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awesomeusername
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Wow, it’s been a long journey. I started to study a few days before the end of last year in 2008 and finished a few days ago. That puts my GMAT stint at about 6.5 months. So don’t let anyone tell you how long you SHOULD study. I was prepared to study for over a year! I would have taken 5 GMAT tests if I had to! Some people need to study for 2 weeks. I know of a guy who studied for almost a year. He eventually got into UCLA’s MBA program. Everyone operates differently so don’t let them tell you how you should do go about tackling this test. That being said, here is what worked for me:
How I studied before GMAT test 1:
January – April.
I went through all the MGMAT books and did all the practice questions. I went though all the OG 11 questions and tried to understand why I got each wrong. I did all OG Verbal and Quant reviews, and did the same. I also found that using the "Finger Method" for eliminating wrong answers is was a godsend in saving time and increasing accuracy. USE THIS!! For those who don't know, A= Thumb, B= Index finger, ..., E = Pinky. When you eliminate an answer, tuck that finger in. No joke, it works very well!
May – June 16
I created a daily schedule on what I would do every day before the test. I would basically set aside a day to take a CAT and a day to go over my wrong answers. I also took a GMAT Focus. Other than that, it was just reviewing my weaknesses. I also purchased the PowerScore CR Bible and read it along the way. Great book! In hindsight, I took too many GMAT tests. You need to space them out by at least a week so you can track your progress. See my CAT history below to see how many I took. This is not necessary.
How I studied before GMAT test 2:
June 17 – July 14.
I decided to only study the OG Verbal and Quant review questions. So 600 questions in all. I varied quant and verbal so I could keep my skills on both sharp. I wrote down question range, how long it took me to answer them, my hit percentage, and what my average time was for each question. I took 1 CAT a week, rather than a bajillion like I did before. I took this advice from a post by Stacey Koprince at MGMAT. I also took her advice on quality, not quantity. So I only really studied about an hour a day. I studied 2-3 hours a day for my last test. I wasn’t nearly as nervous about this test as I was for the last. I was confident that I would get a 700. Last test, I doubted myself. I figured I would get around a 650. I got a 650! Your mindset has a huge bearing on how you’ll perform on test day. At least, that’s what I experienced. I decided to not do any GMAT studying for 3 days before the test. If I didn’t know it by then, I wouldn’t know it on the test.
On top of doing verbal and quant OG review questions, I read The Economist everyday. I read almost the whole thing every week. The Economist is written very well, and will sharpen your being able to point out what looks right, and what doesn’t in SC. It will help you with reading comprehension, which I had most trouble with. It will help you for your AWA essays. It will help you understand how business works. Best of all, it’s free (https://www.economist.com/printedition/). I read it online at work, and I read the hard copy at the pool or wherever I happened to have free time. I will continue to read The Economist even after my GMAT studies because it’s such a great source of current events. You really get a sense of what’s going on in this world.
Another thing I did was this: I didn’t go on the BTG forums. I somehow stopped myself from perusing the forums for a whole month. I would get too caught up on comparing myself to others. What works for one person may not work for another. Don’t get me wrong, BTG is a HUUUUGE reason why I kept at this, and for that I am eternally indebted. But once you get your game plan set, don’t worry about comparing yourself to others. Do your thang! Another thing, if possible, don’t tell others that you’re taking the test. You don’t need the added pressure. I only told a few people.
Books I used:
OG 11 + Verbal Review + Quantitative Review
MGMAT 3rd Edition:
 World Translations
 Equations, Inequalities and VIC’s
 Reading Comprehension
 Critical Reasoning
 Number Properties
 Sentence Correction
PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
MGMAT’s math books are of high quality and I urge you to take advantage of them. MGMAT’s CR and RC books are good, but I didn’t find them essential. On the other hand, MGMAT’s SC book is awesome! I read through this book 3 times. If you don’t know how good this book is by now, then you haven’t been reading anyone else’s debriefs. PowerScore’s CR Bible is also very good. It’s much better than MGMAT's in my opinion. I read through this 3 times. The Original Guide books are all essential because they will give you questions like the ones you’ll encounter on the real thing.
Online Tests that I used:
Gmat Focus:
These questions are taken from previous official GMAT tests. It’s great to practice with. But the question level for the amount of allotted time is pretty crazy. You get 45 minutes to do 24 questions. If you do the math, that’s less than 2 minutes per question. Also, you’ll run into many 700+ level questions. I really don’t feel like it represents what you’ll encounter on test day. Some people swear by these tests. I could have done without them. Plus, they uber expensive.
MGMAT CAT:
These CATs are great! What sets these cats apart from any others is the fact that their explanations are unprecedented. Some things to note is that their math questions are more in depth than the real thing. Also, some of the verbal questions will leave you scratching your head, even after reading the explanation a few times. But, access to 6 CATs for the price of one of their guides is the best bang for the buck you can get!
GmatPrep CAT:
These CATs are the best of course. They contain questions from actual tests! To get the best idea of where you’ll be on test day, take the full test (including the essay portion). But if you take it more than once, count on your score to be inflated.
GPrep CAT:
These CATs weren’t bad. They are official questions. But when I took it, I noticed that a lot of questions came from OG 11 so my score may have been a little inflated. But it was good practice.
My Background:
I am a native citizen of the USA. My SAT score was nothing to be happy about. I studied CS at a state university where I receive my BS. Like most of you, I felt more comfortable with quant than with verbal. I think the longest paper that I wrote in college was 5 pages! I chose CS for a reason: I hate writing papers!
Tests:
1/31/09 – GMAT Prep 1 (After 1 month of studying)
I only did the math portion because I gave up after seeing how hard the questions were. I managed a Q44 with 13 answers wrong. Seeing that this score wasn’t all that bad, I tried again.
* Did not do essays
1/31/09 – GMAT Prep 2
Q48/V33, 660
This score got my really excited. My initial goal was to score 620.
* Did not do essays
3/7/09 – MGMAT CAT1
Q44/V35, 650 (Stopped clock on quant because it was getting real hard. Don’t do it! Just move on! You need to get into the habit of doing this because there’s no stopping the clock on test day!)
5/2/09 – MGMAT CAT 2
Q46/V34, 660
5/6/09 – MGMAT CAT 3
Q44/V38, 680
5/9/09 – MGMAT CAT 4
Q47/V39, 700 (Got me very excited! First 700)
5/14/09 – MGMAT CAT 5
Q42/V36, 640 (Freaked out on math. I actually stopped the clock many times for the math on this test, and did the worst of any verbal score thus far. Lesson learned? Don’t stop the clock! Just guess and move on!)
5/17/09 – GMAT Prep 1
Q44/V34, 640 (The fire alarm went off in the library while on verbal so I had to guess on the last 6 questions. I was pissed! For Q, I got the first 4 of 5 questions wrong! This really wreaked havoc on my score.)
5/19/09 – GMAT Focus 1
Wow, this test is hard! I had to stop the clock so many times. I managed to get a 46-50 score range, but this was not indicative on my real score because I stopped the clock. I was pretty bummed.
5/28/09 – PowerPrep 1
Q49/V40, 720 (Repeats in verbal)
5/31/09 – PowerPrep 2
Q48/V37, 690
6/3/09 – GMAT Prep 2 (repeat)
Q47/V40, 710
6/6/09 – GMAT Prep 1 (repeat)
Q49/V40, 720
6/9/09 – GMAT Prep 2 (repeat 2)
Q48/V38, 700 (No AWA)
6/12/09 – GMAT Prep 1 (repeat 2)
Q50/V42, 760 (No AWA)
6/13/09 – GMAT Prep 2 (repeat 3)
Q50/V41, 740 (No AWA)
6/17/09 – Actual GMAT 1
(2PM, took off of work on test day to take the test during work week)
Q44/V35 AWA 5.0, 650 (Q70%/V74%,Overall 80%)
Why did I score a 44 in quant? I believe it was because I missed a good amount of the first questions. I felt like I did real well on the math. I actually ended up doing better percentage wise on the verbal, which I thought I bombed. Some say that the initial questions don’t matter. I feel like they actually do matter. Make sure you double-check your initial answers to make sure you don’t make any stupid mistakes.
Why did I score a 35 in verbal? I ran out of time near the end and had to blindly guess on the last 3. Also, as I saw the time winding down, I started to freak out and couldn’t think straight. Lesson learned? Pace yourself. Don’t let yourself get into that situation! If you don’t know it within a couple minutes, move on! I can stress how important this is! It took me a while to figure this one out. GMAT is part knowledge, part strategy.
After getting this first test out of my system, I knew that I could do better. So, I hit the books the following day,
scheduling my next test for 7/18 .
6/28/09 – MGMAT CAT 6
Q47/V45, 740 (Byaaaahhhh!)
6/30/09 – GMAT Focus 2
My range was 39-46. I couldn’t believe that I saw a score in the thirties! I managed a 13/24, and I stopped the clock for a couple questions. This had me pretty down so I decided not to take the third GMAT Focus. I think these questions are much more harder than the actual test, so don’t let it get you down.
7/5/09 – MGMAT CAT 1A (retake)
Q47/V45, 740 (Noticed a few repeats)
7/12/09 – MGMAT CAT 2A (retake)
Q47/V45, 740 (Noticed a few repeats. See a pattern here?)
7/18/09 – Actual GMAT 2
(Took the test at 2:30PM on a Saturday)
Q49/V40, 730. (Q87%,V89%, Overall 96%) AWA TBD
Got to the test center a couple hours early (lol) and they proctor told me that I could start early. I was surprised when he told me that breaks were only 8 minutes! When did this happen? I usually take full advantage of my breaks so this was kind of a surprise. My break routine is as follows: Use restroom, stretch, take deep breaths of oxygen outside, take a bite of a PB&J sandwhich, and drink some water. I managed to do this within 7 minutes for both breaks. I ran through the halls though . This time I decided to hide the time for both verbal and quant. Watching the clock gave me anxiety. Wow, what a difference this made! It really does help with test time anxiety. Just make sure your inner-clock is working right. By now, you should know what 2 minutes feels like. I felt pretty good about the math. I actually thought the questions were too easy, so I had my self second guessing how I actually did after I finished that section. The verbal was another story. I felt comfortable through the first half of the test. The second half was another story! By about question 25, I started to burn out and couldn’t think straight. I started to make some educated guesses on a number of questions and somehow I finished in time. I actually thought I got in the 20’s for my verbal on this test. After I finished the test, my heart began to race. I covered my eyes with my hands and started with the percentages. 87% for math. Good, good. 89% for verbal? WTF?! 96% overall. Then I uncovered my eyes. 730!! I wanted to dance in the test room! I couldn’t believe it. I got the print out, went over to my car, and couldn’t contain myself. I was so happy! I didn’t have to take any more GMAT tests! It was one of the happiest days of my life. I worked so hard for 6 months. I never worked so hard at anything in my entire life!
Well, that’s it for now. I’m sure I’m missing some things. If I think of anything else, I’ll add to this post. Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be gearing up to write some essay for RD 1 coming soon. Wish me luck!
How I studied before GMAT test 1:
January – April.
I went through all the MGMAT books and did all the practice questions. I went though all the OG 11 questions and tried to understand why I got each wrong. I did all OG Verbal and Quant reviews, and did the same. I also found that using the "Finger Method" for eliminating wrong answers is was a godsend in saving time and increasing accuracy. USE THIS!! For those who don't know, A= Thumb, B= Index finger, ..., E = Pinky. When you eliminate an answer, tuck that finger in. No joke, it works very well!
May – June 16
I created a daily schedule on what I would do every day before the test. I would basically set aside a day to take a CAT and a day to go over my wrong answers. I also took a GMAT Focus. Other than that, it was just reviewing my weaknesses. I also purchased the PowerScore CR Bible and read it along the way. Great book! In hindsight, I took too many GMAT tests. You need to space them out by at least a week so you can track your progress. See my CAT history below to see how many I took. This is not necessary.
How I studied before GMAT test 2:
June 17 – July 14.
I decided to only study the OG Verbal and Quant review questions. So 600 questions in all. I varied quant and verbal so I could keep my skills on both sharp. I wrote down question range, how long it took me to answer them, my hit percentage, and what my average time was for each question. I took 1 CAT a week, rather than a bajillion like I did before. I took this advice from a post by Stacey Koprince at MGMAT. I also took her advice on quality, not quantity. So I only really studied about an hour a day. I studied 2-3 hours a day for my last test. I wasn’t nearly as nervous about this test as I was for the last. I was confident that I would get a 700. Last test, I doubted myself. I figured I would get around a 650. I got a 650! Your mindset has a huge bearing on how you’ll perform on test day. At least, that’s what I experienced. I decided to not do any GMAT studying for 3 days before the test. If I didn’t know it by then, I wouldn’t know it on the test.
On top of doing verbal and quant OG review questions, I read The Economist everyday. I read almost the whole thing every week. The Economist is written very well, and will sharpen your being able to point out what looks right, and what doesn’t in SC. It will help you with reading comprehension, which I had most trouble with. It will help you for your AWA essays. It will help you understand how business works. Best of all, it’s free (https://www.economist.com/printedition/). I read it online at work, and I read the hard copy at the pool or wherever I happened to have free time. I will continue to read The Economist even after my GMAT studies because it’s such a great source of current events. You really get a sense of what’s going on in this world.
Another thing I did was this: I didn’t go on the BTG forums. I somehow stopped myself from perusing the forums for a whole month. I would get too caught up on comparing myself to others. What works for one person may not work for another. Don’t get me wrong, BTG is a HUUUUGE reason why I kept at this, and for that I am eternally indebted. But once you get your game plan set, don’t worry about comparing yourself to others. Do your thang! Another thing, if possible, don’t tell others that you’re taking the test. You don’t need the added pressure. I only told a few people.
Books I used:
OG 11 + Verbal Review + Quantitative Review
MGMAT 3rd Edition:
 World Translations
 Equations, Inequalities and VIC’s
 Reading Comprehension
 Critical Reasoning
 Number Properties
 Sentence Correction
PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
MGMAT’s math books are of high quality and I urge you to take advantage of them. MGMAT’s CR and RC books are good, but I didn’t find them essential. On the other hand, MGMAT’s SC book is awesome! I read through this book 3 times. If you don’t know how good this book is by now, then you haven’t been reading anyone else’s debriefs. PowerScore’s CR Bible is also very good. It’s much better than MGMAT's in my opinion. I read through this 3 times. The Original Guide books are all essential because they will give you questions like the ones you’ll encounter on the real thing.
Online Tests that I used:
Gmat Focus:
These questions are taken from previous official GMAT tests. It’s great to practice with. But the question level for the amount of allotted time is pretty crazy. You get 45 minutes to do 24 questions. If you do the math, that’s less than 2 minutes per question. Also, you’ll run into many 700+ level questions. I really don’t feel like it represents what you’ll encounter on test day. Some people swear by these tests. I could have done without them. Plus, they uber expensive.
MGMAT CAT:
These CATs are great! What sets these cats apart from any others is the fact that their explanations are unprecedented. Some things to note is that their math questions are more in depth than the real thing. Also, some of the verbal questions will leave you scratching your head, even after reading the explanation a few times. But, access to 6 CATs for the price of one of their guides is the best bang for the buck you can get!
GmatPrep CAT:
These CATs are the best of course. They contain questions from actual tests! To get the best idea of where you’ll be on test day, take the full test (including the essay portion). But if you take it more than once, count on your score to be inflated.
GPrep CAT:
These CATs weren’t bad. They are official questions. But when I took it, I noticed that a lot of questions came from OG 11 so my score may have been a little inflated. But it was good practice.
My Background:
I am a native citizen of the USA. My SAT score was nothing to be happy about. I studied CS at a state university where I receive my BS. Like most of you, I felt more comfortable with quant than with verbal. I think the longest paper that I wrote in college was 5 pages! I chose CS for a reason: I hate writing papers!
Tests:
1/31/09 – GMAT Prep 1 (After 1 month of studying)
I only did the math portion because I gave up after seeing how hard the questions were. I managed a Q44 with 13 answers wrong. Seeing that this score wasn’t all that bad, I tried again.
* Did not do essays
1/31/09 – GMAT Prep 2
Q48/V33, 660
This score got my really excited. My initial goal was to score 620.
* Did not do essays
3/7/09 – MGMAT CAT1
Q44/V35, 650 (Stopped clock on quant because it was getting real hard. Don’t do it! Just move on! You need to get into the habit of doing this because there’s no stopping the clock on test day!)
5/2/09 – MGMAT CAT 2
Q46/V34, 660
5/6/09 – MGMAT CAT 3
Q44/V38, 680
5/9/09 – MGMAT CAT 4
Q47/V39, 700 (Got me very excited! First 700)
5/14/09 – MGMAT CAT 5
Q42/V36, 640 (Freaked out on math. I actually stopped the clock many times for the math on this test, and did the worst of any verbal score thus far. Lesson learned? Don’t stop the clock! Just guess and move on!)
5/17/09 – GMAT Prep 1
Q44/V34, 640 (The fire alarm went off in the library while on verbal so I had to guess on the last 6 questions. I was pissed! For Q, I got the first 4 of 5 questions wrong! This really wreaked havoc on my score.)
5/19/09 – GMAT Focus 1
Wow, this test is hard! I had to stop the clock so many times. I managed to get a 46-50 score range, but this was not indicative on my real score because I stopped the clock. I was pretty bummed.
5/28/09 – PowerPrep 1
Q49/V40, 720 (Repeats in verbal)
5/31/09 – PowerPrep 2
Q48/V37, 690
6/3/09 – GMAT Prep 2 (repeat)
Q47/V40, 710
6/6/09 – GMAT Prep 1 (repeat)
Q49/V40, 720
6/9/09 – GMAT Prep 2 (repeat 2)
Q48/V38, 700 (No AWA)
6/12/09 – GMAT Prep 1 (repeat 2)
Q50/V42, 760 (No AWA)
6/13/09 – GMAT Prep 2 (repeat 3)
Q50/V41, 740 (No AWA)
6/17/09 – Actual GMAT 1
(2PM, took off of work on test day to take the test during work week)
Q44/V35 AWA 5.0, 650 (Q70%/V74%,Overall 80%)
Why did I score a 44 in quant? I believe it was because I missed a good amount of the first questions. I felt like I did real well on the math. I actually ended up doing better percentage wise on the verbal, which I thought I bombed. Some say that the initial questions don’t matter. I feel like they actually do matter. Make sure you double-check your initial answers to make sure you don’t make any stupid mistakes.
Why did I score a 35 in verbal? I ran out of time near the end and had to blindly guess on the last 3. Also, as I saw the time winding down, I started to freak out and couldn’t think straight. Lesson learned? Pace yourself. Don’t let yourself get into that situation! If you don’t know it within a couple minutes, move on! I can stress how important this is! It took me a while to figure this one out. GMAT is part knowledge, part strategy.
After getting this first test out of my system, I knew that I could do better. So, I hit the books the following day,
scheduling my next test for 7/18 .
6/28/09 – MGMAT CAT 6
Q47/V45, 740 (Byaaaahhhh!)
6/30/09 – GMAT Focus 2
My range was 39-46. I couldn’t believe that I saw a score in the thirties! I managed a 13/24, and I stopped the clock for a couple questions. This had me pretty down so I decided not to take the third GMAT Focus. I think these questions are much more harder than the actual test, so don’t let it get you down.
7/5/09 – MGMAT CAT 1A (retake)
Q47/V45, 740 (Noticed a few repeats)
7/12/09 – MGMAT CAT 2A (retake)
Q47/V45, 740 (Noticed a few repeats. See a pattern here?)
7/18/09 – Actual GMAT 2
(Took the test at 2:30PM on a Saturday)
Q49/V40, 730. (Q87%,V89%, Overall 96%) AWA TBD
Got to the test center a couple hours early (lol) and they proctor told me that I could start early. I was surprised when he told me that breaks were only 8 minutes! When did this happen? I usually take full advantage of my breaks so this was kind of a surprise. My break routine is as follows: Use restroom, stretch, take deep breaths of oxygen outside, take a bite of a PB&J sandwhich, and drink some water. I managed to do this within 7 minutes for both breaks. I ran through the halls though . This time I decided to hide the time for both verbal and quant. Watching the clock gave me anxiety. Wow, what a difference this made! It really does help with test time anxiety. Just make sure your inner-clock is working right. By now, you should know what 2 minutes feels like. I felt pretty good about the math. I actually thought the questions were too easy, so I had my self second guessing how I actually did after I finished that section. The verbal was another story. I felt comfortable through the first half of the test. The second half was another story! By about question 25, I started to burn out and couldn’t think straight. I started to make some educated guesses on a number of questions and somehow I finished in time. I actually thought I got in the 20’s for my verbal on this test. After I finished the test, my heart began to race. I covered my eyes with my hands and started with the percentages. 87% for math. Good, good. 89% for verbal? WTF?! 96% overall. Then I uncovered my eyes. 730!! I wanted to dance in the test room! I couldn’t believe it. I got the print out, went over to my car, and couldn’t contain myself. I was so happy! I didn’t have to take any more GMAT tests! It was one of the happiest days of my life. I worked so hard for 6 months. I never worked so hard at anything in my entire life!
Well, that’s it for now. I’m sure I’m missing some things. If I think of anything else, I’ll add to this post. Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be gearing up to write some essay for RD 1 coming soon. Wish me luck!
Last edited by awesomeusername on Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:33 am, edited 5 times in total.
Constant dripping hollows out a stone.
-Lucretius
-Lucretius
