I just Beat The GMAT!

Yesterday morning I took my GMAT for the second time. The first time my score was a 670 (Q40, V42), needless to say my quant score was pretty awful. I used the Princeton Review online, which I felt helped, but left me far short of the more advanced math instruction that I needed. For the second round I used the Manhattan GMAT books, which I felt made a huge difference. My breakdown was Q43, V42. Still a disappointing quant score, but I feel like I'd need a tutor to improve further than that.

A little background, I'm a 26 year old female from the US. I work in Investment Banking as an assistant, so I basically end up doing lots of research, reading of quarterly earnings calls, etc, but nothing terribly math-centric. My undergrad background is in Fine Arts...yes, I have a BFA...in drawing and painting. I ended up in Banking sort of by accident, and discovered that I absolutely love it, so now I definitely need my MBA. I haven't done any math since high school, outside of taking a graduate financial accounting course through Harvard Extension School (in an effort to boost my application since I knew math would be the lower part of my GMAT score). I got a B+ in that class and will be taking Statistics there over the summer, I'm hoping it will show that even though my math GMAT score was weak, that I'm actually a decent math student.

As for study materials, basically I spent a lot of time reading through the Manhattan GMAT books, I think they are the best! My 1st attempt was in February, so I spent about two months with the MGMAT books. I would study 4 or 5 hours each Saturday and Sunday, and 1 hour each day during the week. To be perfectly honest, I barely touched the verbal books, that part was a breeze for me as a native English speaker. My minor in college was also Art History, which means writing TONS of really long papers, so the essays were easy for me as well. I found the MGMAT practice tests to be useless, I only took the first three and then gave up on them. GMAT Prep is by far the best indicator. I got a 670 on GMAT Prep 3 weeks before my test and a 690 on GMAT Prep the week before the test.

I'm hoping to work in either investment banking or with an art centered fund (they do exist, check out "art as an asset class"). If I end up at a bank, then I'd like to work in either natural resources or with a team dedicated to hedge funds (I was with the hedge fund team at my current job until the team was dismantled). Anyways, I feel like I beat the GMAT, and now I can enjoy the rest of my summer...except for the statistics class! If you want more study details let me know, this blog has been very inspirational for me and I owe you all.

Thanks for the debrief. One name I see in every I just Beat the GMAT forum is MGMAT guides. WOW!!!

Congrats, but jealous of your verbal score. and you scored that twice!

Congratulations on making the 700 club!

Also I'd love more details on how you studied for quant, since I'm also weaker on that section than verbal.

Enjoy your summer and good luck with your apps!

rjank,

Quant was definitley a bear for me. I found that going through each of the MGMAT books thoroughly made a big difference. They really show you the fundamentals you need and great strategies for breaking down more difficult problems. After that, I took the advice of someone else at Beat the GMAT and did every PS & DS quant problem in OG in order. The problems are in order of increasing difficulty, which lets you figure out how you are doing. I got to problem 205 out of 230 on PS before I really started having trouble.

The weekly challenge problems here are helpful as well. Some of them were really tough and I just ended up reading through the explanation, but even that was helpful.

The great thing about sitting for the actual exam is that for people like us the essays are a warm-up. Then you are totally revved up for the math part. Once you get to verbal you are slightly fatigued but since that section comes more easily it isn't a problem. Good Luck! PM me if you need more info.