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gmatwhiz902
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I'm happy to say I took the GMAT today and scored a 750. I was shooting for a 730+ so I am very pleased with my results, but I won't say I didn't work hard for it.
I just wanted to share some pointers on what I think worked and what I think didn't work for those who are in the process of studying. First, a little background on my prep:
Background
25 y/o male, native english speaker. I technically started studying for the GMAT in 2013, when I made it all the way through the problems in OG13 and scored a 750 on GMAT Prep1, but stopped studying shortly thereafter after being deployed on an international consulting engagement. I will say I benefited from the knowledge that quant was my (relative) point of weakness and that I had the potential to achieve a high score prior to commencing my studies this year.
Study Materials
This time around, I knew that to get the score I wanted (730+), I would have to seriously hone my quant skills included a full review of content. Therefore, I decided to go with Manhattan GMAT prep material as I heard they were notoriously difficult in quant. I always believe in practicing with material that is more difficult than the real thing. Since I was already strong in verbal, I decided to skip CR and RC and focus only on SC.
Therefore, my materials consisted of the following:
Manhattan GMAT
- Foundations of GMAT Quant
- 5 Quant Guides (FDC, NP, Geometry, WP, Algebra)
OG
- OG13
- OG Verbal and Quant Review
Practice Tests
- MGMAT - I took 5 of these
- GMAT Prep - I took 3 (2, 3 and 4 - didn't retake 1 since I took in 2013 and feared it skewed high)
Study Plan
I gave myself a full 12 weeks to get through all of the material, taking a full-length practice test every other week until week 8 when I took 1/week. The weekend before the test I took 2 practice tests, 1 saturday and 1 sunday. I worked through an average of 1 MGMAT book/week until week 7, when I wasn't satisfied with my practice test scores (thanks MGMAT!!), and realized I needed to pick up the pace and practice problems outside of what was in the MGMAT books. That's when I started working in OG problems.
I also made 200 - 300 flashcards throughout the process on key concepts and mistakes I made or was prone to making in both quant and sentence correction. I reviewed these on a weekly basis and they definitely helped keep things fresh in my mind. I don't have a great memory and didn't want the work I put in 10 weeks ago to be forgotten completely. I also took detailed notes on each chapter in MGMAT and reviewed these notes all the way through twice during the 12 weeks.
On average, I devoted 1 - 1.5 hours each weekdays, skipping one a week, and 5 - 7 hours each day on the weekends. It was a big sacrifice of ~20 hours/week or 200+ hours total, but I'm happy I made it.
My plan was as follows (w/ commentary):
Week 1: Foundations of Quant - this was a waste of a week. I would only recommend if you are extremely rusty, this stuff is extremely basic and I could have foregone it.
Week 2: FDC
MGMAT CAT1: 630 (Q37,V38) - I was totally thrown off by the difficulty of the quant questions and spent well over 3 minutes on 5-7 questions. I couldn't believe it was possible to regress from a 750 in 2013, even if it was a fluke, to a 630. I concluded MGMAT was much harder than the real thing, but decided to stick with it for this very reason. If there were people scoring 700+ on MGMAT practice tests, I would have to get there myself to score better than them on the real thing. In the end, I'm glad I got this score b/c it helped motivate me to work harder.
Week 3: Algebra
Week 4: Word Problems - Major learnings here, especially around rates and overlapping set problems
MGMAT CAT 2: 650 (Q42, V37) - definitely the improvement I wanted to see in quant, but I also knew what to expect in an MGMAT test this time around, and to skip a problem if I couldn't solve it in 2 minutes
Week 5: Geometry
Week 6: Number Properties - Learned the most here out of any of the books, there are just too many tricky questions on prime factorization and odds/evens, positives/negatives not to spend a good chunk of time on this stuff
MGMAT CAT 3: 640 (Q42, V36) - This is when I realized that even if I was underscoring MGMAT, it wasn't by 100 points and I needed to pick it up! I wasn't too concerned with verbal and I knew I'd get to it eventually.
Week 7: Number Properties/Advanced Quantl OG QR Problems
Week 8: Advanced Quant; OG QR Problems
GMAT Prep 2: 720 (Q48, V41) - OK, feeling a little better. Test was MUCH easier than MGMAT so not sure how much of this is improvement vs. change in test type, but I'll take it.
Week 9: Sentence Correction; OG QR Problems
MGMAT CAT 4 - 670 (Q44, V37) - Great, I've definitely improved in quant, what's going on in verbal?
Week 10: Sentence Correction; OG QR Problems
GMAT Prep 3: 760 (Q48, V46) - There we go! Almost where I want to be in quant, looks like I'm good to go with verbal (I got 3 questions wrong). MGMAT verbal questions are clearly more difficult as well.
Week 11: OG13 and OG Verbal Problems
GMAT Prep 4: 750 (Q49, V44) - I'm now totally convinced I can score in the 730 - 760 range with a Q48-49 and a V42-46, wish I could have taken the test this weekend
MGMAT 5: 730 (Q45, V44) - Huge improvement. Most of this was just me having learned how to take the MGMAT tests and their absurd quant questions, but I also knew I had improved a lot in SC and this was a huge confidence booster. Since I scored a 730 on MGMAT, I knew I could score AT LEAST a 730 on the real thing.
Week 12: OG13 Problems - try my best not to lose momentum
Major Takeaways
My key takeaways from the whole process were as follows.
1. MGMAT is great for quant, but DON'T RELY ON THEIR PRACTICE TESTS AS AN ACCURATE GAUGE OF YOUR SCORE. MGMAT tests are a great way to get used to a simulated test environment, but they are a different animal than the actual GMAT. With quant, you will consistently receive 37 700-800 level questions with intensive calculations that no human being can answer more than 25 of correctly within 75 minutes. Their verbal questions are OK, especially SC, but the logic used in the RC and SC questions is a bit different than that on the GMAT and their RC passages can be over the top technical.
2. Don't underestimate strategy - it will make or break you on test day Around 8 weeks in, I started figuring out what worked and what didn't on my practice tests. By reading several articles on this and other sites, I realized the first 10 and the last 10 questions have a disproportionate impact on your score and it is in your best interest to allocate more time to these. Therefore, my timing strategy was to give myself AT LEAST 20 minutes for the first 10 questions and the last 10 questions in each section. The only two times I really held myself to a time goal were finishing the first 10 questions by 55:00 and making sure I had at least 20:00 on the clock before I got to the last 10 questions.
The second major prong to my approach was not to waste too much energy on the AWA and IR sections. Why do you ask? Based on the research I did and some common sense, these sections are clearly not weighted as heavily by admissions committees as Quant and Verbal since they are a less objective way of comparing candidates and are not reported in rankings. Clearly this did not mean I could skip these sections all together, but I knew that as long as I was competent, I would be fine. It wasn't worth wasting the brainpower on a hard IR question when I could save it for quant. That extra point on IR isn't worth even close to as much as the extra point on Quant or Verbal. If you know you can write a decent essay and are scoring fine on the GMAT Prep IR without trying too hard, I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING THIS STRATEGY AS IT WILL CONSERVE VALUABLE ENERGY FOR THE IMPORTANT SECTIONS.
On the real thing I got a 6 on IR (68th percentile) and anticipate I will get a 4 - 6 on the essay. Both are fine and will not raise eyebrows, and allowed me to conserve energy.
3. GMAT Prep Tests are CLEARLY the most accurate indicator of actual performance and as close as it gets to the real thing Quite frankly, I don't even understand how this is a debate. Although I didn't take Kaplan or Princeton review, the GMATPrep tests are EXACTLY like the real test, from the types of problems, to the actual user interface. My experience on test day was indistinguishable from the GMATPrep practice tests I took and I would be shocked if your score on the real thing deviated significantly from these tests if you are scoring in a consistent range on GMAT Prep.
In Conclusion
I would like to thank Rich and everyone else on the forum who answered any of the question I may have posted. Best of luck to everyone still studying and please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Some helpful articles that helped me in my prep:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6- ... 64327.html
https://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/ ... erence.cfm
https://www.beatthegmat.com/770-50-q-46- ... 40093.html
I just wanted to share some pointers on what I think worked and what I think didn't work for those who are in the process of studying. First, a little background on my prep:
Background
25 y/o male, native english speaker. I technically started studying for the GMAT in 2013, when I made it all the way through the problems in OG13 and scored a 750 on GMAT Prep1, but stopped studying shortly thereafter after being deployed on an international consulting engagement. I will say I benefited from the knowledge that quant was my (relative) point of weakness and that I had the potential to achieve a high score prior to commencing my studies this year.
Study Materials
This time around, I knew that to get the score I wanted (730+), I would have to seriously hone my quant skills included a full review of content. Therefore, I decided to go with Manhattan GMAT prep material as I heard they were notoriously difficult in quant. I always believe in practicing with material that is more difficult than the real thing. Since I was already strong in verbal, I decided to skip CR and RC and focus only on SC.
Therefore, my materials consisted of the following:
Manhattan GMAT
- Foundations of GMAT Quant
- 5 Quant Guides (FDC, NP, Geometry, WP, Algebra)
OG
- OG13
- OG Verbal and Quant Review
Practice Tests
- MGMAT - I took 5 of these
- GMAT Prep - I took 3 (2, 3 and 4 - didn't retake 1 since I took in 2013 and feared it skewed high)
Study Plan
I gave myself a full 12 weeks to get through all of the material, taking a full-length practice test every other week until week 8 when I took 1/week. The weekend before the test I took 2 practice tests, 1 saturday and 1 sunday. I worked through an average of 1 MGMAT book/week until week 7, when I wasn't satisfied with my practice test scores (thanks MGMAT!!), and realized I needed to pick up the pace and practice problems outside of what was in the MGMAT books. That's when I started working in OG problems.
I also made 200 - 300 flashcards throughout the process on key concepts and mistakes I made or was prone to making in both quant and sentence correction. I reviewed these on a weekly basis and they definitely helped keep things fresh in my mind. I don't have a great memory and didn't want the work I put in 10 weeks ago to be forgotten completely. I also took detailed notes on each chapter in MGMAT and reviewed these notes all the way through twice during the 12 weeks.
On average, I devoted 1 - 1.5 hours each weekdays, skipping one a week, and 5 - 7 hours each day on the weekends. It was a big sacrifice of ~20 hours/week or 200+ hours total, but I'm happy I made it.
My plan was as follows (w/ commentary):
Week 1: Foundations of Quant - this was a waste of a week. I would only recommend if you are extremely rusty, this stuff is extremely basic and I could have foregone it.
Week 2: FDC
MGMAT CAT1: 630 (Q37,V38) - I was totally thrown off by the difficulty of the quant questions and spent well over 3 minutes on 5-7 questions. I couldn't believe it was possible to regress from a 750 in 2013, even if it was a fluke, to a 630. I concluded MGMAT was much harder than the real thing, but decided to stick with it for this very reason. If there were people scoring 700+ on MGMAT practice tests, I would have to get there myself to score better than them on the real thing. In the end, I'm glad I got this score b/c it helped motivate me to work harder.
Week 3: Algebra
Week 4: Word Problems - Major learnings here, especially around rates and overlapping set problems
MGMAT CAT 2: 650 (Q42, V37) - definitely the improvement I wanted to see in quant, but I also knew what to expect in an MGMAT test this time around, and to skip a problem if I couldn't solve it in 2 minutes
Week 5: Geometry
Week 6: Number Properties - Learned the most here out of any of the books, there are just too many tricky questions on prime factorization and odds/evens, positives/negatives not to spend a good chunk of time on this stuff
MGMAT CAT 3: 640 (Q42, V36) - This is when I realized that even if I was underscoring MGMAT, it wasn't by 100 points and I needed to pick it up! I wasn't too concerned with verbal and I knew I'd get to it eventually.
Week 7: Number Properties/Advanced Quantl OG QR Problems
Week 8: Advanced Quant; OG QR Problems
GMAT Prep 2: 720 (Q48, V41) - OK, feeling a little better. Test was MUCH easier than MGMAT so not sure how much of this is improvement vs. change in test type, but I'll take it.
Week 9: Sentence Correction; OG QR Problems
MGMAT CAT 4 - 670 (Q44, V37) - Great, I've definitely improved in quant, what's going on in verbal?
Week 10: Sentence Correction; OG QR Problems
GMAT Prep 3: 760 (Q48, V46) - There we go! Almost where I want to be in quant, looks like I'm good to go with verbal (I got 3 questions wrong). MGMAT verbal questions are clearly more difficult as well.
Week 11: OG13 and OG Verbal Problems
GMAT Prep 4: 750 (Q49, V44) - I'm now totally convinced I can score in the 730 - 760 range with a Q48-49 and a V42-46, wish I could have taken the test this weekend
MGMAT 5: 730 (Q45, V44) - Huge improvement. Most of this was just me having learned how to take the MGMAT tests and their absurd quant questions, but I also knew I had improved a lot in SC and this was a huge confidence booster. Since I scored a 730 on MGMAT, I knew I could score AT LEAST a 730 on the real thing.
Week 12: OG13 Problems - try my best not to lose momentum
Major Takeaways
My key takeaways from the whole process were as follows.
1. MGMAT is great for quant, but DON'T RELY ON THEIR PRACTICE TESTS AS AN ACCURATE GAUGE OF YOUR SCORE. MGMAT tests are a great way to get used to a simulated test environment, but they are a different animal than the actual GMAT. With quant, you will consistently receive 37 700-800 level questions with intensive calculations that no human being can answer more than 25 of correctly within 75 minutes. Their verbal questions are OK, especially SC, but the logic used in the RC and SC questions is a bit different than that on the GMAT and their RC passages can be over the top technical.
2. Don't underestimate strategy - it will make or break you on test day Around 8 weeks in, I started figuring out what worked and what didn't on my practice tests. By reading several articles on this and other sites, I realized the first 10 and the last 10 questions have a disproportionate impact on your score and it is in your best interest to allocate more time to these. Therefore, my timing strategy was to give myself AT LEAST 20 minutes for the first 10 questions and the last 10 questions in each section. The only two times I really held myself to a time goal were finishing the first 10 questions by 55:00 and making sure I had at least 20:00 on the clock before I got to the last 10 questions.
The second major prong to my approach was not to waste too much energy on the AWA and IR sections. Why do you ask? Based on the research I did and some common sense, these sections are clearly not weighted as heavily by admissions committees as Quant and Verbal since they are a less objective way of comparing candidates and are not reported in rankings. Clearly this did not mean I could skip these sections all together, but I knew that as long as I was competent, I would be fine. It wasn't worth wasting the brainpower on a hard IR question when I could save it for quant. That extra point on IR isn't worth even close to as much as the extra point on Quant or Verbal. If you know you can write a decent essay and are scoring fine on the GMAT Prep IR without trying too hard, I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING THIS STRATEGY AS IT WILL CONSERVE VALUABLE ENERGY FOR THE IMPORTANT SECTIONS.
On the real thing I got a 6 on IR (68th percentile) and anticipate I will get a 4 - 6 on the essay. Both are fine and will not raise eyebrows, and allowed me to conserve energy.
3. GMAT Prep Tests are CLEARLY the most accurate indicator of actual performance and as close as it gets to the real thing Quite frankly, I don't even understand how this is a debate. Although I didn't take Kaplan or Princeton review, the GMATPrep tests are EXACTLY like the real test, from the types of problems, to the actual user interface. My experience on test day was indistinguishable from the GMATPrep practice tests I took and I would be shocked if your score on the real thing deviated significantly from these tests if you are scoring in a consistent range on GMAT Prep.
In Conclusion
I would like to thank Rich and everyone else on the forum who answered any of the question I may have posted. Best of luck to everyone still studying and please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Some helpful articles that helped me in my prep:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6- ... 64327.html
https://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/ ... erence.cfm
https://www.beatthegmat.com/770-50-q-46- ... 40093.html
