I haven't made many posts on this board, but I can certainly say that Beat the GMAT was helpful to me in determining what to study and how best to navigate the trickier problems.
I hope I can offer some helpful insight, particularly for those who are taking a second attempt at the GMAT.
While I took a GMAT course at the end of last year, my intensive studying did not begin until mid-June. My study materials included Kaplan Premier Program, Kaplan 800, Princeton Review, and several of the Manhattan Review books. If I was to do it all over again, I think I would have focussed my attention on OG11, the Quant Review book, the Manhattan guides, and any old GMAT exams. I was working full-time throughout my study period, so I'd try to study a couple hours each weeknight and about 6 hours a day during the weekend.
Before my first GMAT attempt, my practice scores were:
Kaplan 1: 550
Kaplan 2: 550 (I'm really glad I learned to ignore these scores!)
GMAT Prep 1: 700, (Q48, V38)
GMAT Prep 2: 720 , (Q48, V42)
On my first attempt at the actual GMAT, I scored 630 (Q37, V39), 6 AWA. I was very disappointed with my quant score because I knew my quant abilities were much better, as my GMAT Prep results had demonstrated. I haven't been able to definitively identify what I did wrong during that exam. I know I got bogged down by some earlier questions that I got off track on and spent too long working on. I also think I freaked myself out by over-analyzing the difficulty of questions I was receiving. While I felt I had calmed my nerves to begin the section, I think I let them get the better of me mid-way through.
I re-booked the exam for the earliest next possible date as soon as I got home.
I took a planned week's holiday and didn't touch the books. After getting back into it, I spent more time working on old paper practice tests I'd received through my course. My instructor had a philosophy of only practicing off of real old GMAT questions-- a strategy that makes a lot of sense. I focused on geometry, which had been a weaker area of mine, through the Manhattan Guide, and I also worked on remainder questions. Finally, I went through all of the OG questions and QR questions again.
I reset the GMAT Prep tests and found very few repeat questions.
GMAT Prep 1- 760 (Q49, V44)
GMAT Prep 2- 760 (Q49, V46)
These scores raised my confidence level a little more. It was surprising to see my verbal scores improving because I had spent very little time studying in this area since the first attempt, other than a little work on Sentence Correction with the Manhattan Guide. I honestly feel my improved scores in verbal were due to better execution.
I tried to study very little the last two days before the exam. I went over a few questions and if I got a few difficult questions correct in a row, I'd stop working. I felt maintaining a high level of confidence was at least as important as content knowledge.
Going into the exam, I tried to stay as relaxed as possible and promise myself I would not spend too long on any one question.
The results- 730 (Q47, V44)
During the quant section, I felt more focussed and confident. I'm still a little frustrated by 2-3 questions near the end where I figured out the right answer in my head after the fact, but I suppose that's how it can go in a high-pressure timed test. I would have liked one more point on quant but I won't complain. I also ran out of time and had to guess on the last two questions.
On the verbal section, my strategy had become to not write anything down and just focus on the screen. Everyone has a different strategy that works for them but I found that worked for me. On RC questions, I focused on picking up the general story the passage was telling.
I became concerned when I didn't get any bold-faced CR questions but I began to realize the questions were at a reasonable level of difficulty so all was good. I finished with 30 seconds to spare.
In the end, I'd say become familiar with as many different question types as possible but spend almost as much time on practicing those skills under the pressure of timed practice tests.
Thanks to all who contribute to this site and best of luck to those who have the GMAT ahead of them.
I hope I can offer some helpful insight, particularly for those who are taking a second attempt at the GMAT.
While I took a GMAT course at the end of last year, my intensive studying did not begin until mid-June. My study materials included Kaplan Premier Program, Kaplan 800, Princeton Review, and several of the Manhattan Review books. If I was to do it all over again, I think I would have focussed my attention on OG11, the Quant Review book, the Manhattan guides, and any old GMAT exams. I was working full-time throughout my study period, so I'd try to study a couple hours each weeknight and about 6 hours a day during the weekend.
Before my first GMAT attempt, my practice scores were:
Kaplan 1: 550
Kaplan 2: 550 (I'm really glad I learned to ignore these scores!)
GMAT Prep 1: 700, (Q48, V38)
GMAT Prep 2: 720 , (Q48, V42)
On my first attempt at the actual GMAT, I scored 630 (Q37, V39), 6 AWA. I was very disappointed with my quant score because I knew my quant abilities were much better, as my GMAT Prep results had demonstrated. I haven't been able to definitively identify what I did wrong during that exam. I know I got bogged down by some earlier questions that I got off track on and spent too long working on. I also think I freaked myself out by over-analyzing the difficulty of questions I was receiving. While I felt I had calmed my nerves to begin the section, I think I let them get the better of me mid-way through.
I re-booked the exam for the earliest next possible date as soon as I got home.
I took a planned week's holiday and didn't touch the books. After getting back into it, I spent more time working on old paper practice tests I'd received through my course. My instructor had a philosophy of only practicing off of real old GMAT questions-- a strategy that makes a lot of sense. I focused on geometry, which had been a weaker area of mine, through the Manhattan Guide, and I also worked on remainder questions. Finally, I went through all of the OG questions and QR questions again.
I reset the GMAT Prep tests and found very few repeat questions.
GMAT Prep 1- 760 (Q49, V44)
GMAT Prep 2- 760 (Q49, V46)
These scores raised my confidence level a little more. It was surprising to see my verbal scores improving because I had spent very little time studying in this area since the first attempt, other than a little work on Sentence Correction with the Manhattan Guide. I honestly feel my improved scores in verbal were due to better execution.
I tried to study very little the last two days before the exam. I went over a few questions and if I got a few difficult questions correct in a row, I'd stop working. I felt maintaining a high level of confidence was at least as important as content knowledge.
Going into the exam, I tried to stay as relaxed as possible and promise myself I would not spend too long on any one question.
The results- 730 (Q47, V44)
During the quant section, I felt more focussed and confident. I'm still a little frustrated by 2-3 questions near the end where I figured out the right answer in my head after the fact, but I suppose that's how it can go in a high-pressure timed test. I would have liked one more point on quant but I won't complain. I also ran out of time and had to guess on the last two questions.
On the verbal section, my strategy had become to not write anything down and just focus on the screen. Everyone has a different strategy that works for them but I found that worked for me. On RC questions, I focused on picking up the general story the passage was telling.
I became concerned when I didn't get any bold-faced CR questions but I began to realize the questions were at a reasonable level of difficulty so all was good. I finished with 30 seconds to spare.
In the end, I'd say become familiar with as many different question types as possible but spend almost as much time on practicing those skills under the pressure of timed practice tests.
Thanks to all who contribute to this site and best of luck to those who have the GMAT ahead of them.
