Well, I guess today is my turn to say I Beat the GMAT! After a long, tiring and very stressful day I looked at my score and could hardly believe it: 720 Q49 V38 (94th percentile).
Since this is going to be a long post, there are three things that I want to say in first place, just in case you fall asleep in the middle of the post
:"¢ DON'T EVER, EVER, EVER, GIVE UP - for several months during my study period, it seemed that my GMAT campaign was destined to go nowhere but down. I learned the concepts, but every single day that I tried to do the exercises (especially quant.), things went from bad to worse to desperate: missing one exercise after another and taking forever to come up with the answer, even in the easy questions. For several times I thought that I was lucky if I could have a 500 on the actual exam. But sometimes our flaws can become our strengths, and my stubbornness in refusing to throw the towel allowed me to get back on the desk and continue practicing no matter how bad things were. So my advise is this: as Eliot Ness once said to Al Capone, "Never stop, never stop fighting till the fight is done"
"¢ I want to thank the Beat the GMAT community for all their support, without which I would never be as prepared as I was for the GMAT. The knowledge that is shared in this site is priceless, and I have no doubt that it counted for 70% of my score. Special thanks to all the experts, namely Stuart, Ron, Stacey, Testluv and Ian, who continuously help people that for one reason or another (in my case professional and geographic reasons), cannot attend classes. Please do keep up!
"¢ Finally, I want to give a special word of acknowledgment to the quality that I found on Manhattan books (the 5 quant books + sentence correction). Math was by far my weakest spot. The first time I tried to take the first practice test on GMATprep I couldn't get past the third question... after 30 minutes!!!!!. Yet, now I scored 49 in quant...
My road to the GMAT:
"The beginning"
I decided to study for the GMAT on May 2009. I had a dinner with a few colleagues and one of them was studying for it and gave me a small briefing.
At the time, I had already made up my mind about doing an MBA, but I wanted to take this journey rather slowly, one step at the time, and so I had no rush in taking the GMAT. However, after investigating a little more, I found that the GMAT was valid for 5 years so, even if I didn't wanted to do an MBA right away, I would at least get this "elephant" out of my way.
In the beginning of June I ordered two books: the OG 12th edition and Kaplan Premier Program 2009 (which I heard about during that dinner). I was a little worried about Kaplan's poor reviews on Amazon, but at that time, I didn't have any more book references and Beat the GMAT was completely unknown to me.
When the books came, I decided to start first with Kaplan. I figured that if the reviews on Amazon were right, then it would be better if I started with a poorer book then go on to the OG, which had good reviews and had questions as similar as the ones I would get on the real exam.
"A false sense of security"
During the summer of 2009, I didn't concentrate too much on my study: about 3/4 hours on Saturday and on Sunday plus one hour during each weekday, whenever it was possible. I work in management consulting and in this line of work we sometimes get very complicated projects that force us to work about 12/13 hours a day plus weekends, so I could only study during the little free time that I had. Plus, I was aiming for a promotion in my job so it had always top priority.
Nevertheless, albeit slowly, I kept on studying using Kaplan's book: first critical reasoning, then sentence correction, then reading comprehension and finally problem solving and data sufficiency. And as kept going, I thought to myself: "hey, this GMAT thing is not that complicated after all". Indeed, after doing each section's exercises on Kaplan's book I had about 40 exercises right out of 50. Only Data Sufficiency was a little bit worst, but not much. Of course, I didn't timed myself when I was solving these exercises, and I wasn't training my stamina either - I would only have time to take 20 exercises at each time, then I would check each solution before taking a break or stop studying.
But nonetheless I believed that I was able to take the exam in October/November, and thus have enough time to prepare the rest of my application and take an MBA in 2010. At this time, I received the news that my job promotion was history, so I decided to promote my MBA from "plan B" to "plan A" and dedicate my full attention to the GMAT.
After finishing Kaplan's book I started solving the exercises from Kaplan's CD, and from that point on, things took a turn for the worse. The exercises on the CD were timed and were much, much harder than the exercises on Kaplan's book. Consequently, in 25/30 minutes I could only do between 8 and 10 quant. exercises out of a set of 16 and even so I missed a lot of them. In verbal, things were only marginally better and sentence correction was as miserable as quant.
My first reaction was denial - I thought that the exercises on the CD were too hard and the time was too short, and that the real exam would be more like the exercises from Kaplan's book. Of course there was only one way to find out: by taking the first test from GMATprep and see my score.
"Houston, we have a problem"
In the beginning of October I took the first practice test from GMATprep, and I was confident that I could get a good result. I skipped the essays and went straight to the Quant. part, and from that point on, I felt that my MBA dream was crushed by 400 pound gorilla: I took 10 minutes to pass the first question (and only moved on after guessing), another 5 minutes to pass the second question, and another 15 to try and fail to solve the third question (I couldn't even get close to any of the solutions). At that time I panicked and ended the test - I didn't want to waste anymore questions...
Next, I did the OG's diagnostic test and the results, apart from CR and RC, were just as bad... Quant. exercises seemed so different from the ones I was used to, and also seemed to be impossible to do even if I had 10 minutes for each exercise.
To be honest, I think that Kaplan's book (at least the one I bought) does not prepare you at all for the exam because it's too easy and does not explain either the basic or the advanced concepts needed for the GMAT.
"A new hope"
The 2010 MBA was now a distant dream, and I knew that if I had any chances to take an MBA in 2011, I would need to change my strategy. Then I remembered a conversation that I had with a colleague of mine few days earlier, when he also complained that Kaplan had not prepared him well for the GMAT. More importantly tough, he told me about the Beat the GMAT site and about some good references that he had found there concerning Manhattan's books. I decided to investigate the site, and suddenly I was surprised about how much information it had concerning the exam, and how everything was displayed in a very simple, user-friendly way (also, I felt a bit stupid for not finding the site earlier
). Moreover, I confirmed the good references from Manhattan, so I ordered a battalion of books: the five Manhattan Quant. books + Sentence Correction + the other two OG books for Verbal and Quant. Review. I was now decided to be Beat the GMAT even if it was the last thing I would do.When the books came, I started with the most critical part: Math. And after a few hours studying the Manhattan Number Properties book I was amazed - the concepts behind the several exercises that I just couldn't do before in the GMATprep test and in the OG's diagnostic test were all there explained in a way as clear as water (remainders properties, prime factorizations ... everything). True, this now seems far too basic for someone who wants to take the GMAT. And I must confess that, as a "son" of the Portuguese public school system, which ranked, in my school days, among the worst in the world, I always suspected that my Math knowledge was poor, but hell, not that much!!!!
Nevertheless, I felt I was back in business. Although the time that I could dedicate to study did not increase, I kept on going, taking the OG exercises that Manhattan recommended after each section, and doing something that I had not done before: timing myself, and trying to take, on average, two minutes to finish each exercise.
Between November and February I studied all Math books. Although I felt that I was improving, I was still failing too many exercises, and still taking way too much time to finish them. I was particularly worried when, after finishing all the Manhattan's math books, I tried to solve the 198 Level 700+ Questions that I found on Beat the GMAT, and failed countless exercises, finishing on average 10-20 minutes latter than I was supposed to. However, I knew that this time was different: it was not so much a problem of not understanding the exercises, but more a question of not having enough practice.
And so I did not gave up: I finished what was left of the OG, then moved on to Kaplan's 800 (again too easy) and afterwards started with the 1000 PS and DS exercises (also too easy, but I think they quickened a lot my ability to make mental calculations, since these exercises are "computation-intensive"). Nonetheless, I felt that I had still have difficulties in the harder exercises, so I signed up to Manhattan's Challenge Problems database, and I tell you: I knocked at the right door. These exercises are unbelievably difficult and I lost a lot of time trying to solve each one and then trying to understand the solutions. But the concepts they teach are priceless, and above all they force us to loose the rigid approaches that we sometimes adopt when we repeatedly make the same type of exercises, and instead induce us to adopt an "open mind" approach that allows us to see what the exercises are really asking. I think this type of mentality sums up the GMAT spirit.
At the same time I began my Verbal study. I found that Critical Reasoning or Reading Comprehension was not that much of a problem, but Sentence Correction was. True, Manhattan Sentence Correction improved my skills considerably, and I learned English grammar rules that I never knew existed but, since I am not a native English-speaker, I still had a mountain to climb. To be honest, I think my Verbal skills improved to a reasonable level, but I needed a lot more studying to break the V-40 barrier, and even so I am not sure that I could pull it off. Plus, I always paid more attention to math, first because of the scare that I had back in September, and second because I think that, apart from CR, Verbal is a bit boring....
"Time to grab the bull by its horns"
In the beginning of April, I reviewed my battle plan. If I wanted to apply for an MBA in September I needed to get the GMAT out of my way by August (in the worst case scenario) But, if I took the exam on this month and mess up, I would not have time to take it again, so I needed to take the exam earlier. Plus, in my job, the project I was working on finally eased up a bit and gave more free time to study for the GMAT. I figured that this blessing would be short-lived and thus I had to take advantage of this opening as much as I could. Therefore, I scheduled my GMAT appointment for June, 15th.
I started taking GMAT exam simulations since I wanted to improve my speed and above all, my stamina. Here are my scores:
"¢ Kaplan CD CAT 1: 570 (I read afterwards Eric's post, and I totally agree with him: Kaplan's CD CAT are impossible to make in an 1h15m and are far too hard);
"¢ Princeton free CAT: 690;
"¢ Manhattan CAT 1: 690 (Q45; V39);
"¢ GMATPrep 1st test: 730 (Q49; V39) - And to think that just a few months ago, I had not been able get past the third question
;"¢ Knewton Free CAT: 600 (I freaked out when I saw the score);
"¢ GMATPowerPrep 1st test: 750 (Q49; V43) - too easy, and too many questions identical to the OG.
"¢ Manhattan CAT 2: 720 (Q44; V45);
"¢ Manhattan CAT 3: 720 (Q44; V45);
"¢ GMATPrep 2st test: 720 (Q50; V37) - lousy time management on the verbal section;
"¢ Manhattan CAT 4: 700 (Q46; V39) - freaked out once again;
"¢ Manhattan CAT 5: 710 (Q46; V39) - the freaking out continued;
"¢ Manhattan CAT 6: 750 (Q48; V45) - pfffiu....
Of all the simulations that I took, the GMATprep are of course the ones that can gauge our performance most accurately. The exercises are just like the ones of the real exam (although I thought that the quant section and the sentence correction questions were a bit harder on the real exam).
Apart from the official exams I liked doing the Manhattan's CATs. It is true what everyone says: the quant. section is very, very hard, much harder than the real GMAT. But again, they emulate the GMAT questions very well and force you to find the most elegant solutions on each question, rather than resorting to "brute force computing". Above all I think they trained me to keep my head cool whenever I wasn't able to answer the question and move on (at least, as much as possible, considering that I am a nervous guy).
"Test Day: Slumdog Millionaire"
There is not much to say about my D-Day. Although it was in the afternoon, I had a lousy sleep during the night because the hotel in which I stayed was very noisy. Plus I was very, very stressed - while I was waiting to get my picture taken and fill in my personal info, I closed my eyes and it seemed that I could listen to my heart beating harder and harder.
When we entered the room, I was a bit worried that hearing the other people tapping the keyboard might make me loose my concentration. Fortunately, the room had some great headsets that completely blocked out any sound - it was just perfect!
Although I don't know my essay scores yet, I think it went reasonably well. I took my break and then I started facing the devil: quant. Things started rather well, but the questions started to become harder and harder. On the GMATprep tests sometimes an easy question would come up between hard questions (even when I got all of them right), but it wasn't so on my GMAT. Consequently, in the last 10/15 questions, I started to lag behind on my timing, and I had to guess a few questions. I had one minute to go on the last question, and knew it was easy... but I blocked and had to guess it. Right after leaving the room for my second break, I suddenly remembered the right answer, and it wasn't the one I picked.... no comments
.I really thought that I had screwed up in quant. so, for me to have any chance of getting a good score, verbal would have to step up and save the day. Unfortunately, given my verbal scores in my simulations, my prospects were not very good. Nevertheless, I felt that the verbal section went better than quant... Ironic isn't it?
When I finished the exam I just wanted to see my score, so I thought it was a bit sadistic (:)) that GMAT force us to confirm our personal information and MBA preferences all over again. Needleless to say that I pressed "Next" on every screen without almost reading the questions, to the point where I even pressed "Next" on the screen that asked me if I wanted to see my score or cancel it without choosing any option (of course the system did not allowed me go on)... I got to tell you: those two seconds that the system took to calculate the results seemed like two hours.
I was surprised when I saw my score and after almost one year I breathed a sigh of relief, .... Since I finished my college, almost 6 years ago, my professional career has not gone according with my expectations - I seem to be always in the wrong place, at the wrong time. So I feel that this grade can allow me to take my MBA at a good university and finally turn the table on my professional life. I feel like I was just given the winning ticket to the lottery.
Lessons Learned:
#1 - GMAT is all about the three S's - Skill, Speed and Stamina.
I am passionate about cars, so here goes a great example of how GMAT works. This year's Le Mans 24 hours had two main contenders: Peugeot and Audi. Peugeot had the best car (skill), and the best engine (speed) but had zero endurance. Their three cars were on the first three positions in the beginning, but a few hours latter, the first car broke down, then the second, and then the third. On the other hand, Audi was good on all three S's so, it won the race.
The same goes for the GMAT: you start working your skills, then your skills and your speed, and finally your skills, your speed and your stamina. It's one thing making 10 exercises rather quickly, even if they are hard... but taking 37 quant exercises plus 41 verbal after spending one hour on two essays its a whole different ball game.
#2 - GMAT Quant. it's all about finding the right key
As Manhattan taught me in so many exercises, there are two ways of solving 90% of the GMAT quant.: "Brute Force", or "Finding the Key". "Finding the Key" now seems to be a concept too easy not to understand, but it wasn't so a few months ago (not to me at least).
Once I read a post written by an expert who said that the quant. section could be solved in half the time. Although I still think it's an overstatement, I believe that he was right in his main idea: if you find out what the question is really, really asking for; if rather than starting to write down the exercise immediately after you read it, you stop for a few seconds to see what is that concept that is being asked (the "key") then even the hardest exercises can be done without much effort. I remember one particular question concerning Rates, in which I spent about two minutes make one calculation after another. True, I got the right answer, but when I looked at the elegant solution, I found that the question could be done in 15 seconds in one single step.
That is the GMAT, plain and simple....
#3 - You can be your own worst enemy in the GMAT
As I said earlier, I was very nervous when I took the exam, and I think it cost me at least two or three questions. Whenever I did my simulations I miss several exercises because I simply blocked. Then I would try to do them again, this time without the time pressure, and I could easily answer them, sometimes even under a minute.
I am not the best person to give this advice but: Don't ever get nervous on the GMAT! Stress is the exam's best ally and your worst enemy.
#4 - FINALLY, I CANNOT REPEAT THIS OFTEN ENOUGH:
DON'T EVER GIVE UP - WHENEVER THE GMAT TAKES YOU DOWN, GET UP AND FIGHT AGAIN.
"DO NOT GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT, DO NOT VANISH WITHOUT A FIGHT"
Good luck to all of you who are studying for the GMAT.[/b]
