- Just graduated from a US Top 25 Public School... I had some spare time in my hands before I start work in July.
- Economics/Accounting major
- Did decently in the SAT: 1460 (Math 760, Verbal 700)
- Took the 9-week MG GMAT course...
- Started Studying at the end of October.. so for about 4.5 months
Just took the GMAT today and did better than all but one of my practice CATs!
I started at 610 on my first GMAT prep (not sure about the breakdown; forgot to take note of that).
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Materials:
- All MG GMAT books
- Powerscore CR (crucial!)
- LSAT LR w/ Kaplan explanations
- OG 10, 11, 12
- OG Math & Verbal workbooks
- Kaplan GMAT 800
- GMAT Club Math tests
- Spidey SC notes
- Brutal SC notes
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Here are my practice CATs:
GMAT Prep 1: 610
Manhattan GMAT CAT 1: 600 (Q36 V35) 11/7/2009
Manhattan GMAT CAT 2: 620 (Q41 V34) 12/25/2009
GMAT Prep 2: 660
Manhattan GMAT CAT 3: 690 (Q47, V37) 1/25/2010
Manhattan GMAT CAT 4: 650 (Q45, V34) 2/1/2010
Manhattan GMAT CAT 5: 680 (Q48, V36) 2/5/2010
Manhattan GMAT CAT 6: 710 (Q47, V40) 2/22/2010
I was actually originally supposed to take the GMAT on 2/20/2010... but I chickened out cuz I didnt' think I was testing well enough. So I pushed it to March 16, 2010.
I ran out of CAT material... so I decided to start doing some over!
GMAT Prep 1 Re-take: 650 (Q46, V34) 3/1/2010 ***This was really disappointing.. I think I went through a week where I felt secure with my last 710 I scored on MG GMAT CAT #6. So I slowed down, and then luckily I got owned by this CAT. I decided to get serious as the test was gonna be in 2 weeks!
GMAT Prep 2 Re-take: 720 (Q50, V38) 3/3/2010 *wahoo! i was finally getting the hang of the timing.. now i started to focus on my verbal to hit 40+
Once again, I seem to have exhausted all my CATs...so...
Manhattan GMAT CAT 1 Re-take: 720 (Q47, V41) / Yes I retook MG GMAT CATs hahaha
Manhattan GMAT CAT 2 Re-take: 720 (Q47, V42)
Reinstalled older version of GMAT Prep 1: 730 (Q49, V40)
Powerprep: 760 (Q50, V44)
Okay, on that last powerprep, I saw a lot of overlap especially in verbal because I was powering through OG 10, 11, 12 CR and SC. So it was a bit inflated...
Anyhow, I'm really happy with my score especially since it was a brand new set of Q's. I was worried that my previous CATs were inflated because of all the re-takes!
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G-Day.
I couldn't get too much sleep last night.. I went to bed at 11pm, hoping to wake up around 7:30am for my 10:15am test. I was pretty restless until I think I fell asleep around 1:30am.
I woke up at 8:15am and went on for a light jog. Ate a couple eggs for breakfast with some yogurt. THen I proceeded to get a triple shot of espresso at starbucks, and then I was on my way to Pearson testing center! Got there, checked in, downed half a 5-hour energy and proceeded with the AWA.
Okay, so I only did the AWA in practice about... 3 times. I had a template for the argument essay, but really did not know what to do with regards to the analysis of an issue. So when I got to the AOI, i freaked out and didn't know what to do. Needless to say, about 12 minutes into it, i ran out of ideas and decided to switch sides LOL. Well I settled for 4 paragraphs, proofread it, and proceeded to the break.
@ the break, I took the other half of the 5-hour energy drink, ate half a banana, drank some water, then returned for the quant. For the quant, I noticed problems getting pretty challenging and time consuming from question 15-25. Then the ygot a little easier and I psyched myself out, as I kept asking myself and wondering if I was gonna hit a Q48+. I had to guess on the 4th to last question because I noticed I was running out of time. Finished the last 3 with speed, finishing with 20 sec left
@ the break, downed a lot of water, bathroom break, at rest of banana. Went back in.. On the 3rd question, i got a RC. after the 1st RC, i noticed the difficulty of the next CR was ramped up... but I think noticing this caused me to get overconfident as I relaxed a little bit. This probably was a mistake. Anyhow, ended up having to guess on the 3rd to last question so that I could finish strong and thus had 3 minutes for the last 2 problems.
filled out the survey. I was so tired/delirious/excited for my score, that I didnt even notice the screen that said Report/Cancel. hahah luckilyu you cant press next without selecting one.
Hit next.
730 96%!
Q50 93%
V40 89%
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Conclusion..
The MG GMAT 9-week course was good in getting me to the high 600's... but by feb 20, I did not feel comfortable to attain my 700+ score. I decided to just hammer problem after problem out.
I ended up going through Spidey's and Brutal SC notes towards the last month, in a desperation to boost my Verbal. And it helped (btw, sorry if my grammar right now sucks, im burnt out)! Obviously it's not a V44, but V40 was my target this whole time!
And really, even though everyone says this, I want to reiterate that the OG materials are INVALUABLE. Especially in math, once you get used to the tricks and style the GMAC asks its questions in... you'll be able to attack the PS questions more efficiently and logically eliminate wrong answer choices in the more conceptual DS!!
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Thanks to everyone on this board. I definitely used the search function towards the ends of my study as I was powering through OG questions and noticed that the OG explanations were sometimes rubbish. The GMAT Club math tests helped me get the Q50, but I only took about 6 or 7 before I noticed a lot of patterns in them.
Let me know if you have any questions, as I'll have a ton of time on my hand to answer them since GMAT studying is gone! Good luck guys!
Cheers!
