I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello all,

I've just taken my GMAT test today, and I feel that I owe too much to this forum, so I need to write my story. I've got unofficial score 760 (Q50 V42) and still wait for my AWA and IR scores, but I hope they will be more or less ok.

Some years ago I thought about taking the GMAT test, ordered official books (OG 11th and Verbal 2nd) and studied for several months. THis process gave me the general familiarity of the test, I learned basic concepts - what is called 'unidiomatic', or 'non-parallel', but I was not very committed, so I quit studying after several months.

This december I have started my preparation. My first GMATPrep test that I had taken before preparation had shown 710 (Q51 V34) and thus I thought that a goal 730-750 would be realistic. My math performance was good (I have a specific mathematical education), so I could not learn something new and my initial quant score (Q51) was nowhere to improve.

At the same time, I understood that on the test day I can be nervous, not focused, etc. (which actually happened!), so I should be ready to get not-very-perfect quant score of Q50 or Q49, and get somehow in the range 730-750. Definitely, I needed to improve my verbal. The start of my story: https://www.beatthegmat.com/solid-math-p ... 55434.html

On January and February I enrolled in local GMAT preparation courses, which gave me a boost in verbal and some ideas of how to improve in verbal further. For the Verbal I would recommend to use the following books:
1) OG - (I had OG 11th and Verbal Review 2nd)
2) Manhattan SC Guide - very, very good book on SC. It helped me to learn almost all of the gmat SC concepts. I think this book + OG can make 99% of the prep.
3) I have also used some exercises from 'Kaplan advanced' and this forum.
4) What worked for me - I also used good English grammar book ('practical grammar of English language') - it helped me to grasp concepts in a more wide way. For example, if I had trouble with participles, I got to this book and read the whole chapter about participles. The same for verb tenses, the same for conditional sentences, etc.

I planned my preparation in a 'waved' approach. My weakest area was SC, so I thought that I would start with SC doing some small amount of RC and CR questions, then (2nd wave) I would practice RC questions for a week or two, paying few attention to SC and CR, and then - CR as a final wave. Later, I thought I can practice all three areas, or improve my weaknesses. What I can say for now: it works. It would be unwise for me to divide the exercises equally. What I learnt from the studying - for the first time you are moving slowly, paying attention to each answer option (why not B? Why not A?) and to each of your errors. As you progress you can do many more exercises in less time, since the concepts are familliar to you, you will have fewer mistakes and fewer of them you'll need to review.

What was essential:
1 Planning was essential. There is no need to build an exact plan for each day up to 'day zero' from the beginning. It is enough to state general points - "this week I should start RC", "this week I should start AWA" - AND (important!) build a detailed daily study plan for the whole week in its beginnig. This approach provides a flexible plan, which you can review once a week, and change it if the need occurs.
2. Rest was essential. Sometimes I tried to study everyday for 4-5 days in a row. That's a mistake. You should plan your rest days as well as study days. Otherwise the brain gets overloaded. It is important also to study continuously. For example, If I have a plan for today to solve 30 SC questions, it would be MUCH better to get 2.5 hours to solve and review them, than to try to solve them here and there (going to work, during brake, etc.) Actually, it doesn't make any sence at all - to study by 5-10-minutes intervals. The only good thing to do in these 5-10 minutes is memorizing flashcards (see below).
3. I would not recommend to combine math study and verbal study on the same day. I tried it twice and I realized that everything I learned in verbal these days was not very good memorized. So, take it into account when you plan.
4. It was a good idea for me to take a practice test in a timed conditions weekly (well, almost). I have taken 2 GMAT Prep tests and 5 Manhattan online tests (highly recommended!)

Well, the above are almost all parts of the plan.

My real progress in SC began after 4-5 weeks when I finished my OG book and created my own set of flashcards (I created a flashcard for each new concept). When I started to review ALL of the mistaken/unsure questions, I started to notice the rules and concepts behind the answer choices. Even those questions that I got right contained answer choices that I eliminated, but was unsure - why exactly they should be eliminated (remember 'awkward' or 'unidiomatic' explanations in OG?).

So, let's go strait to the results. My results on CATs were:
1) Gmat Prep 1: 710 (Q51 V34)
2) Manhattan CAT 1: 690 (Q46 V39) - out of time on quant session; learnt how to handle this.
3) Manhattan CAT 2: 710 (Q50 V36)
4) Manhattan CAT 3: 720 (Q50 V37)
5) Manhattan CAT 4: 710 (Q49 V38)

10 days before the test I had to make a decision - to go, or not to go, and I took 2nd GMAT Prep. The result was... 780 (Q51 V47). Well, this beated my expectations. I was encouraged and started the final preparation. For the last week I practiced AWA (1 day), IR (1 day) and made review process over and over. I decided not to take any timed tests, but I couldn't refrain from taking one untimed. This was MGMAT CAT5 and I was able to score 780 (Q51 V45) again.

Three-four final days were more about conditioning than about studying. Day -3: Practice questions, review questions. Day -2: reviewed error log ONLY - no more than 1-2 hours. Day -1: rest.

Well, even though I slept well, had good breakfast and was not very nervous, my real GMAT experience was horrible - it was hard to focus, I perfomed much worse in timing than I did on practice tests, the questions looked unfamilliar, I had to guess several times, but still.. I don't know, how it happened that I still got 760, but I think, it was a result of having some reserve - I performed worse both in Math and Verbal than on last Preps. Though, It does not mean that I am not happy with the result - I am!

I wish to say thank you all, thank this forum and experts - Thommy, Celikh and David - for their valuable comments. I became addicted to the SC part of the forum last few weeks.

P.S. Some more hits.
1) I used lumosity for two months. It's hard to say whether it gives something, but I think it have some effects - improves focus, memory and attention. What you need to know - DON'T play with it on the days of study. And also on the days of rest . It also overloads brain and can have negative effect on what you memorized this day.
2) Flashcards - I have built my own set, though you can find a plenty of applications for Android or iPhone - I have used flashcardexchange service and gmat sets from there, superflashcards for android and some other apps like 'flashcards', 'quizard' (didn't like this), etc.

Ok, this story is over, now I plan to do my work on applications.

P.P.S. I have edited the post to correct some grammar errors. Forgive me my English - it was hard to write correctly after the test

Update: Got final (official results) AWA 4.5, IR 8. More than happy!

I now I speak for everyone when I say Congratulations! That is a strong score and a balanced score!

You give some very good advice about planning and taking time for rest...people should also take heart from the fact that you felt like you struggled during the actual exam - struggled with timing, you had to guess at some - and still got a 760!

Others can learn from this. It will not always feel perfect, but it might still be a great score!!!

congrats for the excellent score, can you please guide me on how to tackle the RCs.. ?


regds
sachin

Hi Sachin. Have a look at my conversation with Celikh about RC. She gave me a good advice. The link is in the topic.

RCs can actually be tough. Let me explain why. On simple topics you can easily get the meaning of the text and answer 100% correctly. At medium level maybe too. But GMAT is computer-adaptive test, so if you worked good on your SCs and CRs, it will give you much harder topics for RCs than that you encountered before. And to my experience, the performance on these harder RCs can fall sharply from 100% to 0%. This was my experience on mock tests. And, basicly as you progress in other areas you should be ready to cope with much harder topics than those that appeared when you have started. So, don't get to the trap.

So, what to do? Get the following skills:
- Active reading (try to be excited about the topic while you read)
- Taking notes (I learned to draw the logical transitions between the paragraphs and notions, etc.)
- Reading slow enough to understand meaning and be able to avoid re-reading. (this was my own strategy, other can propose different techniques like 'skimming')

Then. The strategy can be different, but I'll tel what worked for me.

First, the explanation. Imagine that you have a horrible text and you know that you will get three-four questions on it. You have skimmed through the text, did not get the full idea and you cannot answer the first question. Ok, you skipped and for the second question you need to re-read the whole passage once again. You see? This strategy can lead you in a situation when you will get ALL answers INCORRECT and STILL loose much time for answering them.

I wouldn't like to get into this situation, so I decided to follow the different strategy. Ok. We have 6-8 minutes and 3-4 questions. What if I'll spend 5 minutes only for reading the text? That is a lot of time, so I'll understand EVERYTHING and still will have a minute to anser at least one, or maybe two questions. So, this strategy give you some 'guaranteed result', so I sticked with it.

So, my strategy was:
1. To read the paragraph SLOWLY, no matter how much time it takes. Slowly, but without re-reading.
2. Then to try to answer at least one question correctly. Here the Process of Elimination should be implemented. Don't rush, If you eliminated 3 of 5 answers you still have to choose one of them, be calm and take your time to eliminate incorrect one.
3. After that you should look how much time do you have to answer other questions. If you have time, return to step 2, if don't, or if the question is very hard - implement smart guessing.

I practiced this strategy on OG'11 topics, using the timer. I kept a track - how much time does it take to read the passage and how much time it takes to answer the questions. Surprisingly, the reading time with this technique did not raise much AND I saw, that since I understood the paragraph better, I was able to spend less time to answer the questions. That gave me some confidence and knowledge that this strategy is not really time-consuming as it can seem at the first glance.

But certainly, you should look what works for you. Take your measurements about your speed of reading.

thanks !! will surely try to work on this.