I just beat the gmat!! I took the gmat the first time in March 2013 (4 years ago). I didn't study at all - I fully intended to but was an IB at the time and couldn't fit it in. I took a manhattan gmat course but only went to like 2 classes, never did the homework, but I did have all the books and materials.
In October 2016 I started studying hardcore. I knew I wanted to go S/H/W and my undergrad GPA was relatively low so I had to crush it. First thing i d was take a GMAT Prep practice test - 640. Coulda been better, but coulda been worse. I signed up for magoosh and bought the most recent 2017 OG. I started working through the OG from the beginning and watching the magoosh videos, trying to cover a concept and then answer all the practice questions on that topic. At this point, I was ONLY studying quant. I found studying verbal very boring and didn't really like doing it. I would study for a few weeks on a couple topics and then take a practice test and then move on to the next set of topics. Here were my scores:
CATDate Score Q V Test Taken
30-Oct 640 42 35 GMAT Prep 1
20-Nov 660 44 36 Manhattan Gmat 1
3-Dec 640 43 34 Manhattan Gmat 2
17-Dec 700 44 41 GMAT Prep 2
7-Jan 720 49 40 GMAT Prep 3
14-Jan 710 48 40 GMAT Prep 4
28-Jan 670 44 38 GMAT Prep 5
18-Feb 730 49 41 GMAT Prep 6
When I made the jump in verbal from 34 to 41 I really started to feel like the test was within my finger tips. At this point I realized i needed a good kick to my quant score and I purchased target test prep and started doing those lessons and tests to supplement. I still never really studied verbal beyond my practice tests.
i was originally scheduled to take the test on Feb 11th, but had to push it back for two reasons. 1.) Midway through January I was invited to a business trip that would span that weekend - I thought it would be bad for my career to decline. 2.) My friends planned a big ski trip for the weekend of Feb 4th. i knew I had to make sacrifices, but I really wanted to go.
I pushed back my test to March 4th and slowed my roll. At this point, i read and did the manhattan gmat sentence correction book. I noticed my sentence correction scores improve but my overalls were pretty consistently 40-42 so I don't know if this was really worth it.
After I got my final prep score of 730 i knew I was ready to go. I spent the next two weeks deeply reviewing my previous gmat prep practice tests.
I took my game day route really seriously. I live in southern california and traffic can be unpredictable, the test was 35 minutes from my home in no traffic and my test was at 8am so i decided to stay in a hotel the night before less than 5 minutes from the test center. I stayed at a raddisson literally across the street from the test center. The night before i checked into my hotel after work at 6:30, ordered dinner, and watched a documentary - did not think about the gmat at all. I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 6am. First thing I did was 5 easy gmat math questions from magoosh just to get in the zone. After showering and getting dressed, at 6:45 I went down to the hotel breakfast buffett and had a cup of coffee, a bunch of water, and some oatmeal and eggs. I did a challenging sodoku and went to the test center.
The rest is history - throughout most of my studying timing was never a problem, I always did the sections super fast and ended up with 15-20 minutes at the end. i made a point to do the quant slowly and eliminate stupid mistakes. i ended up with 2 minutes remaining. I did verbal normal and ended with 30 minutes left. this made me a little scared, as I had tried to work slowly, but knew this was consistent with my practice.
And I beat it! 750 with 50Q and 42V.
My number 1 tip - don't make perfect the enemy of good. I know a lot of people emphasized test-like conditions at all times, but I wanted to be good under all conditions. I studied on planes, trains, and in cars. When I didn't have room for pen and paper I opened up word docs and wrote out equations. I studied the week of christmas while spending time with my family watching movies and chatting. In 10 minute breaks waiting for meeitngs to begin i went in and did 2 magoosh questions. I was just consistent and practiced as much as possible. My lowest pracice test score during the end (670) I took the test in a coffee shop with my boyfriend and a visiting friend next to me chatting with me. I didn't do as well as I was used to, but I still made mistakes that I learned from. If I had only studied when conditions were ideal, I would have studied far less, and I really attribute my success to studying a LOT.
Really recommend magoosh and TTP to get acquainted with all the different concepts. When I did the gmat prep tests I could always think back to the lesson and isolate what the question was testing and then work through it from there. I wish I had put a little more effort into verbal, I think with some studying I probably oculd have gotten up to 43 or 44, but I guess I'll never know. the timing through me off a little bit (working towards the Feb 11th test date and then pushing it back 3 weeks) - I had a really hard time pushing through the last month, but after I scored well on my last practice test I was totally in the zone.
Let me know of any other questions!
[/i]
In October 2016 I started studying hardcore. I knew I wanted to go S/H/W and my undergrad GPA was relatively low so I had to crush it. First thing i d was take a GMAT Prep practice test - 640. Coulda been better, but coulda been worse. I signed up for magoosh and bought the most recent 2017 OG. I started working through the OG from the beginning and watching the magoosh videos, trying to cover a concept and then answer all the practice questions on that topic. At this point, I was ONLY studying quant. I found studying verbal very boring and didn't really like doing it. I would study for a few weeks on a couple topics and then take a practice test and then move on to the next set of topics. Here were my scores:
CATDate Score Q V Test Taken
30-Oct 640 42 35 GMAT Prep 1
20-Nov 660 44 36 Manhattan Gmat 1
3-Dec 640 43 34 Manhattan Gmat 2
17-Dec 700 44 41 GMAT Prep 2
7-Jan 720 49 40 GMAT Prep 3
14-Jan 710 48 40 GMAT Prep 4
28-Jan 670 44 38 GMAT Prep 5
18-Feb 730 49 41 GMAT Prep 6
When I made the jump in verbal from 34 to 41 I really started to feel like the test was within my finger tips. At this point I realized i needed a good kick to my quant score and I purchased target test prep and started doing those lessons and tests to supplement. I still never really studied verbal beyond my practice tests.
i was originally scheduled to take the test on Feb 11th, but had to push it back for two reasons. 1.) Midway through January I was invited to a business trip that would span that weekend - I thought it would be bad for my career to decline. 2.) My friends planned a big ski trip for the weekend of Feb 4th. i knew I had to make sacrifices, but I really wanted to go.
I pushed back my test to March 4th and slowed my roll. At this point, i read and did the manhattan gmat sentence correction book. I noticed my sentence correction scores improve but my overalls were pretty consistently 40-42 so I don't know if this was really worth it.
After I got my final prep score of 730 i knew I was ready to go. I spent the next two weeks deeply reviewing my previous gmat prep practice tests.
I took my game day route really seriously. I live in southern california and traffic can be unpredictable, the test was 35 minutes from my home in no traffic and my test was at 8am so i decided to stay in a hotel the night before less than 5 minutes from the test center. I stayed at a raddisson literally across the street from the test center. The night before i checked into my hotel after work at 6:30, ordered dinner, and watched a documentary - did not think about the gmat at all. I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 6am. First thing I did was 5 easy gmat math questions from magoosh just to get in the zone. After showering and getting dressed, at 6:45 I went down to the hotel breakfast buffett and had a cup of coffee, a bunch of water, and some oatmeal and eggs. I did a challenging sodoku and went to the test center.
The rest is history - throughout most of my studying timing was never a problem, I always did the sections super fast and ended up with 15-20 minutes at the end. i made a point to do the quant slowly and eliminate stupid mistakes. i ended up with 2 minutes remaining. I did verbal normal and ended with 30 minutes left. this made me a little scared, as I had tried to work slowly, but knew this was consistent with my practice.
And I beat it! 750 with 50Q and 42V.
My number 1 tip - don't make perfect the enemy of good. I know a lot of people emphasized test-like conditions at all times, but I wanted to be good under all conditions. I studied on planes, trains, and in cars. When I didn't have room for pen and paper I opened up word docs and wrote out equations. I studied the week of christmas while spending time with my family watching movies and chatting. In 10 minute breaks waiting for meeitngs to begin i went in and did 2 magoosh questions. I was just consistent and practiced as much as possible. My lowest pracice test score during the end (670) I took the test in a coffee shop with my boyfriend and a visiting friend next to me chatting with me. I didn't do as well as I was used to, but I still made mistakes that I learned from. If I had only studied when conditions were ideal, I would have studied far less, and I really attribute my success to studying a LOT.
Really recommend magoosh and TTP to get acquainted with all the different concepts. When I did the gmat prep tests I could always think back to the lesson and isolate what the question was testing and then work through it from there. I wish I had put a little more effort into verbal, I think with some studying I probably oculd have gotten up to 43 or 44, but I guess I'll never know. the timing through me off a little bit (working towards the Feb 11th test date and then pushing it back 3 weeks) - I had a really hard time pushing through the last month, but after I scored well on my last practice test I was totally in the zone.
Let me know of any other questions!
[/i]
