Here is my debrief:
Im an Indian male, 28 yrs working in the US as a (you guessed it) software consultant.
Anyway I got bit by the GMAT bug about 3 months back and decided to take it. The bug in part was because of my wife "bugging" me to take it and do something more with my life .Im pretty much an under-achiever. I have always done okay at studies, never too well, and it was almost always without much prep. However this time, I was determined to do well. I dont know why.. maybe I havent taken an exam for 6 years.. but it brought out the competitive spirit in me
Overview of how I studied:
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Background prep:
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1) So I bought the Kaplan CD and book and got cracking. No planning no thoguth, just mindless practice. Within a week, I had solved every problem in the book.
2) I then downloaded the GMAT Prep software and took the first practice test. I got 690. Was pretty happy. To celebrate I bought the Official Guide 11th edition.
3) Solved every problem in the OG within 14 days. All sections. I didnt study more than 2 hours a day on weekdays and about 4 hours each day on weekends. Seemed enough for me.
4) Took the second GMAT prep and scored 660. That was when I surfed the internet and found this site. My first post was about my scores decreasing and thankfully aim, Stacy etc.. told me that I didnt need to worry. I had done esp poorly and Verbal and sure enough, to improve I bought 2 more books to practice, need I say, mindlessly.
5) I read about Manhattan GMAT for SC and so ordered the MGMAT SC and the OG verbal edition. The Manhattan SC didnt make any sense to me the first time I read it and I threw it away within 20 mins. Instead I went out and bought the Kaplan 800.
6) Surprisingly, the strategies for CR and SC in Kaplan 800 made a whole lotta sense to me. Also the way they make you solve problems after every explanation was awesome. I think that if Manhattan follow that approach, making you solve problems immediately after every concept is explained, they would go a loong way.
7) Once I did the Kaplan 800, my verbal side was totally changed. I was getting about 35 earlier but it now shot up to 40+. For me 40+ seemed good because a quant 50 and 40+ in verbal would comfortably put me over the 700 mark.
8) After this, I went back to MGMAT and SC made a whole lotta sense. Not only did I complete the MGMAT completely but also managed to go through all the SC notes of various people.
9) The last two weeks I spent doing the whole OG again cover to cover and took about 10 tests. 6 MGMAT and 4 GMAT PRep (after deleting the logs created). My scores ranged between 750 and 780.
I still didnt think I was completely ready but I also knew that I wouldnt be more ready than this.
Test Experience: Sorry for the long post.
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1) Couldnt sleep the night before. I tossed and turned till 3:30 AM. FInally went to sleep and woke up at 8:15 AM.
2) Had breakfast and smoked about 5 cigarettes. Then I drank a red bull to clear any cobwebs. In fact they had the opposite effect. I started feeling more nervous and jumpy.
3) Did about 10 OG quant questions just to get my brain moving. Tried doing verbal but I couldnt focus or concentrate because of the nervousness. Anyway it was still 10:00 AM and I had another 4 hours to go. spent the rest of the time listening to my ipod and dreaming about a good score.
4) At about 12:00 I left for test center which is an hour's drive away. Reached the center at 1:00 and was checked in at 1:30. I had another 10 mins to kill so I smoked another cigarette, drank water and took a piss. The drive had brought my buzz down and I was comfortably strung out, not too much and not too little.
5) Started with the essays. Had done exactly 2 essays prior to this during my last test. I was pretty comfortable. THe argument was about a credit card company wanting to put the logo of some environmental agency on the card and expecting that they could charge people a higher interest rate . Weird
but good because it was so illogical. The issue was about people wanting a leader who could do the tasks he / she was asking others to do. I wrote for.6) Took the 10 min break. Wanted to smoke so I ran down and out and smoked a cigarette. Came back, splashed water on my face (which is a great strategy), took a leak and drnak water.
7) Quant started off real good. Was cruising till the 7 question when i got stumped in the 8th. Took an educated guess and moved on. I remembered the problem till after the test and after calculating realized that I had got it correct. Got stuck in one other problem that I remember. It was about a quad eqauation of the form ax2 + bx + c =0. One person made a mistake in the value of c and got two roots. Another make a mistake with b and got 2 roots. We had to find the actual roots. I solved it halfway and realized I had no idea how to proceed. So I just guessed totally randomly and moved on. THere was another question which was a DS question about odd and evens and products as well as additions that took me some time but I think I got it correct. Knowing that E*E = E etc. is very helpful. In all I think I spent about 20 minutes on 5 tough questions that I was able to solve, about 20 on three evern tougher questions which I wasnt able to solve and the rest were cheap.
8) Took the 10 min break. Did the same things as the previous break.. only drank (guzzled) a red bull before entering the hall.
9) Verbal started off amazingly well. I think I got the first 7-8 questions all correct when I got one of the most difficult and long RC's ever. Frazzled, I think I got only 2 of 4 questions right an then it was back to SC and RC. Again I was crusing when suddenly the system started throwing the weirdest sentences at me. I couldnt even understand the meanings of some of the words. This was like 3-4 sentences in a row.. Well I did the best I could and moved on. The next RC was again very very long and threw me off. I think ffrom the 25 question onwards, I screwed up big time in verbal. Not to mention that I felt like taking a leak real bad. THe red bull !! Anyway I finished verbal with about 5 mins to spare and raced through the next few sections (more because of wanting to go to the restroom than anything else:)) Paused for a moment at the cancel or report scores page and decided f**k it.. may as well see what i did. saw the 760 and coulndt believe my eyes. i though i would get around 700-720 at the most. anyway was happy and left the place . told wife and family on the way back and then rewarded myself with a new PSP.
THoughts on exam:
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1) Apart from SC, I think if you are a science, engg student, quant only needs practice. You already know everything.. its just remembering the stuff and if you do enought probs you will remember the old stuff and cement what you have been learning.
2) SC : Please be careful. Practice as much as you can adn then repeat the practice. I did about 500-1000 probs (including all the repeats) Builds speed and cements the understanding. But then i did those many questions for all sections. I feel than practicing and repeating the questions you got wrong alongwith the ones you gto right is the best way. I dont believe in attacking each sub-topic like perm, comb, prob, etc etc. because to do so, you would spend a whole year and not know enough. The test tests you on maths you learnt over a few years and its not possible to go through all that in a few months and be able to solve questions of every level. If its already in your head, you can bring it back.
3) Verbal: Just understand what you need to do and keep doing that. For ex: In CR, remember you have to identify the evidence, conclusion and assumption no matter what question it is. Once you do that, the rest is easy. RC is almost like an extended CR.
Please let me know if anyone needs more info and im sorry for the long post.
thanks to everyone here at beatthegmat. you really rock!
mlaps
