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hsharif
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
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- Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:58 am
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Hyperbolic backstory that you can feel free to skip over
I walked into that testing center a scared, shivering boy, but I emerged a hulking, confident man. I anxiously mashed the keys past all that demographic information that the GMAT absurdly insists you answer between finishing the exam and seeing your score on the screen.
Who does that anyway?
It's cruel and unusual. It's akin to your doctor discussing his marital problems with you as you grip your bedside, awaiting the prognosis as to whether you'll live or die from some virus you caught on your honeymoon in Costa Rica. Just give me the damn answer!
Either way, I saw the 700 score on my screen and didn't jump or shake or backflip; I simply closed my eyes and smiled for a moment, trying to live in the fleeting moment. Though that moment only lasted, well, a moment, it felt like it lasted forever. Boy, this exam has given me hell.
I've taken the exam more times than I'd like to mention, so I'll tell you what worked for me and what didn't. I hate the buy into the notion that some people "are or are not book-smart", but I'm going to anyway. I'm not book smart. Put me in a business environment and I'll do what it do, put me in a classroom and I'll be the guy asking all those questions that make you think to yourself, "Damn, I'm sure glad I'm not THAT guy"
The first time I took the exam was soon after deplaning from a nearly year-long assignement overseas. "590, must be a fluke!" I told myself. I even posted a sob-story on this forum, desperately asking for advice. It was a tough time, no doubt about it.
Prior to taking the exam for the last time, I changed my entire method of preparation. Hopefully my failures and victories in preparation and exam will help you. If your academic performance and GPA have always been less stellar than your over-achieving, highly-praised, elder-sibling - then this might be for you.
Here's the actual content you're looking for
*My* Golden Rule: The ONLY way to study for the GMAT is to either be taking a practice exam or be reviewing a practice exam. Timing Strategy and working under pressure WILL literally make or break your entire GMAT score.
In my prep before my last exam, I spent 50% of my time taking practice GMAT exams (from Knewton, Manhattan GMAT, GMAC Software), and the other 50% of the time reviewing the problems, right and wrong. This is what helped me achieve my 700 score. I literally did not open a single book. I did, however, lean heavily on BTG and GMATClub to review the practice exam questions. I also repeated already taken practice exams regardless of facing questions I had seen before.
In retrospect, all the time I spent just simply studying materials, reading page after page of Geometry formulas and how to properly use "That" and "Which" , did not help me NEARLY as much as just plowing through a practice exam and reviewing my answers. Give me nearly ANY GMAT problem and I can solve it within 5 minutes. Solving it in less than two minutes is the hard part; compound that with the added pressure THAT YOU WILL DIE AND BURN IF YOU DON'T GET A 700, excuse me, that you may not get accepted into the school of your dreams if you don't get your target score.
Point is, the timing and pressure are what make the GMAT difficult, not the content. In your practice problems, you don't worry NEARLY as much about guessing on an answer or moving on to the next problem. During the actual exam, it is VERY difficult to move past a problem without knowing without substantial certainty that you've answered the question correctly.
Even doing a 10 problem set under timed conditions does not compare to the timing and pressure of the actual GMAT. The only way to get even close to simulating GMAT conditions is to take a practice exam in a quiet area.
Just reading about math and verbal rules is like the Reading Comprehension section of the GMAT. You will pay really good attention for the first couple sentences, then your brain will start thinking about that email you forgot to send and how the color purple is really not your favorite color instead of focusing on the content you're reading. If you are reading about math and verbal rules IN RESPONSE to a problem you answered right or wrong, it'll stick with you better than if you're reading the rules just to read them.
I needed to be ACTIVELY studying not PASSIVELY studying. And in my experience, the way I ACTIVELY study is if I ACTIVELY take a practice exam. Or at least one section of it (math or verbal). The hundreds of Sentence Correction rules I try to memorize go out the window when the timed pressure of the GMAT kicks in.
What I tried but didn't work for me
I signed up for The Economists online GMAT tutor, Knewton, Magoosh, and I personally, ultimately, just wasted a lot of time and money. They're all good programs (I'm not trying to hate), but I think the marginal benefit of all of them, for me, was very minimal. I may have learned one thing here or there, but no one program really stood out as a one stop shop for killing the GMAT. HOWEVER, if you were to pick one program of the three, I would probably recommend Knewton. Just for the video lecture series which I found helpful.
I tried working through the entire OG with a problem tracker, and though many people swear by this method, it simply didn't work for me. Obviously the OG problems are great because they're as close to the real problems as you're going to get, but the lack of timed pressure made it unhelpful, even if I tried to time myself.
Look man, it's as simple as this. Take part or all of a practice exam and then review. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Use BTG and GMATClub to understand each question and answer. Simulating that timing and pressure, and learning from the errors you make in a simulation will benefit you (hopefully) a lot more than just reading a book or doing small quantity practice problem drills. That's what worked for me. Do it enough times and you'll feel at home when you step into that exam center. I tried to get too complex with my strategy, using 10 different resources simultaneously, trying to achieve that perfect score. The best strategy here was the simplest = practice exam, review, repeat.
Some specific problem type strategies that helped me, in case you want to waste more time reading my very subjective experience
Reading Comprehension - I went from horribly shitty to pretty stellar on Reading Comprehension by simply jotting down notes and the structure of the passage as I read it. Not because I ever referred back to those notes, but because the act of writing notes made me UNDERSTAND the passage thoroughly. Even the very complex passages. And that was the key for me, to read and understand the passage thoroughly on my first go. Once I understood the passage, I was able to rapid-fire through the questions with ease. If I simply read the passage, I didn't understand it nearly as much as writing notes in conjunction with reading. I was always VERY careful on inference and conclusion questions since these required reference back to the passage in order to verify the correct answer (the answer is always right in the passage!). Oh, and answering the question for yourself before looking at the answer choices was also crucial!
Critical Reasoning - Always read the question stem before the argument. Always boil down the argument down to its very basic relationship. I found the vast majority (if not all) of the CR questions made a relationship between only TWO entities. Profits and Sales, Symbols and Origin, etc. a) Read question stem b) Read argument c) Boil down the argument to its basic entities d) Answer the question for yourself before reading the answers e) Pick the answer. For Assumption question types, the negating the assumption technique worked miracles.
Sentence Correction - The golden rule for me here was to read the question VERY literally. Before jumping to the answers, I would read and understand the sentence very literally. If the question said something like, "With the legislation, Immigrants found it difficult to XYZ", then I would interpret this as the immigrants literally had the legislation in hand. Ridiculous, right? Read the sentence as literally as possible. Understanding pronouns, "that"/"which", and modifiers were key for me. Modifiers were hardest for me, since sometimes in a sentence there are no symbols that clearly mark the start and end of a modifier.
PS/DS - For Mixtures, google the MixtureProblemsMadEasy.pdf and use it religiously; it's amazing. For any Rate/Work problems, setup an RTD chart. For Geometry I just seriously winged it - I hate Geometry. For VICs, plug in a number for the variable. For any of the "Is x > y?" type questions, just plug in numbers but be sure to draw a chart on your paper so you can clearly keep track of the numbers and results. I am luckily, for whatever reason, good at Number Properties, Combinatorics, and Exponents - so I don't have much advice but to memorize the rules. Percents were always a trip for me, but problem repetition really helped a lot.
Aaaand That's it!
This forum and GMATClub have helped me IMMENSELY in destroying the GMAT. And Ron Purewal is damn good so read all of his posts. I honestly would not have achieved the score I got had it not been for the online community. So thank you all. And if you have any questions on prep, what works and what doesn't, online programs, or general strategy, please feel free to comment or message and I will respond.
Good luck and stay confident! When the world's weight becomes too great for your shoulders, just add more weight.
I walked into that testing center a scared, shivering boy, but I emerged a hulking, confident man. I anxiously mashed the keys past all that demographic information that the GMAT absurdly insists you answer between finishing the exam and seeing your score on the screen.
Who does that anyway?
It's cruel and unusual. It's akin to your doctor discussing his marital problems with you as you grip your bedside, awaiting the prognosis as to whether you'll live or die from some virus you caught on your honeymoon in Costa Rica. Just give me the damn answer!
Either way, I saw the 700 score on my screen and didn't jump or shake or backflip; I simply closed my eyes and smiled for a moment, trying to live in the fleeting moment. Though that moment only lasted, well, a moment, it felt like it lasted forever. Boy, this exam has given me hell.
I've taken the exam more times than I'd like to mention, so I'll tell you what worked for me and what didn't. I hate the buy into the notion that some people "are or are not book-smart", but I'm going to anyway. I'm not book smart. Put me in a business environment and I'll do what it do, put me in a classroom and I'll be the guy asking all those questions that make you think to yourself, "Damn, I'm sure glad I'm not THAT guy"
The first time I took the exam was soon after deplaning from a nearly year-long assignement overseas. "590, must be a fluke!" I told myself. I even posted a sob-story on this forum, desperately asking for advice. It was a tough time, no doubt about it.
Prior to taking the exam for the last time, I changed my entire method of preparation. Hopefully my failures and victories in preparation and exam will help you. If your academic performance and GPA have always been less stellar than your over-achieving, highly-praised, elder-sibling - then this might be for you.
Here's the actual content you're looking for
*My* Golden Rule: The ONLY way to study for the GMAT is to either be taking a practice exam or be reviewing a practice exam. Timing Strategy and working under pressure WILL literally make or break your entire GMAT score.
In my prep before my last exam, I spent 50% of my time taking practice GMAT exams (from Knewton, Manhattan GMAT, GMAC Software), and the other 50% of the time reviewing the problems, right and wrong. This is what helped me achieve my 700 score. I literally did not open a single book. I did, however, lean heavily on BTG and GMATClub to review the practice exam questions. I also repeated already taken practice exams regardless of facing questions I had seen before.
In retrospect, all the time I spent just simply studying materials, reading page after page of Geometry formulas and how to properly use "That" and "Which" , did not help me NEARLY as much as just plowing through a practice exam and reviewing my answers. Give me nearly ANY GMAT problem and I can solve it within 5 minutes. Solving it in less than two minutes is the hard part; compound that with the added pressure THAT YOU WILL DIE AND BURN IF YOU DON'T GET A 700, excuse me, that you may not get accepted into the school of your dreams if you don't get your target score.
Point is, the timing and pressure are what make the GMAT difficult, not the content. In your practice problems, you don't worry NEARLY as much about guessing on an answer or moving on to the next problem. During the actual exam, it is VERY difficult to move past a problem without knowing without substantial certainty that you've answered the question correctly.
Even doing a 10 problem set under timed conditions does not compare to the timing and pressure of the actual GMAT. The only way to get even close to simulating GMAT conditions is to take a practice exam in a quiet area.
Just reading about math and verbal rules is like the Reading Comprehension section of the GMAT. You will pay really good attention for the first couple sentences, then your brain will start thinking about that email you forgot to send and how the color purple is really not your favorite color instead of focusing on the content you're reading. If you are reading about math and verbal rules IN RESPONSE to a problem you answered right or wrong, it'll stick with you better than if you're reading the rules just to read them.
I needed to be ACTIVELY studying not PASSIVELY studying. And in my experience, the way I ACTIVELY study is if I ACTIVELY take a practice exam. Or at least one section of it (math or verbal). The hundreds of Sentence Correction rules I try to memorize go out the window when the timed pressure of the GMAT kicks in.
What I tried but didn't work for me
I signed up for The Economists online GMAT tutor, Knewton, Magoosh, and I personally, ultimately, just wasted a lot of time and money. They're all good programs (I'm not trying to hate), but I think the marginal benefit of all of them, for me, was very minimal. I may have learned one thing here or there, but no one program really stood out as a one stop shop for killing the GMAT. HOWEVER, if you were to pick one program of the three, I would probably recommend Knewton. Just for the video lecture series which I found helpful.
I tried working through the entire OG with a problem tracker, and though many people swear by this method, it simply didn't work for me. Obviously the OG problems are great because they're as close to the real problems as you're going to get, but the lack of timed pressure made it unhelpful, even if I tried to time myself.
Look man, it's as simple as this. Take part or all of a practice exam and then review. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Use BTG and GMATClub to understand each question and answer. Simulating that timing and pressure, and learning from the errors you make in a simulation will benefit you (hopefully) a lot more than just reading a book or doing small quantity practice problem drills. That's what worked for me. Do it enough times and you'll feel at home when you step into that exam center. I tried to get too complex with my strategy, using 10 different resources simultaneously, trying to achieve that perfect score. The best strategy here was the simplest = practice exam, review, repeat.
Some specific problem type strategies that helped me, in case you want to waste more time reading my very subjective experience
Reading Comprehension - I went from horribly shitty to pretty stellar on Reading Comprehension by simply jotting down notes and the structure of the passage as I read it. Not because I ever referred back to those notes, but because the act of writing notes made me UNDERSTAND the passage thoroughly. Even the very complex passages. And that was the key for me, to read and understand the passage thoroughly on my first go. Once I understood the passage, I was able to rapid-fire through the questions with ease. If I simply read the passage, I didn't understand it nearly as much as writing notes in conjunction with reading. I was always VERY careful on inference and conclusion questions since these required reference back to the passage in order to verify the correct answer (the answer is always right in the passage!). Oh, and answering the question for yourself before looking at the answer choices was also crucial!
Critical Reasoning - Always read the question stem before the argument. Always boil down the argument down to its very basic relationship. I found the vast majority (if not all) of the CR questions made a relationship between only TWO entities. Profits and Sales, Symbols and Origin, etc. a) Read question stem b) Read argument c) Boil down the argument to its basic entities d) Answer the question for yourself before reading the answers e) Pick the answer. For Assumption question types, the negating the assumption technique worked miracles.
Sentence Correction - The golden rule for me here was to read the question VERY literally. Before jumping to the answers, I would read and understand the sentence very literally. If the question said something like, "With the legislation, Immigrants found it difficult to XYZ", then I would interpret this as the immigrants literally had the legislation in hand. Ridiculous, right? Read the sentence as literally as possible. Understanding pronouns, "that"/"which", and modifiers were key for me. Modifiers were hardest for me, since sometimes in a sentence there are no symbols that clearly mark the start and end of a modifier.
PS/DS - For Mixtures, google the MixtureProblemsMadEasy.pdf and use it religiously; it's amazing. For any Rate/Work problems, setup an RTD chart. For Geometry I just seriously winged it - I hate Geometry. For VICs, plug in a number for the variable. For any of the "Is x > y?" type questions, just plug in numbers but be sure to draw a chart on your paper so you can clearly keep track of the numbers and results. I am luckily, for whatever reason, good at Number Properties, Combinatorics, and Exponents - so I don't have much advice but to memorize the rules. Percents were always a trip for me, but problem repetition really helped a lot.
Aaaand That's it!
This forum and GMATClub have helped me IMMENSELY in destroying the GMAT. And Ron Purewal is damn good so read all of his posts. I honestly would not have achieved the score I got had it not been for the online community. So thank you all. And if you have any questions on prep, what works and what doesn't, online programs, or general strategy, please feel free to comment or message and I will respond.
Good luck and stay confident! When the world's weight becomes too great for your shoulders, just add more weight.
