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markoelkabir
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:06 pm
- Thanked: 4 times
- GMAT Score:760
Dear all,
Thanks to all the people who shared their experiences on this forum, I was able to beat the GMAT with 20 days of work.
I had never taken a standardized test before, so I had to take everything from scratch. The strategy I settled on was the following:
Schedule:
Started with Reading Comprehension (RC) and Critical Reasoning (CR). Did all the exercises in the Official Guide (OG) in 4 days (2 days RC and 2 days CR). It's the perfect way to familiarize yourself with the way the GMAT wants you to think. The only trick to these kind of questions is practice.
Then I studied Sentence Correction (SC), my weak spot. While I am fluent in English, French is my mother tongue, so I am not familiar with many of the subtleties of the english. This required a lot of practice for me to get good. My secret: the ManhattanGMAT sentence correction prep guide. So I read this book in two days, taking notes on the side, then did all of the OG questions in 3 days. Pay close attention to the explanations of the answers in the OG.
Then came Problem Solving (PS). Even though this should have been my strong point (I am from an engineering background), I still had a lot of trouble with this section in the beginning because I wasn't familiar with the shortcuts that the GMAT expects you to use to answer these questions. So the trick is to pay close attention to the explanations of the answers in the OG. Write down flash cards with all the knowledge you lack (for instance how to use quickly and efficiently a Veen diagram, the formula for compounded interest, formulas for rate equations, and so on). I read the ManhattanGMAT Number properties guide and did all the questions in the OG (paying close attention to the answers of the questions I got wrong) in 5 days.
I kept for last my second weak point: Data Sufficiency (DS). Don't try this before you're comfortable with PS. This section is about being efficient. Spent 4 days doing all of the questions in the OG. The trick here again is to pay close attention to the explanations of the answers in the OG. Make sure you understand exactly the question you are trying to answer. If it is not explicitly written in math form, re-write it on you answer sheet in math form. Then do the same for the two statements below (i.e. if the statement says the difference between b and a is greater than 3, write b - a > 3 ).
Finally, I spent 4 days doing practice exams. Got 2 from the official GMAT website (for free) and 5 from 800score.com (for a total of 25$ I believe). This step is crucial to get used to the timing. The scores I got were (in this order): 710, 730, 700, 720, 740 and 750 (didn't have time to take the last practice exam). As you can see, I got better every time I took an exam.
General tips:
Quant questions: Make sure you visualize what precisely the question is asking. Anything that isn't given to you in math language, translate it immediately in writing in a mathematical expression. Solve the whole problem by writing. Don't try to do it in your head, unless you're really comfortable with the question. And that goes for DS too.
Verbal: read the question very closely. Look for GMAT patters (you'll learn to recognize them as you practice). No need to take any form of notes while reading. Just make sure you understand 100% of what is being said, and that you grasp the point of the author is making (this goes for SC too). Then, as you read through the possible answers, write down a cross (to rule out the possibility) or a cirlce (to indicate a possibility you didn't find anything wrong with), and then decide on the best answer out of all the circles. During your GMAT exam, your notes should be filled with lines of x's and o's.
I studied an average of 2 hours during week days and 5 hours during weekend days.
Special thanks go to TwinSplitter for his awesome post.
If I think of anything else I'll post it latter.
Best of luck to all.
Thanks to all the people who shared their experiences on this forum, I was able to beat the GMAT with 20 days of work.
I had never taken a standardized test before, so I had to take everything from scratch. The strategy I settled on was the following:
Schedule:
Started with Reading Comprehension (RC) and Critical Reasoning (CR). Did all the exercises in the Official Guide (OG) in 4 days (2 days RC and 2 days CR). It's the perfect way to familiarize yourself with the way the GMAT wants you to think. The only trick to these kind of questions is practice.
Then I studied Sentence Correction (SC), my weak spot. While I am fluent in English, French is my mother tongue, so I am not familiar with many of the subtleties of the english. This required a lot of practice for me to get good. My secret: the ManhattanGMAT sentence correction prep guide. So I read this book in two days, taking notes on the side, then did all of the OG questions in 3 days. Pay close attention to the explanations of the answers in the OG.
Then came Problem Solving (PS). Even though this should have been my strong point (I am from an engineering background), I still had a lot of trouble with this section in the beginning because I wasn't familiar with the shortcuts that the GMAT expects you to use to answer these questions. So the trick is to pay close attention to the explanations of the answers in the OG. Write down flash cards with all the knowledge you lack (for instance how to use quickly and efficiently a Veen diagram, the formula for compounded interest, formulas for rate equations, and so on). I read the ManhattanGMAT Number properties guide and did all the questions in the OG (paying close attention to the answers of the questions I got wrong) in 5 days.
I kept for last my second weak point: Data Sufficiency (DS). Don't try this before you're comfortable with PS. This section is about being efficient. Spent 4 days doing all of the questions in the OG. The trick here again is to pay close attention to the explanations of the answers in the OG. Make sure you understand exactly the question you are trying to answer. If it is not explicitly written in math form, re-write it on you answer sheet in math form. Then do the same for the two statements below (i.e. if the statement says the difference between b and a is greater than 3, write b - a > 3 ).
Finally, I spent 4 days doing practice exams. Got 2 from the official GMAT website (for free) and 5 from 800score.com (for a total of 25$ I believe). This step is crucial to get used to the timing. The scores I got were (in this order): 710, 730, 700, 720, 740 and 750 (didn't have time to take the last practice exam). As you can see, I got better every time I took an exam.
General tips:
Quant questions: Make sure you visualize what precisely the question is asking. Anything that isn't given to you in math language, translate it immediately in writing in a mathematical expression. Solve the whole problem by writing. Don't try to do it in your head, unless you're really comfortable with the question. And that goes for DS too.
Verbal: read the question very closely. Look for GMAT patters (you'll learn to recognize them as you practice). No need to take any form of notes while reading. Just make sure you understand 100% of what is being said, and that you grasp the point of the author is making (this goes for SC too). Then, as you read through the possible answers, write down a cross (to rule out the possibility) or a cirlce (to indicate a possibility you didn't find anything wrong with), and then decide on the best answer out of all the circles. During your GMAT exam, your notes should be filled with lines of x's and o's.
I studied an average of 2 hours during week days and 5 hours during weekend days.
Special thanks go to TwinSplitter for his awesome post.
If I think of anything else I'll post it latter.
Best of luck to all.
