-
mba4me2009
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 4:31 pm
After 3 year journey to break the 700 barrier on the GMAT, I am finally done. I realize that 710 is not the best score in the world, but I know there are people on this forum that have taken the test multiple times and my hope is to provide some encouragement to those who struggled with the test like I did. Here are my test scores.
2008 - 680 (M-47 / V-37)
2009 - 640 (M-44 / V-35)
2010 - 710 (M-47 / V-40)
Based on my experience, I feel that there is some bad advice floating in this forum. Everyone studies / learns differently and what might work for some individuals, might not work for others. My advice is to not follow the herd mentality and do what works for you. After failing to break the 700 barrier in 2008, I looked at a lot of the advice on this forum and created a new study strategy for 2009. Despite feeling prepared for the exam, you can see that my 2nd take of the test was my worst score (640). I was pretty devastated and upset. This year, I decided to go back to the same strategies I had used in 2008 and was able to break 700.
This is a summary of some the advice that I don't necessarily agree with
"You can get a +700 score by using only OG problems"
For me, I needed to use other sources to improve my score. The OG problems were generally too easy and not reflective of the more difficult questions you encounter on the exam. For awhile, I spent months completing both the 10th and 11th edition OG guides back to back and saw no increase in my practice CATS. The fact is that OG guides are tailored to a general audience and there are only a limited number of +700 level questions to practice with. At the end of the day, it was not until I started focusing on MGMAT materials (CATs, practice banks, etc.) and taking apart the GMATPrep exam (I took it a least 40 times probably) that I finally saw an increase in my CAT scores.
"You shouldn't study more than 2 hours at a time and don't kill yourself. The week before the exam, take it easy."
Who gives this advice? People that are smart and don't need to study this much for the GMAT. During my 2009 take of the exam, I studied 2-3 hours per day and decreased my studying the week before my exam. I was well rested and spent most of the time reviewing notes / reviewing problems I had missed. The result? This produced my worst score. My first and last take, I was studying up to 4 hours a day and even took the week off before my exam so I could study +6 hours a day. At the end of the day, I needed this volume of frequency to stay sharp for the exam and prevent concepts from falling out of my brain leading into the test. It's true that you can't cram for the GMAT, but cramming doesn't hurt either.
"It is better to do fewer problems and understand them thoroughly than to do a ton of problems."
During my 2009 take, I concentrated only on OG problems and reviewed problems several times to make sure I understood the concepts being tested. To further make sure I understood the concepts, I created flashcards and even practiced creating new problems on my own. None of this worked. In the end, I learned through brute force - crunching through hundreds of problems the months before my exam. Some people can learn concepts by just doing one problem, but others need to learn through practice, practice, practice of applying concepts to problems in repetition.
Other takeaways....
Stay away from Kaplan
Kaplan materials are terrible. I wasted $1,400 taking their Advanced online course twice. Their CATs are inaccurate and not representative of the actual exam in my opinion. I score 720, 760, 710 on 3 Kaplan CATs and scored at 680 on the actual GMAT exam. Kaplan's math is waaaay too easy (I was scoring +90 percentile Kaplan math section) and the verbal is not even representative of what OG questions are like (RC is too hard, CR makes no sense). To further drive home my point, I took a Kaplan CAT a couple days before my most recent test and got a 660 on the Kaplan test, yet I scored 710 on the actual exam. Makes no sense. Finally, Kaplan customer service is just terrible. I reached out to Kaplan this year to do private tutoring by filling out their online form and never received a call back. I ended up calling customer service myself and they gave me the contact info for a representative in their local office. I reached out to representative 3 times and never got a reply. Private tutoring is their most profitable product and I am shocked that this is how they treat potential customers. Meanwhile, MGMAT responded back to me in 48 hours.
Private Tutoring - mixed feelings
Over the past 3 years I have worked with 3 different tutors from Manhattan GMAT. I liked one of them and was not particularly impressed with the other two. In my opinion, tutors are great for people that need someone to keep them accountable to a study schedule. They are also helpful if you are still you need extra help understanding a particular concept. If you are the type of person that is disciplined about studying, I think you can produce the same results in self-study and reading explanations on your own. What tutors are not good for (or at least I wasn't able to find one) are helping identify weaknesses. I always felt like I had to help set the agenda and come to the table with questions. Basically, tutors are good at answering questions but did not always seem invested in my improvement. Others may have had different experiences, but it's hard for me to recommend others to try it.
GMATPrep and MGMAT are the best materials.
I really feel like MGMAT's CATs and online quiz banks were critical to my success on the GMAT. Reviewing more advanced problems helped me apply concepts I had learned and was a good supplement to the OG guides. The GMATPrep software is also really good and I ended up doing most of the problems in the software by taking the test multiple times (even if I saw repeats). I took screenshots of questions I got wrong (based on performance so it was adapted) and reviewed questions that were at my skill level. The downside is that GMATPrep is also the most accurate predictor of your performance, so often times people save it until right before the exam. It's a cost/trade off that you need to decide on. Don't waste your money buying the GMAC Paper Tests. The questions are way too easy and there are tons of repeats with the OG guides.
2008 - 680 (M-47 / V-37)
2009 - 640 (M-44 / V-35)
2010 - 710 (M-47 / V-40)
Based on my experience, I feel that there is some bad advice floating in this forum. Everyone studies / learns differently and what might work for some individuals, might not work for others. My advice is to not follow the herd mentality and do what works for you. After failing to break the 700 barrier in 2008, I looked at a lot of the advice on this forum and created a new study strategy for 2009. Despite feeling prepared for the exam, you can see that my 2nd take of the test was my worst score (640). I was pretty devastated and upset. This year, I decided to go back to the same strategies I had used in 2008 and was able to break 700.
This is a summary of some the advice that I don't necessarily agree with
"You can get a +700 score by using only OG problems"
For me, I needed to use other sources to improve my score. The OG problems were generally too easy and not reflective of the more difficult questions you encounter on the exam. For awhile, I spent months completing both the 10th and 11th edition OG guides back to back and saw no increase in my practice CATS. The fact is that OG guides are tailored to a general audience and there are only a limited number of +700 level questions to practice with. At the end of the day, it was not until I started focusing on MGMAT materials (CATs, practice banks, etc.) and taking apart the GMATPrep exam (I took it a least 40 times probably) that I finally saw an increase in my CAT scores.
"You shouldn't study more than 2 hours at a time and don't kill yourself. The week before the exam, take it easy."
Who gives this advice? People that are smart and don't need to study this much for the GMAT. During my 2009 take of the exam, I studied 2-3 hours per day and decreased my studying the week before my exam. I was well rested and spent most of the time reviewing notes / reviewing problems I had missed. The result? This produced my worst score. My first and last take, I was studying up to 4 hours a day and even took the week off before my exam so I could study +6 hours a day. At the end of the day, I needed this volume of frequency to stay sharp for the exam and prevent concepts from falling out of my brain leading into the test. It's true that you can't cram for the GMAT, but cramming doesn't hurt either.
"It is better to do fewer problems and understand them thoroughly than to do a ton of problems."
During my 2009 take, I concentrated only on OG problems and reviewed problems several times to make sure I understood the concepts being tested. To further make sure I understood the concepts, I created flashcards and even practiced creating new problems on my own. None of this worked. In the end, I learned through brute force - crunching through hundreds of problems the months before my exam. Some people can learn concepts by just doing one problem, but others need to learn through practice, practice, practice of applying concepts to problems in repetition.
Other takeaways....
Stay away from Kaplan
Kaplan materials are terrible. I wasted $1,400 taking their Advanced online course twice. Their CATs are inaccurate and not representative of the actual exam in my opinion. I score 720, 760, 710 on 3 Kaplan CATs and scored at 680 on the actual GMAT exam. Kaplan's math is waaaay too easy (I was scoring +90 percentile Kaplan math section) and the verbal is not even representative of what OG questions are like (RC is too hard, CR makes no sense). To further drive home my point, I took a Kaplan CAT a couple days before my most recent test and got a 660 on the Kaplan test, yet I scored 710 on the actual exam. Makes no sense. Finally, Kaplan customer service is just terrible. I reached out to Kaplan this year to do private tutoring by filling out their online form and never received a call back. I ended up calling customer service myself and they gave me the contact info for a representative in their local office. I reached out to representative 3 times and never got a reply. Private tutoring is their most profitable product and I am shocked that this is how they treat potential customers. Meanwhile, MGMAT responded back to me in 48 hours.
Private Tutoring - mixed feelings
Over the past 3 years I have worked with 3 different tutors from Manhattan GMAT. I liked one of them and was not particularly impressed with the other two. In my opinion, tutors are great for people that need someone to keep them accountable to a study schedule. They are also helpful if you are still you need extra help understanding a particular concept. If you are the type of person that is disciplined about studying, I think you can produce the same results in self-study and reading explanations on your own. What tutors are not good for (or at least I wasn't able to find one) are helping identify weaknesses. I always felt like I had to help set the agenda and come to the table with questions. Basically, tutors are good at answering questions but did not always seem invested in my improvement. Others may have had different experiences, but it's hard for me to recommend others to try it.
GMATPrep and MGMAT are the best materials.
I really feel like MGMAT's CATs and online quiz banks were critical to my success on the GMAT. Reviewing more advanced problems helped me apply concepts I had learned and was a good supplement to the OG guides. The GMATPrep software is also really good and I ended up doing most of the problems in the software by taking the test multiple times (even if I saw repeats). I took screenshots of questions I got wrong (based on performance so it was adapted) and reviewed questions that were at my skill level. The downside is that GMATPrep is also the most accurate predictor of your performance, so often times people save it until right before the exam. It's a cost/trade off that you need to decide on. Don't waste your money buying the GMAC Paper Tests. The questions are way too easy and there are tons of repeats with the OG guides.
