I have been reading this site for about 2 months now without becoming a member, and I have decided it's about time I gave something back.
I hope you will forgive a 'lurker' - but in my defence I'm a lurker who's trying to turn good!
A quick overview of me:
- Australian
26
Management Consultant (not MBB, but Big 4)
Studied Law and Engineering (double degree)
How I got my 730?
Books (I'll put them in the order of how I read and studied them - I hate when they're out of order in a list)
Kaplan GMAT800: A good book, but a bad place to start. I figured I was a good student so I could start on the harder stuff. I was wrong. I had completely forgotten how to do perms and coms, long division, indices - v v basic stuff. Also the verbal stuff was beyond me at this put. I was disheartened - to start on this book was a bad idea. I went back to first principles to look at:
Princeton GMAT Verbal: A great book and this is where I should have started. I wanted to know what types of verbal questions I will be looking at in the GMAT and this told me. Recommended first place to start for verbal.
Princeton Review GMAT Manual: It stood to reason that since I like the Princeton Verbal, I would like the Review (which mainly Princeton Maths). I was wrong. Everything was all over the place. I like my study to be structured. I didn't find this to be the case with Princeton (Maths). A better place to start for maths is:
OG 12: People may be surprised to hear that I think the OG is a good place to start. But it gave me something the others didn't - scope. I now knew what I needed to study. What was in and what was out. I had stupidly thought I may have to relearn integration for the GMAT. I was wrong.
I like that the Math Review was laid out simply and concisely (from page 106 incidentally). I read through the Math Review. Then I did the Diagnostic Tests. At that point I knew my scope, and knew what out of my scope I was bad at - Perms and Coms, Stats, Rate Problems. I didn't worry about integration any more.
From then on I did all the questions. I noted what I got wrong and googled for more questions on it. These searches often led me to these forums. I would literally get a pen and notepad, Google "Rate of Work GMAT" and start doing whatever appeared. OG 12 was my starting point.
OG 11: Only did maths from this. My verbal was good enough form OG 12 and Princeton Verbal that I only needed to keep it humming along - 10 or 20 questions a day on it. Quant is where the big bucks in terms of marks are (from what I've read). So I did all the OG 11 Quant qns. Same thing - if I didn't know - I googled.
Kaplan GMAT800: now I saw the worth of this book. For those looking for an edge, you'll find it here. Maths is tough and so is Verbal. Which is good. You don't wont to be coddled and then struggle when you're in the exam because you've never seen questions so tough. You will get questions that are hard in the GMAT. Don't talk yourself out of that fact. I tried to talk myself out of it at first, and it is a stupid mistake to make.
A perfect order (for me, if I did it again) would be:
- Princeton Verbal
OG 12
OG 11 - Maths only
Kaplan GMAT800
4 - 6 CATs at the end only. If I had done an early CAT and gotten a 620, I think it would have done me more harm than good.
(BTW - AWAs - No practice. I just read through a template and memorised the generic intro and conclusion. This worked for me - it may not for you if English isn't your first language.)
Test Day
Day Before
Chucked a sickie the day before my exam. I also tried to sleep late the night before this day. Around 1 am. I knew this would tire me out so I could sleep at 9 or 10 the night before my exam - which is what I wanted.
I just relaxed as I didn't want to run a marathon before a marathon. I read To Kill a Mockingbird a little. Watched some TV. Cooked some dinner. I think all of this helped - particularly the cooking. It's hard to think of GMAT when pasta sauce is boiling over. Ate and went to bed at 10.
Day Of
Woke up early - 6 am. Annoyed at that because I wanted to sleep in until at least 8. Tried my best to doze but really couldn't. Got out of bed at 7:50.
I showered and made breakfast:
- Small amount of cereal
2 boiled eggs (white only)
A kiwifruit.
Left the house at 9 and drove to the train station. I live about 45 mins train ride from Sydney City. Realised in the car that I had forgotten my jacket but it was a 24 degree day and I thought I'd live in only a thin tshirt. Got into the city and contemplated going and buying a jacket at Giordano, but didn't like the styles there. Thought eff it - I'll live with the cold AC in the test centre.
Bought a Snickers and a water from 7-11 and then went up to the Test Centre.
Got in no issues and went through the security stuff. They said I could start early but I asked them to give me 5 minutes. I went to the bathroom and looking in the mirror and started talking and pumping myself up. "Come on mate - you got this! You OWN this! Effing nail this!"
I was too late to notice that there was someone in the cubicle probably listening to this ridiculous stuff inside. Oh well.
My breakdown
AWAs - easy. Used the template and just nailed it out. I am good at coming up with arguments on the spot (I'm an ex lawyer) so no dramas there.
Quant - Got stuck on question 1. Bad start. Took a deep breath and tried to work it out again. I did and I moved on. But it rattled me. I had taken at least 3.5 minutes. I wanted to start well. I took my time from questions 2 through 10 despite what I knew about leaving time for later. I just wanted to get 10 right in a row dammit! About at 15 I realised the questions weren't hard enough. That annoyed me, but there was little I could do. Takeaway from this - if they aren't hard, all you can do it concentrate on getting them right and making them harder. Suck it up.
Finally on about question 25 I saw a perms and coms and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a toughy perms and coms (tho not in retrospect). It took me a while to work out.
Finished with 11 seconds to spare. Took my 8 minute break.
Verbal - All pretty stock. There was a very scientific RC in there which really just annoyed me. At this point I almost didn't care about my answers because I thought I was doing so poorly. I actually admit to guessing one of the three questions on that RC. I shouldn't have done that.
Final question was an SC and a hard one with 40 seconds to spare. I'm actually not sure if I got it in on time as my mouse sort of died on me and hit No on the confirm screen instead of Yes with 3 seconds to go. Tried again and the Finished box came at the same time I hit Yes. That annoyed me, but again c'est la vie. I should have been more vigilant. Only myself to blame for that (and the mouse).
Clicked through to see my score. Thought about cancelling it, but though eff it*. Was happy to see a 730.
What would I have been disappointed with?:
< 650 - crushed
650 - 700 - annoyed
700 - 720 - "That's ok but I'm still retaking this"
720 - 750 - Pretty happy
>750 - Nice work.
Will I resit? Maybe. I think that's another topic.
What do you guys think?? Good rundown? Questions? Comments? Has the lurker redeeme himself?
*Australians swear a lot.
