-
jaroth04
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:08 pm
- Location: Pittsburgh, PA
- GMAT Score:740
I just finished the GMAT, 740 [49Q, 42V]. I don't know that I have much to add to the debriefs but I want to call out anything that might help future test-takers.
Prep:
First, I downloaded the GMATPrep software from www.mba.com. I did both prep tests on back-to-back days, skipping the writing assessments. First score was 630, second score 660. For the record I am about 5 years out of my undergraduate computer science program, and haven't done anything that would resemble formal education (especially quantitative) for the past 5 years.
After that, I bought myself the Kaplan Advanced book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Kaplan-GMAT-Advan ... 846&sr=8-1
Thinking that if I was in the middle 600s, I needed to study the harder 600- and 700-level questions to improve my score. I will say now that I believe that I was wrong. This isn't a critique of the book - I think it presents valid examples - as much as it is my philosophy on how to do a good job on this test (I'll try to expound later).
I worked through the Sentence Correction and Problem Solving sections of this book, and then bought Kaplan Premier:
https://www.amazon.com/Kaplan-GMAT-2010- ... 222&sr=1-1
I purchased it because of the relatively large number of available CATs (5). I think that doing CATs is the *best* way to prepare yourself to actually take the exam. I studied the book and test-taking strategies, and did one of the CATs and scored a 710.
I then started focusing on problems that I could find online. I did a bunch of problems from the forums here and on Manhattan GMAT, and took the Knewton Free Diagnostic, on which I scored a 570. After the 570, I took a couple of days off -- I felt burnt out and couldn't believe that I had regressed that much. For what it's worth, the Knewton Diagnostic seemed to be a collection of questions that were all of the difficulty of the Kaplan Advanced book. I don't know if it's computer adaptive or not, but it was easily the hardest "Diagnostic" that I took, and, I thought, much harder than the test itself.
When I got back to it, I felt like I needed as many problems as I could get my hands on, so I ordered OG 11 and 12 (kind of overkill, you can probably get away with either one), and the Supplemental guides:
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 715&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 794&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 867&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 841&sr=1-1
And I just did as many problems as I could. I seemed to have a more natural affinity (though I wouldn't say enjoyment) for Problem Solving and Sentence Correction questions, and didn't want to do much in the way of Data Sufficiency (no one should ever hire me to do anything like data sufficiency problems) or Reading Comprehension.
Then I just did problem after problem after problem. One thing I noticed was that I never really got substantially *better* at problems (I pretty much did something dumb on every 1 out of 10, and flat-out missed another one or two out of 10). Anytime I missed a problem, I tried to identify whether it was because I didn't read the question stem, missed an assumption, or simply didn't know how to do it. What I found was that the ones that I didn't know how to do, I didn't know how to do pretty consistently.
Where I noticed substantial improvement was in the speed with which I could do problems. What used to take me 2-3 minutes I could do in 20-30 seconds. I knew which tricks to try by simply seeing the way a question was worded (there's a great post about knowing that when you see at least, dealing with probabilities, you know to try counting the complement instead). You will see yourself start to develop different tools to approach different situation, and even to know which tools to choose subconsciously. When I got to that point, I knew that I was ready to take on the test.
I scheduled my test on Monday, January 4 for today (January 14). That gave me 2 weeks and one weekend for final cramming. During the weeks I studied for 1-2 hours, 3 nights. On the weekend, I downloaded again the GMATPrep tests and took them. I got up each morning, and tried to simulate the test as best I could. I got up when I would be getting up on test day; I started when I would be starting. Just to remove as many variables as I could. Again, I skipped the AWA sections. I probably shouldn't have done this, but I would have rather erred on the side of not simulating the entire experience than risking burnout. My scores:
750 50Q, 41V
760 49Q, 46V
I spent the rest of this week studying and working (I work full-time).
OK, if anyone has made it this far, onto test day.
Test day:
- Get up a half-hour earlier than you think you need to. Get to the test center 15 minutes before you are supposed to arrive (45 minutes before your appointment). Compose yourself before you go inside, because once you get there, things will move quickly.
- I would drink a little caffeine to get your brain moving.
- I would definitely take food to eat during breaks.
- I would wear comfortable shoes that slip on or off. You want to be as comfortable as possible.
- I would wear layers so that I could take off a fleece if I got too hot.
- (This was a big deal for me): If you wear glasses or contacts, pick which one you're going to wear for the test and do it the same when you practice. I felt like I was able to concentrate better with my contacts than with my glasses, so I practiced that way.
- Just concentrate on answering every question; don't think about if the questions seem "hard" or "easy", as it doesn't really make a difference. I caught myself wondering about difficulty a few times, and had to focus back on doing the problem.
- Another big deal: the real GMAT took me a lot *longer* than the prep tests. I finished the quant section of both preps that I took last weekend with 5-6 minutes remaining, and the verbal with (no exaggeration) 20. On the GMAT, I ran out of time on the last problem of the quantitative section, and finished the verbal with 3 minutes to spare. Prepare to overthink things when it counts.
- (Sheepishly): Don't sweat it if you goof up. I was *so* ready to nail the quantitative section after scoring 49, 50 on the prep tests and writing two (decent, I thought) AWAs. I sat down for the first question and I just couldn't figure out the missing piece of the puzzle. I took a decent guess and moved on, having wasted 3-4 minutes already. I feel like every person is going to have a problem or two that they feel like they should get, but for whatever reason flummoxes them. Just keep going, there are plenty of questions to make up the lost points.
Philosophy:
- I think the best way to get ready for this test is to do as many problems as you can. If you can knock out the mid-level problems in 20-30 seconds, you will have a lot more time to work on the harder problems. A lot of the harder problems that I saw in my practice seemed to be just composing 2 or more "mid-level" concepts into one solution.
- I'm a big believer in focusing on concepts. There are just too many disparate kinds of problems to try "one of everything". I feel like the more advanced questions (especially on the quantitative side, though some in Sentence Correction as well) are simply composition of two to three of the mid-level problems.
- Eliminate variability in your experience wherever possible. Make the situation as much like the real deal as possible and you will have less to think about on test day. Think about clothing, lighting, food and drink, and especially putting in long sessions to build your mental stamina.
I really do believe that every person on these boards has already taken the hardest step toward achieving the score that they want, by going out and finding a community where they can ask questions and learn from the experiences of others. I really wish you all the best of luck on your GMAT experiences, and thank the staff of this site as well as the contributors.
Prep:
First, I downloaded the GMATPrep software from www.mba.com. I did both prep tests on back-to-back days, skipping the writing assessments. First score was 630, second score 660. For the record I am about 5 years out of my undergraduate computer science program, and haven't done anything that would resemble formal education (especially quantitative) for the past 5 years.
After that, I bought myself the Kaplan Advanced book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Kaplan-GMAT-Advan ... 846&sr=8-1
Thinking that if I was in the middle 600s, I needed to study the harder 600- and 700-level questions to improve my score. I will say now that I believe that I was wrong. This isn't a critique of the book - I think it presents valid examples - as much as it is my philosophy on how to do a good job on this test (I'll try to expound later).
I worked through the Sentence Correction and Problem Solving sections of this book, and then bought Kaplan Premier:
https://www.amazon.com/Kaplan-GMAT-2010- ... 222&sr=1-1
I purchased it because of the relatively large number of available CATs (5). I think that doing CATs is the *best* way to prepare yourself to actually take the exam. I studied the book and test-taking strategies, and did one of the CATs and scored a 710.
I then started focusing on problems that I could find online. I did a bunch of problems from the forums here and on Manhattan GMAT, and took the Knewton Free Diagnostic, on which I scored a 570. After the 570, I took a couple of days off -- I felt burnt out and couldn't believe that I had regressed that much. For what it's worth, the Knewton Diagnostic seemed to be a collection of questions that were all of the difficulty of the Kaplan Advanced book. I don't know if it's computer adaptive or not, but it was easily the hardest "Diagnostic" that I took, and, I thought, much harder than the test itself.
When I got back to it, I felt like I needed as many problems as I could get my hands on, so I ordered OG 11 and 12 (kind of overkill, you can probably get away with either one), and the Supplemental guides:
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 715&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 794&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 867&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-GM ... 841&sr=1-1
And I just did as many problems as I could. I seemed to have a more natural affinity (though I wouldn't say enjoyment) for Problem Solving and Sentence Correction questions, and didn't want to do much in the way of Data Sufficiency (no one should ever hire me to do anything like data sufficiency problems) or Reading Comprehension.
Then I just did problem after problem after problem. One thing I noticed was that I never really got substantially *better* at problems (I pretty much did something dumb on every 1 out of 10, and flat-out missed another one or two out of 10). Anytime I missed a problem, I tried to identify whether it was because I didn't read the question stem, missed an assumption, or simply didn't know how to do it. What I found was that the ones that I didn't know how to do, I didn't know how to do pretty consistently.
Where I noticed substantial improvement was in the speed with which I could do problems. What used to take me 2-3 minutes I could do in 20-30 seconds. I knew which tricks to try by simply seeing the way a question was worded (there's a great post about knowing that when you see at least, dealing with probabilities, you know to try counting the complement instead). You will see yourself start to develop different tools to approach different situation, and even to know which tools to choose subconsciously. When I got to that point, I knew that I was ready to take on the test.
I scheduled my test on Monday, January 4 for today (January 14). That gave me 2 weeks and one weekend for final cramming. During the weeks I studied for 1-2 hours, 3 nights. On the weekend, I downloaded again the GMATPrep tests and took them. I got up each morning, and tried to simulate the test as best I could. I got up when I would be getting up on test day; I started when I would be starting. Just to remove as many variables as I could. Again, I skipped the AWA sections. I probably shouldn't have done this, but I would have rather erred on the side of not simulating the entire experience than risking burnout. My scores:
750 50Q, 41V
760 49Q, 46V
I spent the rest of this week studying and working (I work full-time).
OK, if anyone has made it this far, onto test day.
Test day:
- Get up a half-hour earlier than you think you need to. Get to the test center 15 minutes before you are supposed to arrive (45 minutes before your appointment). Compose yourself before you go inside, because once you get there, things will move quickly.
- I would drink a little caffeine to get your brain moving.
- I would definitely take food to eat during breaks.
- I would wear comfortable shoes that slip on or off. You want to be as comfortable as possible.
- I would wear layers so that I could take off a fleece if I got too hot.
- (This was a big deal for me): If you wear glasses or contacts, pick which one you're going to wear for the test and do it the same when you practice. I felt like I was able to concentrate better with my contacts than with my glasses, so I practiced that way.
- Just concentrate on answering every question; don't think about if the questions seem "hard" or "easy", as it doesn't really make a difference. I caught myself wondering about difficulty a few times, and had to focus back on doing the problem.
- Another big deal: the real GMAT took me a lot *longer* than the prep tests. I finished the quant section of both preps that I took last weekend with 5-6 minutes remaining, and the verbal with (no exaggeration) 20. On the GMAT, I ran out of time on the last problem of the quantitative section, and finished the verbal with 3 minutes to spare. Prepare to overthink things when it counts.
- (Sheepishly): Don't sweat it if you goof up. I was *so* ready to nail the quantitative section after scoring 49, 50 on the prep tests and writing two (decent, I thought) AWAs. I sat down for the first question and I just couldn't figure out the missing piece of the puzzle. I took a decent guess and moved on, having wasted 3-4 minutes already. I feel like every person is going to have a problem or two that they feel like they should get, but for whatever reason flummoxes them. Just keep going, there are plenty of questions to make up the lost points.
Philosophy:
- I think the best way to get ready for this test is to do as many problems as you can. If you can knock out the mid-level problems in 20-30 seconds, you will have a lot more time to work on the harder problems. A lot of the harder problems that I saw in my practice seemed to be just composing 2 or more "mid-level" concepts into one solution.
- I'm a big believer in focusing on concepts. There are just too many disparate kinds of problems to try "one of everything". I feel like the more advanced questions (especially on the quantitative side, though some in Sentence Correction as well) are simply composition of two to three of the mid-level problems.
- Eliminate variability in your experience wherever possible. Make the situation as much like the real deal as possible and you will have less to think about on test day. Think about clothing, lighting, food and drink, and especially putting in long sessions to build your mental stamina.
I really do believe that every person on these boards has already taken the hardest step toward achieving the score that they want, by going out and finding a community where they can ask questions and learn from the experiences of others. I really wish you all the best of luck on your GMAT experiences, and thank the staff of this site as well as the contributors.
