Hard Work. Many Months. 1st Attempt. 740!!!

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Hard Work. Many Months. 1st Attempt. 740!!!

by thor5517 » Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:04 am
Hello All,

This thread is my attempt at giving back after all the motivation I have received from this site.

After months of procrastination and on and off studying I got a 740 gmat this past wednesday. Q-50 V-40, IR: 88 (92%), AWA: 5

Background:
About a year ago I was working as a mechanical engineer for a top manufacturing firm,and I decided I no longer wanted to be a mechanical engineer in the typical sense. After realizing I decided my only way out would be to get an MBA. So I started studying for the GMAT very half heartedly. I took an initial gmatprep teset and I remember getting a 640. I was quite disheartened but this was a year out of undergrad and no studying so I took it with a grain of salt. My plan was to study for a month or two and then take the actual exam. During this "study time" I actually made a career change and got a job at a management consulting firm (at time of ranking was ranked top 20). I started working at the company and realized that a MBA would still be very helpful so decided around Jan/Feb that I should take the gmat.
Study Plan:
I started studying and I was on an easy project so I had time and I studied sporadically for a bit. After talking to peers that had their MBAs they told me to just schedule the test and take it instead of procrastinating. At this time I was staffed on a new project and my hours went from being around 45 to consistent 70's. I finally said "F" it and scheduled the test for a month out and this kicked my studying into high gear. Roughly 1 hour a day during the week and 2 hours or a practice test on the weekends for about 3 weeks leading up to the test.
During my initial studying went through all the manhattan math books and I also went through manhattans SC book. During my couple weeks of "hard" studying I just took the gmatclub tests and these seemed to help me. I took 3 gmatprep practice tests in this time
GmatPrep2: 730
GmatPrep3: 750
GmatPrep4: 770
I was fairly confident after these, but I never took a test under exact test conditions. I would stop the test or if I got stuck or frustrated I would stop the test and look up the question and figure out how to do it during the test instead of waiting until after. The best resource for me was the gmat club quant tests just because I learn best from doing problems and this gave me a great list of problems to go through. I also wanted to note that SC was the worst part of my testing ability. I tried to learn the rules but became way to bored learning the SC rules during my practice tests I never got more than 8/15 sc questions correct but I was still scoring consistently in the 90% for verbal. I attribute this to the fact that I took the lsat in college and the RC and CR seemed very easy even at the hardest levels. I believe I could have really aced verbal had I conquered sc but I gave up.

Test Day:
For some reason I worked the first half the day before I took the test, and instead of it being a laxed day it was very hectic and stressful. I then left around 1 for the test center with a massive headache (even after I took countless advil). I did the AWA (never practiced) and the IR and took my break before quant. I started the quant section and I knew the first 3 questions which got me all excited. Then I ran into a run of questions that I had never seen before and was not confident in. Then I became worried towards the end of quant because the last 10-15 questions all seemed super easy and I felt like I was bombing. I finished quant with 5 minutes remaining and knew for sure I was screwed.

I took my break after quant and was already hopeless/nervous. I started verbal and the first question was SC (I was doomed). At question 19 I psyched myself out and had to run to the bathroom. The instructor had to come in and type in his password and he typed it in wrong the first time wasting more valuable time. I came back to my screen with the "Unofficial" break timer just hitting 2 minutes. I had 22 questions left with roughly 35 minutes left. I ran through the rest of verbal and still left 6 minutes on the clock left. Combining both sections I wasted 15 minutes of test time. I sat on the last question for a bit after I had answered it an just wallowed. I clicked next and a 740 appeared and I just sat there in disbelief. I raised my hand the person watching the room came over and whisked me out of the room. He asked how it went and I smiled, he then grabbed my score sheet looked at it and bowed to me. It was quite the experience and the people at the test center made it a million times better, they were as happy if not happier for me than I was for myself.

Next Steps:
Initially I was not planning on applying this year for B-School seeing because at matriculation I would have only 3 years of experience but since I got a 740 I figured I would apply to the top 3 H/S/W this year just to see what happens. A hail mary of sorts. So if any one has any advice I would love to hear it.
Also any questions you have about studying or the test or what worked for me I'd be more than happy to share. Thanks to all!

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by GMATinsight » Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:09 pm
GREAT SHOW!!!

Many many congratulations and thanks for sharing your inputs. It will be a great help for other GMAT aspirants.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:33 pm
That was a wild test day, thor5517.

Fair enough that you got freaked out because the last 10-15 quant questions seemed super easy. A lot of times this means you're not doing well and the computer adaptive algorithm keeps firing easier and easier questions. In your case, those quant questions probably seemed super easy because you're great at quant questions!

All the best on the next step in your journey.

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by karanvarshney » Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:40 pm
Great Post..I have started preparing for GMAT,just have few questions in My mind:

1.Do i have to stick to only 1 book series like i have purchased Manhattan or should i plan to take others too...i am targeting a score 720+.

2.When we say about error log,is this a log which we creates in notebook or at system.
3.if i am targeting a 3 months study plan,should i go for test every alternate weekend and evaluate.

please guide.

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by rabie » Sun Aug 24, 2014 8:34 pm
My situation is same as yours, so called the "rat brain" , i would like to know which are the books to be referred at the early stage of preparation ? As in to understand the basics thoroughly! and then may be as you said jump to the higher version. Which books do u suggest me to start with ! both quant and verbal
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by jonetran » Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:30 am