I just Beat The GMAT!

This may well be my first and last post on the forums, I have browsed these forums fairly regularly since I started my GMAT journey. I have spent most of my time on these forums being intimidated by some staggeringly high scores and confusing myself with quant problems and the elegant solutions offered up. I always found these posts motivational and I promised myself that if I ever beat the GMAT I would write one so here goes.

Background:
UK based consultant with 3 years of experience post-graduation. Targeting top US and European schools. Always found the verbal section, AWA and IR came easily to me, struggled with quant.

First attempt 680 (AWA5.5, IR8, Q38, V45):
I prepped fairly consistently for 3 months, I spent two months going back to basics and a month of practicing. I had to fit this around a job in consulting so there was only so much prep I could do. As I stated above I always found the verbal to be very straightforward, but the quant was a real challenge. I got to my test date feeling pretty comfortable, my scores in full length mocks had been good. I knew quant was my weakness but I felt I could get a satisfactory score.

My first test started well, I cruised through the AWA and IR and then the wheels came off when I started the quant, I suffered a total mind blank and complete collapse in confidence. I was devastated by my quant performance; despite a strong verbal score and a 680 overall I knew that this score was not representative of me as an MBA candidate. The first thing I did when I got home was register to take the test again in a month.

Second attempt 770 (AWA6, IR8, Q48, V48):
Having scored a solid verbal score I spent an entire month only focusing on quant, I signed up for Magoosh (great resource and much better value than classroom courses in my opinion) and worked my way through all the videos and practice questions. I felt like I was understanding the maths instead of just learning how to do the questions. I also realised that I had fallen into the formula trap on my first attempt and was desperate to know the formulae I needed instead of understanding how the test and the specific question types work. The only thing I did differently on test day was make sure I had my usual coffee in the morning (on my first attempt I avoided this). To be honest the test still felt stressful, AWA and IR were fine, the quant section felt like it was going the same way of my first test, but I pulled myself together. Not knowing how I was doing I went into the verbal determined to finish strong and max out my score using my real strength.
When my score was revealed I knew my GMAT journey was over, I was a bit disappointed not to hit 49 in Quant but my Verbal score went up without any study for a month and I would be crazy to retake!

Next steps:
Looking into target school and trying to pull together an application.

Materials:
OG (shame not updated more frequently, but an excellent resource)
Kaplan (used but found verbal too straightforward)
MGMAT (barely used)
Magoosh Premium (Quant only)- the key to my GMAT quant improvement

Scores:
GMAT Prep 1: 710
GMAT Prep 2: 700
GMAT Prep 3: 760
GMAT Prep 4: 750
GMAT 1: 680 �
GMAT 2: 770 �

Good luck everyone, if I can do it you can. If you are struggling with quant I would really recommend Magoosh, I can't comment on their verbal resources but in quant they are very strong.

This is an awesome post! Thanks for sharing your journey and congratulations on your great score. The point that stood out to me most was your realization of the "quant formula trap" that you had fallen into on your first attempt, and how you corrected this prior to your second. That flawed mindset is so common amongst test takers, and without changing it it is impossible to do extremely well on the quant. Always scrounging for a formula and hoping to "plug and chug" or memorize your way to answering difficult questions is the complete wrong approach. The toughest questions are just straight tough, and you need to have a lot of reasoning skills and street smarts to get them right. I would encourage other test takers to learn from what you wrote. A similar trap occurs for people on the sentence correction of the verbal section, a sort of "sentence correction grammar trap" if you well.

Thanks for sharing, this was really neat to read. Congratulations on owning the gmat!

Considerable improvement in quant. Awesome! Best of luck for the applications!

Congratulations for beating the GMAT in true sense. Your story is very motivational.

gnod1 wrote:This may well be my first and last post on the forums, I have browsed these forums fairly regularly since I started my GMAT journey. I have spent most of my time on these forums being intimidated by some staggeringly high scores and confusing myself with quant problems and the elegant solutions offered up. I always found these posts motivational and I promised myself that if I ever beat the GMAT I would write one so here goes.

Background:
UK based consultant with 3 years of experience post-graduation. Targeting top US and European schools. Always found the verbal section, AWA and IR came easily to me, struggled with quant.

First attempt 680 (AWA5.5, IR8, Q38, V45):
I prepped fairly consistently for 3 months, I spent two months going back to basics and a month of practicing. I had to fit this around a job in consulting so there was only so much prep I could do. As I stated above I always found the verbal to be very straightforward, but the quant was a real challenge. I got to my test date feeling pretty comfortable, my scores in full length mocks had been good. I knew quant was my weakness but I felt I could get a satisfactory score.

My first test started well, I cruised through the AWA and IR and then the wheels came off when I started the quant, I suffered a total mind blank and complete collapse in confidence. I was devastated by my quant performance; despite a strong verbal score and a 680 overall I knew that this score was not representative of me as an MBA candidate. The first thing I did when I got home was register to take the test again in a month.

Second attempt 770 (AWA6, IR8, Q48, V48):
Having scored a solid verbal score I spent an entire month only focusing on quant, I signed up for Magoosh (great resource and much better value than classroom courses in my opinion) and worked my way through all the videos and practice questions. I felt like I was understanding the maths instead of just learning how to do the questions. I also realised that I had fallen into the formula trap on my first attempt and was desperate to know the formulae I needed instead of understanding how the test and the specific question types work. The only thing I did differently on test day was make sure I had my usual coffee in the morning (on my first attempt I avoided this). To be honest the test still felt stressful, AWA and IR were fine, the quant section felt like it was going the same way of my first test, but I pulled myself together. Not knowing how I was doing I went into the verbal determined to finish strong and max out my score using my real strength.
When my score was revealed I knew my GMAT journey was over, I was a bit disappointed not to hit 49 in Quant but my Verbal score went up without any study for a month and I would be crazy to retake!

Next steps:
Looking into target school and trying to pull together an application.

Materials:
OG (shame not updated more frequently, but an excellent resource)
Kaplan (used but found verbal too straightforward)
MGMAT (barely used)
Magoosh Premium (Quant only)- the key to my GMAT quant improvement

Scores:
GMAT Prep 1: 710
GMAT Prep 2: 700
GMAT Prep 3: 760
GMAT Prep 4: 750
GMAT 1: 680 �
GMAT 2: 770 �

Good luck everyone, if I can do it you can. If you are struggling with quant I would really recommend Magoosh, I can't comment on their verbal resources but in quant they are very strong.

Oh my!! That is one helluva verbal score!! Like wow!

What kinds of things did you do to start out so high and then even improve in the verbal section? You should be very proud of your score, congratulations!

nbalow wrote:What kinds of things did you do to start out so high and then even improve in the verbal section? You should be very proud of your score, congratulations!

Thanks nbalow, I would love to be able to give you concrete things that I did to work on verbal, however, I owe my high score to being a native speaker and a very avid reader from a young age - I read quickly and am able to capture the important detail. In SC I learnt the basic rules, but otherwise went with gut feel on what sounded right to me. As for the improvement, I think it is two things 1- being more relaxed after a better quant section and 2- a good deal of luck..

Hopefully you get the luck you need too