Hello guys,
This is my second post on the forum. I posted once after my first try at the beginning of September when I got a 650 (Q45 V35). I decided to put everything I had in me to succeed on my second try. I had never been so motivated in my life to accomplish something and I think it paid off. This is a quick summary of my experience, I think that most of you have seen similar posts on the forum about the material used but maybe something in my post will help you.
Material used:
MGMAT -
I got all the books and spent most of my time on the Quant books and the sentence correction one that I read back to back 3 times (since sentence correction represented 80% of my mistakes in Verbal). I think it really really helped me to improve my score in verbal.
OG -
I would always find it harder to work on the MGMAT books because they are a little bit dry. Doing actual questions was more fun and it never really bothered me to work on the OG. I think I did every question on the 3 books. I tracked my result on the excel file from the forum and redid every question where I guessed or where I wasn't sure of the method.
There is not one question that I didn't do at least twice... It might seem a bit ridiculous but with practice you instantly recognize patterns and types of questions and you just know the tricks.
The practice tests:
MGMAT1 - 630
MGMAT2 - 650
MGMAT3 - 670
MGMAT4 - 700 (felt great, that's when things started to go south)
MGMAT5 - 660
MGMAT6 - 630
GMATPrep1 - 630 (few days before first real GMAT)
GMATPrep2 - 650
GMAT1 - 650
GMATPrep1 Retake - 680 (4questions I had seen on the first test and 3 on this forum (make sure you clearly identify a GMATPrep question when you post it on the forum and put a Spoiler square on the question as well)
GMATPrep2 Retake - 680
As you can see, I never had above 700 during any of my practice tests...
I think that when I decided to retake the GMAT right after my first try something switched in my mind. I was no longer pissed off by every mistake I would make on the training questions but I would welcome them as areas of improvement. I think that this is important,do not get emotional during your training; if you get less than 80% right in a session of 30 questions you should not be upset. Welcome your mistakes, understand them and work with them.
GMAT 2 - Today
Random tips:
I was really concentrated, tried my best and shook my head every time my mind would drift away. Do it, when you find yourself thinking about how great it would be to have a 750, just physically shake your head and get back in the game.
Other tip, you will only need your keyboard for the first hour. Once you are done with the essays just put your keyboard on the side and leave more room for your notepad.
Drink water, eat bananas, 'nough said.
Do not trust your feelings about the test. I got several really hard questions on the Quant part. The kind of geometry questions that drive you almost crazy. I thought that I was doing extremely well and that I was about to have a Q50. Wrong.
On the verbal part on the other hand I was surprised to see sentence correction questions that were barely underlined or that seemed easier (let me explain):
- In the OG for SC when you have a split of 2 sentences with an +ing form and 3 sentences without and you are at question 100+ you know that since the question is harder the +ing will be wrong because it would only leave 2 possibilities. Well I thought that I was smart with this trick but it seems that It could be more complicated than that since I saw a majority of questions with obvious errors on the 3 sides leaving only 2 choices, yet I had a 40 in verbal... strange. I don't know if anybody followed my reasoning.
Last point: I think that the name of the website if misleading. You should not try to fight or beat the GMAT, you should try to understand it. I would watch a clip for The Legend of Bagger Vance before going to bed. It is a good movie about golf with Will Smith - the golf player (Matt Damon) is in trouble and his caddy gives him a great advice about the game and life in general... It spoke to me, maybe it will speak to you too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdLNeOsRUaA
Understand flag as the GMAT
The quote starts at 2'55 - it will sound ridiculous to some of you but it really helped me to see things differently.
Can't see that flag as some dragon you got to slay... You got to look with soft eyes... See the place where the tides and the seasons and the turnin' of the Earth, all come together... where everything that is, becomes one.
I wish luck to every single one of you. I know that 710 is not 780 but I couldn't be happier right now.
Regards,
tarcid
This is my second post on the forum. I posted once after my first try at the beginning of September when I got a 650 (Q45 V35). I decided to put everything I had in me to succeed on my second try. I had never been so motivated in my life to accomplish something and I think it paid off. This is a quick summary of my experience, I think that most of you have seen similar posts on the forum about the material used but maybe something in my post will help you.
Material used:
MGMAT -
I got all the books and spent most of my time on the Quant books and the sentence correction one that I read back to back 3 times (since sentence correction represented 80% of my mistakes in Verbal). I think it really really helped me to improve my score in verbal.
OG -
I would always find it harder to work on the MGMAT books because they are a little bit dry. Doing actual questions was more fun and it never really bothered me to work on the OG. I think I did every question on the 3 books. I tracked my result on the excel file from the forum and redid every question where I guessed or where I wasn't sure of the method.
There is not one question that I didn't do at least twice... It might seem a bit ridiculous but with practice you instantly recognize patterns and types of questions and you just know the tricks.
The practice tests:
MGMAT1 - 630
MGMAT2 - 650
MGMAT3 - 670
MGMAT4 - 700 (felt great, that's when things started to go south)
MGMAT5 - 660
MGMAT6 - 630
GMATPrep1 - 630 (few days before first real GMAT)
GMATPrep2 - 650
GMAT1 - 650
GMATPrep1 Retake - 680 (4questions I had seen on the first test and 3 on this forum (make sure you clearly identify a GMATPrep question when you post it on the forum and put a Spoiler square on the question as well)
GMATPrep2 Retake - 680
As you can see, I never had above 700 during any of my practice tests...
I think that when I decided to retake the GMAT right after my first try something switched in my mind. I was no longer pissed off by every mistake I would make on the training questions but I would welcome them as areas of improvement. I think that this is important,do not get emotional during your training; if you get less than 80% right in a session of 30 questions you should not be upset. Welcome your mistakes, understand them and work with them.
GMAT 2 - Today
Random tips:
I was really concentrated, tried my best and shook my head every time my mind would drift away. Do it, when you find yourself thinking about how great it would be to have a 750, just physically shake your head and get back in the game.
Other tip, you will only need your keyboard for the first hour. Once you are done with the essays just put your keyboard on the side and leave more room for your notepad.
Drink water, eat bananas, 'nough said.
Do not trust your feelings about the test. I got several really hard questions on the Quant part. The kind of geometry questions that drive you almost crazy. I thought that I was doing extremely well and that I was about to have a Q50. Wrong.
On the verbal part on the other hand I was surprised to see sentence correction questions that were barely underlined or that seemed easier (let me explain):
- In the OG for SC when you have a split of 2 sentences with an +ing form and 3 sentences without and you are at question 100+ you know that since the question is harder the +ing will be wrong because it would only leave 2 possibilities. Well I thought that I was smart with this trick but it seems that It could be more complicated than that since I saw a majority of questions with obvious errors on the 3 sides leaving only 2 choices, yet I had a 40 in verbal... strange. I don't know if anybody followed my reasoning.
Last point: I think that the name of the website if misleading. You should not try to fight or beat the GMAT, you should try to understand it. I would watch a clip for The Legend of Bagger Vance before going to bed. It is a good movie about golf with Will Smith - the golf player (Matt Damon) is in trouble and his caddy gives him a great advice about the game and life in general... It spoke to me, maybe it will speak to you too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdLNeOsRUaA
Understand flag as the GMAT
The quote starts at 2'55 - it will sound ridiculous to some of you but it really helped me to see things differently.
Can't see that flag as some dragon you got to slay... You got to look with soft eyes... See the place where the tides and the seasons and the turnin' of the Earth, all come together... where everything that is, becomes one.
I wish luck to every single one of you. I know that 710 is not 780 but I couldn't be happier right now.
Regards,
tarcid
