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Takeaway from taking the GMAT cold w/o much studying

Find out how Beat The GMAT members tackled GMAT test prep with positive results. Get tips on GMAT test prep materials, online courses, study tips, and more.
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by NeinWunOne » Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:34 am
Originally planned to do a 2-3 month intensive study, but had to tend to a family emergency that resulted in round the clock caretaking. Unfortunately, the time constraints prevented me from doing a disciplined study. As the test date loomed closer, I decided to take it anyway, even if it meant taking it cold with practically no studying.

That being said, the only preparation I did was take the two free practice exams from mba.com and browsing the official 12th edition GMAT book to get familiarized with the material and format. I scored 630 and 650 on the practice exams.

Verbal: 35
Quantitative: 48
AWA: 6.0
Overall: 680

I'm fairly pleased with the score considering I wasn't able to prepare much. Because I came in to the exam with almost no expectation or a hard target, I was pretty chill the whole time. That did not mean I was carefree about the exam. I took it seriously, but I didn't fret over questions that took too long, and didn't think twice about guessing when it looked like it was going to be a pain in the ass to answer. There were some questions I knew I could answer, given enough time, but I just guessed and moved on in the interest of time.

I'm considering retaking it, but I wanted to share my take on it from not stressing out over it.
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by jaskaran » Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:23 pm
phenomenal achievement, without much studying, do share what strategies you used in your prep and during the exam.
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by NeinWunOne » Tue Aug 24, 2010 5:23 pm
Little can be said about preparation since I did almost none outside of taking it cold on the practice tests.

During the exam though, it's REALLY important you are well-rested. For me, I'm not a morning guy, and I start to get sluggish late afternoon, so I scheduled the exam at 1 p.m.

Keep your eye on the clock and do not get hung up on any problems.

If you pace yourself correctly, you should end up with 3-5 minutes of spare time. If you see yourself staring at the last question with 15 minutes left on the clock, you're either really good or you're going too fast.
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by ashish2104 » Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:18 am
Must acknowledge your talent to score a 680 w/o much effort. Many here struggle to see that score, yet you have easily reached it. You do seem like a 700+ person, albeit more effort.

I would like to know how did you find verbal questions, specially CR. I am hearing from recent test-takers that it is pretty tricky. How did you find it?

Also, the most important question, any resemblance to OG - verbal? (in terms of argument or sentence construction)

Thanks in advance.
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by NeinWunOne » Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:56 pm
Sentence correction was by far the toughest area for me, but this is mostly attributed to my lack of practice.

Critical reasoning, on the other hand, was pretty straightforward for me. I used to be a test engineer in a legal services company. Critical thinking is second nature for seasoned testers. I used to be very involved in high school and colegiate debate so that helps.

The big 'trick' about CR is that they give you answers that sound right, or they try to play to your emotions on justice, fairness, etc. Basically themes you're familiar with, and then hide bad answers behind those misleading themes.

A big way to conquer each CR question is think extremely objectively, and park your emotions and personal opinions at the door. The official guide is a pretty good representation from what i saw of the real thing in terms of structure, difficulty, and complexity. I've noticed that the GMAT likes to use straw man arguments to mask incorrect answers.
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