-
Chinabean
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:36 pm
- Location: Londinium
- GMAT Score:680
Hi,
First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone on this site, whilst I haven't really posted that many messages, I utilised the questions, responses and strategy tips.
Basically, I actually planned to do the exam in February sometime and so have actually been a member for a few months however, due to work reasons I could not actually sit the exam until mid April and have had no time to really think about the exam save for a couple of occasions I looked at this site.
To give you an idea of my background, I currently work for an IB in the MO on the hedge fund side. Been crazy the last few months which is why I had no time to revise, winding up a hedge fund is very time consuming lol
Anyway, I used the gmat prep tests (1 at the beginning, 1 at the end) and also the MGMAT tests (you can buy 6 for relatively little money). With regard to the maths section, I didn't really use the OG (although I wouldn't neccessarily recommend this approach for those who have lots of time). What I did was to print out lots of questions and answers from Maths section here ( I can probably send those to any of you that want them as long as it is not against the rules!) and then I also made sure that I printed out all of the explanations of questions from the MGMAT tests, I recommend not just going through your wrong answers but also your correct answers as well since sometimes you may miss a question you have guessed on or may find a more efficient way to tackle a particular style of question. To be honest, given that time was pressing, I did not really focus on geometry questions since I had read that these questions contribute to a very small part of the exam in terms of number of questions. (I actually came across 2 or 3 in my exam)
For sentence correction, I used the notes from Sahil (see resource section and I also used the Amateur Notes (can't remmeber it's exact name but it is very good. Anyway, basically, I again did not have a great deal of time to focus on sentence correction so I basically skim read these and then the day before tried to memorize important idioms e.g. fewer/less regard/consideration etc. My main focus was actually on Critical Reasoning. There is an important reason why which I think anyone in my situation (lack of time) should consider. Basically, the type of questions you come across in CR also crop up in RC so if you are ok reading a decent amount of text then what you learn in CR massively assists you in RC. So anyway, I did not really use the OG until a couple of days before my test. Instead, I used the Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible which I cannot recommend enough. In concert with this, I also used the LSAT questions. The LSAT questions are way harder than the GMAT questions and so my thinking was that if I can get these right then I should be ok for the GMAT questions. (I would not recommend not using the OG at all however, I feel that the LSAT questions provide a fantastic base which one can build upon) For those of you that are thinking how to get the LSAT questions, if you have a friend that is studying for law school, they maybe able to help you, failing that *cough* use your initiative. Anyway, as I said, I did not really use the OG until a couple of days before my test. Basically, I used the OG questions to gauge how I was doing and to make sure I was on the right track. One thing I implore everyone to heed is that confidence can sometimes breed contempt! Basically, my verbal marks in the practice tests started going down dramatically and the amount of time I was taking to finish the verbal section also dramatically reduced. I realised that I must be rushing some questions due to over confidence and so I said to myself that if I finished a question quickly, I would just go over it again to make sure that I had not fallen for the test maker's trick of choosing a really attractive incorrect answer. This seemed to work thankfully!
Anyway, for the exam, I made sure that I paced myself and did not really panic. I think that relaxation is key since although it is hard, getting yourself to purely focus on the each question and not worry about previous questions can really pay dividends.
So that is my story really. Am a bit gutted that I did not get to 700 but I think that I got close enough considering the amount of time I had to prepare. If I had more time I would like to do the exam again, this time with a 2 or 3 weeks prep, and really smash it to pieces but deadlines are looming so that isn't an option. Anyway, I just wanted to write this for all of you that were in my "lack of time" situation to let you know that there is hope. And for those of you that do have time, I hope that some of my tips can be used in concert with the other approaches you may have.
Chris
First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone on this site, whilst I haven't really posted that many messages, I utilised the questions, responses and strategy tips.
Basically, I actually planned to do the exam in February sometime and so have actually been a member for a few months however, due to work reasons I could not actually sit the exam until mid April and have had no time to really think about the exam save for a couple of occasions I looked at this site.
To give you an idea of my background, I currently work for an IB in the MO on the hedge fund side. Been crazy the last few months which is why I had no time to revise, winding up a hedge fund is very time consuming lol
Anyway, I used the gmat prep tests (1 at the beginning, 1 at the end) and also the MGMAT tests (you can buy 6 for relatively little money). With regard to the maths section, I didn't really use the OG (although I wouldn't neccessarily recommend this approach for those who have lots of time). What I did was to print out lots of questions and answers from Maths section here ( I can probably send those to any of you that want them as long as it is not against the rules!) and then I also made sure that I printed out all of the explanations of questions from the MGMAT tests, I recommend not just going through your wrong answers but also your correct answers as well since sometimes you may miss a question you have guessed on or may find a more efficient way to tackle a particular style of question. To be honest, given that time was pressing, I did not really focus on geometry questions since I had read that these questions contribute to a very small part of the exam in terms of number of questions. (I actually came across 2 or 3 in my exam)
For sentence correction, I used the notes from Sahil (see resource section and I also used the Amateur Notes (can't remmeber it's exact name but it is very good. Anyway, basically, I again did not have a great deal of time to focus on sentence correction so I basically skim read these and then the day before tried to memorize important idioms e.g. fewer/less regard/consideration etc. My main focus was actually on Critical Reasoning. There is an important reason why which I think anyone in my situation (lack of time) should consider. Basically, the type of questions you come across in CR also crop up in RC so if you are ok reading a decent amount of text then what you learn in CR massively assists you in RC. So anyway, I did not really use the OG until a couple of days before my test. Instead, I used the Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible which I cannot recommend enough. In concert with this, I also used the LSAT questions. The LSAT questions are way harder than the GMAT questions and so my thinking was that if I can get these right then I should be ok for the GMAT questions. (I would not recommend not using the OG at all however, I feel that the LSAT questions provide a fantastic base which one can build upon) For those of you that are thinking how to get the LSAT questions, if you have a friend that is studying for law school, they maybe able to help you, failing that *cough* use your initiative. Anyway, as I said, I did not really use the OG until a couple of days before my test. Basically, I used the OG questions to gauge how I was doing and to make sure I was on the right track. One thing I implore everyone to heed is that confidence can sometimes breed contempt! Basically, my verbal marks in the practice tests started going down dramatically and the amount of time I was taking to finish the verbal section also dramatically reduced. I realised that I must be rushing some questions due to over confidence and so I said to myself that if I finished a question quickly, I would just go over it again to make sure that I had not fallen for the test maker's trick of choosing a really attractive incorrect answer. This seemed to work thankfully!
Anyway, for the exam, I made sure that I paced myself and did not really panic. I think that relaxation is key since although it is hard, getting yourself to purely focus on the each question and not worry about previous questions can really pay dividends.
So that is my story really. Am a bit gutted that I did not get to 700 but I think that I got close enough considering the amount of time I had to prepare. If I had more time I would like to do the exam again, this time with a 2 or 3 weeks prep, and really smash it to pieces but deadlines are looming so that isn't an option. Anyway, I just wanted to write this for all of you that were in my "lack of time" situation to let you know that there is hope. And for those of you that do have time, I hope that some of my tips can be used in concert with the other approaches you may have.
Chris
