I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi All,

I have been looking forward to this post for some time now. I just got back today from taking my test for the second time. I am very happy with my score.

I have checked this site habitually over the past few months reading other inspiring stories and I am happy to finally add mine.

First, a little background about me....I was born and raised in the state of Georgia, USA, so I am a native English speaker. I am 27 and will be applying for the Fall of 2011.

I have always been more of a math person and seemed to overachieve on tests. I started studying in April of this year. I purchased Kaplan's GMAT Premier 2010-2011 Edition. This was a very solid book to start with. I learned what to expect from the GMAT and about all the different questions. This is certainly not all one would need, but I think it is a great tool to start with. I studied with this book for about 1 month. I did find the Kaplan practice test and the accompanying CD's tests to be rather difficult and harsh on the grading scale. I think I made a 550 on my very first test in the back of this book.

I then moved on to the Official Guide 12th Edition. I practiced this book for about another month. I was getting about 90% of the word problems, 80% of data sufficiency, 80% of reading comp, 85% of critical reasoning, and maybe 70% of sentence correction correct. These seemed like solid percentages but they are inflated. In my opinion, so many of the Official Guide problems are too easy. Only the last 20-30 problems in each section are good preparation for the GMAT if you are looking to get a top score. I think the rest of the questions are great practice in the beginning and can help your confidence, but not much more than that.

I then realized I needed to focus on my weak areas more intensely, mostly reading comp and sentence correction. I purchased Manhattan GMAT's SC , RC, CR, Number Properties and Word Translation Guides. I found the RC and CR to be pretty useless. I dont find taking notes to be helpful while reading passages, which is what the RC guide teaches. Also, these guides basically just tell you to look for the main idea of the passage while you read. You dont need to buy these books to learn that tip. And the CR was basically just more practice. I dont recall learning anything new that was a useful tool to tackle CR. The SC was very helpful....tons of info and shed the light on a lot of basic and advanced concepts. I took about 2 months to complete these books. I also started taking the MGMAT practice tests while completing these books.

My scores:
MGMAT 1 660 Q44 V36 7-15-10
MGMAT 2 670 Q42 V39 7-30-10
MGMAT 3 700 Q47 V39 8-05-10
MGMAT 4 690 Q45 V38 8-10-10
GMAC 1 690 (??) 8-14-10
MGMAT 5 690 Q46 V38 8-18-10
MGMAT 6 720 Q49 V39 8-22-10
GMAC 2 700 (??) 8-26-10

I scheduled my REAL GMAT for Sept 30th. It seemed like my score was right around the 700 mark. My attitude was that I wanted to break 700 and I expected to do so. I was pretty confident about my ability to test well and I expected to easily attain my goal. Anything lower than 700 and I would retake. I studied everyday up to the test for at least a few hours, usually studying about 5-6 hours a day. My attitude was that I was scoring well enough on my practice test without resting, why would the REAL GMAT be any different? I practiced with the Official Verbal and Math Guides. I think these books have the toughest GMAC questions. I would highly recommend them to anyone needing harder practice.

The night before the test I got a decent(not great) night sleep. I woke up, had a big breakfast, drove to the test center, studied outside for about 30 minutes. I went in and did my thing.

The test center is NOT scary or a bad place to take a test. I never practiced with markers but did nsot find using them to be a strange adjustment. My pen never went bad and I only used about 1/3 off the scratch sheets they gave me.

My writing sections seemed typical. The argument essay was easy to break down. The opinion wasnt so easy, but not terrible. I am a bad writer and the only preparation I did for this was to read some guys guide on The GMAT Club Webbsite. It can easily be found by googling 'awa guide.' I ended up with a 5.5. Just be sure to use the language....first, second, third, on the contrary, invalid, etc.

The Quant Section went by very quickly. I finished with about 10 minutes remaining. I guessed about 3 times on questions that I thought were taking me too long(over 3-4 minutes). I honestly thought the quant section was relatively easy. I recall having one or two permutation questions. I did think the data sufficiency questions were tricky, but not too bad. Then came the verbal. The verbal seemed a little harder. The SC qs were not very obvious, the RC qs were boring but not tricky. the CR qs were comparable to what i had seen in the official guide and MGMAT practice. Unfortunately I did a poor job with time management here I had to answer the last 5 questions with 3 minutes remaining. I finished, filled out the surveys and checked my score. My heart dropped. I saw the 680 Q45 V38 and I couldnt believe it. I thought I was going to get in the mid-700's the way I felt during the test, and I thought I would at least score in the low 700's based on my practice testing.

I couldnt believe this score. It seemed like most people on this site get a high score relative to their practice or at least on the high end of the practice tests.

I immediately decided I would retake it. I was going to go home and schedule another test for the next week. I then come to realize I have to wait 31 days. My attitude was that I just didnt test well. I obviously fell for the traps and wasnt sharp that day. I knew I could do better, but I really didnt want to wait 31 days to do so.

I took about a week off. I took another practice exam (MGMAT 1A) and got a 710 about 4 days after my real attempt. I didnt think about the GMAT for another week or so. I needed to rest. I decided to order some more books and get my studying going again with about 2.5 weeks til my next test.

I came to realize that i burned out studying before my first attempt. I was pretty hardcore about studying the three weeks leading up to the test. In hindsight, this was a mistake. My brain needed more rest than I was giving it. I decided to have a much more relaxed approach for my second attempt. I studied for about 3-4 hours a day, never any longer. I realized there is a point where I quit thinking clearly during my studying. Before I would just power through this point. The second time around I always quit studying when I reached that point. The best way to describe this feeling is that as I read the study guides, I would get to a point when my mind would start to wonder and I would have to reread text over and over and try harder to concentrate and absorb the information. I am not sure if everyone experiences this but it is something I noticed about myself.

I ordered the MGMAT Geometry, Equations..., and the Powerscore GMAT Sentence Correction Bible. I wanted to freshen up on some math concepts. Maybe I wasnt as sharp in math as I thought. I also needed more help in SC and I wanted to try another book instead of rereading the same MGMAT book. I found both MGMAT books to be helpful, a lot of review of some concepts but definitely would recommend both. I certainly took away a few rules from each that made me much more confident going into the GMAT the second time.

The GMAT SC Bible came as a pleasant surprise. I didnt see many people recommending it, but I saw a direct improvement in my SC scores. The book actually seems a little dumbed down compared to the MGMAT book, but I think it does a better job of explaining the concepts without overwhelming you with material like the MGMAT SC. Once I finished this book I took 4 more practice test. I noticed that my verbal score went from averaging a 37 to a 44 and the only material I used to study with was the SC Bible. It did wonders for me. I also looked into egmat.com, since I few people had recommended it on this site. i personally did not find this site to be helpful. You can practice the first few sections for free. The practice questions had grammatical errors (missing articles, missing punctuation). I know others seemed t have had a different experience. I only did the free portion of the SC class.

MGMAT 2A 740 Q47 V44 9-24-10
GMAC 1 740 (??) 9-26-10
MGMAT 3A 730 Q51 V39 9-27-10 * dont know where that Q score came from
GMAC 2 740 (??) 9-28-10

I scheduled to take my second test today, 10-1-10. On 9-29-10 I looked over my books and refreshed myself on the concepts for about an hour or two but then quit. I didnt look at another problem or read any more material until the real test.

The day before the test my car broke down. I think it is gone for good. I had to jump through hoops to get my car out of the road, get it towed, get picked up from the mechanics and driven to the house I was staying at the night before my test, get my girlfriend to drive an hour into the city where I was testing so I could use her car to drive to the test center. Needless to say it was a stressful day. That night I got, at most, 4 hours of sleep. It was awful. I was so tired and mad about it. I guess I was nervous or something. Anyway, I tried not to think about it and move on. I showered and got in the car and drove to the test site.

I needed to get breakfast so I stopped at Chick-fil-a and got a few biscuits. Scarfed them down and showed up to the test center an hour early. I walked in and got to go ahead with my test, no problem. I went through the writing sections. They were as I expected. First was easy, second was harder. The problem was that during the writing section, my stomach started feeling very aggravated. It wasnt terrible, but....anyone around could have guessed my stomach was off. I rushed to finish the second writing section and rushed to the bathroom. I came back ready to tackle the quant.

This time around, I thought the quant was so hard. The data sufficiency was misleading. I got a few questions that seemed so obviously to be E but I spent a lot of time trying to make sure I wasnt missing something. I finished the quant with about 5 minutes left. I felt like I performed about the same on the math as I did on my first take. I certainly didnt feel any better about it. I also did not get any combination or permutation questions which would help me gauge if I was doing well. So I assumed I didnt.

The verbal was SO hard. The SC qs were so tricky. They seemed to not test any concepts that I was expecting or confident about. I reviewed so many rules I was prepared to use but didnt have a chance to. The RCs were long and boring. I had to reread so many sections, not grasping the material. I felt like I was making an educated guess on every question, never completely confident about anything. The CRs were what I expected. Nothing too bad.

I again, ran out of time. I had 17 minutes for the last 12 questions, which included a reading comp. I hurried through all the remaining questions just to finish on time. I probably spent about 45 seconds on each of the last 7 questions. Needless to say, I was not very happy about my performance.

When I was rushing through the last few verbal questions, I wanted to just quit and start over another day. I thought I bombed the test. As I was finishing the test, I was felling my heart dropping. I knew I was doing poorly. I couldnt comprehend the questions very well. I knew I did worse than I had my first time. I tried to convince myself to be happy with a 680. Dont get me wrong, a 680 is a great score. Had I been testing at the mid 600s in my practice, I would have been so happy with a 680. But I had been testing in the low to mid 700s and thought that I would be leaving a lot left on the table with a 680. I finished the test and went through the questionnaire again. I actually thought about not reporting my scores because I thought it would look bad if I went down on my second attempt. I decided that I might as well report them since I wasnt going to take the GMAT again...so lets see what the damage is.......750(98%)? I couldnt believe it. Q49(86%) V44(97%)

So, everyone, always report your scores. You dont know what is going to happen.

Many others on this site tested and studied nonstop up to the test day. I tried that the first time around and it did not work for me. I also think that taking the GMAT more than once is the best way to maximize your performance. I would suggest that people test as early as possible. I wanted to apply early for schools and now I am going to have to apply second round for most schools. I decided a higher GMAT would help my chances of getting into a top 15 school more than applying Round 1. I am very happy about my decision.

I feel like I had much more to say and had planned this out better, but I am operating on 4 hours of sleep still and I just want to finish this super long post.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I apologize for this hazy and poorly written account of my experience with the GMAT. I hope some of you will find some use from reading it.

I am going to go take a nap.

Edit:
I just found out that I received a 6.0 on the AWA. I reviewed for the AWA for my first take, but did not do anything going into my second take. Again, I thought I performed about the same or maybe a little worse than my first take. I am not a strong writer and feel that if I can get a 6.0, anyone can get a 6.0.