I did truly hope to get 50+ on the Quant, but what can you do...
My AW essays got a 5.5.
I have to say that I didn't expect to score over 720 in my first try, and was saving some hard studying for my second try. However, as it played out, I have a good, yet unsatisfying, score. I think it's good enough for Stanford, Haas, and Sloan, so I am going to spend the rest of my time on essays and not take the GMAT again.
My profile: Silicon valley computer engineer, with a master's degree. Strong quant background. Non-native English speak (who has studied English since childhood). A vociferous reader.
Studying strategy: I used two books.
-- Princeton Review GMAT (2010) to understand the basics of the test, the structure, and some useful test strategies. It also explained most quant topics adequately. However, I soon found that the questions were too easy to be helpful to my GMAT goal.
-- Official GMAT Guide. I did every quant question, and most verbal questions in this book. The essay examples were also quite helpful.
Study time: My total study period was around 6-8 weeks.
-- The first 3 weeks were spent understanding the test and the topics. I made sure I understood all mathematical theorems from a variety of perspectives. I followed Princeton's strategies on recognizing verbal question types, and answering reading comprehension sections.
-- Next 2 weeks were for practice. On good days I spent 3-4 hours at Starbucks doing quant questions from the Official GMAT Guide.
-- Over 2 weekends, I took the two CAT tests included with the official guide. I found that I was very slow on quant.
-- Spent 2 weeks building up my speed on quant. I used a stop-watch to do as many questions in 30-60 minute blocks. This really helped me understand that some questions need to be skipped if they are taking too much time.
Lessons:
-- My quant score came out below 50 because I missed a few questions at the end of the test. As much as I tried, I still wanted to answer all questions instead of skipping a few. This caused me to run out of time. If I were to do it again, I would pick up my pace on quant.
-- The GMAT is not a hard test. But it's also not something you can get through without having prepared your quant and verbal skills over time.
Good luck to all!
My AW essays got a 5.5.
I have to say that I didn't expect to score over 720 in my first try, and was saving some hard studying for my second try. However, as it played out, I have a good, yet unsatisfying, score. I think it's good enough for Stanford, Haas, and Sloan, so I am going to spend the rest of my time on essays and not take the GMAT again.
My profile: Silicon valley computer engineer, with a master's degree. Strong quant background. Non-native English speak (who has studied English since childhood). A vociferous reader.
Studying strategy: I used two books.
-- Princeton Review GMAT (2010) to understand the basics of the test, the structure, and some useful test strategies. It also explained most quant topics adequately. However, I soon found that the questions were too easy to be helpful to my GMAT goal.
-- Official GMAT Guide. I did every quant question, and most verbal questions in this book. The essay examples were also quite helpful.
Study time: My total study period was around 6-8 weeks.
-- The first 3 weeks were spent understanding the test and the topics. I made sure I understood all mathematical theorems from a variety of perspectives. I followed Princeton's strategies on recognizing verbal question types, and answering reading comprehension sections.
-- Next 2 weeks were for practice. On good days I spent 3-4 hours at Starbucks doing quant questions from the Official GMAT Guide.
-- Over 2 weekends, I took the two CAT tests included with the official guide. I found that I was very slow on quant.
-- Spent 2 weeks building up my speed on quant. I used a stop-watch to do as many questions in 30-60 minute blocks. This really helped me understand that some questions need to be skipped if they are taking too much time.
Lessons:
-- My quant score came out below 50 because I missed a few questions at the end of the test. As much as I tried, I still wanted to answer all questions instead of skipping a few. This caused me to run out of time. If I were to do it again, I would pick up my pace on quant.
-- The GMAT is not a hard test. But it's also not something you can get through without having prepared your quant and verbal skills over time.
Good luck to all!
Last edited by cowbell on Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
