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4.0 Loyola Marymount grad looking for GMAT starting advice!

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4.0 Loyola Marymount grad looking for GMAT starting advice!

by buddilly » Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:29 pm
Here's a bit of background on me that might help. I graduated from Loyola Marymount University this past may with 4.0 GPA, Summa Cum Laude, Program Scholar Award, and numerous other awards for Entrepreneurship. I guess you could say I'm a mix of natural talent, extremely hard work, and ambition. That being said, I know nothing about the GMAT - I've only taken the SAT, ACT, and a few SAT II tests back in high school.

I am a very good self-starter and I can dedicate as much time as I need to every day to study - so time isn't an issue. I want to score in the mid 700's and I think I am capable of this. Therefore, I want to be thorough in my studying but I DO NOT WANT to get bogged down in crappy details and have 20,000 pages of study materials that is insurmountable. I've found I do best understanding HOW to solve problems and understanding the required concepts behind them, but I'm ready for a lotta raw practice too!

Now I'm planning on pushing for an Ivy League B-school in 2-4 years but I have a little while until I start my interim job that will lead me to my MBA. So, where do I start? I've read a number of posts and seen 100 recommendations for different books and studying ideologies. Can someone try to break this down for me? Perhaps links to Amazon for current books, etc.

Thanks all!!
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by dmateer25 » Thu Aug 06, 2009 6:33 pm
Your situation is pretty similar to mine. It is great that you are planning way in advance and want to get the GMAT out of the way. That being said, I think the first thing you should do is take a free practice test from one of the reputable test prep companies. Once you take a test you can see where you stand now. There might be certain areas that you don't need to spend a lot of time studying and others that you need to put in a lot of time.

The first book that you ABSOLUTELY must get is the OG 12. This is the book published by GMAC with 100s of retired test questions.

For Verbal

If you struggle in sentence correction then you should consider the MGMAT Sentence Correction guide.

If you struggle in critical reasoning then you should consider the Powerscore Critical reasoning bible.

I can't give any advice on books for RC because I didn't study any specific strategy for this section.

For Quant

I used all of the MGMAT guides for quant. I probably didn't need all of these but it was good to refresh some of the areas I hadn't seen in awhile.
Again, I think you should take a practice test from a test prep company and analyze the question types you struggle with and then decide which books to get.


Hope this helps!
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by buddilly » Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:12 pm
Great stuff. I'll take a practice test first thing.

Also, how do you think it's best to study? Go over some new material for a week and then do a practice test? Or go over "all" of the planned material then take a practice test at the end [and then diagnose what needs to the worked on]?

Any input there?
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by dmateer25 » Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:50 am
buddilly wrote:Great stuff. I'll take a practice test first thing.

Also, how do you think it's best to study? Go over some new material for a week and then do a practice test? Or go over "all" of the planned material then take a practice test at the end [and then diagnose what needs to the worked on]?

Any input there?
Personally, at the beginning of my prep I would study for 3 weeks prior to taking a new practice test. I think as you get closer to your test date, you should start taking 1 practice test a weekend. That is what worked for me at least.

Also, save the GMATPrep test for the very end. These are the most accurate predictor of your score. Therefore, you want to have them available to you at the end of your prep to see where you stand.

Let me know if you have any other questions
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by zuleron » Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:40 am
First, congrats on the summa cum laude!

Circumstances forced my hand in taking the GMAT when I did, and without adequate preparation I got 660 which is just ok. For my retake what I am doing is getting the content down first and making sure there are no holes in my knowledge. Then and only then will I do practice questions to work on speed and timing.

For you I'd suggest:

1) take one of the free tests available from Manhattan GMAT, Veritas etc. just to get a taste of what the GMAT is. These companies will also breakdown your performance and point you to areas where you are weak.

2) Focus on learning the content. For me I chose Manhattan GMAT because you can pick and choose (depending on your strengths) which books to buy to learn the material. But REALLY learn the concepts and make sure your fundamentals are solid before attacking OG. For some people it may take 2 months for others 2 weeks.

3) Once you are confident that your fundamentals are strong, you should work through OG 12 to get your timing down. The earlier questions are very easy and may seem worthless but do them anyway, coz on some of the easiest questions is where we make careless mistakes and you will quickly learn that on the GMAT it is OK to get very hard questions wrong because it won't lower your score... However, getting an easy question wrong will absolutely KILL you!

4) After going through OG 12, take GMAT Prep 1 to see where you are and work very thoroughly through your errors, questions you guessed on or took an inordinate amount of time to answer correctly, or got correct for the wrong reason... also try figure out why they put in certain answer choices. This will help you learn and also show you where you need to refocus your attention.

5) I STRONGLY recommend re-taking GMATPrep 1 over and over and over again -- not to see how you score but rather to see many many more types of OFFICIAL questions (OG is good but remember that it is marketed towards everybody so there are only so many elite questions) There is NO better resource than retaking GMAT Prep 1 over and over again because you'll get to see some VERY difficult 780 level problems! I repeated the quant section in GMATPrep 1 at least 10 times and each time there were at least 10 questions I hadn't seen before. Doing GMATPrep 1 once is not enough coz you only see 37 quant questions whereas there are hundreds of quant questions in the GMATPrep 1's question bin alone. But again, do this for the content of the questions NOT the score. And do it only when your fundamentals are SOLID and you've completed OG12 and want to be exposed to tougher questions. Do it for as long as you feel you need to. But as you are retaking GMAT Prep 1 over and over buy at least one other test from Manhattan GMAT or Veritas just to see how your score is progessing.

6) One week before your test date, take GMAT Prep 2 and this should give you a good indication of what you will get on G-day!

Hope this helps.
Last edited by zuleron on Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by buddilly » Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:24 am
Great feedback guys! Thanks!

Anyone else? Any specific books that you just thought were GREAT, besides the OG 12?
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by zuleron » Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:47 am
When you are ready try these problems. They are from GMAT Prep1. Don't do them until AFTER you've done GMATPrep 1 once... That is, if you want an honest score from GMAT Prep 1 coz I got them from GMAT Prep 1 and any questions you've seen before will artificially inflate your score... ENJOY!

https://www.beatthegmat.com/answers-to-9 ... 35974.html


https://www.beatthegmat.com/99-more-leve ... 36464.html
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by buddilly » Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:21 pm
Just took the free MGMAT practice test without any studying. Here are my results:

TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK
Quantitative 39 57 %
Verbal 35 77 %
Total 620 76 %


How is it possible to get a 620 with such low percentage ranks? This test crushed me. I have a lot ahead of me.

Any more tips?
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by dmateer25 » Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:09 pm
buddilly wrote:Just took the free MGMAT practice test without any studying. Here are my results:

TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK
Quantitative 39 57 %
Verbal 35 77 %
Total 620 76 %


How is it possible to get a 620 with such low percentage ranks? This test crushed me. I have a lot ahead of me.

Any more tips?
That overall score seems pretty accurate for the section scores you had.

You need to really analyze where you struggled with this test now. My assumption would be that you struggled with the data sufficiency questions in quant (because these are a new type of question that you are not familiar with). But you also need to see if there is some type of pattern. Did you consistently miss algebra/geometry/etc... once you do an in depth analysis like this you can see what areas you really need to focus.

For the verbal, a 35 is a very good starting point. You need to do the same type analysis with this section. However, I think no matter what you should review the MGMAT sentence correction guide.
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by zuleron » Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:48 am
dmateer is right.

1) Now you analyse what went wrong and what went right.

2) Then you buy the books from MGMAT that will teach you what knowledge you are lacking. Do their In action problem sets. No matter what, you MUST buy MGMAT's Sentence Correction.

3) Then you make notes from these books.

4) Then you make flashcards from the notes you make.

5) Then you go through OG12 from start to finish and get your timing on questions down pat.

6) Then take GMAT Prep 1. I bet you will be scoring in the high 600s if not low 700s.

7) Then analyse GMAT Prep 1 and update your flashcards accordingly.

8) Repeat 6) and 7) as many times as you need.

9) Look at your flashcards everyday.

10) Do a few more MGMATs to see how close you are to your target score and to get used to taking the test under stresfull conditions. Remember MGMAT tests are harder.

11) Analyse errors from these tests and update flashcards.

12) Look at flashcards everyday.

13) One week before G-Day do GMAT Prep 2. You will probably be where you want to be.

14) CRUSH the GMAT!

15) Party!
Last edited by zuleron on Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by buddilly » Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:50 am
zuleron wrote:dmateer is right.

1) Now you analyse what went wrong and what went right.

2) Then you buy the books from MGMAT that will teach you what knowledge you are lacking. Do their In action problem sets. No matter what, you MUST buy MGMAT's Sentence Correction.

3) Then you make notes from these books.

4) Then you make flashcards from the notes you make.

5) Then you go through OG12 from start to finish and get your timing on questions down pat.

6) Then take GMAT Prep 1. I bet you will be scoring in the high 600s if not low 700s.

7) Then analyse GMAT Prep 1 and update your flashcards accordingly.

8) Repeat 6) and 7) as many times as you need.

9) Look at your flashcards everyday.

10) Do a few more MGMATs to see how close you are to your target score and to get used to taking the test under stresfull conditions. Remember MGMAT tests are harder.

11) Analyse errors from these tests and update flashcards.

12) Look at flashcards everyday.

13) One week before G-Day do GMAT Prep 2. You will probably be where you want to be.

14) Do GMAT

15) Party!
Hey I like your approach! Thanks!! :D :D :D
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