-
jeffignacio
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:37 am
- Thanked: 1 times
- GMAT Score:730
I just took the GMAT today and feel very relieved that it is over. The score in the subject line (730, Q48, V41) is what I ended up with. I think I am more happy that it is over with more than the score (but don't get me wrong I am very happy with the score!)
I hope anyone reading this finds this useful.
I took the GMAT for the first time mid July and received a 660 (Q49, V31).
Prep For First Test
I signed up for the Veritas Prep course and attended all but one of my classes. I was diligent with my homework and made sure I always did it. I noticed my splits for SC was 6-7/10, RC 8-10, CR 7/10. For quant I always seemed to do well. I think I have always been a quant kind of guy though. When test day arrived I put alot of effort into the essays. I took my break, ate a banana and had half a Rockstar energy drink. When I got to the quant section I was behind from question 10 and on. Added to the fact that I had to use the restroom very badly, I was in a tight spot. I saw tons of DS and one or two permutation/combinatoric problems (I'm sure I got these wrong). By the time I had 15 minutes left, I had 15 problems left! I started sweating, took off my coat, and determined that I would finish! When I got to the verbal I was basically breezing through these questions. My guess is that I botched the first 10 or so and basically had low 30 level verbal questions I was used to blowing by in my practice sessions. I clicked the report score button and there was my score: 660 (Q49, V31).
What I took away? Whenever I thought the math was extremely difficult, I was probably in a good place. If I saw alot of DS with variable questions, I was in a good place. If I saw a combinatorics problem, then I knew I was in the high 40s. As for verbal, I am definitely committing mistakes at a fundamental level and would need to elevate my game.
Prep for Test 2
The second I got back to my house from test 1, I immediately signed up for another exam 4 weeks later. I looked up debriefs up and down this forum and finally came upon Ursula's debrief and how she created a grid. I basically created one myself and went through OG11 via 40 problem sets a night. By the end of my studying my stats were as follows:
Quant (which I barely touched DS)
Problem Solving (1-210): 14 Incorrect
Data Sufficiency (1-80): 5 Incorrect
Verbal (I spent most of it on CR and SC)
RC (1-60): 10 incorrect
CR (1-120): 23 incorrect
SC (1-130): 19 incorrect
I went into the test day feeling pretty confident. My test time was at 2 PM instead of the 8 AM on my first test day. I went through essays one more time with a good amount of effort (less than my first time). On the quant I saw a slew of DS questions right in the middle of my exam. I thought I was in good shape because of the difficulty level I was seeing. Around the turn at the 30 question mark I started running behind on time again. This time I had 5 questions left with 5 minutes left. I probably got 3, maybe 4 of those wrong. Probably killed my chance of getting a 50. During the break I ate a breakfast bar and half a Rockstar energy drink. I went into the verbal feeling better prepared. My pacing went well, then at the 30 question mark I ran behind again. With 3 minutes left I had 3 questions left. By that time my score was probably well decided, but I most likely got those wrong. I decided to report my score and received a 660 (Q48, V33). I wonder if I had more time on the verbal and didn't rush at the last 5 questions on quant would I have been able to pull off the 700.
Third and FINAL TIME
Tired of getting nowhere, I decided to enlist the help of a tutor. I decided I was going to take the exam 6 weeks out and get the most out of my sessions. My tutor recommended we focus on verbal because any quant improvement would be hard to come by (plus, I pretty much scored what he got on the real day). SC was my achilles' heel. No matter what, I pretty much would bomb any sort of difficult level question. Here are the sources we used:
- Manhattan GMAT SC Guide (A MUST)
- OG 10 (we pretty much got rid of using OG11)
- Princeton Review Tests
- GMAT Prep Software
That was it. We set a schedule of doing 10/10/2 passages a night. I kept track of my results and recorded which problems I got wrong on an excel spreadsheet. Every Tuesday and Friday I would a 15/15 on quant, the rest of my days (excluding Sat and Sun) were spent on verbal. Saturdays were key to learning because I would go over my reworks, and I would also read the MGMAT SC guide in one setting. On Sundays I took either a GMAT Prep Practice Exam or a Princeton Review Practice Exam.
My scores started to improve by going over the ones I got wrong with my tutor when we met (once a week). He pointed out my mechanical flaws. My GMAT Prep scores improved to 710/730/750/730. My Princeton review tests were 680, 690, 680.
We figured my range was 680-730 based on my testing.
I took a vacation for 10 days in Hawaii. I came back RUSTY. I had to push back my exam date another 3 weeks. With 3 weeks to go we changed my schedule to doing nothing but 700 level questions for verbal. On my own time I also did the problems in Project GMAT (a book by Veritas), and downloaded a few combinatoric problem sets from various university websites.
People have often said don't do anything the day before your real test. I wanted to do that, but I was excited and took another GMAT Prep test. I scored 730 (Q48, V40).
After my practice exam I drove to the test center to get a feel for the drive, and the layout of the building, and where the restroom was in relation to the testing office (for example, would I have to run up the stairs to the next floor like I had to at the Pasadena center)..
My exam was scheduled for 12:30 PM (which I totally recommend). I live 30 minutes away from my center but left one hour before anyway to account for Los Angeles traffic. I bought two Rockstar energy drinks (I am very addicted), and two Balance Yogurt/Peanut butter bars (awesome!). Sitting in the parking lot, I drank half of the rockstar and flushed any fluids out of my body before registering. I put a lot less effort into my essays. During the break I opened up my energy bar and ate a quarter of it, and drank about a third of my energy drink, went to the restroom and flushed the liquids again (sorry, I am very paranoid about body control haha). During the quant I faced some pretty tough questions again. Tons of data sufficiency. There were two problems in the teens where I was not sure how to attack it (I tried for a minute figuring out what approach to take) and eventually decided to pocket the time and take a loss on them. I felt pretty miserable coming around the 30 question turn, I saw a bunch of easy questions in the 20s. When I got to the 30s mark I ran into another group of DS, and one combinatorics problem. I knew I was playing ball and just had to finish out the last few problems and I would be home free. THEN two time consuming PS came up (great, just great). However... I was finally able to finish with 6 seconds left.
I sat there for a few seconds closing my eyes freaking out at how brutal the last 10 problems were. I decided it was a good thing and I should figure out how to use my break wisely.
I finished the bar, and drank the rest of the Rockstar, and flushed one last time. I stretched in the waiting room and closed my eyes for 2 minutes and tried to relax my heartbeat (pumping extremely because of the Rockstar). On the verbal the first ten I ran into around 8 SC. It was nuts. SC has always been my weakness. But this time I was at least in the ballgame with 50/50 splits on 2 of them and I felt very decisive on the other 6. The two RC that came up I think I pretty much nailed. The CR that came up just killed me though. Tons of explanation type CR, and a few logic pattern CR came out. I think I crashed and burned on those. My pacing was just right. I used the time divided by 2 then add the problem number you're on to figure out if I was in the ballgame. I kept adding up to 39 and figured that was going to be alright. I finished the verbal feeling very comfortable, with 2 minutes left. For a second I contemplated whether or not I should report my scores because I felt so comfortable... as opposed to how I felt the three times I took a quant section. But I analyzed the questions I saw and figured that they were very similar to the last 30 questions of OG 10 in each type of question (and knowing how OG 10 was written - easy to difficult), that I was in good shape. I clicked report score and received a 730 (Q48, V41).
Takeaways
I started in May and ended up late October. It was a terrible 5 months. I'm glad the thing is over. My advice to anyone in the low 600s... don't fret. It's possible to get to the 700 level. My tutor took 2 400 students to high 600s. It's doable. Figure out what you are doing consistently wrong so the net time you run into that concept with an unfamiliar question, you are at least able to dice it. Also, OG10 was more valuable than OG11. There are way more questions, and the ends of each section proved to be more difficult to me. When you get to a stretch of 30 questions and you're scoring 45-55%, then step 30 questions back where you're scoring 65-75% and get that up to 80-85%. Then progress to the ones you were scoring 45-55, my guess is you're at 65-75 there now. MGMAT is what you should get if you're deficient in SC. It is the BIBLE and the truth. Read it and know it inside and out. Mark the heck out of that thing. For quant, work backwards. I know that when I did the last 23 problems in DS in OG10, I scored 11/23 the night before (still at 45-55% on those last 20, but the prior 20 I only missed 3). You should also know what type of questions are considered difficult. During the GMAT I recognized that these were problems I would see at the end of an OG10 section. These are the problems I normally would've scored lower on (good sign because you're in a higher bracket now).
Good luck with your testing!
[/b]
I hope anyone reading this finds this useful.
I took the GMAT for the first time mid July and received a 660 (Q49, V31).
Prep For First Test
I signed up for the Veritas Prep course and attended all but one of my classes. I was diligent with my homework and made sure I always did it. I noticed my splits for SC was 6-7/10, RC 8-10, CR 7/10. For quant I always seemed to do well. I think I have always been a quant kind of guy though. When test day arrived I put alot of effort into the essays. I took my break, ate a banana and had half a Rockstar energy drink. When I got to the quant section I was behind from question 10 and on. Added to the fact that I had to use the restroom very badly, I was in a tight spot. I saw tons of DS and one or two permutation/combinatoric problems (I'm sure I got these wrong). By the time I had 15 minutes left, I had 15 problems left! I started sweating, took off my coat, and determined that I would finish! When I got to the verbal I was basically breezing through these questions. My guess is that I botched the first 10 or so and basically had low 30 level verbal questions I was used to blowing by in my practice sessions. I clicked the report score button and there was my score: 660 (Q49, V31).
What I took away? Whenever I thought the math was extremely difficult, I was probably in a good place. If I saw alot of DS with variable questions, I was in a good place. If I saw a combinatorics problem, then I knew I was in the high 40s. As for verbal, I am definitely committing mistakes at a fundamental level and would need to elevate my game.
Prep for Test 2
The second I got back to my house from test 1, I immediately signed up for another exam 4 weeks later. I looked up debriefs up and down this forum and finally came upon Ursula's debrief and how she created a grid. I basically created one myself and went through OG11 via 40 problem sets a night. By the end of my studying my stats were as follows:
Quant (which I barely touched DS)
Problem Solving (1-210): 14 Incorrect
Data Sufficiency (1-80): 5 Incorrect
Verbal (I spent most of it on CR and SC)
RC (1-60): 10 incorrect
CR (1-120): 23 incorrect
SC (1-130): 19 incorrect
I went into the test day feeling pretty confident. My test time was at 2 PM instead of the 8 AM on my first test day. I went through essays one more time with a good amount of effort (less than my first time). On the quant I saw a slew of DS questions right in the middle of my exam. I thought I was in good shape because of the difficulty level I was seeing. Around the turn at the 30 question mark I started running behind on time again. This time I had 5 questions left with 5 minutes left. I probably got 3, maybe 4 of those wrong. Probably killed my chance of getting a 50. During the break I ate a breakfast bar and half a Rockstar energy drink. I went into the verbal feeling better prepared. My pacing went well, then at the 30 question mark I ran behind again. With 3 minutes left I had 3 questions left. By that time my score was probably well decided, but I most likely got those wrong. I decided to report my score and received a 660 (Q48, V33). I wonder if I had more time on the verbal and didn't rush at the last 5 questions on quant would I have been able to pull off the 700.
Third and FINAL TIME
Tired of getting nowhere, I decided to enlist the help of a tutor. I decided I was going to take the exam 6 weeks out and get the most out of my sessions. My tutor recommended we focus on verbal because any quant improvement would be hard to come by (plus, I pretty much scored what he got on the real day). SC was my achilles' heel. No matter what, I pretty much would bomb any sort of difficult level question. Here are the sources we used:
- Manhattan GMAT SC Guide (A MUST)
- OG 10 (we pretty much got rid of using OG11)
- Princeton Review Tests
- GMAT Prep Software
That was it. We set a schedule of doing 10/10/2 passages a night. I kept track of my results and recorded which problems I got wrong on an excel spreadsheet. Every Tuesday and Friday I would a 15/15 on quant, the rest of my days (excluding Sat and Sun) were spent on verbal. Saturdays were key to learning because I would go over my reworks, and I would also read the MGMAT SC guide in one setting. On Sundays I took either a GMAT Prep Practice Exam or a Princeton Review Practice Exam.
My scores started to improve by going over the ones I got wrong with my tutor when we met (once a week). He pointed out my mechanical flaws. My GMAT Prep scores improved to 710/730/750/730. My Princeton review tests were 680, 690, 680.
We figured my range was 680-730 based on my testing.
I took a vacation for 10 days in Hawaii. I came back RUSTY. I had to push back my exam date another 3 weeks. With 3 weeks to go we changed my schedule to doing nothing but 700 level questions for verbal. On my own time I also did the problems in Project GMAT (a book by Veritas), and downloaded a few combinatoric problem sets from various university websites.
People have often said don't do anything the day before your real test. I wanted to do that, but I was excited and took another GMAT Prep test. I scored 730 (Q48, V40).
After my practice exam I drove to the test center to get a feel for the drive, and the layout of the building, and where the restroom was in relation to the testing office (for example, would I have to run up the stairs to the next floor like I had to at the Pasadena center)..
My exam was scheduled for 12:30 PM (which I totally recommend). I live 30 minutes away from my center but left one hour before anyway to account for Los Angeles traffic. I bought two Rockstar energy drinks (I am very addicted), and two Balance Yogurt/Peanut butter bars (awesome!). Sitting in the parking lot, I drank half of the rockstar and flushed any fluids out of my body before registering. I put a lot less effort into my essays. During the break I opened up my energy bar and ate a quarter of it, and drank about a third of my energy drink, went to the restroom and flushed the liquids again (sorry, I am very paranoid about body control haha). During the quant I faced some pretty tough questions again. Tons of data sufficiency. There were two problems in the teens where I was not sure how to attack it (I tried for a minute figuring out what approach to take) and eventually decided to pocket the time and take a loss on them. I felt pretty miserable coming around the 30 question turn, I saw a bunch of easy questions in the 20s. When I got to the 30s mark I ran into another group of DS, and one combinatorics problem. I knew I was playing ball and just had to finish out the last few problems and I would be home free. THEN two time consuming PS came up (great, just great). However... I was finally able to finish with 6 seconds left.
I sat there for a few seconds closing my eyes freaking out at how brutal the last 10 problems were. I decided it was a good thing and I should figure out how to use my break wisely.
I finished the bar, and drank the rest of the Rockstar, and flushed one last time. I stretched in the waiting room and closed my eyes for 2 minutes and tried to relax my heartbeat (pumping extremely because of the Rockstar). On the verbal the first ten I ran into around 8 SC. It was nuts. SC has always been my weakness. But this time I was at least in the ballgame with 50/50 splits on 2 of them and I felt very decisive on the other 6. The two RC that came up I think I pretty much nailed. The CR that came up just killed me though. Tons of explanation type CR, and a few logic pattern CR came out. I think I crashed and burned on those. My pacing was just right. I used the time divided by 2 then add the problem number you're on to figure out if I was in the ballgame. I kept adding up to 39 and figured that was going to be alright. I finished the verbal feeling very comfortable, with 2 minutes left. For a second I contemplated whether or not I should report my scores because I felt so comfortable... as opposed to how I felt the three times I took a quant section. But I analyzed the questions I saw and figured that they were very similar to the last 30 questions of OG 10 in each type of question (and knowing how OG 10 was written - easy to difficult), that I was in good shape. I clicked report score and received a 730 (Q48, V41).
Takeaways
I started in May and ended up late October. It was a terrible 5 months. I'm glad the thing is over. My advice to anyone in the low 600s... don't fret. It's possible to get to the 700 level. My tutor took 2 400 students to high 600s. It's doable. Figure out what you are doing consistently wrong so the net time you run into that concept with an unfamiliar question, you are at least able to dice it. Also, OG10 was more valuable than OG11. There are way more questions, and the ends of each section proved to be more difficult to me. When you get to a stretch of 30 questions and you're scoring 45-55%, then step 30 questions back where you're scoring 65-75% and get that up to 80-85%. Then progress to the ones you were scoring 45-55, my guess is you're at 65-75 there now. MGMAT is what you should get if you're deficient in SC. It is the BIBLE and the truth. Read it and know it inside and out. Mark the heck out of that thing. For quant, work backwards. I know that when I did the last 23 problems in DS in OG10, I scored 11/23 the night before (still at 45-55% on those last 20, but the prior 20 I only missed 3). You should also know what type of questions are considered difficult. During the GMAT I recognized that these were problems I would see at the end of an OG10 section. These are the problems I normally would've scored lower on (good sign because you're in a higher bracket now).
Good luck with your testing!
[/b]
- Attachments
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- jeff ignacio- gmat plan (1).xls
- My OG10 stats
- (57.5 KiB) Downloaded 172 times
Jeff
