I just Beat The GMAT!

I had already started plotting out this post, post-GMAT celebrations, two weeks of concerts and parties, and getting back to the gym after slaying the vile beast.

Materials I Used:

• Manhattan GMAT Set
  Manhattan GMAT CATS (Took 1)
  GMATPrep Test Software (the pre-IR version and post-IR versions, took 3 in total)
  GMAT OG 12th Ed
  GMAT Club Tests (Focused on quiz practice problems)

My Prep Strategy:
I initially started preparing in March '12 while I was overseas for work. My work had me traveling internationally frequently and working strange hours until approximately the end of June 2012, so I didn't TRULY dedicate my life to studying for the GMAT until about the start of July. And a good metric to understand whether you're truly studying for the GMAT is the vibrance of your social life.

Took a GMATPrep test to get a diagnostic: 580

...Needless to say I had a LOT of work ahead of me. I'm a terrible test-taker and a B-average student. My brain has always been oriented towards more creative endeavors than purely logical (i.e. quantitative) pursuits.

Studying for the GMAT is truly a life-consuming event. I felt my soul trapped inside the OG every night when I closed the book, trapped therein until the next night I'd reopen the books and find my haggard and socially-excluded soul weeping for attention.

Initially I was trying to read every Manhattan book, do every problem, then do every OG problem. This was a bad strategy as I was learning in a somewhat inefficient manner (studying everything equally across the board and not doing actual OG problems right away). I switched gears to doing the OG problem sets specified at the end of each Manhattan book - and used to my performance to determine if this subject area was a weak point.

This strategy really helped me assess my strong/weak points and gain a stronger grasp of the materials.

I then setup an OG problem tracker and started drilling problem after problem in all subject areas in order to better understand my strengths/weaknesses. The OG Tracker was a great tool to truly understand my performance in the different subject matters. Any problem I got wrong I did again 2 weeks later. And if I still got it wrong I'd do it again a week later.

I got the Veritas Prep App for my iPhone (BEST GMAT Study app), the Manhattan GMAT Flashcards app, the Official GMAT App (Total waste of $5) and studied on the metro to and from work everyday and during lunch. I also read the Manhattan GMAT SC book probably 2-3 times over.

Took another GMATPrep Practice exam: 620 - progress!

I gained 40 points over the course of a month and was motivated. Long story short, continued the same strategy, took a full length MGMAT CAT and received a 680. Did a couple more MGMAT CAT sections (i.e. did a math section one night, a verbal another night).

4th CAT, GMATPrep (newest software w/ never before seen problems): 720

47/42 I think was the Quant/Verbal breakdown.

Finally I was confident that I had this in the bag.

Day Before the Exam:
I went to H&M and bought a slick post-GMAT celebration leather jacket, got some Caribou Coffee and a Chipotle burrito. Straight kicked it all day. In the late afternoon I went over flashcards for Verbal and Quant. I wasn't too worried after bagging that 720, I thought I would roll in there and make it do what it do.

Day of Exam:
Get to exam hall early. Not stressed, very confident. Listened to a variety of Drake/Lil Wayne songs on the way to the exam hall to amp myself up in claiming what is mine, a renaissance to my Saturday nights and a social life once again.

AWA and IR were no problem. For AWA I had a personalized template memorized. For IR I went pretty cold into this section but I felt it no more than a Critical Reasoning section with numbers.

Finished the Quant but probably guessed blind on at least the last 4. Midway through this section I noticed I was 10 minutes behind - I spent WAY too much time on the first 5-10 problems.

Started the Verbal section still confident. About halfway through I realized again I was trailing by 10 minutes. This one was a bit worse though, I really rushed through the second half and blind guessed maybe 5-6 towards the end, including rushing a few problems before that.

Ended the exam, waited for my 720 and was CRUSHED when I saw 590 appear on the screen.

I rode the metro home curled up in a ball shaking - what just happened???

I studied harder for this exam than any other exam in my life, 3 months of very intensive studying for a score no greater than my initial diagnostic. I have no idea what went wrong here. I think perhaps it was that I was so confident in my ability on the actual material I totally disregarded time when it came down to it. But would timing have that much of a negative effect on my score? I know I blind guessed a few, but I was confident on most problems that I did that they were correct.

My quant came out to ~44 which is still good for my usual quantitative abilities (though I've done better on practice) but my verbal tanked at the lowest I've ever had it, ever! 30.

I've rescheduled for a end of the month retake. I think I will focus less on actual concepts and more on timing. I'm aiming to do 1-2 practice exams each week and atleast 30-50 quant/verbal problems each week as well.

If I don't crack the 700 this time, my heart will be cracking instead.

Advice appreciated.

I think you hit it on the head... Monitor your time. This probably had an impact on your performance on the verbal section.

hsharif wrote: Finished the Quant but probably guessed blind on at least the last 4. Midway through this section I noticed I was 10 minutes behind - I spent WAY too much time on the first 5-10 problems.

Started the Verbal section still confident. About halfway through I realized again I was trailing by 10 minutes. This one was a bit worse though, I really rushed through the second half and blind guessed maybe 5-6 towards the end, including rushing a few problems before that.

I have no idea what went wrong here. I think perhaps it was that I was so confident in my ability on the actual material I totally disregarded time when it came down to it. But would timing have that much of a negative effect on my score? I know I blind guessed a few, but I was confident on most problems that I did that they were correct.

I've rescheduled for a end of the month retake. I think I will focus less on actual concepts and more on timing. I'm aiming to do 1-2 practice exams each week and atleast 30-50 quant/verbal problems each week as well.

Judging by the parts I bolded, you know what went wrong but you're just in denial about it. The fact that you rushed at the end of both sections yet still felt confident you cracked 700 shows that you underestimate how important timing is on the GMAT.

First of all - the quant problems are designed to be solved in two minutes without extensive calculations. If you can't figure out a good way to attack it in 30-60 seconds, you're better off conceding the problem to conserve time and move on to the next problem. This technique allows you to answer the questions you can do, as opposed to allowing time to dictate what you can do...who knows, maybe you knew how to do the last 4 problems you guessed on, but you didn't save any time to do them. Something else to consider - the only thing worse than spending 4 minutes on a problem is spending 4 minutes on it and still getting it wrong. To illustrate, during a MGMAT online class, the instructor gave us a difficult quant problem and stopped us after two minutes. Hardly anyone was finished so he said, "okay, take two more minutes to figure it out." He stopped us after four minutes and told us the answer - almost everybody got the problem wrong.

Blind guessing the end of a section is bad because it undoes all the work you did leading up to that point. You may have shown the GMAT you're answering questions at the 80%ile level through 32 questions, but if you get 4 out of the last 5 wrong, especially missing a bunch in a row, your performance falls off a cliff.

Final thought: The GMAT isn't about how many questions you get right, it's about how many questions you can get right/wrong at a difficult level. Once you realize that you aren't going to answer them all correctly, you'll be on your way to a better score.

https://www.gmathacks.com/goals/gmat-700.html

Thanks for our feedback Jim - after the initial shock of the exam I think I am realizing that timing truly was my Achilles' heel here.

Thanks for feedback BSchool2013. Perhaps you're right and I have truly underestimated the score difference timing can make in the scheme of things. There were definitely a few problems I spent probably way too much time on and perhaps got them wrong as well. Timing was never an issue for me, coincidentally, until I went into the actual exam. I have never had such a problem keeping pace, perhaps it was the pressure racking up and becoming overwhelming in the moment.

My study plan is to hit the OG Quant/Verbal review books super hard for the next 1.5 weeks - focusing on problematic areas - and then spending the next couple weeks doing MGMAT CATs to improve my timing and see what my scores comes out to be. I will also try reinstalling the GMATPrep software to see if the rumors are true and new questions start popping up. I just wish I had more GMATPrep software CATS to take.

your studying habit and the way you have prepared for GMAT have not been effective - diagnostic test 580 and exam score 590. Think for a moment, how a man who hates the running exercise may endure a long marathon? You need to stop studying for GMAT the way you have done so far. Set a clear objective for yourself. Your case is the classical one, and you may need a tutor not because you are dumb or something, but just because you need some one to slap your a** every time you will stall on the pave road towards GMAT success Sometimes we need some one else to achieve success regardless of our abilities and brightness.

Thanks for the feedback pemdas. I agree I probably have not studied in the most efficient manner as my organizational skills tend to be less than ideal.

However, I think the failure on the exam itself was due primarily to timing issues. I have been reading about guessing on the exam and getting "strings" of problems incorrect, and I believe what may have happened is at the end of both sections I got anywhere from 5-10 problems totally incorrect.

Despite the guessing my quant came into a range I am *somewhat* happy with, my verbal was dismal however.

I've rescheduled my exam for the end of the month and will be focusing extensively on timing. I think this will be the key from me to unlock the 700 as promised by my practice CATs.

You can't just focus on timing, because it's like focusing onto losing one's weight without considering anything else - sports, diet, GMAT, life style, etc.

Training assigned by expert is what you need. Every smart tutor will first look into your weakest areas and suggest you quick ways to improve on those. You yourself may boost your performance on the strongest areas. Please do not think that if you save some more time towards the end of your test this will help; you will then have to sacrifice a few problems in the middle of the test which will take you to the same percentile. Timing is not a cause, but it's the consequence of your taking the test the way you do.

p.s. I am surprised so many people are concerned and openly advise to work on timing issue

pemdas wrote:p.s. I am surprised so many people are concerned and openly advise to work on timing issue

It's called reading comprehension - the OP stated he rushed at the end of both sections. You pointed out that he had a 580 diagnostic and 590 actual exam, but failed to read the parts where he scored 680 and 720 on practice exams. Unless the timer was shut off during these practices, it looks like something just went haywire the day of the exam - which I point to timing. The GMAT is as much a test about time management as it is about content knowledge.

https://www.gmathacks.com/study-tips/how ... blems.html
https://www.gmathacks.com/study-tips/tim ... blems.html

BSchool - thanks for the follow up response, I think I tend to agree with you here.

Timing & Content knowledge are equally important as one without the other will equally wreck your score.

I ran some 15-20 problem drills this weekend focusing on SC and DS and realized for DS I missed two problems even when allotting 2 minutes per problem. My test taking strategy needs to be augmented in order to assess whether I will be able to solve the problem in the allotted time and if its worth solving.

I have a strong assumption that getting 3-5 wrong answers in a row in the final questions of each sections will destroy your score (since no one knows how the algorithm works, it's just an assumption). It tends to make sense as well.

Had I been smart in my strategy, I would have skipped every other problem - or better yet, rushed every other problem - to make up for lost time instead of stringing my losses at the end of each section.

I'm eager to retake at the end of the month cognizant of this fact and report the 700+ (hopefully!) score

Bschool2013 wrote:

pemdas wrote:p.s. I am surprised so many people are concerned and openly advise to work on timing issue

It's called reading comprehension - the OP stated he rushed at the end of both sections. You pointed out that he had a 580 diagnostic and 590 actual exam, but failed to read the parts where he scored 680 and 720 on practice exams. Unless the timer was shut off during these practices, it looks like something just went haywire the day of the exam - which I point to timing. The GMAT is as much a test about time management as it is about content knowledge.

https://www.gmathacks.com/study-tips/how ... blems.html
https://www.gmathacks.com/study-tips/tim ... blems.html

I am not going to argue, neither defend the parts of my previous post. What I meant was that if some one scored 580 at the beginning of ones' preparation and then made motion to timing issue due to the nearly same score earned in the actual exam, the ability of test taker to cope with the test content is to be examined. Timing or space of exam, or bad day, or what would be more sophisticated reason - GMAT algorithm leading to score deterioration after a few questions answered wrongly in a row, these are all the incidental factors which can, cannot or who the f**K needs to know how will be related to the actual GMAT score. A true reason behind the score will be a test taker's ability to cope with the test content.

Following a timing strategy alone won't help you get high scores. You know how the algorithm works. Timing strategy helps you keep track of time say for every 5 questions I should use only 10 mins and if I have crossed that limit, then I would skip or make an educated guess and move on to the next question - this way you are on track, but the real reason for lagging behind might be you spent too much time on number line problem [your weak area] and instead guessed on an easy number property problem [your strong area] that you could have got right if you had spent a little bit more time. So focus on finding out what you know and what you don't know.

Started the Verbal section still confident. About halfway through I realized again I was trailing by 10 minutes. This one was a bit worse though, I really rushed through the second half and blind guessed maybe 5-6 towards the end, including rushing a few problems before that.

The problem above is similar to what I mentioned earlier, you really had no idea on which topics you are good and which topics you are too weak => when to guess and when to take time and solve, you spent ample lot of time solving the problems continuously without keeping track of the time. Even if you keep track of time by employing any timing strategy, you will again end up making same number of mistakes, but those will be evenly spread and the chances are that you lose easy questions as well. By learning where you are strong and where you are weak, you spend the time in a much better way guessing those questions you cannot solve which gives best results. Timing issues cannot be solved just by changing strategies. To know where to guess and where to take time and solve, you need conceptual knowledge. Work on the areas where you can see improvement. Find out what you know and you don't know. Learn to take tests without keeping an eye on the timer. Get used to two minutes without using the timer, you should know that 2 mins have gone without looking at the timer with all the stress and thinking involved for solving the problem. Switch on the timer once you cross 30 questions to make sure you don't end up finishing the section by not answering one or two questions. By now if you had learnt the right way [know when to guess and when to take time and solve] you would be on track most of the time. If you are not, guess every other problem and not continuously, but make sure you don't have to rely on multiple guesses, one or two guesses in the last few minutes is really fine.

I'm just starting off with my preparation and learnt a lot from the insights in this post. I think i'll have to prepare really well to avoid getting into a situation like this.

@Erica - glad the post and discussion have helped, if you are interested in more feedback on study prep and taking the exam for the first time, feel free to reach out.

@Sam - I appreciate the feedback, I think you hit the nail on the head in two regards.

One, spreading errors (which will occur) uniformly throughout the exam so as to avoid the end of exam rush and subsequently a string of wrong answers (which will absolutely murder your score)

Two, developing an intuitive sense of two minutes. I recently read a MGMAT blog post by Stacy Koprince on developing an intuitive 2 minute sense, I would post it here but I can't find the article at the moment. I'm drastically paraphrasing, but it simply reinforced getting used to timing yourself doing certain problems and practicing intuitively detecting the 1 and 2 minute markets, etc.

--

I appreciate all the feedback but some of it is making me think I'm about to not only sink the ship on the second go, but it will also erupt in flames this time

Re: all the posts above: I am quite aware of my areas of weakness in both Quant and Verbal BUT when the actual exam time came, I became so nervous that if I get one wrong my score will not match my practice exam scores. This sort of nervousness made me spend way too much extra time double-checking each problem to ENSURE it was correct. That's where my greatest downfall came, I should've put my best answer forth and only double-checked time-permitting.

Here is my revised strategy for the last 3 weeks before go-time:

1) Doing drills of 15-30 problems of each problem time individually under timed conditions to understand which areas of the exam I am not necessarily weak, but SLOW on! This is important, I've realized Critical Reasoning takes me a lot of time. This could also be part of the problem I did so bad on the verbal is I squandered time on CR

2) Doing 2-4 MGMAT practice exams and redoing a GmatPREP exam. This is purely to simulate the exam conditions and force myself to comply with timing strategies.

3) Having more of a "life" than before -- for literally 2 months I was caved away in between work and GMAT prep that I had literally 0 social life. This is not healthy, it burns you out, and who knows how well your retention is with that much studying. Ron Purewal of MGMAT had an article on GMAT prep where he advised at least a day off each week for your brain to make those lateral connections. I think I'm realizing not only does time off let you ruminate on all the lessons you've learned, but also lessens the nervousness associated with the DDAY itself.

@hsharif - you might want to check these too. Hope these help !!

February 4, 2010 and August 5, 2010 of thursdays with ron videos - https://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm

Granted, it is one year later. I'm happy to say I beat the GMAT! 700 score. Thanks all! Turned out, timing was my worst enemy. Over the last couple months before retaking the exam I just did practice exam after practice exam to improve my timing and work under pressure.