GMAT Strategy

Hi All,

It’s been a while since I visited the forums! I wanted to share an update/summary of the strategy I used to score my 770 on the GMAT back last May. I posted it up back then but thought I would revisit it now that I have had some time to reflect. As a personal update I just finished applying in Round 2 to list of the good schools – I will re-update once I get accepted somewhere . So as not to repeat the details please refer to my old posts below.

Detailed strategy/story from week after GMAT - https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-gmat-stor ... 12080.html

Detailed study plan for people who are scoring below ~620 and want to move into 700+ ranges - https://www.beatthegmat.com/im-ready-to- ... 12218.html

As an update – I now have had 3 friends use this strategy (1 used the long strategy) and 2 others are studying it now. Their results were: 710/740/790 – my friend who was stuck in the mid 500’s was the one who got the 740.

In general my plan requires at LEAST 6 weeks and 2-3 days off from work, assuming you are already scoring 600+. If not use my recommendations in my old post to build your basic skills. In the long case you should plan to take your exam at least 4 months from now (think early August as of this post date). I realize that many people have studied for less time and scored well, but the goal of this study plan is to minimize the chance of scoring poorly. (Reducing your variance). I was able to score my 770 even though they were doing blasting on one of the floors in the building – so my sections were constantly disrupted by fire alarms/announcements etc.

Materials you need
1) Princeton Review Book
2) Kaplan Premier Book
3) Kaplan 800 Book
4) OG Orange Book
5) OG Purple Book
6) OG Green Book
7) The replica of the pad & pen (they sell the Manhattan GMAT one on Amazon for like $20 – GET IT don’t skimp on this)

Optional Materials
1) A Manhattan GMAT book focusing on the area you are having the most trouble with (for most people this is the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction book)

Yes, if you buy everything above brand new it will costs about $180…don’t complain that’s .1% of the cost of your MBA and cheaper than the application fee to apply to one school. If you can, borrow someone else’s books, library, etc

Plan (for 3 months/90 days – condense as necessary)
DO NOT START WITH A PRACTICE EXAM  simply put the whole idea that Kaplan/Princeton use of starting with an exam to see where you are weak is silly. I prefer to study all subjects equally until I have a thorough comfort level with all question types etc. Only then do I take exam to find my weaknesses

Days 1-10 - complete Princeton Review book – read everything, do all practice problems, DO NOT do the practice exam

Days 11-30 - Kaplan Premier Book – read any new materials & strategies and do all problems - My version of the book had 9 sections with ~50 question at the end of each, so I did the reading and 15 questions one day and the remaining questions the next

Days 31-44 - Read and complete every question in the Kaplan 800 book. Again – skip the practice test

NOTE: - I actually finished this material faster than the timeline above. I would use the time to practice speed mental math and reading (see long strategy for suggestions)

Day 45 - Take practice Exam #1. Use one of the real ones you downloaded from the GMAT site. (You downloaded them right?  )

Day 45-47 - review and redo the hardest 10% of the problems from both Kaplan books in the areas you were weakest in

Days 47-83 - Finish EVERY SINGLE problem in the OG’s. Time yourself and force yourself to work a little faster than exam pace (try ~1 min a question).

Day 84 - Take Practice exam #2. REDO the same real one you took before (only 2-3 of the problems will be repeats, and you probably won’t remember them anyways)

Every day from now on assumes you are studying the whole day and are not at work. Take each of these exams EXACTLY like your real exam. Same time of the day, find a desk, do the essays, take the breaks, eat the same snack every day.

Day 85 - Practice exam #3 - I used the one in the Princeton book. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

Day 86 - Practice exam #4 - I used test #2 from the web. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

Day 87 - Do 120 questions from the OG books

Day 88 - Practice Exam #5 - I used one form Kaplan 800 I think. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

Day 89 - Practice Exam #6 - Retake #2 from the web. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

You should have about 200 questions left at this point. You can add or remove problems if you have enough time. But leave about 80 for the last 2 days

Day 90 - Today’s the last day! Take it relatively easy – 5-10 questions from each section, 5-10 extra in your weakest section and then go to sleep so you get a normal nights worth before the next day. Set your damned alarm, the backup alarm and your cell phone. Let not take the chance that you sleep too late.

TEST DAY - if you have a morning exam wake up VERY early (normal morning exams are at 8 AM - be up no later than 5:30) otherwise chill out for a bit. If you have some time about 2 hours before you leave do 2-3 questions from every type of problem to get the mental juices flowing. Get ready, grab your stuff. Did you grab your wallet & ID? Walk back inside get your wallet – no your corporate ID doesn’t count as official ID – grab that drivers license/passport etc. Now you can go to your exam.

Did I hear you complain that you’ll arrive an hour early if you leave now?….my test center let me start 25 minutes early and you want to make sure that anything short of a meteor strike won’t make you late. Grab a snack & drink for your breaks on the way (I used a vitamin water and protein bar – ate half of the bar each break and drank as much as I felt comfortable with).

Good Luck!

Definitely worth to be listed in Resource directory as you mentioned two other threads where you've given some more tips...

I remember your posts...

Great score.. fantastic strategy.. can u tell me how long u spent everyday to study?
Cheers and go luck with your admissions process.

For days 1-83 I generally studied about 10-15 hours a week. Usually split amongst 6 days with one day off. That being said, you should modify the amount you do daily based on your personal schedule & preferances.

One of my friends preferrs to study 2 hours every day. I travel for work on Mon & Thursday (am a consultant) so I usually studied 3 hours Mon, 2 hours tu/we, 4 hours thurs, 2 hour fri, 2 hours on Sunday.

Days 85-89 assume 8-9 hours daily (like a full day at work)

Thats actually something I forgot to mention above - don't forget to add breaks in studying (i'll edit the post to add that in)

Nice post.Thank you for your suggestions.I am in the process of formulating a strategy to tackle the GMAT and your post was really an eye opener. Thanks again.
Prashant

Thanks for new types of suggestions!
and good luck!

Thank you for the fantastic post.

Update: Was accepted into Ross on Thursday evening - probably tied for second on schools I wanted to got to (after Stanford), so i am massively happy

Also my roomate took gmats on Friday and scored 740 Overall a good week and finally no more stress about applications!

pkblaze100 wrote:Hi All,

It’s been a while since I visited the forums! I wanted to share an update/summary of the strategy I used to score my 770 on the GMAT back last May. I posted it up back then but thought I would revisit it now that I have had some time to reflect. As a personal update I just finished applying in Round 2 to list of the good schools – I will re-update once I get accepted somewhere . So as not to repeat the details please refer to my old posts below.

Detailed strategy/story from week after GMAT - https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-gmat-stor ... 12080.html

Detailed study plan for people who are scoring below ~620 and want to move into 700+ ranges - https://www.beatthegmat.com/im-ready-to- ... 12218.html

As an update – I now have had 3 friends use this strategy (1 used the long strategy) and 2 others are studying it now. Their results were: 710/740/790 – my friend who was stuck in the mid 500’s was the one who got the 740.

In general my plan requires at LEAST 6 weeks and 2-3 days off from work, assuming you are already scoring 600+. If not use my recommendations in my old post to build your basic skills. In the long case you should plan to take your exam at least 4 months from now (think early August as of this post date). I realize that many people have studied for less time and scored well, but the goal of this study plan is to minimize the chance of scoring poorly. (Reducing your variance). I was able to score my 770 even though they were doing blasting on one of the floors in the building – so my sections were constantly disrupted by fire alarms/announcements etc.

Materials you need
1) Princeton Review Book
2) Kaplan Premier Book
3) Kaplan 800 Book
4) OG Orange Book
5) OG Purple Book
6) OG Green Book
7) The replica of the pad & pen (they sell the Manhattan GMAT one on Amazon for like $20 – GET IT don’t skimp on this)

Optional Materials
1) A Manhattan GMAT book focusing on the area you are having the most trouble with (for most people this is the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction book)

Yes, if you buy everything above brand new it will costs about $180…don’t complain that’s .1% of the cost of your MBA and cheaper than the application fee to apply to one school. If you can, borrow someone else’s books, library, etc

Plan (for 3 months/90 days – condense as necessary)
DO NOT START WITH A PRACTICE EXAM  simply put the whole idea that Kaplan/Princeton use of starting with an exam to see where you are weak is silly. I prefer to study all subjects equally until I have a thorough comfort level with all question types etc. Only then do I take exam to find my weaknesses

Days 1-10 - complete Princeton Review book – read everything, do all practice problems, DO NOT do the practice exam

Days 11-30 - Kaplan Premier Book – read any new materials & strategies and do all problems - My version of the book had 9 sections with ~50 question at the end of each, so I did the reading and 15 questions one day and the remaining questions the next

Days 31-44 - Read and complete every question in the Kaplan 800 book. Again – skip the practice test

NOTE: - I actually finished this material faster than the timeline above. I would use the time to practice speed mental math and reading (see long strategy for suggestions)

Day 45 - Take practice Exam #1. Use one of the real ones you downloaded from the GMAT site. (You downloaded them right?  )

Day 45-47 - review and redo the hardest 10% of the problems from both Kaplan books in the areas you were weakest in

Days 47-83 - Finish EVERY SINGLE problem in the OG’s. Time yourself and force yourself to work a little faster than exam pace (try ~1 min a question).

Day 84 - Take Practice exam #2. REDO the same real one you took before (only 2-3 of the problems will be repeats, and you probably won’t remember them anyways)

Every day from now on assumes you are studying the whole day and are not at work. Take each of these exams EXACTLY like your real exam. Same time of the day, find a desk, do the essays, take the breaks, eat the same snack every day.

Day 85 - Practice exam #3 - I used the one in the Princeton book. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

Day 86 - Practice exam #4 - I used test #2 from the web. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

Day 87 - Do 120 questions from the OG books

Day 88 - Practice Exam #5 - I used one form Kaplan 800 I think. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

Day 89 - Practice Exam #6 - Retake #2 from the web. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books

You should have about 200 questions left at this point. You can add or remove problems if you have enough time. But leave about 80 for the last 2 days

Day 90 - Today’s the last day! Take it relatively easy – 5-10 questions from each section, 5-10 extra in your weakest section and then go to sleep so you get a normal nights worth before the next day. Set your damned alarm, the backup alarm and your cell phone. Let not take the chance that you sleep too late.

TEST DAY - if you have a morning exam wake up VERY early (normal morning exams are at 8 AM - be up no later than 5:30) otherwise chill out for a bit. If you have some time about 2 hours before you leave do 2-3 questions from every type of problem to get the mental juices flowing. Get ready, grab your stuff. Did you grab your wallet & ID? Walk back inside get your wallet – no your corporate ID doesn’t count as official ID – grab that drivers license/passport etc. Now you can go to your exam.

Did I hear you complain that you’ll arrive an hour early if you leave now?….my test center let me start 25 minutes early and you want to make sure that anything short of a meteor strike won’t make you late. Grab a snack & drink for your breaks on the way (I used a vitamin water and protein bar – ate half of the bar each break and drank as much as I felt comfortable with).

Good Luck!

Thanks for the lovely post.
Cheerio,
PN.

pkblaze100 wrote:Update: Was accepted into Ross on Thursday evening - probably tied for second on schools I wanted to got to (after Stanford), so i am massively happy

Also my roomate took gmats on Friday and scored 740 Overall a good week and finally no more stress about applications!

Congratulations on ur admit! i hope u are active in the forums, even after the admits!!

thanks for your post

i have a question:

whenever you mention OG books, you say "finish x problems from the OG book".
for example, the first time you mention the OG book , you say that. Does that mean just do the problems only, or go through the book (read through the theory) and then do all the problems?

i got a bit confused about what you meant..


thanks man