I just Beat The GMAT!

Took the GMAT in October. First time. No Practice Exams prior. And well...

760 (V 45, Q 49), AWA 6.0, IR 8.

One book only-the Official GMAT review book from the GMAT Council.

Total Study Time: 8 hours a weekend for ~8 months. Call it a total of 300 or so hours.

Strategy: Keep doing problems till you dream of them. Then dream a bit more.

G-Day Experience: A solid but not overloaded breakfast (eggs, rice, veggies, and coffee), a can of Red Bull, and some pump-up music.

I found the Quant to be FAR tougher than the Verbal sections. Almost ran out of time on my AWA (basically scrawled a two-sentence conclusion), but the analysis I gave was apparently impressive enough to warrant a 6.0. The IR was a peculiar experience-really didn't know what I should have expected from that, even after I got my unofficial 760 after the exam.

Happy to share tips if needed or answer questions if anyone has any!

Congrats on the score! That is quite impressive.

I would never second guess you, your results speak for themselves, but I am just curious...you studied for 8 months - every weekend - but you did not want to take a practice test to see where you were in your studying? Any particular reason that you did not want to take a practice test? Many practice tests are free, including 2 official practice test from GMAC.

Perhaps if you had taken a practice test 2 months into your studying you would have found that you were ready for the exam then. I do not know you but if I had to guess I would say that you are probably pretty good at these tests. I would guess that you probably have a knack for these things.

Again congratulations on such an impressive score! Great scores in all sections!

Hello,


Can I talk to you on phone?

I gave GMAT last friday and scored 640.

Q 47 and 31 V -- I studied 200+ hours in 40 continuous days. it will help to talk with you.

Clinton

Hi David

Thanks! For me, the practice tests couldn't simulate the most important part of the exam-atmosphere. Taking the test within a test center, in the middle of a large group of concentrated people, is a completely different experience than taking it at home with a glass of tea next to the exam booklet. I still did use all the questions on the practice tests and timed myself-I just never did a full out-and-out practice test as a whole. Instead, I would do questions on the subway, in coffee shops, and on buses to force myself to zone out everything except the questions in front of me. I found this to really help my focus during the exam.

And yes, standardized testing, along with cooking, is one of the few things I seem to have a knack for in life. Still, the months of prep really helped me to explore the full range of all possible question types and formats, particularly on the grammar sections for the verbal, where reading hundreds of sentences gradually developed my ability to develop an instant 'like' or 'dislike' for how a sentence was phrased, replace it with my own, and then be able to match up choices from the answer options.

Hi Clinton

I am afraid I do not give out my phone number, but if you have any questions or any advice you would like, just post here and I will be happy to answer as best as I can.

Looking at your scores, I'd say that your primary concern would be the verbal section-and that's an area where strong basic skills such as reading comprehension and sentence structure come into focus a lot more than test-taking strategies. Reading novels and essays in your spare time, as well as dedicating times towards writing on your own (such as blogs or even opinion notes on Facebook) can really help towards improving these basic skills, which should help get you an uptick on your scores. 640 is not a bad baseline to start from-if you put the effort into improving your verbal base, something like a 680 or a bit higher can be well within your reach in four or five months.