Took it once. Not taking it again. I'm done!! And that's with me walking out and knowing I answered 3 quant questions wrong - clicked "confirm" and then was like "damn...wrong answer choice".
The key to my "success": PRACTICE...but put away the books.
The Stats:
Quant: 46
Verbal: 41
AWA: Haven't gotten it yet:
In order of when they were taken:
- Kaplan: 640 (and then I put that crap away...)
- Manhattan GMAT (Free): 650
- GMAT Prep Cat 1: 680
- Manhattan GMAT Cat 2: 690
- Manhattan GMAT Cat 2: 700
- GMAT Prep Cat 2: 700
- Actual test: 710
Get familiar with the basics using the Official Guides and the Manhattan GMAT specific target area guides. But the bulk of your studying and the most important key is practice, practice, practice. Use the GMAT Prep software to gauge your scores and your performance areas, and use the Manhattan GMAT cats to get familiar with the question types. Pay the $40 for access to Manhattan GMAT's Question Banks, and get used to seeing and answering questions online...
The week before my test here's what I did:
- Sunday-Wednesday, woke up every morning, reviewed notes (and by notes, I mean scratch paper from the previous day's CAT exam), relaxed and then took a CAT exam (every day at around 4 PM).
- Thursday: woke up, reviewed my notes, took a GMATPrep Cat Exam.
- Friday: woke up, reviewed my notes. I didn't do ANY questions or tests.
- Saturday: woke up, reviewed my notes...drove to the test center, reviewed my notes (scratch paper) and went in at 12:15 and "met my fate.
Frankly...stop looking for that "ultimate" solution that will work for everyone and start getting creative. You know what you're good at, and you know where you need to focus...figure out a way to focus on those "not so great areas" and ATTACK it.
And get strategic. For example, I realized that I was equally bad at Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning. However there are 15-16 Sentence Correction questions on each test and 12-13 Critical Reasoning. So I figured, if I can knock Sentence correction out the park, it would make up for any mistakes I made in Critical Reasoning (typically missed 3-4 per test).
You don't have to be perfect at everything, you just have to be strategic to get yourself to the point where you want to be. Don't just aim for a score - aim for a certain raw breakdown and then figure out how to get there.
The key to my "success": PRACTICE...but put away the books.
The Stats:
Quant: 46
Verbal: 41
AWA: Haven't gotten it yet:
In order of when they were taken:
- Kaplan: 640 (and then I put that crap away...)
- Manhattan GMAT (Free): 650
- GMAT Prep Cat 1: 680
- Manhattan GMAT Cat 2: 690
- Manhattan GMAT Cat 2: 700
- GMAT Prep Cat 2: 700
- Actual test: 710
Get familiar with the basics using the Official Guides and the Manhattan GMAT specific target area guides. But the bulk of your studying and the most important key is practice, practice, practice. Use the GMAT Prep software to gauge your scores and your performance areas, and use the Manhattan GMAT cats to get familiar with the question types. Pay the $40 for access to Manhattan GMAT's Question Banks, and get used to seeing and answering questions online...
The week before my test here's what I did:
- Sunday-Wednesday, woke up every morning, reviewed notes (and by notes, I mean scratch paper from the previous day's CAT exam), relaxed and then took a CAT exam (every day at around 4 PM).
- Thursday: woke up, reviewed my notes, took a GMATPrep Cat Exam.
- Friday: woke up, reviewed my notes. I didn't do ANY questions or tests.
- Saturday: woke up, reviewed my notes...drove to the test center, reviewed my notes (scratch paper) and went in at 12:15 and "met my fate.
Frankly...stop looking for that "ultimate" solution that will work for everyone and start getting creative. You know what you're good at, and you know where you need to focus...figure out a way to focus on those "not so great areas" and ATTACK it.
And get strategic. For example, I realized that I was equally bad at Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning. However there are 15-16 Sentence Correction questions on each test and 12-13 Critical Reasoning. So I figured, if I can knock Sentence correction out the park, it would make up for any mistakes I made in Critical Reasoning (typically missed 3-4 per test).
You don't have to be perfect at everything, you just have to be strategic to get yourself to the point where you want to be. Don't just aim for a score - aim for a certain raw breakdown and then figure out how to get there.
