problems as they come).

The test is largely about the content and how the testmakers are able to disguise the content and test it in unique ways. There were a few very difficult quant problems on the exam that I would look at and immediately see the "trick" or "disguise" and could solve with relative ease because I knew the content and I knew how the testmakers like to disguise it.

Also, I forgot to mention that I rescheduled my exam to buy myself about 3 extra weeks. I was not scoring where I wanted to on practice exams so I wanted to study some additional content and hone in my test taking skills. If you have time, use it to your advantage.

Cheers!

Congratuations Man...Taking the GMAT on Feb 15th, using veritas as well as OG.

Congratulations on your score! I am encouraged to see you utilized Veritas for your prep. What did you utilize to master weak areas? I am also using Veritas but have had trouble in a few areas of Arithmetic and Algebra that I feel I need to look elsewhere for further practice and explanations. Do you have any suggestions?

Hello,

Congrats!
great improvement..

Can you tell me your scores in all Veritas CATs and in simulator exams ?

mountreblah,

Thanks for your response. Now that you articulate it, it makes sense to practice questions regarding the content you are learning to master it. I have plenty of time on my side to study and take the GMAT. I won't be applying to B-school for a couple years. I want to study hard but I don't want it to take too long. Thanks once again for your debrief!

Brycejl

Hi Buoyant, my practice scores were as follows:

GMAT Prep 600
Veritas Prep Practice Test 690
Veritas Prep Practice Test 650
Veritas Prep Practice Test 720
GMAT Prep 680
Manhattan Prep 680
GMAT Prep 740

I feel the Veritas tests were too easy in the quantitative sections. The official GMAT Prep and Manhattan simulators are a better representation.

Cricechex, I used only Veritas and the OG. I never had difficulty understanding the concepts, for me the difficulty was just being able to apply the concepts and tools effectively during the exam. I think Veritas does a great job covering the material you ought to know. You might consider using the OG as a supplement to Veritas.

600 to 750 in 3 months... that's a really good improvement!!

congratulations!!

Definitely I am agree with the 2nd point: "Take a diagnostic" Is the better way to know your real level.

If some of you are in Barcelona (Spain) we can help you with a free dignostic test to know your level.