I just Beat The GMAT!

My profile:
39 year old male from Austin, Texas - yes, even an old guy can beat the GMAT:)
Founded and operated multiple small businesses, from restaurants to financial service companies.

To begin, I give thanks and praise to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. He is sufficient for all things.

My debrief is direct, listing the materials I leveraged for prep. I have a new baby and am, thus, short on sleep. So, I will not be logging into beatthegmat very often but will periodically check for PMs in case anyone has a question.

Sentence Correction:

Doing Grammar by Max Morenberg - I spent two straight weeks reading and studying this book. The author presents a logical and effective strategy for understanding/ analyzing sentence structure. I recommend completing each of the chapter exercises. Morenberg breaks sentences into constituents - that clauses, wh- clauses, absolute prhases, infinitive phrases, etc. - a thorough knowledge of these structures enabled me to answer SC questions in 55-65 seconds on average over time with ~94% accuracy. Essentially, the author teaches you to recognize patterns that occur in grammatically correct sentences. The ability to recognize such patterns will dramatically reduce the time you spend on SC questions.

MGMAT SC 3rd ed - the new edition encapsulates much of what you will learn in the Doing Grammar book cited in the previous paragraph, but should not be treated as a substitute for Doing Grammar. Rather, use the MGMAT guide to strengthen the skills acquired from Doing Grammar. In addition, this book is the source for idioms.

OG 11 and OG Verbal - once you master the Doing Grammar book and the MGMAT SC guide do the first half of SC questions in these books untimed. Review each question carefully irrespective of whether you answered it correctly in order to identify what/ how the test writers structure SC questions. Once you do this then complete the remaining questions under timed conditions. Practice answering questions at the same rate required by the GMAT.

CR and RC :

Blueprint LSAT prep materials - I suggest reviewing the MGMAT CR question type descriptions and then finding the LSAT question types that mirror or track the GMAT question types in the BP materials. Blueprint provides excellent frameworks for CR. I averaged ~94% accuracy on LSAT CR at an average of 90 seconds. LSAT CR are harder than GMAT CR even at the 99th percentile level, and there are subtle differences in the question structures.

Do not trust or use CR/ RC/SC questions from any source other than LSAT or GMAT paper tests/ OG/ GMAT Prep - especially not MGMAT for verbal section. Third party questions are riddled with unintended nuance.

The Blueprint RC materials provide a solid method of reading passages for structure. The GMAT passages are shorter and tend to contain fewer paragraphs than the LSAT passages but the structures are similar - you should read the GMAT passages with an eye for structure, that is distinct structures which may be melded in a single paragraph. If you can average 0 mistakes at 10 minutes per passage on the LSAT passages you will dominate the GMAT RC.

Quantitative:

MGMAT 3rd ed - all guides are strong and you should master the content in these guides before moving onto questions. Once content knowledge is robust do all OG 11 and OG Quant timed. Review mistakes carefully. Then move onto GMAT Focus. GMAT Focus is expensive but worth every cent. Buy three tests.

Once GMAT Focus exhausted progress to GMAT Prep. I suggest taking a GMAT Prep every 4 days over the 16 days before your GMAT. After you complete each GMAT Focus and GMAT Prep ctrl print screen each question and create a book of quant questions to review - you will learn to identify the way in which the test writers package questions.

Ian Stewart, founder of GMATix - producing proprietary materials for Q - find this guy and lever him if you can afford to hire him - rates are reasonable and he is the best there is on Quant IMO - short, elegant solutions. Buy the materials he produces.

Avoid all CATs not GMAC. The official questions are distinct and I recommend practicing only with real, retired questions.

I did not prepare for AWA. I scored 5.5 but shut down my second essay after only 15 minutes because I did not want to feel any time pressure before starting the Quant section.

Press on. Persevere. Hard work and determination will get you there.

Schools I am applying to:

Stanford
Wharton
Michigan
Duke

Congratulations on your score. I have no doubt you were happy to see that result after you finished your final question.

I had a few quick questions about Ian Stewart.

1. What type of tutoring did you do with him?
2. What were his fees?

Thanks.

Gabriel,

Ian is Quant only, and he is excellent. You can search his name/posts on this site. I cannot speak for his current rate so find his profile on here and PM him. He is friendly and approachable. Ian can teach you the the Quant content from the basics to the most advanced number theory. If he can teach me modular arithmetic he can teach anyone.

Corey

Congratulations on ur score. Can u tell from where to get these LSAT books. I want both for RC and CR. Recommendations for SC material is highly desirable.

Doing Grammar
https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Grammar-Max ... 0195138406

BluePrint LSAT Prep
https://www.blueprintprep.com/index.php

MGMAT
https://www.manhattangmat.com/Store.cfm

Ian Stewart's Quant material - search him on this site and pm him

Thank you. All my best in your prep. Work hard and you will succeed.

Thanks for ur reply. I went through the Blue Print LSAT site. I found that it is a kind of classroom course. I am from India and looking for material which I can order and read.Do u have some book in mind only for RC and CR.

I believe they offer a self study course which includes the materials I mentioned. They will ship them to you. They used to (and may still) offer an online course if you desired third party instruction.