I just Beat The GMAT!

I am happy to be here today able to debrief my GMAT experience and move-on in life. I have like many of you spent much of the past year reading your stories and day dreaming of the day that I would be done with the GMAT as well. I apologize if this is a little disorganized or a bit of a brain dump, but there is a lot on my mind!

I first began preparing for the GMAT about 2 years ago. Admittedly, my initial preparation was sporadic and not focused. I would go a few weeks at a time studying daily after work and a little on the weekend but then work/life would come up and I would drop it for a month or two and start over. My first piece of advice is DO NOT do this. Do not start studying until you have a fairly definitive timeline and you are ready to commit 100%. As my Manhattan Instructor taught me, the knowledge base for the GMAT is so broad that if you are not maintaining what you have learned every day your ability will slip and you will have to start over. My initial self study involved the MGMAT guides and the OG. I read each of the guides and did a few hundred OG problems. Again though, there were so many breaks in my study and lack of focus that I never really felt like I was going anywhere.

This past summer I relocated my family from living overseas and gave myself a deadline of January 2014 for being done with the GMAT (I will apply this coming fall). The countless restarts were getting old and with a baby on the way March 2014 I knew that my window of opportunity would be Nov 13- Jan 14.

I signed up for a complete course through Manhattan GMAT in Virginia and began the course in September. From the beginning I did absolutely every bit of the 12-15 hours of weekly assignments. During the first class my instructor told us to try and do shorter study sessions throughout the day/weekend instead of big blocks of studying. This is probably the best study advice that I received. From this point on my typical study routine was: Mon-Fri - 45 mins in the morning after the gym before work, 45 mins at lunch, and 45 mins at night. Sa-Sun I would study about 3-4 hours a day, but those blocks would be broken up throughout the day. Now a bit on the study routine. Clearly this dominated my life for the most part, but at the same time I found it very manageable. Every night I would be done studying by around 8:45PM leaving a little time to spend with my wife and on the weekends I would usually be free Saturday afternoons for some sort of leisure activity. Because of this, I never really felt like I resented the GMAT during my prep, and actually maintained a little bit of enjoyment of the prep.

Ok, now on the MGMAT class. The best thing about the class IMO is the study guides and the structured curriculum that the course provides. The day I took my actual GMAT I can't say that I was thinking about anything in particular that I had learned in the class, but the structure (and the cost of course) forced me to maintain my eyes on the prize and prevented me from taking the breaks that I had taken previously. The class was very good. The instructor (Pedro Ledesma) was phenomenal. Very positive, and very helpful. Initially I was terrified of the idea of a weekly 3 hour class after work and worried that I would be too burnt out by the end of the day to endure. But honestly he made it fun and enjoyable. A typical class involved a few slides teaching us fundamentals and then the rest of the class would be dedicated to problem solving. Of course the latter was the most helpful, he allowed a great amount of student involvement that kept us interested and allowed us to explain how we solved the problems before showing us the faster way. The 9 weeks flew by and I truly enjoyed the class. My only complaint about the class was sometimes my fellow students and myself would have no idea how to solve a problem and instead of him just showing us how to do it he would let us struggle before helping. Ok, if this was a college course that makes sense to do, but in a test prep class I would have preferred wasting less time on the wrong way and more time learning the right way. The class size was excellent though, I think there were only 6 of us! I absolutely and glad I took the MGMAT course and would recommend it to anyone who maybe needs a little structure in their study. If you are a self-starter and are capable of staying focused for 3-4 months then save yourself $1500 though, everything that is taught in the class (save for a little) is in the MGMAT guides.

During my study I read the assigned reading and worked all of the OG problems and the "Try Harder" OG problems as well. This is where I spent most of my weekends, working and studying these problems. By the end of my prep I had completed over 1,000 OG problems according to my OG Archer data!

Practice Tests/Tests

My practice test results were as follows:

May 19th, 2013 - pre-MGMAT course, took it cold. 630 (41Q, 35V). Definitely realized the long road ahead! Also I remember feeling like I had just run a marathon after taking the test! This feeling slowly got weaker as I continued taking full-length practice tests though as I grew adept to the length.

Oct 12th 2013 - about a month into the course. 640 (44Q, 34V). Kind of dejected because I had only improved 10 points, but at the same time I was still learning so much and not really polishing anything yet.

I took both of my first two tests w/o AWA or IR.

Nov 2nd 2013 - weekend before the class ended. 670 (41Q, 40V, 6.67IR). I completely zoned out during the quant section and didn't finish the portion. I was pretty pumped after this test though because of the verbal improvement though.

Nov 17th 2013 - first GMAC CAT. 730 (49Q, 41V, 7 IR). I was ecstatic after this test. I felt calm and collected. A small caveat here is I have read much about MGMAT CATs vs the real thing. IMO MGMAT quant portions are harder. Let me qualify that, they absolutely give you more "gut check" problems than the real test does. During my review of the aforementioned MGMAT CATs it seemed that I would get 2 or 3 easy warm up questions then it would be 700-800 level questions for the rest of the test. I did not find this to be the case on the GMAC CATs or the actual GMAT. Anyways, after taking this CAT I signed up for the GMAT the following week. I figured strike while the iron was hot!

During the week of my test I took it easy, reviewed the OG/CAT problems that I had missed using the flashcards that I had made throughout my studies (highly recommended) and just relaxed. I knew that timing would be key on the actual test. I am not going to get into that but believe what you read, timing is more important than skill in a lot of ways. The day before the test I started to feel ill because I was getting so pumped up but I told myself that even if it didn't go well I always had next month to do it again.

The test day went smooth. I showed up a little early, only one other test taker, and I got right into the AWA. The prompt was easy, I had my response in about 17 minutes leaving me time to take a quick bathroom break before IR. IR was just like the GMAC CAT. I definitely do not recommend studying IR unless you really struggle on the CAT sections. I did not even open the MGMAT study guide on it and I felt fine the day of the test. It is not hard in my opinion, most of it is covered in what you have already studied anyways.

After the quick break I dove into quant. Now as I got going I was feeling good. I remember maybe 2-3 questions out of the 37 that I skipped but the majority of the questions felt easy. I actually finished 5 minutes early. Now let's take a step back. Another important lesson. On the actual GMAT (and GMAC CATs) you do not get as many chances at questions that are out of your range. As I said on the MGMAT CATs you are beaten over and over with hard questions. On the actual GMAT you get a few, and if you miss them it seems like the test keeps you in your range. More on that later.

Anyways, finished the quant and moved onto verbal feeling very good.

The verbal section started fair but got hard quickly and never let up. At the time I was panicking but in retrospect I should have known it was because I was rocking it (unlike the quant as you will see in a minute). I finished with a minute or two to spare, and quickly clicked through the demo questions to get to my score.

My score was 710 (47Q, 41V, 7 IR, 6 AWA). I was happy. Going into this whole process my goal was 700+, but in the back of my mind I had always dreamed of a 750+ score (too much pride!).

As I reflected on my performance I realized that I had performed to my level on verbal but on quant I had made too many dumb mistakes on the questions that I thought I knew. Had I paced myself better I think this test would have replicated my GMAC CAT to the dot. More on that in a minute.

After a little week or so break I decided to go after it one more time. I told myself I would take it for the final time the week after New Years if I could replicate my CAT on one more GMAC CAT. My study this time involved rebooking some of my weak areas as evidenced by the post-course assessment through MGMAT (very helpful) and I continued doing timed sets and heavy review of questions I missed. I also continued taking MGMAT CATs.

December 7th 2013 700 (47Q, 39V). Actually pretty stoked with this as I had never done this well on quant on a MGMAT test.

December 15th 2013 710 (45Q, 41V). Same as previous. Feeling good.

During the holiday week I didn't study much but coming off of the holidays I got back to the timed sets and review and was feeling decent. I took my "decision maker" GMAC CAT on January 3rd. My rule was 730+, I will take the GMAT again. Anything less and I was going to walk and save the $250.

January 3rd 2014 - 730 (49Q, 41V). This confirmed what I already knew. My capability was missed my last attempt due to poor pacing on quant. I knew that I had to take one more swing at it. I signed up to take it the next week. Caveat, I realized that a 710 and 730 are pretty much the same score in ADCOM's eyes, but I felt like I could have a great day and potentially break the 740 barrier which I am told is the next level in some regards.

January 10th 2014 - 700 (49Q, 37V, 6 IR, 5.5 AWA). The AWA was easy again, IR a little more challenging but I didn't get worked up about it. The quant felt very good. I took my time, focused on each question, and came out of it feeling good. I was feeling a little sick this day though as I had been losing sleep over this final test and during the verbal section I began having a bit of a headache and I struggled to focus on the questions. I was not feeling positive at all. I tried my best but finished the verbal disappointed. The 700 is of course a great score again, but I didn't take 6 weeks of my time preparing to do worse on the test obviously. I left the center mad but relieved that it was all over.

Looking back I am elated that I achieved a 710 in November. The whole process would have been drawn out had that test gone poorly and I had had to really buckle down again to improve. I cannot reiterate how hard it is to maintain your peak when you have finished your prep. Striking while the iron is hot is key. I wish I had paced myself better in November as my January test clearly proved that I was capable of a 730. Oh well. With my strong UGPA from a top-5 undergrad school I know my 710 checks the block on the GMAT for my goal of a top-5 MBA.

My parting words of advice are to take as many CATs as you can. Solving difficult problems one at a time is an entirely different feat than solving 37 or 41 in a row. You need to strengthen your mind to be ready for test day. Try to enjoy your prep. Do not procrastinate once you are ready to take it. Just go for it!

I am happy to be moving past this chapter of my life. I wish I had scored to my ability but that is life, sometimes you don't perform 100% when it counts, lucky for me I did perform about 98% when it counted though.

Sorry for the rambling, but I hope some portion of this helps someone in their journey. Best of luck!