Hi all,
Just wanted to post a quick note on my GMAT experience. I took the GMAT several years ago, about a week after being evacuated from a war zone (long story) and scored a 610. I wasn't happy with it, so I left off for a few years while I continued working. I decided to apply in Rd 2 this year, so I started preparing in October for an early december test date (today). I got my unofficial score report: Q47/V45, 740 overall (76th percentile q, 99th v, 97th overall). I'm pretty happy with my score, and the 130 point increase.
I used the official guide (12th edition) and the following Manhattan prep books:
- Official guide companion
- Number properties
- Word translations
- Advanced GMAT quant
- Sentence correction
My biggest weakness was on the quant side - on my original GMAT, I scored in the mid-30th percentile on quant, and low 90s for verbal. So, I decided to focus a lot more on the quant. I can probably verify that moving quant is easier than moving verbal.
My recommendation would be that the official guide companion was not all that helpful. I should have used an additional quant topic area book, rather than working more on the same questions. The sentence correction guide was helpful, but again, it required a level of effort that probably wasn't proportional to the increase in verbal.
I did 7 MGMAT practice tests (5 without the AWA, 2 with the AWA) and then did 3 of the practice GMATs from GMAC (uninstall/reinstall trick...) The last practice I took, I did the full AWA and used the GMAC - scored a 740 on the practice, which mirrored my actual score. My practice had my quant slightly higher and my verbal slightly lower.
I found the mgmat math prep very helpful, but their practice GMATs were much harder in math than the GMAC/actual gmat. The content review was helpful; to be fair, though, it seems as though they focus on teaching you to beat the manhattan gmat, rather than the actual gmat.
So, for everyone struggling... keep working at it! Especially if you're in my shoes (hyper verbal, not so great at math), you can definitely bring your score up!
Just wanted to post a quick note on my GMAT experience. I took the GMAT several years ago, about a week after being evacuated from a war zone (long story) and scored a 610. I wasn't happy with it, so I left off for a few years while I continued working. I decided to apply in Rd 2 this year, so I started preparing in October for an early december test date (today). I got my unofficial score report: Q47/V45, 740 overall (76th percentile q, 99th v, 97th overall). I'm pretty happy with my score, and the 130 point increase.
I used the official guide (12th edition) and the following Manhattan prep books:
- Official guide companion
- Number properties
- Word translations
- Advanced GMAT quant
- Sentence correction
My biggest weakness was on the quant side - on my original GMAT, I scored in the mid-30th percentile on quant, and low 90s for verbal. So, I decided to focus a lot more on the quant. I can probably verify that moving quant is easier than moving verbal.
My recommendation would be that the official guide companion was not all that helpful. I should have used an additional quant topic area book, rather than working more on the same questions. The sentence correction guide was helpful, but again, it required a level of effort that probably wasn't proportional to the increase in verbal.
I did 7 MGMAT practice tests (5 without the AWA, 2 with the AWA) and then did 3 of the practice GMATs from GMAC (uninstall/reinstall trick...) The last practice I took, I did the full AWA and used the GMAC - scored a 740 on the practice, which mirrored my actual score. My practice had my quant slightly higher and my verbal slightly lower.
I found the mgmat math prep very helpful, but their practice GMATs were much harder in math than the GMAC/actual gmat. The content review was helpful; to be fair, though, it seems as though they focus on teaching you to beat the manhattan gmat, rather than the actual gmat.
So, for everyone struggling... keep working at it! Especially if you're in my shoes (hyper verbal, not so great at math), you can definitely bring your score up!
