740 (Q: 50/90%ile and V:40/90%ile) - overall 97%ile

[rp2012]

Hi All,

I've been a silent member of BTG for the last 8 weeks or so. Just wanted to share my experience.

I gave my test on 6th of March. I was in a situation where I could not take any days of from work so I had to squeeze in my preparation with the work. I started studying seriously from 8th of January onwards but took a 12 day break from 19th Jan to 1st February where I didn't touch my books. So I ended up putting in a total of approx. 6 weeks of work for the GMAT. I followed a simple strategy:


1. I took a date not too far away but not too close
2. Studied only from OG - I had a ton of other material but within a few days I realized that they're not representative of the real GMAT and are a shear waste of time
3. I only did some extra questions in Math - not because they're representative of GMAT but I thought OG was too easy. Note that my final GMAT was exactly the level of the tough OG questions
4. I did not read any rules for Grammar but read EVERY single solution from the OG for SC questions irrespective of whether I got the question right or wrong
5. Gave tests - I gave 5 Manhattan tests, 2 GMATPrep and 2 Powerprep tests. I gave ALL tests with all the sections including AWA and IR - its important to do this to ensure that you don't run out of stamina on the final day. Also, since I mostly prepared after work it helped my stamina to give these tests in a fatigued state. On Sundays I wrote 2 tests a day in the end to catch up
6. My scores were as follows:
Manhattan 1: 700
GMAT Prep 1: 720
Manhattan 2: 700
Manhattan 3: 710
Manhattan 4: 700
GMAT Prep 2: 760
Powerprep 1: 770
Powerprep 2: 730

7. For EVERY SINGLE test I analyzed ALL answers to make sure that I got the questions right in the correct manner and not just a lucky shot. I didn't pay attention to most of the Grammar rules but just got a general understanding of SC. I memorized the BTG Flash cards - these definitely help a lot!
8. 2 days before the test I studied hard - contrary to what others on BTG have advised but I felt that I hadn't prepared enough. I went through all the tough (last 50 questions) in the OG and went through all the questions in GMATPrep (found a hack somewhere to download all the questions).
9. Was studying something or the other all the way to the exam centre (I took the day before my GMAT off)

Day of GMAT:
1. Studied Flash cards for SC all the way till the GMAT centre and inside it too!
2. Finished AWA in 28 mins (had seen a template from BTG) and IR in 28 mins
3. I was worried about the time in Quant so I made sure that I was ahead of time - finished the first 10 questions in 14 mins. This set me up very well for the rest of Quant and I finished with a minute to spare
4. I just took brief breaks between sections - 2 mins each as I was in a hurry to get the exam over with!
5. Found RC simple but there were a number of SC questions with 2 seemingly correct options
6. Took ample time on SC and wasn't worried about time at all on the Verbal section - I never ran out of time in this section during practice tests
7. Finished in time and checked my score - 740! Happy with my score especially considering that I didn't take any days off

Points to note:
1. Treat OG like the Bible. If you want do the official guides for verbal and quant too
2. Manhattan tests are rubbish and not representative of the actual GMAT AT ALL - do them only to build your stamina
3. GMAT Prep and Powerprep tests are great - do power prep before you do OG since there is a minimum overlap
4. If you want reset GMAT prep tests and do them again - they seem to have a number of questions and I would expect only 30% repeats
5. Finally - Give the exam respect but don't feel too scared! You can always give it again - I was inspired by people who gave it 4/5 times and still went on to get into HBS/MIT etc. and I wasn't scared of the exam any more!

Cheers!

[essaysnark]

What a great write-up rp2012 - and congrats on the amazing score! You took a methodical approach and you won! Nice job on the test and thanks for sharing your process with the BTG community, some real words of wisdom in there. Now, onwards!! Good luck with your bschool aspirations!!!

EssaySnark